Leadership in Spoerts

Leadership in Sports

One of the important benefits of taking an active part in Sports of any kind is the fact that the members of the team would develop certain leadership qualities. However, the fact is that if the leader were not good, then the performance of the entire team would inevitably suffer. The leadership of a team must be of a level that would to only inspire the team members to a better performance, but would also show them the way to do it by leading well. The role of a Coach in leading his team is therefore, paramount, in the performance of the team. Certain coaches have the ability to train their members in such a way that not only one but all the members of the entire sporting team would develop leadership qualities and this would definitely improve the performance of the team to a great extent. (Leadership Skills and Sport: Going beyond the 'Team Captain')

Leadership is generally defined as the process by which an individual would be able to guide the group of individuals under his leadership towards a collective goal or a collective accomplishment, collective here referring to any type of event from any field such as sporting or music, and so on. The Coach of the team must assume this important role if he hoped for a good performance from his team members. A Coach today must not only be able to guide his team but also be able to adapt a holistic approach in all his dealings with his team. This also means that he must be able to not only bring out that individual's skills in sport but also mould them in an all round psychological growth and development of all the members of the team. This would mean hat a Coach today must possess a certain visionary ideal and the charisma to implement the ideal, and he must use sensible leadership as well as communication skills and qualities to make sensible decisions about his team. However, if the Coach is to have a vision about his team, then he must at first have a basic idea of how he wants his team to perform, where he wants his team to reach, what he wants his team members to accomplish, and how they would have to go about fulfilling his vision. (Leadership Skills and Sport: Going beyond the 'Team Captain')

If this were to be the center of his Coaching ideal, then the team would be able to perform at its optimum best. Another important characteristic of a good Coach and a good leader is the 'charisma' that he has to possess. The charismatic nature of the team leader will in fact get the tem to perform better and also to achieve greater things than they would if the leader was a bland and very simple person. A Coach who possesses this charismatic leadership quality would be able to better inspire his team into better performances; not just because he says that they must do better, but because he leads the way by actually showing or demonstrating to them how to do better and how to improve their performance in a much better manner. Therefore, the charismatic leader would not only lead the way for his team but would also better understand the various factors that serve to motivate the team and empower them in such a manner that they would become the bets that they could ever hope to become under his leadership. (Leadership Skills and Sport: Going beyond the 'Team Captain')

The general opinion is that a leader of a team must possess all the qualities that he wants his team members to possess, and this is one way of assuring imminent success in the performance of the team. For example, if the Coach would want the members of his team to be self-confident and full of self-control and in possession of excellent discipline, then he must also possess all the skills that he expects in his team members. The members must be able to emulate him; it is only then that the team would find its mentor in their Coach. An outstanding leader must also be ready to learn all the time, and understand the fact that learning never stops and that it is a continuous process. He must also be in a position where he is willing to admit to any mistakes that had been committed by him during the process of coaching his team members. (Leadership Characteristics) good Coach must be able to comprehend the individuality of each member of his team, and also, at the same time, be able to understand that each member as an individual makes up the team, and therefore, understand the team dynamics better, and take all the necessary steps and precautions to ensure that the team dynamics is at its optimum best. The team would them be able to give its best performance and achieve whatever goals the Coach has set for them. The secret is to set a goal that would push the players into delivering their best ever performance, each and every time that they play. Therefore, the role of a Coach must never be underestimated, since it is a well-understood fact that the Coach will make or break a team. (Leadership Characteristics)

Phil Jackson, the most 'winning' Coach to have ever coached a basketball team and pushed them and made them into the winners that they are today, is one of the best Leaders and Coaches that the United States of America has seen, in recent times. His leadership, his visionary thinking, and his sometimes philosophical attitude towards the game has made the 'Los Angeles Lakers' the NBA's best team for the past few seasons. Kobe Bryant, one of the star members of his team has this to say about Phil Jackson: sometimes one dose not understand what exactly he is saying, but whatever it is, one does tend to listen hard whenever he talks. (Phil Jackson, Zen and Now)

Phil Jackson has led his team towards victory in three consecutive seasons, in the years 2000, 2001, and 2002. The secret of his success lies in the fact that Phil is not only a dynamic leader and an excellent motivator but he is also an individual who is able to, with mere force of will, able to exert a large amount of influence on his team and its members in such a way that the performance of the entire group of individuals within the team becomes elevated. Marty Adelstein, the Original's CEO, says that the entire team of LA has been extremely excited about the fact that Phil Jackson would be taking over the coaching of the basketball team this year, and the entire country has embraced this leader feeling that he would be able to guide the tem towards a definite victory, without fail. This Coach has the distinction of holding a record-tying nine NBA Championships as a Head Coach. (Lakers Coach Phil Jackson signs with WMA and Original Entertainment)

The career wining percentage is a tremendous.728, which is the best so far in nay season, in the season from 2003 to 2004. Phil Jackson's 'playoff winning percentage' is also a high.730, which has been adjudged as the best ever, in addition to his having won more playoff games than any in NBA history. He was also selected as the best NBA Coach of the year in 1996. It was in June 1999 that Phil Jackson joined the Lakers team and led them towards a stupendous NBA victory of a record breaking 67 wins during the regular season from 1999 to 2000. This season was in fact crowned by a run through the playoffs, and a victory in the six game series over the Indiana Pacers in the Finals. The franchise's first NBA championship was followed by another one under the able leadership and coaching of Phil Jackson. Los Angeles in 2002 tied for a post-season record of such consecutive victories, and this enabled them to start the playoffs and also to set an all time post season record of about.938 percentage of winning, and this led in turn to a victory over the Philadelphia 76 ers. (Lakers Coach Phil Jackson signs with WMA and Original Entertainment)

The very next year, Los Angeles rebounded with the win that they acquired over the 3-2 series deficit, wherein they won the Western Conference Title, and when they played in the Finals, topped over the New Jersey Nets. Phil Jackson had been a winner even before he joined the Lakers. He had spent about nine seasons as the Head Coach of the Chicago Bulls, and it was during this period that he had coached the star performer Michael Jordan into a winner. During this period, the Chicago Bulls managed to acquire six Championship Titles, which were repeated from the years 1991 to 1993, and from 1996 through 1998. However, Phil Jackson's career had begun even before this; he had been a Head Coach for the Albany Patroons of the Continental Basketball Association during the early years of the 1980's, and during the five years that he served in the capacity of head Coach there, he managed to steer the Patroons towards a League Title, and also win for himself accolades as the CBA Coach of the Year award. It was after this season that Phil Jackson left the Platoons of Albany and joined the Chicago Bulls as an Assistant Coach, and as it is generally said, the 'rest is history'. (Lakers Coach Phil Jackson signs with WMA and Original Entertainment)

In a nutshell, a leader can be seen as a person or an individual who is inevitably the most important person within the group or organization where he is working or associated with in any way. It is this very leader who is most often responsible for the successes and the failures of the group or the team, which is under him. However, it is sometimes said that success and failure also lies in the hands of the followers, and in nay sort of organization or group, it is in the hands of the follower that the leader's goals and dreams are generally carried out or executed. Chris Lee has stated theta the ultimate 'litmus test' to test the abilities of a leader is to see whether there is in fact anyone following the so-called leader. When there are none, this means that that individual is not an effective leader. It does help, in some cases, to develop effective followers, and this fact in itself would ensure that there would be effective leaders within the group or organization. (Empowerment: Developing Effective Followers)

An effective leader would therefore have to be an individual who not only takes on the responsibility for the performance of the entire team under him, but also sets goals and steers his group in the direction in which the attainment of the goal would be easier and better possible. A good leader must also be able to set the tone within the organization or group that would enable the team members to be as effective as possible in the pursuit of the goal, and this means that a good leader must be able to empower his followers with the prerequisite conditions under which his own leadership qualities become effective and bring the desired results for the group or the team or the organization. Phil Jackson is one of the leaders whose working methods are similar to those that have been outlined above. He is not only an excellent leader himself, but he has also managed to, through effective leadership methods, to incite and excite his followers into taking the actions that would bring the team and the coach the success that they deserve. (Empowerment: Developing Effective Followers)

The Coach not only decides which member of the team plays at what time, but also follows a general strategy for his team, and provides an almost visionary ideal for the entire group of basketball players who are training under him. The team members are not only expected to follow him, but also to emulate his visionary ideals, and this is one of the most effective forms of leadership, wherein when the followers imitate the leadership qualities demonstrated by their leader, in this case, the Coach Phil Jackson, and when this is achieved, then the entire team would be able to share one single vision, and follow one single purpose, and not only would there be better communication between all the members of the team, but there would also be more and better empowerment of the individual, and all this means that the team would ultimately be met with great success in the chosen field, which in this case is the basketball game under the leadership of Coach Phil Jackson. (Empowerment: Developing Effective Followers)

What is it about this enigmatic individual that enabled him to lead the Chicago Bulls to six NBA Championships in the nine years that he was a Coach for this team, and led the Los Angeles Lakers into a victory wherein the team was able to win the 2000 Title, the very first year that he acted as their Coach? What are his coaching methods, and what is the style in which he coaches and motivates his team into victories at every turn? Phil Jackson, many individuals feel, is a veritable study in 'adaptability', whereby he, even when he was but a small boy, conformed to the wishes of both his parents, both of whom were Evangelical Ministers, and, according to their wishes, tried to expand his spiritual learning both in the classroom as well as in his private life. When he joined the basketball team New York Knicks in his college, he was able to successfully adapt to the methods that had been adapted by the team in their play, which were basically unselfish and non-dominating, and more team-oriented than individual oriented. (NBA Coach Bio, Phil Jackson)

When he later became a Coach during the 1980's and 1990's, Phil Jackson was able to turn the Chicago team that was actually built on the success of a single most important star player, Michael Jordan, into an NBA Champion, not once, but six times over. This was when the leadership qualities of the Coach Phil Jackson were amply demonstrated, when he was able to prove that he would be easily adaptable to the presence of a large dominating center, whereas his victory with the Lakers and O'Neal were assured. However, the fact is that this talented individual has remained basically remarkably unswerving as well as consistent in his dealings with his group and team of players. He has also been an outstandingly self-possessed and focused person, whose self-confidence radiates through every action that he undertakes to perform. It is all these good qualities in him as a person that have managed to make him the good leader that he is in bringing victory to the individuals that he influences. He may be firm, but he is never severe, and this means that he is firm and unyielding when it comes to influencing his team of members, but he is not an individual who would have to bully his players into submitting to the demands that he may put on them. (NBA Coach Bio, Phil Jackson)

The opinion of his team members is that he neither babies them, nor does he bully them. What he offers in its stead is the feeling, for each player of the team that they have the valuable opportunity to be able to judge and learn for themselves how and in way and manner they would be able to achieve success, and be able to develop the structure by which they would be able to attain victory as a single team. Phil Jackson as a Coach has managed to achieve something that many other coaches over many years have been trying to achieve, but without much success, and this is to build a consistent and reliable team around the success and star quality of a single Megastar amidst them. This Coach, with the help of a few other like for example, his assistant Tex Winter, who is in fact the chief proponent of the so-called 'triangle offense' has managed to create various extremely complex and at times difficult offensive and defensive strategies that not only had the desired result of enhancing Jordan's efficiency and power as a player, but also made the entire team of players who were playing with Jordan better players, as players in a team.

Phil Jackson's philosophy and thinking were these: if he was able to develop a Court full of able players, who would be the best players ever, and these players were to play with the star player Michael Jordan, then the opposing team would find it almost impossible to defeat such a powerful team of players and also to defeat Jordan. The Coach as well as his assistant was both right in what they had assumed, and Jordan became a most popular and the most important star player, a veritable superstar of basketball after Phil Jackson took over as the Coach. After tasting such sweet success with Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson left for Los Angeles, and there he managed to convince O'Neal who was the game's most important pivot man, to accept him as a Coach, because, he said, he had the necessary system and method that would make O'Neal the champion that he was meant to be, if he followed the right methods to do so. What is the best advantage of engaging Jackson as the Coach is the fact that since he himself was a player at one time, he would definitely be able to understand the intricacies of the game better than any body else, and this is the secret to his continued success as Coach. (NBA Coach Bio, Phil Jackson)

What is even more important about the methods used by Coach Jackson in his training of basketball players is the fact that he generally maximizes the factor of collective achievement rather than concentrating on individual achievement, though this facet was also not ignored. However, collective commitment to a common cause, and a common belief that they would be able to achieve the goals that had been set for them by the Coach was what would bring accolades for the team rather than any individual's single concentrated effort to bring success to the entire team of players of which he was but one player. Since Coach Jackson was a player himself, he knew what it was to play and to achieve success, despite the fact that he was during his tenure as player a low scorer but a specialty player. He was able to comprehend the value of any one single player to the entire team of players, as being a part of the whole, and also to avoid the issue of over dependence on one single player, which would ultimately make the whole team face defeat, because if he were for some reason not available to play, then the entire team would be faced with the prospect of a defeat.