Purpose

“Athlete experience” is a huge focus in modern-day American collegiate athletics, and is beginning to hold as much, if not more, weight than an athlete’s or team’s performance. With new emphasis on athlete well-being, coaches are more motivated to use healthy leader/follower dynamics. This paper aims to examine the follower-centric space of American collegiate athletics to understand how coaches train and develop followership.

Design/methodology/approach

Contemporary organization psychology and leadership/followership theories are highlighted in partnership with modern collegiate athletic programming. Author experiences after years of athletic participation and consulting are included, as well as illustrative practical applications beyond athletics.

Findings

Although sports have unique leader/follower dynamics, three common cultures are identifiable: personal development, co-collaboration and cohesion. These cultures define followership development in athletics.

Practical implications

Understanding how coaches improve “athlete experience,” increase retention and improve team performance through a follower-centric structure sheds new light on the value of followership in athletics and highlights unique systems in place for corporate settings.

Social implications

Recognizing the value American collegiate athletics place on healthy followership changes the stigma of followership behavior in a perceived hierarchical structure, changes perceptions of how coaches motivate athlete performance and allows recognition that followership development (as opposed to leadership development) empowers teams to succeed long term.

Originality/value

American collegiate athletics are unknowingly ahead of their time regarding student athlete well-being through followership development. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first to explore how coaches emphasize and develop followership through sport.

中文翻译：

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体育运动的追随者为什么以追随者为中心的空间表现更好

目的

“运动员体验”是现代美国大学体育运动的重中之重，并且开始与运动员或团队的表现一样重要，甚至更多。随着对运动员福祉的新重视，教练更有动力使用健康的领导者/追随者动态。本文旨在研究美国大学体育以追随者为中心的空间，以了解教练如何训练和发展追随者。

设计/方法/方法

当代组织心理学和领导/追随理论与现代大学体育项目合作得到突出强调。包括多年运动参与和咨询后的作者经验，以及运动以外的说明性实际应用。

发现

尽管体育运动具有独特的领导者/追随者动态，但可以识别三种共同的文化：个人发展、共同协作和凝聚力。这些文化定义了体育运动中的追随者发展。

实际影响

了解教练如何通过以追随者为中心的结构来改善“运动员体验”、提高保留率和提高团队绩效，可以重新了解体育运动中追随者的价值，并突出企业设置的独特系统。

社会影响

认识到美国大学体育运动对健康追随者的重视改变了人们对追随者行为的耻辱感，改变了对教练如何激励运动员表现的看法，并承认追随者发展（与领导力发展相对）赋予团队长期成功的能力。

原创性/价值

美国大学田径运动通过追随者发展在学生运动员的福祉方面不知不觉地领先于时代。据作者所知，这篇论文是第一篇探讨教练如何通过运动来强调和培养追随者的论文。