The Coach As a Leader

THE COACH AS A LEADER by DARREN ABDILLA Dissertation submitted in part fulfilment of the requirements for the UEFA PRO Diploma 2015- 2017 in the Malta Football Association Technical Centre Tutor: STEPHEN GRIMA i Table of Contents Table of Contents i Abstract iii List of tables iv List of figures v List of abbreviations vi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 1.1 Background........................................................................................................................2 1.2 Roles of the Football Manager...........................................................................................7 1.3 Relationship between a coach and a leader......................................................................9 Chapter 2: Defining Leadership 10 2.1 Leadership defined..........................................................................................................10 2.2 Early leadership research................................................................................................12 2.3 Approaches to leadership................................................................................................15 Chapter 3: A sport specific approaches to leadership 16 3.1 A leadership behaviour model.........................................................................................16 3.2 A multi dimensional model of leadership.........................................................................20 3.3 Hardiness and mental toughness....................................................................................23 3.4 The Coach-Athlete relationship.......................................................................................25 Chapter 4: Leadership scale for sport 26 4.1 Theoretical background 27 4.2 The leadership scale for sport.........................................................................................30 i Chapter 5: Key Study 36 5.1 Methods 36 5.2 Selection of the participants 36 5.3 Instruments 36 5.4 Assumptions 37 5.5 Limitations 37 5.6 Results 38 5.7 Discussion 41 Chapter 6: Conclusion 46 References 47 Appendices 51 ___________________________________________________________________________ ii Abstract This dissertation reviews research on leadership in sport and considers the implications of this work in relation to the complex task of effective football management. Trait, behavioural and interactional models of leadership are discussed and applied to football management. The importance of sport specific models and research is also highlighted. The second purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship among preferred and perceived leadership and to investigate the differences among the foreign and Maltese players of football teams in preferred leadership and perceived leadership. The five leader behaviours which were measured were: training and instruction, social support, positive feedback, democratic behaviour, and autocratic behaviour. iii List of tables 1. Average years in job of sacked manager 4 2. Permanent managers in Premier League and their average length of tenure 5 3. Roles of a football manager 8 4. Traits and skill of leadership 13 5. Items for training and instruction 32 6. Items for democratic behaviour 33 7. Items for autocratic behaviour 34 8. Items for social support 34 9. Items for positive feedback 35 10. Descriptive statistics of the subscales of the LSS 38 11. Descriptive statistics of the subscale of the LSS by nationality 38 12. Descriptive statistics of all the questions of the LSS 39 iv List of figures 1. Leadership behaviour model 17 2. Multidimensional model of sport leadership 28 3. Perceived and Preferred behaviour on training & instruction subscale 41 4. Perceived and Preferred behaviour on democratic behaviour subscale 42 5. Perceived and Preferred behaviour on autocratic behaviour subscale 43 6. Perceived and Preferred behaviour on social support subscale 44 7. Perceived and Preferred behaviour on positive feedback subscale 45 v List of abbreviations LSS Leadership Scale for sport CBAS Coaching Behaviour Assessment System vi vii 0 Chapter 1: Introduction Coaches can have a great influence on their athletes. The type and amount of influence you will have on your players is determined by your personal skills. You significantly affect your athletes’ motivation to achieve and the enjoyment they receive from playing football. Mutual respect for each other and the longer you are together with your players will increase the influence you have on them. (Janssen & Dale, 2002) They identified that the three major roles of the coach are: • The Coach as a Leader • The Coach as a Teacher • The Coach as an Organiser To have a positive and lasting impact on the athletes you coach, you need to be effective as a leader, teacher, and organiser; encourage and support your players; coach enthusiastically, and express genuine concern for the athletes’ total well-being. Your role becomes more important when you consider that the influence you have on your players extends well beyond the contact you have with them in the football environment. Page 1 1.1 Background In football as in other sports, the position of a coach represents a stressful and turbulent occupation where individuals are publicly held responsible for a team’s performance. In 2014- 2015, more than half of the 92 coaches that started the English professional league season had been fired by the end of the season, thus reflecting the precarious nature of the position. The 'life expectancy' of a Premier League coach has been drastically cut since the new-look competition began in 1992-93. On the opening day of that season, the 22 bosses had been in their jobs for an average of 3.24 years, or 1,184 days to be precise. Five of them had been in their jobs for more than five years, from George Graham at Arsenal and Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, to Steve Coppell at Crystal Palace, Joe Royle at Oldham and Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest. Only one current Premier League manager has been in his job more than three years, let alone five, and that's Arsenal's Arsene Wenger. As things stand in October 2015, the 18 current bosses are averaging 2.28 years each in their jobs, and if the freakishly long-serving Wenger is removed from that equation, then the average plummets to 1.29 years, or 473 days each. What used to be a job with a reasonable expectation of years to get it right has become an occupation where each anniversary in the post is a big milestone. When managers were sacked in the 1992-93 season, they had been in their jobs an average of 2.6 years each. Last season the corresponding figure was 1.91 years and in 2013-14, when 12 Premier League managers were axed, not including those who left of their own volition, it was 1.22 years. Getting the sack is now part of parcel of being a Premier League coach as Brendan Rodgers, holidaying in Spain as he recovers from the boot at Liverpool, knows only too well. But it is only part of the story. Not all managers are forced to leave, and in fact resignations are part of the bigger picture, often to fill a job vacated by someone else getting sacked. To illustrate the changing nature of sackings over time, Table 1 illustrates the official figures for Premier League sackings from the League Managers' Association, and data from OPTA for each manager who has been sacked. Page 2 It shows the number of sackings by season, and the average time each sacked manager had been in his job. Over the course of the Premier League as a whole, 133 managers have been sacked, averaging just over two years each in their jobs. Manchester United and Arsenal are the most secure employers over the period as a whole with just three managers each, averaging more than seven and a half years; both are skewed of course by long-serving bosses in Ferguson and Wenger. Only managers who have been in charge for at least part of one Premier League season are counted in this table. Chelsea have had fifteen of them, with an average stay of a year and a half each. That hasn't prevented serial success. The most sackings were in 2013-14 when Paolo Di Canio, Martin Jol, Andre Villas-Boas and David Moyes were all among the axed, after a little more than a year in their posts on average. The fewest sackings in a season have been three, twice. Page 3 Table 1 : Average years in job of sacked manager in England Average years in job of Season PL Sackings sacked manager 1992-93 5 2.60 1993-94 5 2.00 1994-95 9 2.52 1995-96 3 1.77 1996-97 5 3.15 1997-98 3 1.73 1998-99 5 1.18 1999-00 5 1.31 2000-01 6 2.57 2001-02 6 2.68 2002-03 6 2.85 2003-04 5 2.64 2004-05 5 3.32 2005-06 3 1.67 2006-07 5 2.55 2007-08 7 1.31 2008-09 4 0.59 2009-10 5 1.62 2010-11 6 1.37 2011-12 5 2.50 2012-13 8 2.81 2013-14 12 1.22 2014-15 8 1.91 2015-16 2 1.95 Page 4 Table 2: The number of permanent managers at each of the 47 clubs in Premier League history and their average length of tenure of each of those. Premier League managers by club since 1992-93 Ranked by longest average stay: Permanent managers only Rank Club Managers in PL Average Years 1 Man United 3 7.65 2 Arsenal 3 7.58 3 Sheffield United 2 5.40 4 Ipswich 2 5.06 5 Birmingham 2 4.74 6 Stoke City 2 4.65 7 Barsnley 1 4.10 8 Charlton 4 4.06 9 Wimbledon 2 3.90 10 Reading 3 3.52 11 Blackpool 1 3.46 12 Middlesbrough 5 3.41 13 Liverpool 7 3.34 14 Wolverhampton 3 3.22 15 Watford 3 3.07 16 Bournemouth 1 2.99 17 Wigan 4 2.97 18 Everton 8 2.88 19 Bolton 6 2.85 20 West Ham 10 2.30 21 Hull City 3 2.30 22 Coventry 4 2.27 23 Aston Villa 10 2.26 24 Oldham 1 2.25 25 Man City 10 2.13 26 Derby 5 2.06 Page 5 27 Burnley 3 2.01 28 Sunderland 10 2.00 29 Leicter City 8 1.98 30 Blackburn 10 1.96 31 Leeds United 6 1.96 32 Norwich City 8 1.85 33 Fulham 8 1.76 34 Newcastle 13 1.75 35 Swasea 3 1.73 36 West Brom 9 1.68 37 Cardiff City 2 1.62 38 QPR 6 1.61 39 Tottenham 15 1.59 40 Sheffield Wednesday 5 1.53 41 Chelsea 15 1.52 42 Swindon 1 1.47 43 Nottingham Forest 5 1.36 44 Bradford City 3 1.31 45 Southampton 14 1.31 46 Portsmouth 7 1.16 47 Crystal Palace 8 1.12 Page 6 1.2 The Roles of the Football Manager The process of managing people whether in sport or business is a complex task and requires a sympathetic appreciation of the multi-dimensional roles required.

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