The leadership profile of soccer coaches of the Brazilian championship/2005

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the factors derived from the real leadership style of soccer coaches in the Brazilian National Championship/2005; verify the existence of a preferred leadership style by the coaches. This study used a questionnaire to characterize the sample and the Revised Leadership Scale for Sport, real profile version, as instruments for data collection. Twenty top-level soccer coaches of the Brazilian National Championship participated of the research. They presented an average age of 50 years (±6.92) and a direct involvement with soccer coaching of 15.10 years (±8.42). The internal consistency of the leadership scale was a=0.86. The results showed that the coaches interviewed consider autocracy, training-instruction aspects and positive feedbacks behaviors as the main components of their profile leadership. The study also showed that there was statistical difference between the dimensions that compose the real profile of the coaches interviewed. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that, the real profile of leadership for soccer coaches combines autocratic decision style and the technical, tactical and motivational performance of the team.