Coach Helbling Leadership Style
Leader Profiles
Best Leader: Phil Helbling – Teacher and coach at Moscow High School
1. I first heard of Coach Helbling at a very young age. He was a captain of the football team at Moscow High School, and an all-state running back. I followed his accomplishments from high school to his collegiate career at the University of Idaho. The first time I personally met him was when he was being introduced as our head football coach. He was also hired as a strength and condition teacher. From then on, I encountered Coach Helbling almost every single day of my high school career.
2. As I stated earlier, Coach Helbling played football for the University of Idaho. After a career ending shoulder surgery, he began focusing all of his efforts on strength training and coaching. He was an intern for the strength and condition program at Idaho, and a graduate assistant football coach. This background gave him the right tools to be a successful teacher and coach at Moscow High School. Even though he did not have any prior head coaching experience, he was still a great leader and mentor.
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I have had a relationship with Coach Helbling since the day I was introduced to him. He is both a teacher and coach to me. I spent almost every day with him for over two years, and I still keep in touch with him today.
Worst Leader: Don Dudley – Coach at Moscow High School.
1. I first met Don Dudley when he was hired as our head basketball coach. Our previous head coach had decided to take a job just a few weeks before the season started, and he was the only one who applied for the job. I was personally introduced to him by our athletic director.
2. Coach Dudley coached basketball for Moscow High School in the nineties. He decided to leave his coaching position to become a farrier for the next 20 years. He ended up losing his business for an undisclosed reason, and wanted to start coaching
again.
3. I was with Coach Dudley only during practice hours during basketball season. Our relationship lasted roughly three months, and I haven’t spoken to him since our final game.
Challenges/Initiatives
Best Leader
1. Coach Helbling was given the head coaching job at the beginning of the summer. He knew he had the opportunity to shape us into the players he wanted for the fall. His challenge was to make us committed to him and his program in three months. In previous summers, our summer workouts had no structure, and nobody attended. Moscow had not made the playoffs in 14 years, and Coach Helbling wanted to change that.
a. Coach Helbling’s summer workouts were possibly the hardest trainings I have ever experienced. Coach Helbling knew that if we wanted to be successful in the fall, we needed to train hard in the summer. He was a very harsh coach, but we needed someone to tell us what to do. Our team’s discipline and character was terrible, and Coach Helbling was on a mission to change that. He could not make the workouts mandatory, but kids wanted to show up. The workouts were very early in the morning, but that didn’t turn any kids away. We all gravitated toward his energy and commitment to the program. The culture he created made every player excited for the fall.
2. After a shaky start to the season, we were able to put ourselves in the conference championship game. The game came down to the final play. We were down by three points, with the ball, on the opposing team’s 30 yard line. Coach Helbling called our final timeout and gathered us around him.
a. For the first time, Coach Helbling was emotional with us. Sure, he had been emotional throughout the season with our wins and losses, but this was totally different. He told us that it was an honor to lead us into battle every Friday night. We could all feel how much he had invested into us, and we all wanted to return the favor. He had prepared us for this moment since the day he took the job. I caught the game winning touchdown pass the following play to send us to the playoffs for the first time in 14 years.
Worst Leader
1. Coach Dudley became our coach just a few weeks before the season started. As an older individual who hadn’t been around kids for a long time, he was faced with the challenge of relating with us. It seemed like he could never connect on a personal level with anyone. My teammates and I were afraid to speak out due to his unnecessary, harsh punishments. There was always a feeling of awkwardness at our practices.
a. Coach Dudley responded by becoming increasingly angry at us. He would get upset, kick chairs, and make us run lines for no apparent reason. It seemed like whatever we did was not good enough for him. He told us time after time that his nineties bear’s teams would have crushed our current team. This made nobody want to play for him. Some of my teammates actually quit halfway through the season.
2. The way players and coaches communicate had definitely changed since the last time Coach Dudley had coached. Not only the communication channel, but also the way players talked to coaches. Since he didn’t have a cell phone, he had no fast way of communicating with us. He missed multiple games and did not let anyone know about it. Also, he was often offended in the way that we talked to him. He felt that we were disrespectful to him; we were just talking to him like all of our other coaches.
a. His lack of communication was extremely frustrating. He was doing nothing to change the way he communicated with us. It seemed like he did not care about us, so we didn’t care about him. It seemed like we were not even part of a team. We had no leader, and it felt like nothing ever got accomplished.
Leadership Style:
Best Leadership Style
1. The transformational leadership theory best applies to Coach Helbling’s behaviors. The key components that he displayed were an overwhelming amount of inspiration and charisma. Because of his prior experience in coach and training, he also was able to intellectually stimulate all of us. He also displayed multiple trait leadership theories. He brought a tremendous amount of energy and tenacity to our program. This built the foundation for us to demand and achieve success. He also preached self-confidence. He understood that we needed to be confident in order to be emotionally resilient to overcome problems (Schermerhorn et al., 2012).
2. When Coach Helbling took over the program, it was in a very poor state. It lacked success, commitment, and inspiration. That is why his transformational leadership style worked so well with the team.
a. Charisma, inspiration, energy, tenacity, and achievement orientation were all of his leadership strengths. These characteristics created vision that we could all follow from the day he took over. He had extremely high expectations for all of us. We wanted nothing but success, and Coach Helbling’s energy and tenacity had dispersed through all of us throughout the season. When conference championship game happened, our self-confidence was at an all-time high. We absolutely refused to lose (Schermerhorn et al., 2012).
b. The only weakness in Coach Helbling’s leadership ability was his maturity. At times, he would get caught up in the moment and lose his composure. Although this would occasionally lead to a penalty, it showed us that he was vested in our team. This small weakness did not take away from his overall persona of a terrific coach.
3. One thing coach Helbling could do better to be more effective as a teacher. He often did not spend a lot of time teaching specific fundamentals of the game. Most of us started playing football at a very young age, so we didn’t need to be taught the fundamentals. However, since most of us were already fundamentally sound, I do not blame him for trying to progress past these points in practice.
Worst Leadership Style
1. Coach Dudley’s behavior represented a transactional leadership style. This leadership style has more of a negative approach to leading. It is very critical and harsh. It is also task oriented. Followers usually only meet goals, not surpass them. Coach Dudley’s behaviors also into an implicit leadership theory prototype. These are perceived behaviors that “good” leaders have. His behavior represented a tyrannical leadership theory prototype. This prototype is someone who is very power-hungry and manipulative (Schermerhorn et al., 2012).
2. His transactional leadership style was not effective with us at all. He was so negative that we did not want to play hard for him. Our practices seemed to go on forever, and we were not motivated to surpass any of our goals.
a. Coach Dudley had very few leadership strengths. He tried his best to be clear in what he wanted out of us, but we could never meet his expectations. He would show signs of inspiration and dedication, but it always seemed like he wanted to win for his self-esteem, not for the team. One specific strength of his leadership style was his ability to keep us in line. We were very afraid to make mistakes or be out of line at any point during practice.
b. His list of leadership weaknesses seems endless. His lack of communication made it impossible to accomplish anything, in his eyes. He was extremely critical of everything we ever did. He was very manipulative in his behavior. He would often contradict what he was saying to various players on the team. The worst part about his leadership style was his inability to reward. Typically, in a transactional leadership style, when goals are met, rewards, or praise, are given in exchange (Schermerhorn et al., 2012). Coach Dudley absolutely refused to show the slightest bit of admiration towards any of us.
3. Coach Dudley could really connect with his players better if he used a transformational leadership style. He could develop some good leadership traits as well.
a. My first suggestion is to be more charismatic as a leader. This is a key dimension of transformation leadership style. If we had a clear mission of what he wanted out of us, it would be a lot easier to please him. It would also make us trust him and the processes that he was teaching.
b. Coach Dudley could also develop the leadership trait of being a more energetic leader. He would bring energy to practice and games, but it was often negative energy. The slightest amount of positive energy would have made our relationship with him much better.
Conclusion:
Everything I learned about being a successful and effective leader came from both of these coaches. Coach Helbling taught me how to inspire and motivate my followers to find success. Coach Dudley showed how to not communicate and express my emotions to my followers. From these experiences, I hope I can become the leader that Coach Helbling was. At the least, I hope that I can be a leader that my followers can relate to, so we can both accomplish common goals.
Best Leader: Phil Helbling – Teacher and coach at Moscow High School
1. I first heard of Coach Helbling at a very young age. He was a captain of the football team at Moscow High School, and an all-state running back. I followed his accomplishments from high school to his collegiate career at the University of Idaho. The first time I personally met him was when he was being introduced as our head football coach. He was also hired as a strength and condition teacher. From then on, I encountered Coach Helbling almost every single day of my high school career.
2. As I stated earlier, Coach Helbling played football for the University of Idaho. After a career ending shoulder surgery, he began focusing all of his efforts on strength training and coaching. He was an intern for the strength and condition program at Idaho, and a graduate assistant football coach. This background gave him the right tools to be a successful teacher and coach at Moscow High School. Even though he did not have any prior head coaching experience, he was still a great leader and mentor.
3. …show more content…
I have had a relationship with Coach Helbling since the day I was introduced to him. He is both a teacher and coach to me. I spent almost every day with him for over two years, and I still keep in touch with him today.
Worst Leader: Don Dudley – Coach at Moscow High School.
1. I first met Don Dudley when he was hired as our head basketball coach. Our previous head coach had decided to take a job just a few weeks before the season started, and he was the only one who applied for the job. I was personally introduced to him by our athletic director.
2. Coach Dudley coached basketball for Moscow High School in the nineties. He decided to leave his coaching position to become a farrier for the next 20 years. He ended up losing his business for an undisclosed reason, and wanted to start coaching
again.
3. I was with Coach Dudley only during practice hours during basketball season. Our relationship lasted roughly three months, and I haven’t spoken to him since our final game.
Challenges/Initiatives
Best Leader
1. Coach Helbling was given the head coaching job at the beginning of the summer. He knew he had the opportunity to shape us into the players he wanted for the fall. His challenge was to make us committed to him and his program in three months. In previous summers, our summer workouts had no structure, and nobody attended. Moscow had not made the playoffs in 14 years, and Coach Helbling wanted to change that.
a. Coach Helbling’s summer workouts were possibly the hardest trainings I have ever experienced. Coach Helbling knew that if we wanted to be successful in the fall, we needed to train hard in the summer. He was a very harsh coach, but we needed someone to tell us what to do. Our team’s discipline and character was terrible, and Coach Helbling was on a mission to change that. He could not make the workouts mandatory, but kids wanted to show up. The workouts were very early in the morning, but that didn’t turn any kids away. We all gravitated toward his energy and commitment to the program. The culture he created made every player excited for the fall.
2. After a shaky start to the season, we were able to put ourselves in the conference championship game. The game came down to the final play. We were down by three points, with the ball, on the opposing team’s 30 yard line. Coach Helbling called our final timeout and gathered us around him.
a. For the first time, Coach Helbling was emotional with us. Sure, he had been emotional throughout the season with our wins and losses, but this was totally different. He told us that it was an honor to lead us into battle every Friday night. We could all feel how much he had invested into us, and we all wanted to return the favor. He had prepared us for this moment since the day he took the job. I caught the game winning touchdown pass the following play to send us to the playoffs for the first time in 14 years.
Worst Leader
1. Coach Dudley became our coach just a few weeks before the season started. As an older individual who hadn’t been around kids for a long time, he was faced with the challenge of relating with us. It seemed like he could never connect on a personal level with anyone. My teammates and I were afraid to speak out due to his unnecessary, harsh punishments. There was always a feeling of awkwardness at our practices.
a. Coach Dudley responded by becoming increasingly angry at us. He would get upset, kick chairs, and make us run lines for no apparent reason. It seemed like whatever we did was not good enough for him. He told us time after time that his nineties bear’s teams would have crushed our current team. This made nobody want to play for him. Some of my teammates actually quit halfway through the season.
2. The way players and coaches communicate had definitely changed since the last time Coach Dudley had coached. Not only the communication channel, but also the way players talked to coaches. Since he didn’t have a cell phone, he had no fast way of communicating with us. He missed multiple games and did not let anyone know about it. Also, he was often offended in the way that we talked to him. He felt that we were disrespectful to him; we were just talking to him like all of our other coaches.
a. His lack of communication was extremely frustrating. He was doing nothing to change the way he communicated with us. It seemed like he did not care about us, so we didn’t care about him. It seemed like we were not even part of a team. We had no leader, and it felt like nothing ever got accomplished.
Leadership Style:
Best Leadership Style
1. The transformational leadership theory best applies to Coach Helbling’s behaviors. The key components that he displayed were an overwhelming amount of inspiration and charisma. Because of his prior experience in coach and training, he also was able to intellectually stimulate all of us. He also displayed multiple trait leadership theories. He brought a tremendous amount of energy and tenacity to our program. This built the foundation for us to demand and achieve success. He also preached self-confidence. He understood that we needed to be confident in order to be emotionally resilient to overcome problems (Schermerhorn et al., 2012).
2. When Coach Helbling took over the program, it was in a very poor state. It lacked success, commitment, and inspiration. That is why his transformational leadership style worked so well with the team.
a. Charisma, inspiration, energy, tenacity, and achievement orientation were all of his leadership strengths. These characteristics created vision that we could all follow from the day he took over. He had extremely high expectations for all of us. We wanted nothing but success, and Coach Helbling’s energy and tenacity had dispersed through all of us throughout the season. When conference championship game happened, our self-confidence was at an all-time high. We absolutely refused to lose (Schermerhorn et al., 2012).
b. The only weakness in Coach Helbling’s leadership ability was his maturity. At times, he would get caught up in the moment and lose his composure. Although this would occasionally lead to a penalty, it showed us that he was vested in our team. This small weakness did not take away from his overall persona of a terrific coach.
3. One thing coach Helbling could do better to be more effective as a teacher. He often did not spend a lot of time teaching specific fundamentals of the game. Most of us started playing football at a very young age, so we didn’t need to be taught the fundamentals. However, since most of us were already fundamentally sound, I do not blame him for trying to progress past these points in practice.
Worst Leadership Style
1. Coach Dudley’s behavior represented a transactional leadership style. This leadership style has more of a negative approach to leading. It is very critical and harsh. It is also task oriented. Followers usually only meet goals, not surpass them. Coach Dudley’s behaviors also into an implicit leadership theory prototype. These are perceived behaviors that “good” leaders have. His behavior represented a tyrannical leadership theory prototype. This prototype is someone who is very power-hungry and manipulative (Schermerhorn et al., 2012).
2. His transactional leadership style was not effective with us at all. He was so negative that we did not want to play hard for him. Our practices seemed to go on forever, and we were not motivated to surpass any of our goals.
a. Coach Dudley had very few leadership strengths. He tried his best to be clear in what he wanted out of us, but we could never meet his expectations. He would show signs of inspiration and dedication, but it always seemed like he wanted to win for his self-esteem, not for the team. One specific strength of his leadership style was his ability to keep us in line. We were very afraid to make mistakes or be out of line at any point during practice.
b. His list of leadership weaknesses seems endless. His lack of communication made it impossible to accomplish anything, in his eyes. He was extremely critical of everything we ever did. He was very manipulative in his behavior. He would often contradict what he was saying to various players on the team. The worst part about his leadership style was his inability to reward. Typically, in a transactional leadership style, when goals are met, rewards, or praise, are given in exchange (Schermerhorn et al., 2012). Coach Dudley absolutely refused to show the slightest bit of admiration towards any of us.
3. Coach Dudley could really connect with his players better if he used a transformational leadership style. He could develop some good leadership traits as well.
a. My first suggestion is to be more charismatic as a leader. This is a key dimension of transformation leadership style. If we had a clear mission of what he wanted out of us, it would be a lot easier to please him. It would also make us trust him and the processes that he was teaching.
b. Coach Dudley could also develop the leadership trait of being a more energetic leader. He would bring energy to practice and games, but it was often negative energy. The slightest amount of positive energy would have made our relationship with him much better.
Conclusion:
Everything I learned about being a successful and effective leader came from both of these coaches. Coach Helbling taught me how to inspire and motivate my followers to find success. Coach Dudley showed how to not communicate and express my emotions to my followers. From these experiences, I hope I can become the leader that Coach Helbling was. At the least, I hope that I can be a leader that my followers can relate to, so we can both accomplish common goals.