The Low Five
THE LOW FIVE After reading the story of the Low Five, it appears the new coach Shirley did not understand the complete concept of the leadership process. She was peering through the lens of only her coaching role, and not the lens of the basketball team, which were her (followers) and the leadership Situation which was her (method of training). I believe if Shirley had been willing to view all three lenses of the interactional framework surrounding leadership process, her vision would have been more reasonable and clearer as it related to the role of being an effective and efficient coach. I view Shirley as an Autocratic leader; she was negative and centered in her own power and decision making regarding the welfare of the team. She expected the team members to do what they were told without thinking for themselves, and she took full authority as well as assumed full responsibility for the success or failure of their quest (Kilburg, 2011). Although Shirley had great athletic skills as a soccer coach, she had surrendered her All-American high school position as basketball coach early on in her college career. This tells me that she was not as skilled in the techniques and current training methods that were needed to coach her new inherited basketball team. Shirley was a structured (task-oriented) leader, who believed that she got results by keeping the team constantly busy, while closely monitoring their exercise drills. However, she completely ignored their personal issues and emotions, with how they felt about the new strategy of offense training. She ignored their experience and suggestions and continued to tell them her way would work. It would have been better for Shirley if she had combined the Consideration (follower) leadership style along with some of the Structure style, because she would have been respected for her openness for team suggestions, while still being able to explain her own reasoning as to why she chose the motion