Trust in Sport Activities - Essay Sample

Introduction

In football and other sporting activities, trust is always an essential quality of a successful coaching profession or relationship (White & Bennie, 2015). In most cases, a coach is usually in a position to impact the relational trust in all aspects including the team management, board members and the sponsors (Mineo, 2014). With the lack of trust, coaches have got little opportunities to achieve better results. Trust boost confidence among the players and many other stakeholders whose contributions are important for the team (Helm, 2010). When members of the team being coached feel threatened, stressful situations will emerge, a scenario that will reduce effective coaching relationship. In a football team, when the coach is capable of building trust, players will start working more cohesively as a unit and this will result in the success of the team (Lai & McDowall, 2014). Building trust through football coaches enables the team members to understand each other's actions more accurately and this can improve the performance and the belief in teamwork. Successful coaches are process oriented and they are always consistent in performing their mandates towards improving the teams. To train employees in an organization to adhere to the operational and ethical standards, consistency is essential on the side of management (Kidman, Hadfield & Thorpe, 2005). Great coaches understand that there are slow learners that require more time to learn a specific procedure. In coaching, developing trust with and among the team members is important because in most cases, players will be spending a large amount of time together. Coaching is a great career that involves influencing the lives of people, making them look forward towards achieving their dreams (Stout & Fairley, 2013). When individuals assume the coaching responsibility, they have to establish themselves as leaders. Inspiring trust to the followers is one way of influencing the performance of the team members. Coaching career does not only concentrate on the development of skills, but it also entails shaping the characters of the followers and showing positive direction by instilling discipline and encouraging teamwork, but this is also only possible when there is trust. The purpose of this study is to use interview techniques to investigate football coach's perceptions about the benefits and barriers to developing trust.

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Levels of Trust

There are different levels of trust, the first level is rule-based trust or deterrence-based trust; this is the most important level of trust in any relationship. The rule-based trust means that there exist rules that deter one from harming or taking advantage of another person. In the football teams, there are rules or laws that oversee behaviors (Schein et al., 2013). In the team, there are procedures and policies that provide boundaries on how the team members interact and treat each other. Knowledge-based trust is another level of trust; in this level of trust, individuals tend to have enough experience with the knowledge and behavior of other people. The knowledge-based trust enables the coaches as well as the team members to have emotions and feelings towards each other (Aguilar, 2013). Coaches are always the steel behind the conversion of a potential of a common man into success, they are the drivers that lead people to success (Bracey, 2010). Great coaches are the epitome of success in every team; they often have the traits of grit and integrity which make them unique in the society. The third level of trust is identity-based trust; this level of trust incorporates understanding dreams, hopes, ambitions, goals, and doubts of every team player (Gordon, 2018). The above form of trust increases the level of vulnerability and transparency. It improves loyalty, accepting, and understanding. Identity-based trust is not always appropriate for every relationship; it is usually earmarked for the essential people in the life of an individual.

Important Factors to Developing and Maintaining Trust

There are different factors that enhance the development and maintenance of trust (Scearce, 2007). Ensuring openness often leads to an increase in trust; this is a situation whereby there are no secrets, instead, there is a free exchange of ideas without any hidden agenda. As a coach of a football team, there is the need to create an environment of openness where there is the free sharing of information and emotional situations. Individuals who are open to others often socialize with others to establish a friendly environment where everyone enjoys, and in the end, there is the development of trust (Solomon et al., 2003). Reliability is another factor that facilitates the development of trust between the groups of people. In a team, for the coach to establish trustworthiness, there is the need for every group participant to be reliable, reliability simply means being responsible to others and to ourselves (Lusher, Kremer & Robins, 2014). While trying to develop trust, there is the need for the coaches to develop a sense of acceptance between the team members; this simply means encouraging support among the team members and the support (Coe et al., 2008). Finally, congruence, or being straightforward, meaning what you say and saying what you mean, is also another factor that enhances the development of trust between the coaches and the team members and between the team members themselves (Lussier & Kimball, 2009). Coaching career requires mental strength that enables coaches to withstand criticism and stress that often arise in the daily management of a team (Hough, 2011). In many cases, coaches have the ability to influence many lives and they need to possess different qualities that often make them great.

Barriers and Challenges to Developing Trust

While trust is essential in a team, there are different barriers that may hinder the processes that are geared towards achieving a trustworthy environment (Reina et al., 2010). Although some coaches or people may resort to developing trust among the people they lead, their behaviors may prove to be a barrier, trust is a two-way thing and that everyone has to lead by example whenever they want their team members to become trustworthy. Another major challenge while developing trust is lack of consistency (Burke et al., 2007). Building trust is dynamic and there is the need for the coaches to constantly outline the measures that change the attitude of people they lead towards ensuring trust in each other (Hernez-Broome & Boyce, 2010). However, many coaches fail to take into consideration, steady measures that can ensure full trust among the team members. Succinctly, lack of reactiveness while building trust often act as one of the major barriers in trying to establish a dependable group of people or team (Venable, 2016). As a coach, there should never be an assumption of the presence of trust, increasing a team's support is, therefore, a gradual process, not a single event (Hosokawa, 2010). The most important trait of a coach is commitment and organization towards building an effective team. In the work environment and in many different organizations, great coaches understand that the success of their company or departments depends on their employees or workers (Markovic, McAtave, & Fischweicher, 2014). Leaders or coaches should think every day on how they can build trust rather than scratch it off. Great coaches are flexible in their thinking; they should be able to adjust according to the behaviors and personality of the team members (Cox, 2012). Getting in touch with team members is an effective approach to ensuring the trust of the team. Understanding the character of each individual often enable coaches to establish coaching processes that are suitable for everyone. Amiable team members should be handled with a lot of sensitivities (Shockley-Zalabak et al., 2010).

Key Themes All Brought Together

Key themes brought out in the research are key mechanisms for developing trust in a football team and the barriers associated with them (Henriksen et al., 2010). Coaches are the key individuals that can either make or break trust. In other words, they may become sources of barriers as well as positive influencers while developing trust among the team members (Connor & Pokora, 2012). There is a great relationship between coaching developing trust. Coaching alone is not enough, there is always the need to create an environment where people are open, transparent and respect each other, through this, and the football team will be able to progress in every competition. Instead of becoming barriers, coaches need to create positive impacts and alter the behavior of the team towards a prosperous endeavor (Occhino, Mallett & Rynne, 2013). When the team members are organized effectively, they are capable of producing better results. To boost the performance, great coaches often establish coaching programs at specified times to enhance cohesiveness and trust in their teams and to empower the team members by inspiring them towards achieving their individual dreams as well as the dreams of the team (Tschannen-Moran, 2014). With trust, the relationship between the team and the coach become smooth and the more the team members adhere to the coaching or training schedules, the stronger the team becomes and the more they stick to it, the higher their chances of achieving success (Athanasopoulou & Dopson, 2015). An organized and committed coach is a symbol of the team's success. Trust is an important attribute in every successful environment, it enhances the achievement of set goals and transparency among the people (Pierce, 2011).

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study is to use interview techniques to investigate football coaches' perceptions about the benefits and barriers to developing trust.

References

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Hosokawa, F. (2010). Building trust: Doing research to understand e...