Leadership and Team Cohesion

“Contrary to the opinion of many people, leaders are not born. Leaders are made,

and they are made by effort and hard work”-Vince Lombardi

Leadership Leadership

“the behavioural, psychological, and social process of influencing individuals to move toward the achievement of specific objectives”

• Behaviour aspect – • commonly understood • we recognize leaders because they act like leaders

• Social Aspect – • leaders create a social environment • Social environments allow individuals to thrive in their pursuit of team goals

• Psychological Aspect –• Least understood• has to do with personal charisma, and how leaders get people to do what they want

them to do

Mental Aspects of Sport

• Arousal- the state in which an athlete feels ready both psychologically and physically to do his/ her very best in competition, a mind- body relationship.

• Extreme arousal can impede physical and mental pathways, leading to poor performance because over excitement or out of control state of mind.

Mental Aspects of Sport- Anxiety

• Anxiety: feelings of tension or nervousness that accompany preparation for or preparation in an athletic event. – Relaxation: the mind-body state in which an

athlete has no feelings of anxiety, and is feeling ready to do his/ her best. Often overanxious athletes relax the mind and body to the point where they are compete effectively.

Mental Aspects of Sport- Anxiety• Concentration: the ability to keep ones focus on the task at hand without

being distracted from it by changes in the surrounding environment. An important factor is that environment changes constantly during competition and athlete needs to change frequently and rapidly. Athletes are often required to sort out, which external info (i.e., self- doubt) or cues relevant to performance and which are irrelevant.

• Motivation: the direction and intensity of effort.1. direction of effort refers to the tendency of a person to be

attracted to certain sport situations.2. The intensity of ones efforts is a measure of how much actual

physical and mental energy one is willing to put into an Endeavour.

Role of the Audience

• Many athletes react positively to large crowds and the encouragement they can provide. Others seem to succeed better in settings where they are relatively isolated from spectators. Still others can become extremely discouraged or distracted by crowd noise.

• Sport psychologists work with athletes to help them to control their response to an audience and limit its impact on performance.

Factors Affecting Performance

• Psychological skills training: the interaction between sport and psychology in which sport psychologists and athletes use specific tools to improve athletic performance.

• Self- talk, Imagery/ visualization, relaxation/ arousal regulation, setting goals.

Self-Talk

• The internal monologue that goes through one’s mind, exhorting oneself to achieve success.

• One of the major tasks of a sport psychology is to teach athletes how to regulate and control this internal talk in a positive way and how to use it to achieve peak performance by enabling relaxation and optimal direction of intensity and effort.

Imagery/ Visualization• The process by which sport psychologists work with

athletes to help them visualize or imagine themselves succeeding- almost like writing their own movie script, with them in the starring role- or to recall powerful images of past triumphs, all as ways of improving future performance.

• Psychologists often ask athletes to visualize scenarios that are completely unrelated to sport situations as a way of achieving certain mental states.

• Only works for those who actually believe it’s a powerful tool for athletic enhancement.

Relaxation/ Arousal Regulation

• Breathing control exercises• Progressive relaxation exercises (which teach

athletes to relax specific muscle groups individually unconscious way)

• Meditation• Imagery

Setting Goals

• SMART principle:–Specific: able to be precisely defined–Measureable: able to be quantified–Attainable: within an athletes limitations–Realistic: attainable within constraints–Timely: achievable within a set time

frame

Team Cohesion

The Big FiveTrait Description

Openness Being curios, original, open to new ideas

Conscientiousness Being organized, systematic and achievement oriented.

Extraversion Being outgoing, talkative and sociable

Agreeableness Being affable, tolerant, sensitive, trusting

Neuroticism Being anxious, irritable, temperamental

Team Cohesion

• Team cohesion the team’s ability to interact effectively in their pursuit of team goals and group satisfaction

• High team cohesion results in high team culture (formal and informal social and organizational systems within the team that influences

• Results in team building (deliberate process or attempt to develop an effective team culture htat will nurture and support team cohesion

Task vs Social Cohesion

• TASK COHESION• Team’s ability to interact effectively to successfully

achieve performance or task goals

Task vs Social Cohesion• SOCIAL COHESION

• The team’s ability to get along interpersonally or socially

• The focus is how people get along with each other as opposed to how well people work together

• Important motivational need of athletes is to be accepted or belong to a group, so a certain amount of social cohesion is important to meet this need

Social Cohesion

Cohesion• Research has shown that cohesive teams do perform better

than less cohesive teams

• Cohesion is a more important factor in influencing performance in sport than any other type of team or group

• Both task and social cohesion are related to performance success in sport

• Coaches should be aware of both types of cohesion and should make the team environment more cohesive