The relationship between athletics and management styles
College Student Athletes experience a myriad of different management styles. This can come from coaches, professors, teammates, and athletic staff. Some coaches use an authoritative management style, with emphasis on discipline, structure, and accountability. some might use a more democratic management style, fostering a place of companionship, collaboration and communication
These experiences teach student-athletes how to adapt to different management styles while developing communication, discipline, and leadership skills. Just as athletes must adjust to different coaching approaches. Employees must learn to work effectively with supervisors who have different expectations and leadership methods. A great example of this is in Transferable Skills Student-Athletes Bring to the Workplace – The Midtown Mezzanine, where I quote, “How you approach your coach in sports is the same way you approach your boss: with respect, an open mind, and an ambitious mindset. If you don’t respect your manager or Coach, how can you expect them to respect you? Would your boss let you dismiss them, then hand you a promotion? The answer will always be no. work this into the student athlete section”
Students who have experienced different management styles are better prepared to recognize expectations. For our case in this example, a former student-athlete may respond well to structured feedback, while a student organization leader may be comfortable participating in group decision-making.
Another great thing is how many college athletes actually end up in leadership roles after college and being able to bring those transferable skills to the workplace. According to, https://gameofjobs.org/how-many-student-athletes-work.html A huge 33% of college student athletes already have jobs waiting on them upon graduation. This shows how advantageous it is to be in a situation like this experiencing those collegiate sports and how employers value the skills they develop regarding soft skills, management styles, leadership skills, etc.
How Extracurricular activities help with management styles.
Extracurricular activities expose students to so many different types of management styles through student organizations, volunteer programs, and campus leadership positions. I personally have experienced this at a very high level being the president of my fraternity, holding a position nationally in my fraternity, and also being a part of the student government. This has given me the experience to take action, make decisions, and understand what it takes to lead others while I develop my own management style.
Another thing about this is thinking of how many different management styles I personally run into. In these positions I have presidents over me, people with careers, national leadership, campus leadership, and provincial leadership. All with unique ideas, leadership, and management styles. I like to think about it this way as I navigate, If I cannot work with different personalities or respect leadership within my own organization. How can I expect to be successful in a professional workplace? Being involved in these activities for me has taught me that not everyone will agree with your decisions and not every leader approaches situations the same way.
These experiences allow me to fill in gaps from lack of internship(s) in my collegiate career as well. This is also brought up in, Why Extracurricular Activities for a Resume Matter More Than Students Think – The Midtown Mezzanine, And I quote, “extracurricular activities are important for students that cannot do an internship during college. While internships are a wonderful way to gain professional experience, some students cannot take one due to lack of time to dedicate full-time work to a non-paid internship.” All of these are excellent reasons to take on extracurricular activities
A great example of how these extracurricular activities can aid in developing management styles and leadership skills, is programs that are ran through them. An example of this is my fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated. offers a trip to undergraduate students and aids in developing leadership called the Undergraduate leadership institute; Undergraduate Leadership Institute – Kappa Alpha Psi® Fraternity, Inc. This program is great for young adults around the country because it creates a melting pot of people that have different understandings of how they run their own individual chapter but come together to collaborate, evaluate, work through and develop new ideas. All aiding in how they approach different management styles when they get into the workforce.
