Rugby and Leadership: A Dynamic Fusion of Passion and Skill

Introduction

This leadership development portfolio intends to demonstrate my competencies as a rugby professional and enthusiast. Being an ardent fan of athlete made it easy to venture my time into the game, and became an active participant and gamer from my childhood. Ever then, I have gathered a pool of vast experiences, both as a passive and active player of rugby. Since i was a small boy of sixteen years, my desires to become the best rugby player rekindled, that I left home to play for Castleford Tigers an under eighteen league whereby by through teamwork and determination we won the Grand Final for that year. Through online and offline reflections upon my experiences, I am proud to remark that I have learned to become a better rugby expert; and that I have accrued a broad array of noblest experiences, which have furthered my personal development and competence in the realm of rugby sport.

My Competencies Relative to the Job Description

Considering the lengthy period I have actively partaken in sports, I have gathered a broader range of useful insights, experiences, skills and attitudes which makes me stand out as an impeccable coach of the time. Being a rugby enthusiast and professional, who has played for many years and won substantial awards; I do have strong desires to bring out the best in my team in terms of leadership and team coordination. Having been actively involved in the game has familiarized with all rules associated the game; and therefore I am capable of arousing the team’s philosophy and ensure all departments embrace this philosophy; for I have done this before.

As a sports Director, I will also help in the induction and implementation of strategies for football departments to optimize their efficiency and success and hold the departments responsible and accountable to formulated strategies. This is based on the view that I have previously managed to coordinate effectively in rugby club as a coach and captain; and therefore I may find it necessary to replicate some knowledge and skills to solve immediate challenges in my capacity as a Sporting Director. I will also instigate the implementation and monitoring of fundamental key performance indicators for all football departments in the pursuit to raise the team standards in the competitive sporting world. The formulation, implementation and monitoring of key performance indicators will be fostered by my special skills and knowledge in building and sustaining teams. Being an ardent believer of teamwork, I am optimistic that I can harness my solid interpersonal skills and communication skills strategically align my objectives as the director with those of the key players. My impeccable communication skills will also influence motivation and guidance towards successful outcomes.

I will also seek to offer periodic updates concerning the Club’s football departments to the Club’s Board of Director; as an avenue to make them conversant about what the team is doing and the challenges we are facing; for I believe this may be another way of sharing issues affecting the club. Providing periodic updates will also contribute into the basketry of strategic relationships through constant communicated with the club proponents. My diverse experiences in working across cultures, and my understanding in the role of motivation in influencing performance will contribute towards a well-motivated team that will do well in the field. Since the players’ needs are unique and vary per person; understanding each player is an approach to venture into. Motivation will be anchored on individuals’ needs with the satisfaction of needs primary needs given prominence.

Theories and Practices of Personal Leadership in the Global Sporting Environment

My subjection to various events as a rugby player added value to me by inspiring my leadership qualities in my pursuits to develop my coaching strategies for self-development and actualization. Theoretically, prospects of effective leadership practices influencing the world have proposed leadership style is an indicator of many successes experienced not only in business organizations but also sports. The most responsive approach will integrate the application of multiple leadership styles. Leadership has ascended to become the most influential element in organizational longevity, resilience and brand recognition. As Garner, Hancock and Budrys (2017) noted, leadership has become a conceptualized concept in various theories which establish its behaviors and characteristics. The leader coach is one of the most efficient models of the multi-styled leader, since he/she exercises different theoretically approved techniques by the craft and practice of the leader’s profession.

Sporting organisations have realized that the emerging practice of leadership coaching tend to elevate the success of executives, while at the same time improving the quality of the team and organizational culture in general. According to Parris and Peachey (2013), leadership culture denotes to an impeccable chance for organisations to offer support for leaders and square out their needs for the good of all proponents of the sport organization. Leadership coaching is the approach of inspiring affirmative change which influences an organisational leader’s development of specific skills, performance or personal development. This form of individual training that induces value by providing coaches developmental process for concentrating on advancing relational and emotional elements of their leadership potentials, by addressing particular relationship issues and how leadership should take care of such issues. Leadership coaching equips the executive members with capacities to develop professionally in the authority of performance and influence.

Coaching makes use of a chronological method of investigation that motivates a client-coach association that is highly characterized by admiration, trust and candor. The inter-personal nature of coaching enables client to form a special bond with the coach, a bond which is marked by behavioral and cognitive training experiences. Many organisations in sporting domain select coaching as an instrumental tool for assisting people deal with doubts and challenges inherent in organizational change. Under the systematic methodology of inquiry, the coach in the field records remarkable behaviors and information observed during the coaching process. Afterwards, the coach ventures into formulating a related action plan which will contribute to the betterment of and self-discovery of trainees.

Different leadership theories have been identified through the examination of leadership practices and coaching models. For instance, charismatic leadership which is a process leading to value transformation refers to where a leader focuses on changing the values, needs, goals and self-concepts of the team members. A charismatic leader seeks to demonstrate intended behavior, values and tasks needed to achieve the sporting goals. The exhibition of desirable behaviors forms a basis of motivation to team members since the leader demonstrates a robust sense of self confidence, passionate communication, and assertiveness towards the realization of team objectives and goals.

As a charismatic leader, I am visionary and inspiring to my colleagues who I have met before, and partaken together in rugby. As a game which is attracting many fans, I have urged some to be active players of rugby; based on the view the play will induce forth health-related benefits, alongside other benefits such as psychological fulfillment. Professional rugby players equally earn income which has supported many families, and therefore leading to economic empowerment. Charismatic leadership therefore to me is a construct of motivation to my immediate players and enthusiasts of rugby. By exhibiting extraordinary personality traits that are fabricated with inspiration, I believe my followers and team members attain the energy towards the overall success of the team. Charismatic leadership therefore offers direct support to my followers and contributes towards establishment of team confidence, which makes team members feel comfortable to showcase their ideas and contribute towards decision making policies that are helpful to the team.

Alongside being a charismatic coach, I am equally a transactional leader coach on the sense that I am objective and task driven. When i signed for KR in 2015 and played at Wembley in the challenge cup final, ours success was primarily excited by transactional leadership approach. Our tricks in the game were inspired by the main objectives of winning the game. In 2017, while speaking to the students at Crossley Field Schools, the focus was asking the young learners to squarely set their goals on short termed intervention contract, while aiming at developing particular competencies. I am glad that this proposition worked, since the head teacher remarked most of the learners exhibited improved performances thereafter. Being a transactional leader coach, I am systematic and time-bounded during my instruction period, so as to evade as much as possible unforeseeable setbacks and stalls in productivity.

Moreover, I am a transformational leader coach based on my inclination towards contractual collaborative alliances between the team myself and the team I lead. In these agreements, mutually-formulated goals and action plan are achieved based on the consensus to work towards attaining our goals. Myself as the coach and my followers formulate meaningful objectives which are motivating and measurable towards the achievement of intended results in rugby. Transformational coaching gives special preference to personal development by establishing transparent and trust between followers and me. In this regard, my mission is to offer honest feedback concerning professionalism in rugby. Through interpersonal training, my followers not only develop themselves but also I get to comprehend their special needs as a basis of addressing them for optimum field performances. As a coach, I struggle to involve my team players in developmental duties which challenge the players, but while offering necessary encouragement and support throughout the whole process.

Laissez-Faire leadership is constructed on the axiom “lack of leadership” or hands off approach in coaching. Under this style, the leaders evade active participation in setting goals, organizing expected outcomes, and clarifying goals. Besides, the coach avoids directly being involved in the context where the team requires direct leadership. This leadership style believes that the players are autonomous and capable of making sound decision which will influence better field outcomes. Under this orientation, the coach is highly passive and inactive, leading to self-empowerment of the team members. Rampant absence and inadequate engagement in critical decision-making cycles prepares the team members into believing in themselves and therefore can execute required performances upon the absence of the coach.

I discovered Laissez-Faire leadership style to be one of the excellent ways of building a responsible team, which can still perform under my absence when I started playing rugby. I learnt this from how my coach used to handle us. He passively took his leadership roles. His major functions resonated around suggesting options, but the eventual decisions and action to be taken towards driving the team forward was regulated by the players. In the end of the time, the coach had developed a tough team that could do normal training without his physical presence. From this observation, I opted to emulate this particular coach, and in many occasions, I have employed this trick on my former teams and the style has effectively proved a success.

I have come to the realization that coaching is a progressive venture which seeks to induce changes that enhance coach’s behavior and leadership, based on the coach’s anticipation for an ideal future. In these various leadership styles, the end result has always to produce the best out of the trainees, who are unbeatable across various tournaments. As this has been my quest, my choice of the style to apply in a given team setting is driven by various elements, such as the age groups of the team. To my understanding, a team comprising of elderly population is independent minded; and autonomous in their own doing. As a result, I tend to apply to them the Laissez leadership style and transformational to make them realize their potentials in the realm of rugby game.

As a rugby professional and coach, i have interacted with people and trainees from different cultural extractions. I have yet learnt that to operate well under these new cultural backgrounds requires me to be sensitive to the trainees’ philosophical, ideological, and cultural affiliations. This in turn will bring forth a necessary ambience for learning rugby. Being sensitive to trainees’ culture has helped me engage with them in a respectful manner, amidst cultural complexities embedded in language, symbols, meaning and other non-verbal cues (Cashman, 2017).

Distinctions in Knowledge Required for the Performance of the Leadership, Management and Coaching Functions within a Global Sporting Business Context

Amidst the revolutionizing globe in terms of scientific advancement and globalization, the domain of sporting business has changed on an equal measure. Through international migration, the world population has randomly mingled, creating the unionization of different cultural values, beliefs and norms. While this is happening, the need for mastering intercultural communication has become instrumental in the coaching profession. Without intercultural skills, coaching these people from unique and varying cultural backgrounds become cumbersome. This is based on the axiom that different cultures have different mannerisms of communicating, have different cultural symbols and lingual. As these affiliations totally differ, it is important to develop a taste of understanding how these differ, as an avenue to proper coaching.

In the United Kingdom, I have encountered different cultured people, whom we have trained together. In the beginning, coping with people of a new culture was problematic. In many cases, these individuals’ use of accent and non-verbal cues greatly varied from my own. As a result, conversing on equal terms rendered difficult. But my passion to learn different cultural packages in terms of meaning of commonly used cues, symbols and universal ethics granted me necessary expertise to handle everyone with equal respect, decorum and dignity.

As a result of huge discrepancies in what people believes in, I also got to perfect my interpersonal skills. I developed my empathy to accommodate others’ views and feelings. By so doing, I am currently able to not only understand others’ perspectives but also respect them. In this way, I have avoided unnecessary discords with my colleagues in the field; and those who I have trained before. I have been accorded honorary congratulation as an ardent coach way back in my high school when I used to be the captain for the school’s rugby team. These awards were as a result of my conscious commitment to my team, which brought forth unprecedented teamwork, reduced internal conflicts and performance. Being awarded the best captain of the year was nothing but a source of intrinsic motivation that made me to look forward either retaining my performance, or do better.

The Value of Psychometric and other forms of Personal Leadership Profiling Tools

Psychometric test has been instrumental part in evaluating my behavioral patterns, providing a basis of self-evaluation in the pursuit to mend myself to the better. In my view, psychometric tools have formed a basis of self-training, and have contributed to self-knowledge about my major strengths and weaknesses. Two major properties of an evaluation from a psychometric standpoint are its validity and reliability. Besides, the standardization of the tests normed with regard to various aspects such as gender, age, employment, occupation, and education equally establish the characteristics of psychometric assessments.

According to Baumgarten et al., (2016), the reliability of psychometric assessment refers to the consistency of scores extracted from repeated tests of the same person on the same test under constant conditions including no variations within the person. Based on the axiom that this ideal is almost impossible, I aspired to gather evidence of reliability and express the same in form of a correlation coefficient ranging from .00 to 1.00. A perfect reliable test constitutes of a reliability coefficient of 1.00 while a perfectly unreliable test would have a reliability coefficient of .00.

One of the major psychometric tools that have been instrumental to me is the Big 5 Personality Test. The psychometric assessment offers insight into my relevance to the job at hand, by assessing my personality based on five major personality characteristics namely; stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion and openness. Based on this conception, I am inclined towards conscientiousness trait on the view that I am always eager to complete tasks to the best of my ability, attention to detail and optimal organization. By so doing, I have managed to thrive well in sporting career as a coach. This is evident also from the fact that as a player during the 2006 and 2007 championship I worked hard in Club Workington and emerged as the best scorer. My ambitions are always projected by the urge to be the best in all that I do, not only in the spectrum of sports but also in any other field.

Extroversion trait unravels how individuals find joy amidst social interactions and risk-taking ventures. Based on this premise, I am an outgoing person, who finds joy in social interactions. Besides, I have always found merry in new undertakings. This art of taking risks has landed me to new opportunities which have elevated in position in rugby sport. Because of the tendencies to take risks, I have also learnt that risk-taking reputation expands one’s potentials by exciting self-discovery.

Alongside the Big 5 Personality Test, Occupational Personality Questionnaire is another psychometric tool which greatly invited me into the understanding of my reputation, preferences and attitudes not only in workplace but also in the field. As a result, Occupational Personality Questionnaire has enhanced my career transition and personal development. The Occupational Personality Questionnaire offers 32 measures of personality characteristics related to occupational settings and performance. These personality traits are classified into categories namely relationships, influence, sociability, thinking style and empathy. Besides, a social desirability measure to halt people against faking responses is also integrated into the categories of personality traits. My private use of Occupational Personality Questionnaire has showcased me as a person with profound relationships, empathy, and influence and sociability expertise.

DISC Assessment as another psychometric tool is a construct of four core dimensions of personality namely dominance, steadiness, influence and conscientiousness. These parameters provide useful insights for persons and teams to communicate and interact efficiently. One of the core principles of DISC assessments is that by learning concerning other team members’ style, the quality of training in the field improves.

Functionalist Approach to the Analysis of Sporting Organisations across the Global Sporting Landscape

The genesis of the functionalist approach starts by highlighting the fundamental elements of the theory. The major claim of functionalist perspective holds that individuals, institutions, social and almost all aspects of the society are assessed based on its functionality. In this same manner, sports ate equally evaluated based on capacity to meet their objectives. Team coaches and executive owners assess all team proponents based on their functionality. Spectators and sports enthusiasts assess players, owners and managers on their capacity to spear the team towards winning. Many spectators and fans prefer particular style such as offensive-minded, defensive-minded, flair players and entertainment performances from their favorite team. When the team fails to play in an expected manner, the spectators will keep on cheering the team towards winning; on the cliché “It is better to win ugly than to lose pretty”. Any win, no matter how dull it may be is well acknowledged and accommodates than an amusing defeat. Based on this orientation, the end will always approve the means. Therefore, all sport contest yielding expected outcomes is functional and preferred to defeat. It is a common proposition that in life; when a given stuff is functional, it brings forth success of every kind, and this is what a lot of people are contented with (successful and functional outcomes).

Functionalist perspective was championed by early sociologists such as Auguste Comte, Emile Durkheim, Herbert Spencer and Max Weber (Delaney, 2015). These proponents conceded on the view that it is upon the social construction from which essential materials are extracted for human survival. Durkheim perceived society as a social construct comprising of elements taking part in its functional stability as a whole. Each element strives to maintain a state of stability, and when all elements attain stability; the system becomes functional. However, societies as social systems and not static and as a result it varies with time. All social elements are highly interwoven and every element and the entire social system seek to achieve its respective aims so as to operate efficiently.

Sport as a social construct is made up of social systems comprising of strings and group of people and group proponents mingling with one another. Five general functions have been proposed which assists sports as a social capital to establish a state of isocracy and function efficiently. First, socio-emotional function under which sports is geared to offer suitable thresholds for tension and conflict resolution, and discard camaraderie and community integration and ritualistic reputation which people find not only joyous but also comfortable. Secondly, socialization entails a view whereby people learn social expectations through social interaction process and sharing of cultural artifacts which are disseminated across generations. In this perspective, sporting activities are viewed as tools for interaction and specialization bringing people together. As a result, people get to understand one another; get to learn across cultures, which foster the construction of cohesive societies (Delaney, 2015).

Another function of sport which contributes towards balanced societies is that it instills social integration. Sports provide a chance for different people from different cultural backgrounds to come together and interact with one another. However, functionalists dissent sports’ capacity to create us versus them commitments which normally implant seeds of discord amongst the involved segment of fans and players. Sports are intended to instill cohesion and mutual existence; so as to contribute to the basketry of social integration.

Fourthly, sports serve the political roles; whereby sports and politics serve dysfunctional roles. The chanting of national anthem prior to the commencement of sporting events is a political domain within sports. Besides, the political class will seek to harness chances to interact with victors of sport tournaments in a pursuit to bask in the glory of victors. Lastly, sports serve the role of social mobility whereby functionalists have contended that sports offer individuals with golden chances to elevate their socio-economic conditions. Sports offer opportunities for social mobility directly through sport participation and indirectly through for instance university scholarships for talented athletes.

The functionalist argument is championed by people in favor of sport and sport participation. I am one of the proponents of functionalist argument; for I believe that sports have a big stake in the above functions it serves. Sport as a social system is supported in various social institutions including the education system, family, society association and workplaces. As a functionalist, I reinforce the view that sport fan ought to integrate with each other and induce a sense of cohesion in society (Arnold, Fletcher and Molyneux, 2012).

The Value of Personal Leadership Profiling Techniques

In the realm of leadership, leaders may be task-oriented whereby they seek to get things accomplished. In other settings, leaders may be people-oriented whereby they chiefly want to see people happy. And yet in other setting, some leaders may be an agglomeration of the two. In the situation whereby leaders want to make people the foremost priority and seek to accommodate their needs, then the leader is said to be people-oriented. According to my experience, neither preference is wrong nor is right, in the same manner that no one type of leadership style impeccable to all contexts. Nevertheless, it is vital to comprehend what our innate leadership inclinations are, in order to work towards developing the skills that are missing.

A famous model for examining about a leader’s task versus person orientation was initiated by Jane Mouton and Robert Blake in early 1960s. This framework is commonly known as Leadership Skill (Managerial Grid) and is fundamental considering it defines the extent of task-centeredness versus person centeredness. Besides, this framework establishes five major combinations which are distinct leadership models. These leadership styles encompasses country club leadership, impoverished leadership, produce/perish leadership, team leadership, and middle-of-the-road leadership.

Country club leadership entails when the coach is largely interested with the feelings and needs of the team they lead. Such leaders are guided by the assumption that provided the team is generally satisfied and happy; it is likely to work hard towards the realization of expected outcomes. Such perspective normally lead to a work environment which is relaxed and saturated with fun, with production diminishing as a result of insufficient senses of control and direction. Produce/perish leadership is also referred to as authoritarian leadership; whereby leaders maintain a view that employees are a mean to meet an end. The team members are tertiary to the pursuit for efficient working surrounding. The leaders subscribing to this leadership style are autocrats with stiff rules, procedures and policies. These leaders also perceive punishment as the best tool for motivating team members.

Impoverished leadership is commonly deemed ineffective, whereby the leader has no regard for inducing systems for getting tasks done, or creating suitable environment that is motivating and satisfying. This induces a working environment which is demotivated, and disorganized. Middle-of-the-road leadership appears to be balance of two antagonistic concerns. First, the style is effective in compromising. However, when the leader ventures into compromising, he/she gives away a part of every concern in a manner which is not productive. Besides, the individual’s demands are completely achieved. Leaders affiliated to this model tend to settle for average performance and believe this is the most optimum they can expect.

Team leadership is the core of managerial style, whereby coaches emphasizes on quality and peoples’ needs on an equal measure. The main claim is that team members are engaged in understanding corporate purpose and establishing production aims. This induces a working environment on the principles of respect and trust, leading to high motivation (Parent, Olver and Séguin, 2009).

The Managerial Grid is constructed in two prime behavioral parameters namely concern for production and concern for people. Concern for people entails the extent by which the coach caters for his/her team members’ demands, their expectations and interests, and areas of personal actualization. The coach takes in these parameters during the time he/she seek the best way to accomplish given tasks. On contrast, concern for production denotes to the extent by which the leader articulates organizational efficiency, concrete objectives and high productivity during the process of determining how effective to accomplish tasks.

Functionalist Appraisals Sporting Organisations

As expressed in Parson’s structural functionalist view, social system refers to a network constituting interconnected elements or sub-systems aligned in a manner that accommodates the interaction of group people who are inclined towards a particular situation and struggling to attain set goals (Korotov 2016). It is true, that social system comprises of the interplay of a plurality of persons inclined to a particular situation for instance a sports team made up of staff, trainers and players. In its simplest terms, the social system is made up group of individuals interacting with one another in the context with environmental or physical aspect.

The functionalist perspective has been under criticisms by various stakeholders based on its conservative nature and incapacity to define social dynamism. Functionalist perspective chiefly concentrates on how social systems seek to establish and maintain a state of isocracy. Functionalism is criticized of its failure to recognize socio-economic discrepancies leading to various views of the social system. Due to the conservative nature and concentration on status quo, functionalism is condemned by ignoring pertinent societal aspects such as exploitation, prejudice and political dominance by the ruling class who seek to maintain their prestige and power. Besides, the functionalist perspective ignores an axiom that sport, similar with any other social institutions is a concept which is subject to change. Despite of such criticisms, functional perspective is a core social theory which cannot be absolutely denied and its relevance to sport is outstanding.

Functional perspective is important in the sense it assists in explaining big social institutions especially sport. As a key supporter of the main culture of a given society, functionalism has not lost its relevancy. The sport domain normally focuses on key norms and values a given society. In many cases, sports agencies are impatient of individualist behaviors that go against the demands and norms of social institutions. Maybe, the most appealing element of functionalism is its definition of the social system and the way under which coaches and players operate inside the realm of social system.

A Critical Review of Theoretical and Practical Examples of Specific Leadership, Management and Coaching Approaches in the Global Context

Leadership development coaching is conceived as a professional intervention whereby the coach supports the trainee in becoming more competent leaders. Leadership development coaching has been integrated to a broader array of executive coaching. Executive coaching is viewed as a leadership development process geared to improve the trainees’ satisfaction and performance.

Korotov (2016) offers a wide collection of various perspectives and models used by coaches in their training tricks. Some of these models and perspectives are structurally similar with psychological theories such as positive psychology and psychodynamic tradition and emotional intelligence theories. Besides, some models resemble typical leadership theories and styles such as situational, transformational and transactional styles. Others draw resemblance from cultural traditions and anthropogenic observations. Korotov (2016) writes about leadership coaching approaches which they present as an element of executive coaching based on transactional, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral and existential approaches. Besides, executive coaching approaches are informed by practices such as solution-focused, cognitive-behavioral, existential, gestalt, narrative, ontological, positive psychology, and transpersonal precepts.

Fish (2017) discusses the concept of bricolage and maintains that it revolves around looking at the phenomenon of interest in an interdisciplinary way, applying various methodological approaches as those applicable to by an unfolding situation. Bricolage as a coaching practice accommodates the complexity of training and leadership development in sport. The method is suitable based on the view it offers the required flexibility. As an approach of inquiry in social sciences, bricolage method represents substantial limitation concerning academic rigor and acceptance academically.

Group leadership interventions are also alternative approaches for training and developing sports teams. Whereas most coaches focuses on individual training, group leadership coaching has ascended as responsive in developing teams. This intervention has provided suitable opportunity for the dissemination of new experiences to trainees. For leadership development quests to translate into development of social capital, coaches ought to engage in developmental efforts in the similar manner in which they work or should work collaboratively. Leadership development coaching is vital in enhancing coaches’ self-reflection and positively influences the development of social capital. With increasing tendencies towards collective leadership structures, in which interactional processes and group dynamics play a prominent role relative to individual leadership; further attention is necessary to the theory and practice of group leadership development coaching. Coaches, trainees and organizations should benefit from assessing leadership coaching strategies. Assessments form a basis of supporting progress and effort for trainees to acquire more skills and competencies.

Personal Leadership Profile

The leadership profile provides a measure of us as transformational and transactional leaders (Rosenbach and Sashkin, 2017). It is necessary to take cognizance that transactional and transformational leadership styles are separate but yet essential elements of leadership but not end of a single leadership continuum. An individual may exhibit one type of leadership style, both or none. An efficient leader will tend to exhibit high level of both styles.

The Leadership Profile is made up of fifty statements, whereby respondents are interrogated to report the extents which an individual is acutely defined by every statement. The fifty statements constitute ten scales. Five statements are provided for every scale; adding up to ten scores altogether. Whereas scale one and two gauges transactional leadership capacities, scales three, four, five and six evaluates transformational leadership capacities. In addition, scales seven, eight and nine assesses personal traits needed by transformational leaders. Scale ten evaluates the degree by which the coach or leader demonstrates deeds with positive ramification on the group.

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References

Arnold, R., Fletcher, D. and Molyneux, L., 2012. Performance leadership and management in elite sport: recommendations, advice and suggestions from national performance directors. European sport management quarterly, 12(4), pp.317-336.

Baumgarten, B., Daphi, P. and Ullrich, P., Adkins, L.(2016) Reflexivity: Freedom or Habit of Gender?. Theory, Culture and Society, 20 (6), 21-42. Alexander, J.(1988) Introduction:

Cashman, K., 2017. Leadership from the inside out: Becoming a leader for life. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Delaney, T., 2015. The functionalist perspective on sport. In Routledge handbook of the sociology of sport (pp. 42-52). Routledge.

Garner, R., Hancock, B.H. and Budrys, G., 2017. Rethinking Contemporary Social Theory. Routledge.

Fish, J.S., 2017. Defending the Durkheimian tradition: Religion, emotion and morality. Routledge.

Korotov, K., 2016. Coaching for leadership development. The SAGE handbook of coaching, pp.139-158.

Rosenbach, W.E. and Sashkin, M., 2017. The Leadership Profile: On Becoming A Better Leader Through Leadership That Matters. Rosenbach & Associates.

Parent, M.M., Olver, D. and Séguin, B., 2009. Understanding leadership in major sporting events: The case of the 2005 World Aquatics Championships. Sport Management Review, 12(3), pp.167-184.

Parris, D.L. and Peachey, J.W., 2013. Encouraging servant leadership: A qualitative study of how a cause-related sporting event inspires participants to serve. Leadership, 9(4), pp.486-512.