The Importance Of Servant Leadership In Sports

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Putting others before yourself. This is the golden rule that is just about told to every child. Servant leadership has the same concept of this golden rule. Servant leaders have to be people who are going to listen to other and are willing to put others needs before their own. This leadership style is used in many professions especially sport industry. In the sport industry people are constantly putting other before themselves. From athletes who are wiling to help the youth grow as athletes, broadcasters who are broadcasting the news for us on television, coaches who put the time in to teach others about the game and more importantly about life itself. Servant leadership is a leadership style that allows people to help others achieve their …show more content…
Servant Leadership is, “when leaders are attentive to the concerns of their followers, emphasizes with them, and nurture them.” (Northouse pg. 225) Servant leaders are found putting others before them. They want to better others before bettering themselves. They will help others reach their fullest potential to help them reach their goals either as a group or individually. People who want to be servant leaders want a feeling of putting others first. They feel good about themselves when they can help others achieve their desired goals. There are ten characteristics of a servant leader that are brought together by Spears in 2002; “listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment o the growth of people, and building community” (Northouse pg. 227-229). All of these characteristics make the first model of servant leadership. There are many behaviors of servant leaders; “conceptualizing, emotional healing, putting followers first, followers grow and succeed, behaving ethically, empowering, and creating value for the community” (Northouse pg. 233-235). This style of leadership is unique because this type of leader puts others ahead of themselves rather than focusing on themselves. There are some leadership styles that we have learned about where they are focusing on themselves as leaders. Rather than servant leaders who are putting their followers first because they are the ones learning and …show more content…
Over the years there have been many people who put others before themselves. Coaches in any sport have been the most well known professionals in the sport world who use servant leadership styles. These coaches are working to make their team the best the sport they are coaching. Head coach of the University of Kentucky basketball team once said, “Servant leadership works when leaders truly believe and act upon a desire to make their followers successful” (World Campus pg 5). The most important part of his statement is “make their followers successful.” Servant leaders put others before themselves in order to make them successful. That is exactly what coach Calipari does for his team. He makes this statement when talking about making his players the best in the college basketball world. He needs to make them successful to be able to achieve their goals they have set for themselves. There was a study done with high school athletes and if they gained good experience from coaches who used servant leadership. The results showed that athletes who received the servant leadership had a better experience playing a sport. The researcher found that “ coaches who used servant leadership their players had more motivation, more task oriented, more satisfied, mentally tougher, and performed better than athletes who did not receive this leadership style” (Rieke). Kentucky’s head basketball coach, Calipari is exceling