John C. Maxwell's law of influence in high school basketball coaching

Sports Program Leadership

John C. Maxwell developed the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, which provides principles or laws that an individual must follow in order to become a great leader. These laws are applicable to an individual seeking to become a leader regardless of his or her environment i.e. at home, in church or in the workplace. Therefore, these laws of leadership are applicable in an individual\'s personal or professional life. One of the twenty-one laws of leadership that is applicable in my personal or professional life is the Law of Influence. Since leadership is influence, the power to do so is embedded in a person\'s ability to get people to participate (Latrina, 2010). As an individual interested in coaching girls high school basketball team, the ability to achieve success will be dependent on my ability to influence team members to participate. This law applies to my professional life as a sports coach because influence is exerted on team members through planning practices and game strategies. Moreover, my role as a coach entails mentoring athletes through teaching essential skills and tactics about the game.

For my professional work, I am interested in coaching girls\' high school basketball team, which will require effective leadership skills. An example of a scenario in my future professional work that will bring the law of influence into action is planning game strategies. This process entails determining a suitable method of play, player development, and player fitness and preparation. These will be my core responsibilities in the future given the high complexity associated with the role of a coach. Through planning game strategies, I will influence members of the basketball team to adopt these strategies during practice sessions and when playing the game. These individuals will use my strategies as the basis of determining their performance, which demonstrates how I will influence them. Their thoughts and actions during practice and when playing the game will be influenced by my strategies.

The law of influence somehow relates to the topic on change leadership with regards to establishing and/or redefining processes. Change leadership is mostly linked to initiating change that contributes to timely and more efficient processes. In this case, small and large scale changes are introduced with the view of improving current processes and systems towards achieving the desired goals and objectives. The ability of these small and large scale changes to generate desired results is dependent on influence. Change processes and systems do not work if followers or employees are not positively influenced towards embracing and implementing them. Therefore, change leadership goes beyond managing individuals and processes/systems to influencing them positively. Without influence, change leadership will only be limited to managing people and processes. Even though management is one component of leadership, it does not necessarily imply that an individual can lead or be considered as a great leader. As a result, change leadership revolves around influencing people and processes to accomplish certain goals and objectives.