Case Study Analysis: Coach K: A Matter of Heart
Factual love leaves a priceless and permanent legacy. It helps in making players happy and productive members of a given team. Players desire mentors and coaches who shower them with the gift of priceless love. It helps them acknowledge team values, communicate sensitivity, and love to potential players, an aspect that fosters spiritual, emotional and moral development. How coaches portray love and establish close links with players, helps in leaving a priceless legacy that players can learn from and emulate. Coach K establishes a priceless love to his Duke University basketball team through his leadership style. After an offer of 40 million dollars to join Los Angeles Lakers, the Duke fraternity ponders how it will manage in the absence of Coach K who is the heart and soul of the college basketball.
A positive relationship exists between the coach and his players. Coach K capitalizes on the practical relationship he has with his players. He treats his players as his family and tries to be close to them. He keeps contact with them, sets fewer rules that make it possible for him to make the decision regarding his team. He knows when to reprimand and compliment his players. He teaches his players to play well and show respect for the program. The Duke University basketball team does well while the Los Angeles Lakers experience defeat every time. The Los Angeles Lakers offers a 40 million dollar contract to Coach K to revive the team, but beyond compensation, Coach K had additional factors to consider. He prefers to lead and not the attractive package offered to him by the Lakers. Since the love to lead is in his heart, and his passion for his team, he decides to remain in Duke.
Problem Identification.
The Lakers is facing a problem with its coach and some of its players. The outgoing coach has been with the Lakers for five years while Coach K has coached the Duke team for over 23 years. Jackson is leaving the team after a disagreement erupted between him, Shaquille and Kobe Bryant, a contract player. During his tenure, Coach Jackson achieved the highest winning game percentage in the NBA. He conveyed three championships in Los Angeles during his five-year term. Jackson exercised authoritative type of leadership as people considered him a tough act to follow. Besides his poor leadership in Los Angele, there lacks beneficial relationship between players and their coach. There is a communication breakdown, and the coach lacks excellent interpersonal skills that would make the team members remain united. It also appears that Coach Jackson practiced transactional leadership where a leader is more powerful over employees. People in such leadership style get few prospects to voice out their views.
Analysis and Evaluation.
Instead of handling the leadership issues in the team, the Lakers resorted on hiring another coach. Picking up the pieces at Lakers would be a difficult task even for an experienced coach. This is because there is no harmony in the team and the best players left are leaving the team. Departure of the best players seeking to play for money leaves the team with inexperienced players. This would affect the team performance and the reputation of the new coach.
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Recommendations
With respect to the contingency leadership theory, efficiency of a coach leadership, rules and decisions rely on the current situation. What worked well for a given problem may not be suitable when used to a divergent situation. Los Angeles should make decisions or exercise styles of leadership that are contingent on external and internal factors. The Lakers should not hire a new coach who might not be able to fix the current problem facing the team. This approach will help in augmenting the team effectiveness in the present situation. Jackson is leaving Lakers because of a disagreement with a player.
According to the contingency leadership theory, the success of a manager depends on leadership style, his perceived power, workforce and corporate culture. Diverse situations require different leadership styles. For instance, Coach K is not a dictator but he ensures that players show respect for the program. He does not let the players do as they wish, but he makes decisions for every different situation. Lakers should reinstate Coach Jackson and let the coach take charge of the team through implementing strong leadership skills. He should put in place attainable goals besides showing ability and willingness to be accountable for his roles in the team.
The Coach should be the key decision maker and handle any disagreement accordingly. He should practice transformational leadership that utilizes intellectual stimulation, idealized influence and inspirational motivation. Leadership is about influencing followers while the true leaders’ test is to form a constructive change. The coach should learn and understand the skills of people, their vision and emotional strength. Given that leadership is a constant development, the coach should constantly strive to achieve leadership skills. He should also build trust through connection, character and competence.
