Males coaching females has always been a topic of discussion, but today the discussion will be modeled toward males coaching females through an ethical leadership process. Ethical Leadership is the demonstration of appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, the promotion of two-way communication, reinforcement, and decision-making. Male coaches who model the ethical leadership for their team whether male or female will be observed and imitated by their athletes. It will foster a team culture that is defined by mutual trust, concern, and respect – one that is accepting of personal differences and inclusive of all individuals. Male coaches who follow the ethical leadership process behavior offer encouragement to their athletes to achieve athletic and ethical excellence, which should discourage the temptation to cheat. While the male coach demonstrates ethical leadership process towards the female athletes they will treat competitors with similar respect. Taking an ethical leadership approach towards coaching female athletes leads into higher levels of self-efficacy. Through this process the main areas of discussion are the differences between, coachability, chemistry, confidence, and criticism from females coaching males.
Coachability is the acceptance of the coach to teach the athlete about the wonderful sport they play. As a result, females tend to be more coachable then males. Male athletes tend to be more convinced of their own skill, and are therefore often less coachable. Compared to male athletes, females tend to be more open to coaching and new ways of doing things. They are willing to try new techniques, especially if it will help them perform better. When males coach a team of females, they need to understand up front that they are not going to immediately have their full trust and respect, especially if they don’t have a proven coaching record. They must invest the time to earn it by explaining the philosophy and the “why” behind the ethical leadership coaching methods. Males that take the ethical leadership approach will learn females are open for change, but need to build that foundation with them.
Chemistry is the composition of a team and the relationships among team members. The differences between men and women when it comes to chemistry can be best categorized using task cohesion and social cohesion. Task cohesion means that the team is all focused on the same common goal. Social cohesion refers to how well the teammates get along with each other. Males are more task cohesion oriented, and females are more social cohesion oriented. Females are continuously on the look-out for ways to enhance team bonding. They feel a well-organized team bonding activity will in effort enhance their team chemistry and performance on and off the court (Jeff Janssen – Coaches Network). Where the males would like to get along with their teammates, but it isn’t absolutely necessary for their team to be successful. Chemistry to males is important and should also be developed, monitored, and maintained. However, men seem to believe that chemistry is not as important to winning and having a successful sport experience as it is for the females. Overall, good team chemistry is a highly significant factor in how well a female team performs (Jeff Janssen – Coaches Network).
Confidence has been recognized as a dramatically important trait within an athlete for many years. Athletes struggle with their confidence through sports, but it builds over time. While confidence seems to lean more towards the most successful male athletes, there are many world-class female athletes who struggle with their confidence. Females have a tendency to not give themselves enough credit for the things that at which they excel. Females would rather attribute their skills and successes towards luck rather than their hard work and talent. Females seem to have a history of thinking a lot about what other people think of them instead of having confidence within themselves. Male athletes on the other hand have been taught to show the confidence and toughness. The difference though is cockiness vs. confidence and what borders do they want to lean towards. Cocky male athletes often need an ethical female leader who feels strong enough to stand up to them and push them back down so they don’t get too full of themselves that results in a bad image placed on the organization plus themselves. Yes, males have the same struggles as females, but the males seem to be able to control their struggle and work internally to fix the problem. As females, have the tendency to work externally. Males coaching female teams need to build their team ego up and feed them with positive energy. With the help of team bonding, and the females having an open-mind set should only help increase the effectiveness within a team.
Criticism is when a coach gives feedback and how an individual athlete channels those suggestions. Females have a tendency to take it personally, which results in taking comments more sensitively because they are internalized for an underlying message. Even when teammates approach them with advice sometimes it translates into high-stress. Males often point fingers instead of taking the criticism to heart for themselves. Most of the time their approach is to prove the coach wrong, feel their manhood is being taken away from them. Male coaching females need to take a strategic approach to not build a risk within the team. Risk by building drama or a girl exploding on others due to criticism. Males taking the ethical leadership approach want to make sure to give the females a peanut butter and jelly approach, and by providing two good feedbacks with one bad to help increase the positive thinking. Many females will channel the feedback as negative and put much pressure on themselves, but as a male coach they will build a great energy around them to take that stress off of themselves.
At the end, the ethical leadership approach within a male coach will generate similar outcomes, epically athletes’ satisfaction within their future female team. Males that correctly take advantage of the ethical leadership approach will be able to work with a female team more effectively. Confidence is a key factor which limits female athletes, and they have to utilize it to their advantage by taking the feedback and develop it into personal growth. The personal growth will define the female athlete and make her capable of accepting a male coach. Males who implement this ethical leadership approach in their coaching lifestyle will build credibility which allows them to successfully coach and teach female athletes. Males coaching females must lean towards an ethical leadership approach which focuses on developing coachability, criticism, confidence, and chemistry within the team and individual members. While focusing on coachbility, criticism, confidence, and chemistry with a female athletic, just know that an ethical leadership background is needed if you don’t want to have issues arise where male coach gets advertised as an unethical coach who sleeps with his players, and/or goes into the locker room.