Leadership Strategies: Prima Donna Athletes – Transformational Leadership vs. Servant Leadership

Narcissus, a beautiful youth, glanced into a pool of water. Rejecting the nymph Echo, he fell in love with his own reflection. – Greek mythology

Tying Greek mythology to football isn’t really a stretch, given the fact high school coaches are continually faced with one or more players who believe the team is there to serve them and not vice versa. Many coaches label these players as ‘cancers’. Unless, of course, they are clocked in the 40-yard dash under 4.5 or are of behemoth size and can run through the proverbial brick wall.  No, these players are now described as rough around the edges or a work in progress. While the first type of narcissistic player believes he is much better and more important than his teammates, the other player with narcissistic tendencies knows he is better and really has no peers – at least athletically. Here’s the dilemma. How does a coach approach players with similar personality traits but with different skill sets?

Transformational Leadership

In its purest description, transformational leadership is the practice of developing leaders out of followers by invoking positive change. The concept was first mentioned by James MacGregor Burns in 1978 to describe political leadership. Component qualities of the transformational leader include having a charismatic influence (vision, ability to share risks, showing respect and integrity), enacting motivation through effective communication and having a general sense of rationality coupled with strong problem solving skills. Additionally, the transformational leader is a listener who pays attention to each person, mentoring and eventually encouraging followers to initiate action without the leader’s direct involvement.

A 2011 article appearing in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, entitled “The Role of Athlete Narcissism in Moderating the Relationship Between Coaches Transformational Leader Behaviors and Athlete Motivation,” presented research which determined the narcissism levels of athletes had a direct effect on the success of transformational leadership methods used by coaches. Over 200 athletes, ages 13-19, rated 23 coaches from 12 sports. Each athlete spent an average of 1.2 years with their respective coaches. The coaches involved in the study were assessed on seven leadership behaviors, six of which were transitional in nature. The study concluded that those athletes who rated lower on the determined narcissism scale believed the coaching leadership inspired them to perform at a higher level. Concurrently, leadership inspiration tactics had less of a performance effect on athletes registering higher on the narcissism scale. Likewise, coaching efforts to boost team-oriented goals were more readily accepted by the ‘low narcissistic’ athletes.
Servant Leadership

Robert Greenleaf is credited with originating the phrase with the 1970 publishing of an essay on the subject and can be best described as a leadership style where the leader is actually focused on the needs and desires of those making up the team, essentially ‘serving’ first rather than leading. Coaches will be quick to recognize the leadership style to be closely related to John Wooden and his ‘Pyramid of Success.’  Wooden emphasized the values of working together as a team and serving others first – closely aligning to Greenleaf’s definition.

The description of the leadership style may conjure thoughts of a coach being ‘soft’ or getting the label of being a ‘player’s coach.’ Certainly, no one thought of Wooden as being soft on players. Wooden believed in being firm in ones beliefs and not deviating from those beliefs. However, Wooden also believed in listening to his followers to get the desired results. Kareem Abdul Jabbar, who played for Wooden at UCLA and had a great NBA career afterward, acknowledges Wooden’s ways helped him to turn failure into success by learning from mistakes. As Wooden himself said, “Ability may get your to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.”

Today’s Football Player

The amount of information available to high school athletes today is unlimited. Social media and multimedia outlets are available around the clock. This information overload creates skepticism. While a coach must work harder at gaining a player’s trust, once it is achieved wonderful results occur. An article appearing in the Journal of Applied Psychology which focused on the results of a study conducted in 2000, reported ‘trust in leadership’ by players translates into replacing personal motives with team-oriented goals.

Today’s athletes are willing to work toward team success as long as they believe their personal reasons for playing are being met. Many coaches take themselves out of the equation by actions perceived by the player as not being helpful. For example, coaches whom have poor organizational skills or are visibly unable to handle coaching duties at critical times during a game are less likely to accomplish an overall ‘team’ focus.

Likewise, coaches whom take the ‘bull by the horns,’ keeping instruction periods of practice/drills on schedule, creating open lines of communication (without boring players) and maintaining a level head during game ‘crunch times’ are more likely to steer even the most selfish-thinking athletes toward a team-first mentality.

Getting Better vs. Wins

“Before you win a game, you have to not lose it,” four-time Super Bowl winning coach Chuck Noll once said. This idea remains constant on the football field today. What Noll was talking about was not a focus on the ‘win,’ but what it takes to get the ‘win.’ Coaches must put players in situations where they can successfully compete. Helping players get better is a step understood by players of all levels. Fundamentals must be taught, but today’s athlete has been subject to the ‘sound bite’ mentality. As mentioned previously, coaches must create and maintain interest in drills. Here is an excellent opportunity to involve the prima donna player. Let him be the demonstrator and count on him to assist other players. In an almost sneaky way, a coach has now transformed the prima donna into a team player. s

About the Author: Sean McCormick is currently the defensive coordinator at Aiken High School in Cincinnati. He has served as an offensive coordinator and special teams coordinator at the high school level. McCormick has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from Point Park University and a Master’s Degree in Athletic Administration from Ohio University.