Leadership Efficacy in Youth Football: Athletes’ and Coaches’ Perspectives

Abstract

According to the Leadership Efficacy Model, leadership efficacy depends on leaders’ tendency to make linear relationships between leadership philosophy, practice, and criteria (i.e., congruence of leadership cycles). Moreover, efficacy increases if coaches make these linear relationships by using the optimal leadership profile and by considering the antecedent factors of leadership (characteristics of the leader, team members, and organizational conditions; i.e., favorability of conditions for leadership). This study compared the perceptions of athletes and their coaches regarding leadership cycles, and tested the moderator role of optimal leadership profile and leadership favorability in the relationship between leadership cycles and leadership efficacy. This study included 92 football athletes (ages less than 17 and 19 years) and respective coaches (n = 5). The evaluation protocol included measures of leadership cycles, leadership styles, leadership favorability, and sport performance perception. Athletes and coaches agreed on coaches’ need to increase their practice and criteria, but athletes also considered that coaches should better clarify their philosophy. Regression analyses confirmed that leadership congruency predicts higher perceptions of team performance in athletes. Moreover, optimal leadership profile and higher leadership favorability were associated with higher team and individual performance. However, these two factors did not moderate the relationship between leadership congruency and efficacy.

Leadership cycles, styles, and antecedent factors: the perspective of coaches and young soccer athletes from national Slovak leagues

“…How athletes perceive the leadership style of their coaches is affected by time in the sports program ( de Albuquerque et al, 2021 ), household income ( Warmath et al, 2022 ), their individual characteristics ( Bormann et al, 2016 ) or the season outcome ( Reardon et al, 2022 ). The recognized antecedent factors of leadership as intervening or moderating variables are conditions of the coach/leader’s characteristics (goals, beliefs, values, psychological resources, sex, age, and personality), team members’ characteristics (goals, beliefs, values, psychological resources, sex, age, and personality) and situational characteristics (expectations/organizational goals, hierarchical level and power, values, and norms) ( Gomes, 2020 ; Gomes et al, 2022 ). They all seem to be essential factors for understanding how coaches act and establish positive relationships with athletes on a daily basis.…”

“…Because of that, this study aims to analyze these factors as interactive parts of the Leadership Efficacy Model ( Gomes, 2020 ). This model identifies the leadership cycles (philosophy, practice, and criteria) as central elements of leadership efficacy, proposing that they should be linearly congruent ( Gomes et al, 2022 ). In this way, the model sustains that leadership efficacy increases when leaders/coaches assume linear relations between philosophy (ideas that support the coaching activity), practice (behaviors supposed to fulfill the philosophy), and criteria (indicators to monitor the ideas and behaviors of leadership) ( Gomes, 2020 ).…”

“…In this way, the model sustains that leadership efficacy increases when leaders/coaches assume linear relations between philosophy (ideas that support the coaching activity), practice (behaviors supposed to fulfill the philosophy), and criteria (indicators to monitor the ideas and behaviors of leadership) ( Gomes, 2020 ). Also important, the model indicates that leadership styles (i.e., transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and decision-making leadership) and antecedent factors of leadership (leader, follower, and situational characteristics) can influence the impact produced by leadership cycles in leadership efficacy ( Gomes et al, 2022 ). According to the Leadership Efficacy Model, when leaders implement the leadership cycles by using positive leadership styles and considering antecedent factors of leadership, they can increase the impact of the leadership cycles in the final leadership efficacy (measured, for example, in terms of athletes’ psychological experiences in sports or sport performance) ( Gomes et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Also important, the model indicates that leadership styles (i.e., transformational leadership, transactional leadership, and decision-making leadership) and antecedent factors of leadership (leader, follower, and situational characteristics) can influence the impact produced by leadership cycles in leadership efficacy ( Gomes et al, 2022 ). According to the Leadership Efficacy Model, when leaders implement the leadership cycles by using positive leadership styles and considering antecedent factors of leadership, they can increase the impact of the leadership cycles in the final leadership efficacy (measured, for example, in terms of athletes’ psychological experiences in sports or sport performance) ( Gomes et al, 2022 ). For the case of leadership styles, it is proposed that the “optimal profile of leadership” occurs when leaders use mainly transformational leadership behaviors, higher levels of positive feedback and lower levels of negative feedback from transactional leadership, and when they use higher levels of active management and lower levels of management from decision-making leadership ( Gomes, 2020 ).…”

“…In the same way, Gomes et al (2020) in a study with soccer athletes, found that the optimal profile of leadership (e.g., transformational leadership, positive feedback from transactional leadership, and active management from decision-making leadership) was higher reported by athletes with higher perceptions of individual goal achievement than by athletes who reported lower individual goal achievement. More recently, Gomes et al (2022) concluded that the higher congruence in leadership cycles perceived by soccer athletes corresponded to higher perceptions of team performance and that optimal leadership profiles and higher leadership favorability corresponded to higher individual and team performance. Although the interest of these studies, the importance of analyzing this model in youth sports is due to the vital role of coaches in shaping young athletes’ experiences and outcomes in sports.…”