BUMGT5970 Leadership: Exploring Leadership in Sports and Diplomacy

This essay explores leadership in two distinct scenarios: a sports coach and a diplomat. It discusses the leadership qualities required for a sports coach to motivate a team facing repeated failures and manage internal conflicts, highlighting the effectiveness of athlete-centered and transformational coaching styles. For a diplomat, the essay emphasizes cultural adaptability, composure, and initiative as key traits for successful international relations and conflict resolution between countries. The analysis draws upon academic articles to support the arguments, concluding that leadership requirements vary depending on the context and the followers involved, with both scenarios demanding unique approaches to inspire and resolve issues.

Leadership

Table of Contents
Leadership........................................................................................................................................1
1.0 INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................2
2.0 Leadership Scenarios.................................................................................................................3
2.1 A Sports Coach......................................................................................................................3
2.2 A Diplomat............................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

1.0 INTRODUCTION
Leadership is the act of leading people which including influencing them and motivating
followers so that they can contribute in achieving goals which have been set by the leader.
Leadership is exercised in many areas other than business and politics. This report will discuss
leadership of a sports coach and leadership of a diplomat.
2.0 Leadership Scenarios
2.1 A Sports Coach
Sports Coaches are those people who take the responsibility to train sports people in
various types of sports. Sports coach are also required to identify strength and weakness of the
athletes and train them accordingly so that they are able to utilize and develop their complete
potential Loughead & Bloom, (2016). Leadership of a sport coach is very important so that they
are able to create and develop efficient and talented sports people. Some of the reasons which
suggests importance and need of leadership for Sports Coach are as follows-
 To assess the strength and weakness of the player, so that they can train them according
to their strength and weakness.
 To Administer and organisation of policies and goals and facilitate needs of players
 Growth and Development, like an important characteristic of leadership that they are
required to support their followers and contribute their growth, coaches are required to
supports athletes to grow and develop.
 Teaching and Communication, this is another important aspect of leadership and coaches
undertake teaching responsibility for their players. They also communicate important
information to their athletes.
 Evaluation, sports coaches also undertake evaluation of the athletes and this is what
makes leadership important for them.
Some reasons which needs Sport Coach to show their leadership are-

A team which is being coached by sports coach have constantly faced three failures in their game
Cotterill & Fransen (2016). This has reduced motivation and morale of the team players and
athletes.
This is one of those sensitive and difficult situations which are required to be managed by
sports coach. This situation is not something abnormal but this is definitely sensitive. Here a
style of coach which is athlete centred coaching style of leadership. This can be adopted and
followed by coach and they can understand the players and athlete and support them according to
their situation. Such situation requires that players need strong support from their coach who
have trained them so that they do not lose their confidence in their competency and their ability.
Coaches who follow athlete centred leadership style in their coaching focus on needs of
individual which can be balanced with their commitment to their group goals. This type of coach
emphasizes on teamwork.
This situation when happens when players are at their initial level of coaching and they
are facing failures in such case coach can also adopt to transformational style of sports coaching
this means that leaders are supposed to lead others by inspiring them. In this sport coaches strive
towards a shared vision of team and which beyond winning the game. They need to instil a
felling of team work in their players which is helpful in their future games and they can win their
games together with help of their teammates Arthur, Bastardoz & Eklund (2017). They are
believers and this build confidence in the players and athletes. They show confidence in athletes
and their ability and potential and share optimism. This helps in motivating and inspiring players
and plays a major role in making players effective and efficient and develops their talent and
potential, this way coaches are coach and along with that also play role of leader.
Another Situation which requires coach to show and have leadership is that when their team is
having internal conflicts. This means that teammates are having conflicts with each other.
In such case there are two ways in which leader can solve these conflict and can also ensure that
conflict doesn’t happen. This situation requires strong leadership skills of coach. They are
require to listen to point of view of all the players and make decision ensuring the decision is
completely unbiased. In the time of team conflicts autocratic coaching leadership is very useful

as coach is responsible for making all the decisions and team members are only required to
follow those decisions which have been made by the coach.
Laissez Faire Leadership style of coach can also help in which coach can instruct
teammates the way in which they can help themselves in resolving their conflicts by themselves.
If not by themselves then in this type of leadership coach will select a soft approach of dealing
with conflicts Lee, & Chelladurai (2018). This way is that conflicts are resolved and along with
that they are also able to establish harmonious relationship in the teammates.
2.2 A Diplomat
A diplomat is a person who gets appointed by national government to conduct official
negotiations and maintain political, economic and social relations with another country or
countries Hadiningrat, Luddin & Suyatno (2018). This requires that person being appointed by
the government is tactful, and able to manage critical situation and is able to handle various type
of people belonging from various countries and culture. As diplomats represent their country and
this makes them leader of a country in another country.
Leadership of diplomat includes negotiating, representing interest and resolving conflicts.
Diplomacy in this context is known as professional activity which is carried out by diplomat and
skills of managing international relations, this usually involves dealing with others without
causing resentment and bad and negative feelings. Some of the characteristics are there which
needs to be in a diplomat or it can be said that some of the characteristics of diplomatic leaders
are, that they should be good manager, resilient negotiator and a trusted advisor.
Some of the traits of Diplomat Leadership are-
Cultural Adaptability
This means that diplomat who represents their country should be able to adapt culture of
other country where they are appointed as diplomats Kickbusch & et.al (2016). This will help
them in being accepted by local people of the country making their work easy and they will be
able to get assistant of local people. This requires that they are having knowledge of local
culture, traditions, economic circumstances etc.
Composure

Diplomats are required to maintain their calm and composure in other words this can also
be considered as they are required to have emotional intelligence and control over their
emotions. This also requires that they are able to manage their stress and deal with difficult
situation being composed. Diplomats are also required to be adaptable to change quickly as it
happens.
Experience and Motivation
Diplomat are required that they can demonstrate their knowledge and skills which they
have gained from their previous experience in foreign services. They should also have adequate
motivation to join foreign services and they should not be dependent on others for their
motivation.
Initiative
Diplomat as they are leading their country and representing it in other countries needs to
take initiative and lead it wherever required and possible Scarnecchia (2017). This is identifying
and assuming their responsibility for their work and what they are required to do in their role.
Diplomat have to deal with various situations they are related to two countries and their
relationship and they are needed to play a mediating role.
Here one situation can be taken that two countries are having conflicts and causing unrest in their
political relationship. In this diplomat are required that they use their knowledge and experience
and ensure that they can mediate between the countries to solve their issues. This will require
them to have apt knowledge of the various situations of the country that they are working for and
where they have been appointed. To solve this issue diplomat also need that they are able to
negotiate which is their prime responsibility and another trait and characteristic which will help
them in resolving the issue is that are aware of culture of other country and with help of this they
will be able to make their effective impression.
Diplomats are also require to resolve disagreements in home and host country and for this
they are required to have those qualities which can help them in making good impression in host
country while making their argument and negotiation. They have knowledge of situations of both
countries their home country and host country and this is why they can present all the situation

and information in integrated manner so that they are able to find a solution of problem which
are being faced by home and host country Jordan (2019). They are able to understand both
culture so that they can put forward correct mindset and idea of the countries in front of each
other giving them exact idea of their intention and making the problems solved.
3.0 CONCLUSION
On the basis of this study it can be concluded that leadership is required in many areas
and leadership requirements are different and also affected from the followers. This report
included leadership in two scenarios one is leadership for a sports coach and other is a Diplomat.
In this leadership in sports coach helps in motivating and solving conflicts of teammates. For a
Diplomat leadership is required when they are resolving conflicts and issues of two countries.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Arthur, C. A., Bastardoz, N., & Eklund, R. (2017). Transformational leadership in sport: Current
status and future directions. Current opinion in Psychology. 16. 78-83.
Cotterill, S. T., & Fransen, K. (2016). Athlete leadership in sport teams: Current understanding
and future directions. International Review of Sport and Exercise Psychology. 9(1). 116-
133.
Hadiningrat, J. K., Luddin, M. R., & Suyatno, T. (2018). Effect of Leadership, Personality and
Job Satisfaction On Job Performance of Diplomat. International Journal of Scientific
Research and Management, 6(03).
Jordan, R. S. (2019). Political Leadership in NATO: A Study in Multinational Diplomacy.
Routledge.
Kickbusch, I., Woods, N., Piot, P., & Abbasi, K. (2016). How to choose the world’s top health
diplomat. Bmj, 355, i5746.
Lee, Y. H., & Chelladurai, P. (2018). Emotional intelligence, emotional labor, coach burnout, job
satisfaction, and turnover intention in sport leadership. European Sport Management
Quarterly, 18(4), 393-412.
Loughead, T. M., & Bloom, G. A. (2016). Coach and athlete leadership in sport. In Routledge
International Handbook of Sport Psychology (pp. 515-523). Routledge.
Scarnecchia, T. (2017). Joshua Nkomo: Nationalist Diplomat,‘Father of the Nation’or ‘Enemy of
the State’. In Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo of Zimbabwe (pp. 173-192). Palgrave Macmillan,
Cham.