Preferred Coach Leadership Behaviour in Elite Soccer in Relation to Success and Failure

Multidimensional models of leadership in sport suggest that in order to maximize performance there should be congruence between the actual coaching behaviour and behaviours preferred by players. This study examined the preferred coaching leadership behaviours in prolonged periods of perceived success and failure in eighty-eight elite soccer players in Norway using the Leadership Scale for Sport (LSS). The three preferred behaviours were Positive Feedback, Training & Instruction, and Democratic Behaviour in both scenarios. All preferred behaviours (except Autocratic Behaviour) were higher in the unsuccessful scenario (p < .01). Negative relationships existed between age/experience and Social Support, Democratic Behaviours and Positive Feedback in the successful scenario and between age/experience and Social Support and Democratic Behaviours in the unsuccessful scenario (p < .05). The findings therefore have implications for adapting coaching leadership behaviours when players of different ages and with different levels of experience encounter prolonged periods of success or failure.