Dr. Laura Healy & Joseph Stanford discuss personality traits in coach-athlete relationships, emphasizing the 'big five' traits impact, importance of understanding personalities for collaboration, dynamics of relationships, embracing authenticity in coaching, complexities of traits, and research approaches in enhancing communication and understanding.
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Quick takeaways
Establishing a common language around personality traits through tools like the Big Five questionnaire enhances coach-athlete communication and understanding.
Adapting behavior and personality traits to meet partner's needs in coach-athlete relationships contributes to success and performance optimization.
Maintaining authenticity and considering long-term implications of behavioral adjustments is crucial for coach well-being and building sustainable relationships with athletes.
Deep dives
Importance of Understanding Personality Traits in Coach-Athlete Relationships
Understanding personality traits in coach-athlete relationships is crucial for successful interactions. Coaches and athletes need to develop an awareness of their own traits and how these traits interact within the relationship. By filling out the Big Five questionnaire, a common language around personality traits is established, fostering better communication and understanding.
Role of Personality Adaptation in Enhancing Coach-Athlete Relationships
Coaches and athletes sometimes adapt their behavior and personality traits to better meet their partner's needs within the relationship. This adaptation involves instances of performative extroversion or personality modification to align with the demands of the coaching environment. The ability to flex and adapt helps in building successful coach-athlete relationships and maximizing performance.
Challenges and Long-Term Implications of Behaving Contrary to One's Personality
The practice of adjusting one's personality in coach-athlete interactions raises questions about the long-term implications of constantly behaving in a way that may not align with one's true self. Coaches may face challenges in maintaining a performative demeanor, and this aspect may contribute to issues like burnout. It is essential to consider the impact of sustained behavioral adjustments on individual well-being and relationship dynamics.
Benefits of Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Data in Sports Psychology Research
The integration of quantitative data from personality assessments like the Big Five with qualitative insights from interviews enriches the depth of understanding in sports psychology research. By correlating personality traits with observed behaviors in sporting contexts, a more comprehensive analysis of coach-athlete dynamics and performance outcomes can be achieved.
Enhancing Coach-Athlete Relationships through Open Communication and Mutual Understanding
Promoting open communication, mutual understanding, and authenticity in coach-athlete relationships fosters trust and positive interactions. Coaches and athletes should seek to embrace their unique personalities while flexibly adapting to meet each other's needs. Establishing honest dialogues and allowing for individual expression can lead to more effective and fulfilling coach-athlete collaborations.
I speak with Dr Laura Healy and Joseph Stanford in this episode.
Laura is a Senior Lecturer in Sport & Exercise Psychology at Nottingham Trent University. Her research explores how to optimise goal pursuit in sport and physical activity for individuals and teams. This has included examining how the motivation underpinning goal striving can impact upon the self-regulation of goals and well-being.
Recently, Laura has researched in areas associated with elite performance environments, including the role of personality in elite coach-athlete relationships, resilience, psychological safety and fear of failure in a national sport governing body, and the experience of release from professional football academies.
Joseph is a PhD student at Nottingham Trent University, a Performance Swim Coach at University of Nottingham Sport and A squad coach at Nova Centurion - the elite performance programme for Nottinghamshire swimming and one of the UK's top swimming clubs.
Joseph’s research focuses on what makes a successful athlete and how coaches and athletes work together to facilitate positive relationships.
As part of his undergraduate degree and continuing in his PhD, Joseph has written a paper along with Laura, Dr Mustafa Sarkar and Dr Julie Johnston entitled “Interpersonal perceptions of personality traits in elite coach-athlete dyads”