Leadership and Teamwork
This domain tests leadership styles, team development and the behaviours that make a team effective. Expect questions that ask you to choose a style for a situation and justify it.
Leadership and team concepts
- Autocratic: leader decides; useful in safety or time-critical situations but can reduce ownership.
- Democratic: shared decisions; supports commitment and learning but can be slower.
- Laissez-faire: minimal direction; works with expert, self-motivated groups but risks drift.
- Qualities include communication, integrity, confidence, empathy, decision-making and knowledge of the sport.
- Tuckman stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning.
- Cohesion: task cohesion is commitment to the team goal; social cohesion is interpersonal attraction. Roles, clear communication and shared norms support both.
Worked example
A new captain inherits a team with cliques and poor communication. Reasoning: use democratic leadership in training to set shared goals and rotate role discussions, but switch to autocratic direction during a safety drill or final minutes of a match. This matches style to context rather than choosing one style for all situations.
Traps
- Calling laissez-faire leadership always best because it gives freedom.
- Confusing leadership with management.
- Ignoring the storming stage and expecting instant cohesion.
- Treating task and social cohesion as the same thing.