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Communication and sport: team leaders
By Milka Mingardi Minetti and Diego Martín Colombo

Taking into account the great development reached by Argentinean sportspeople who participate in national teams such as soccer, basketball and hockey, we think it appropriate to analyze the function their leaders have.

Leaders outstand more for their communicational and mental aptitudes than for their physical characteristics. In this way we can distinguish between the leader-trainer and the leader-player. That is, those coaches who set a general strategy, who know their work team, who project the wanted horizon and who achieve such a harmony in the group that allows to translate their leadership in results. This is the case of Carlos Bianchi in Boca Juniors (soccer team), and Sergio “Cachito” Vigil with Las Leonas (nickname of hockey national team). On the other hand, we have the leader-players, who possess a more tactical function and talk from a leveled position. Their leadership is not hierarchically stated, they are natural coaches appointed by the rest of their partners, such as Manuel Ginobili in the national basketball team or Luciana Aimar in Las Leonas.

Both kinds of leaders are essential in a team, as well as their mutual recognition. These coaches use communication as their main tool. To make understand the value of the project, the function and importance of each member in order to achieve success, to create real empathy with each of them individually and within the group, to know their worries, their demands and their proposals, to acknowledge their effort and to gradually learn from the mistakes. All these tasks would be impossible for a leader if he did not consider communication as a daily used tool. Since communication is applied daily- not incoherently and in isolation- in order to support leadership, we can guarantee the solidity of a team as regards sports.

We have the close experience of Carlos Bianchi in Boca Juniors, who kept the basis of the team and build up confidence within a solid group. His results can easily be seen. Similarly, “Cachito” Vigil in charge of Las Leonas, with a coherent work and time, consolidated a really close team even beyond the game itself. His results are also proof of our explanations.

Milka Mingardi Minetti
m_mingardi@abcomunicaciones.net

Diego Martín Colombo
d_colombo@abcomunicaciones.net

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