Leadership versus Management

One important thing that a leader brings to any team or organisation is a sense of purpose and direction. These are often shared with team or organisation members through mission or vision statements and values underpinning how the mission/vision statements are achieved and demonstrated.

The following are examples of mission statements from some famous organisations and industries.

Coaching and leadership

Coaches can play an essential part in setting a vision and values for a team. This is especially important in a new industry such as eSports, where culture, hierarchies, and support systems are still in the developmental phase compared to traditional sports.

Coaches need a foundational understanding of leadership, which includes self-awareness, to convey their ideas to their team. Ensuring they intentionally develop a coaching philosophy will help them build the skills to earn respect — and then demand accountability from their players.

_{(Cousens, C 2021)}

Self-awareness has been identified as one of the most important traits of effective leaders. It is empowering because it gives us a greater understanding of ourselves and our impact on others. This ability to monitor our inner and external world allows us to respond objectively and thoughtfully to incidents that might otherwise prompt a knee-jerk reaction.

Knowledge Check Activity

The Johari Window is a tool coaches can use for increasing self-awareness. It was created by psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham.

1. Open/arena: the part of ourselves that we and others see.
2. Blind spots: aspects that others see but we are unaware of.
3. Mask/hidden: the private space we know but hide from others.
4. Unconscious/unknown: the part of us that neither ourselves nor others see.

The size of each quadrant will vary depending on how much you share with others, how well others know you, and how well you know yourself.

The following processes will change the size of your quadrants.

Watch: How to use the Johari Window Coaching Exercise | Coaching Skills for Managers (3:41 minutes)

Knowledge Check Activity

Bo Hansen, an Australian Olympic Games medalist and now a coaching and performance expert describes a coaching philosophy as being:

“a set of values, governing principles and beliefs which determine why you do what you do and how you behave in the context of your coaching role. The fundamentals of a meaningful Sport Coaching Philosophy should contain the ideal of “Why do I coach?”.

Having a philosophy as a coach will help set the foundations of the culture in the team you wish to create.

The following are steps toward creating a coaching philosophy.

Step 1: Identity what is most important to you

When beginning your philosophy, you must understand your core values, what is non-negotiable for you, and how you will implement that within your role. No matter what field of coaching you undertake, a coach will have certain things they will not compromise on. Whether it is technique, skills development, cognition or respect - these are all areas where the coach is not likely to compromise on. Contrary to the non-negotiables, there needs to be a distinction between the values you want to have but could perform your coaching role without and those you must have. You can evaluate how these values impact your coaching behaviour. This is why converting your values into critical values is integral.

Step 2: Learn from your own experiences

Coaches then find themselves learning from coaches they have had in the past - for both what to do and not to do. Learn from them what you gained under their leadership, and what held you back, and apply this to your coaching philosophy. How often do we think, “Well, I won’t do that again" after experimenting with something or trying something new, uncertain of the outcome? It is these types of experiences that help us to grow.

As a coach, authenticity is vital. Your team needs to trust you. Therefore you must bring your best self to the coaching role.

Step 3: What is your coaching style?

Throughout the learning, we have discussed the various coaching styles. Ensure you are familiar with them and determine which style best suits you. You may choose one or decide to merge aspects of styles.

Some coaches prefer to be adaptable, altering their coaching styles to suit the needs of the players, while others may choose a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

Regardless of your style, you must do what is best for the athletes and the team - their needs should be the focus of your coaching.

Step 4: Discover your sport coaching philosophy

When discovering your coaching philosophy, you need to consider the behaviour you wish to display consistently, how you wish to conduct yourself, how this behaviour will impact on your athletes and the results of this impact. Only then can you begin to create a framework to facilitate your conduct in your coaching role. This is a large part of your sport coaching philosophy and should link to where you discovered your core values in relation to being a coach.

Another aspect you must consider in the coaching role and philosophy is how you define success. Although this should also be linked to your values, sport is a domain where in every way, people keep score. Defining what truly is a success is often not a simple matter of determining who has more points at the end of a game. Winning, therefore, is only part of the measure of success (of course, this is dependent on your Sport Coaching Philosophy, right?).

Some coaches find using a statement to emphasise their philosophies useful. Once you have it, you can use it to regularly circle back into what is important.

Hot tip! When developing your statement, use a spare piece of paper to write a few different versions until you can refine the statement to a fully satisfactory point.

Read more for inspiration on some of the coaching statements.

Step 5: Keep it visible and alive

Once you have compiled your values, behaviours, and definitions of success, the final step is to keep this consolidated work in a place where you can regularly review it.

Your sports coaching philosophy is something unique to you about who you are and want to be. It is essential to remind yourself of what is important, which should be done daily.

Some coaches chose to post this in a laminated form on their desk; others keep it in their coaching diary.

You can measure yourself against your philosophy’s behaviours and judge for yourself whether you are living out your philosophy. It is useful to review whether your philosophy gives you the outcomes you value most and whether you can continue developing and evolving it over time as needed.

(Athlete Assessments 2007 – 2023)