Critical Analysis of Leadership Capabilities

This paper critically analyzes two leadership theories, Authentic leadership and Servant leadership, and applies them in a real-life situation of a football coach. The strengths and areas of improvement of the coach are also discussed.

Running head: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES
CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES
Introduction
The paper aims to analyze critically, two leadership theories and apply those in a real life
situation that I was in, as a football coach for the Sports Active Company. The two theories
chosen are Authentic leadership and Servant leadership. Authentic leadership refers to a
leadership approach, which lays stress on forming the legitimacy of the leader through truthful
relationships that values the followers’ inputs. Servant leadership, on the other hand, is a
philosophy of leadership that focuses on the serving ability of the leader.
Critical analysis
Authentic leadership is built upon ethics (Time.com, 2018). Leaders, who demonstrate
qualities such as honesty, positivity, and openness, come under authentic leadership. Servant
leadership approach to leadership is based mainly on the focus of the leader on serving others
(Forbes.com, 2018).
As stated earlier, I work as a football coach at the Sports Active Company and my job is
to train young children about the basic of football. The situation that arose involved a young
player struggling to communicate with the other players owing to his different linguistic
background. On several occasions, the player failed to pass on the ball and even got in trouble
with other team members. I initially yelled at the player for not following my instructions and
doing wrong. However, I realized that the problem was his difficulty in understanding my
language and of his teammates as well. As stated in The Guardian, authentic leadership requires
the leaders to be self-aware and reflect on their own behavior rather than finding faults in others
(Theguardian.com, 2018).

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES
The player was from Spain and had little to no understanding of the native language,
which is English. Although my first reaction was yelling at the player, I found that he was still
committing the same mistakes. I then called him back from the field and sat down with him at
the change room. I did not attempt to mince my words and directly pointed out the mistakes he
was repeatedly doing. I told him that he needed to share openly his problems with me as I am his
coach and only I can help him. After he somehow shared his issues, I knew that I had to help him
develop his communication skills first. I then directed my entire focus on the player, made him
feel comfortable, and welcomed in the team.
The approach that I took reflected the application of both Authentic leadership and
Servant leadership. When I conversed with the player directly without altering my words, it
showed the truthfulness that I possesses, one of the traits of Authentic leadership. Then, when I
focused my attention on serving the player by making him feel confident about himself, I
demonstrated the qualities of Servant leadership.
I feel that I needed to demonstrate more capabilities as a leader since the young players
are dependent on me to train them without facing any trouble. In the situation that arose, I feel
that I could have demonstrated a better listening capability, which is one of the principles of
servant leadership. In addition, I should have been more restraint in terms of showing my
emotions. As Gatling (2014) states, authentic leader is the one who has the ability to minimize
inappropriate outburst of emotions. Evidences from the academic field suggest that Authentic
leadership enhances performance of the follower especially when leader-member exchange
(LMX) is related (Wong and Laschinger 2013).

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES
Gatling (2014) further finds that a potentially capable leader would be the one who could
incorporate all the positive traits of both a servant leader and an authentic leader. I feel I should
have paid attention to the player from the beginning and served him with all my strengths to
make him a better communicator first and then a great player.
Strengths and areas of improvement
I found that I am a great communicator once I realize the problem. Another strength I
have as a leader is that I do not hesitate from focusing on one individual if I feel that the
individual needs that much focus. Further, I am a great listener, which I discovered when I
listened to the issues faced by the Spanish member of the team.
Nonetheless, more than the strengths, I feel I have many areas where I need to improve.
In the views of Santos et al. (2017), football coaches need to focus not just on winning and
performances on field, they need to focus on positive development of the players as well. I have
realized that I need to improve upon this aspect of my coaching skill.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I could say that the two theories have helped me understand my skills of
leadership and in which way I should proceed in such situations. The analysis of my areas of
strengths and weaknesses helped me understand the areas where I need to improve and those
where I am good as well.

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES
References:
Forbes.com 2018. Servant Leadership: How To Put Your People Before Yourself. [online]
Forbes.com. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/07/19/servant-leadership-how-to-put-
your-people-before-yourself/#6e975fbd66bc [Accessed 5 Dec. 2018].
Gatling, A., 2014. The authentic leadership qualities of business coaches and its impact on
coaching performance. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 12(1),
p.27.
Santos, F., Corte-Real, N., Regueiras, L., Strachan, L., Dias, C. and Fonseca, A., 2017.
Portuguese Football Coaches’ Role in Facilitating Positive Development Within High
Performance Contexts: Is Positive Development Relevant?. International Sport Coaching
Journal, 4(2), pp.147-161.
Theguardian.com 2018. Leadership skills: How to be an effective and authentic leader. [online]
the Guardian. Available at:
https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/2016/apr/18/developing-your-presence-
self-awareness-and-effectiveness-as-a-leader-a-one-day-workshop [Accessed 5 Dec. 2018].
Time.com 2018. http://time.com. [online] Time. Available at: http://time.com/4519851/2016-
election-authenticity/ [Accessed 5 Dec. 2018].
Wong, C.A. and Laschinger, H.K., 2013. Authentic leadership, performance, and job
satisfaction: the mediating role of empowerment. Journal of advanced nursing, 69(4), pp.947-
959.