The Role Of Leadership And Communication On Task Cohesion

Sport’s are an aspect of life that affect societies across the globe. Athletics affect everyone's life, whether that be playing the sport, watching games, or hearing about a sporting event. There is a big difference between playing an individual sport and players relying on their own athletic abilities versus a team sport when members of the team rely on their teammates to complete each individual's specific responsibility to reach the team's goal. Team sports bring people together in countless ways, and they teach many life skills for the athletes that participate in them. Some of these skills include communication, teamwork, discipline, work ethic, dedication, leadership, and numerous more that will help them in their personal and work

Hi Doug. I agree that communication is a very good perspective to contemplate when considering leadership. Communication can be essential to successful leadership through identifying risks, issues, and other barriers on a project, or in an organization. Regardless of the skills, abilities, or traits that a leader may possess, being deficient in effective communication will cause failure in reaching the goals and objectives of a group (Solaja, Idowu, & James, 2016). This is due to the importance of information across all spectrums of an organization, including leaders and followers (Solaja et al., 2016). Understanding how people give and receive information will allow a leader to change the various methods of communication (e.g. newsletters,

Team cohesion is a very important area explored in sport psychology. Though it has as many uses as there are types of groups and teams, it has an exceptionally large impact on the success of sports teams and their ability to reach their goals (Building a Cohesive Team). The ability to become and remain a unified functioning team, especially when faced with conflict or strong opponents, can mean the difference between winning and losing. Developing a team includes many aspects, including trust and familiarity amongst the players, as well as a strong leader, with whom a strong trust and level of comfort is equally important.

Sports make people come close together like family,” because of the opportunity to train, try, win, or lose together.”( The Mental Benefits of Sports, Kathryn Watson, para. 8) Winning and losing as a team is very important to learn how to do. Everyone has to work as a group in something of their life and no one wants to work with a sore loser or winner. Leadership qualities can, “range from being a good character, to respecting others, to being task oriented can be accomplished in both team and individual sports,” because of that “team mindset” ability.(What Do Youth Sports Teach Our Children Really? Suzanne Pish, Michigan State University, para. 6) The “team mindset” is a key thing to strengthen leadership qualities. Leaders are what makes up teams or groups of people or student athletes. Something to improve leadership is, “encouraging and inspiring team members to attain their own personal goals and reach their potential can help you become a better leader.”(Goals to Increase Leadership Skills for Personal Development, Laura Jerpi, para.5) Also, students that are more task oriented or who have better interpersonal skills tend to be healthier than an average human being. Leadership is an significant title to be able to claim. Having the title can get people a long way in

Coaches are an important figure in creating this environment but all the team leaders are equally as important. Regardless of the two scenarios presented, improving cohesion via team homogeneity, personal sacrifice and leadership techniques is effective. Moreover, it is very possible that these factors do not need to be inputted by a single person or figure. Although the effectiveness of a coach implementing these cannot be ignored, as long as they are presented by a leader in the team environment then cohesion and in turn success will

i. In the article “Do Sports Help Improve Leadership Skills?” published in Livestrong in 2013, T. Duggan stated that

This study focused on the importance of leadership among the athletes themselves, their peer leaders. “The results showed that the majority of team task (65%), social (57%), and external (79%) leaders occupied a formal position on their team.” (Loughead, Hardy, & Eys, 2006, p. 142). These leadership functions have different behavioral characteristics provided to the team members. The task leader helps to focus the team on the goal at hand and helps with decision making within the team. This may be the player on the team who calls the plays, the team captain. The research indicated that it was important for team members to elect their captains and other leaders. The social leader brings cohesiveness and harmony to the team. He encourages and rallies the players to get together and get involved. The final leadership function, external leaders help promote the team in the community and help organize fund raising. In addition, leadership within the team, through peers and other group members was a factor in the overall success of the team. They help foster communication between the coaching staff and the athletes. In addition, “it was hypothesized the longer athletes were members of a team, the more likely they would be identified as a

Leaders are most effective when they are able to attain cooperation among all the members and make them feel the purpose of doing their tasks. It is important for them to research on the characteristics of high performance teams so that they also have it as their standards in leading their people. Some of the important activities that a leader should be good at are persuading, communicating, and motivating people (Tracy, n.d.).

A leader must listen to its followers and vice versa. Both Gardner and Wooden in their books provide examples that both ineffective and effective communication can affect a group or organization—for better or worse. However, through positive open communication that is produced from the group can lead to positive and effective improvement (Wooden, 2005, p.198-201; Gardner,1990, p.86) for the work environment and respectability between leader and follower.

The recent victory of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers gives us a clear view into the dynamics of what makes a strong team. The Cavs collectively pulled together when the odds seemed impossible, but their efforts made them victors. A group is a couple of people put together for no apparent reason. The team is like a basketball team; every player has a position. On a team there 's a leader, being the coach, and that leader can choose to disseminate information to the players through the team captain. Everyone is not meant to lead and there are some people that prove that they have the ability to do more than just follow directions. Throughout this course we have learned the importance of team cohesion, communication, conflict resolution, motivation, inclusion, and the importance of diversity. It is important to know the different dynamics between that of a group and that of a team.

Annotated Bibliography Barrett, D. J. (2014). Leadership communication (4th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Leadership Communication is a wonderful guidebook for anyone who desires to develop the communication skills and capabilities that are needed to be effective and transformational leaders. Deborah Barrett presents both hard and soft skills in this textbook with a special emphasis on group and organizational skills in chapters 10 through 14.

Throughout the years, leadership has played a significant role in the world of athletics. Whether it is coming from a coach or a player, leadership is no doubt the most important role one can hold; leadership can make or break a team. John C. Maxwell put it clearly when he stated that “everything rises and falls on leadership”. When looking at leadership as it relates to sports one must first define leadership. Barrow (1977) defined leadership as “the behavioral process of influencing individuals and groups towards set goals” (p.232). This definition puts an emphasis on vision of a leader while it also highlights the importance of the interaction between the leader and the group members. Leaders play an important role in the success of the

As voted captain on Hampton-Dumont's athletic teams, I discovered the value of communication, unity, perseverance, and passion. Leaders are only successful if they have followers. I have come to know that every individual has a gift to contribute. Every role is vital. My teammates trust me because I value the individual and withhold judgement. I genuinely care about each and every girl, regardless of who she is or where she's come from. I seek and expect the best out of everyone, and when you do that, anything is possible. With this leadership style, each of our school athletic teams became cohesive and united. It became less about me and more about friends with true commitment to each other who focus on the big picture of teamwork.

The first two chapters discussed the relevant background factors and the internal influences such as the art of communication involving verbal and nonverbal, defensive and supportive, emotional intelligence, and team dynamics (Tubbs, 2012). Although these concepts apply to all aspects of communication, the Tubbs model focuses more on using the communication skills to the small group context. Looking at the different types of communication and the emotional intelligence part was very eye-opening. Communication is the essence of leadership, and there is a secure connection between one’s

As sport performance increases with team cohesion, it is important to understand the factors influencing team cohesion. Our purpose is to understand how leaders influence the sport team’s cohesion both by their behaviour and their role within the team. Two types of behaviour are assessed: initiating structure behaviour and consideration behaviour. Within a team, both coaches and fellow athletes may act as leaders. The influence of these leaders, in their specific role, whether as coach or as a fellow athlete, is analyzed. It is determined that in order for a team to have strong cohesion, the leaders play an important role in highlighting the importance of the individual players while providing structure, friendship, training, instruction, decision-making, social support, and positive feedback to produce overall team cohesion.