Coaching Styles That Work: Understanding Yourself Before You Lead Others

Every coach has a way of leading, speaking, motivating, managing conflict, and responding under pressure. Some of this comes naturally. Some of it comes from how we were coached growing up. And a lot of it comes from habit, environmental norms, and the demands of the sport.

But here is something important.

Coaching style is not a fixed personality trait.

It is a skill that can be understood, refined, and adapted.

From grassroots to professional sport, the more self-awareness a coach has around their style, the more intentionally they lead. Research consistently shows that a coach’s interpersonal approach influences athlete motivation, wellbeing, and performance (Mageau & Vallerand, 2003). Understanding yourself is not just an add-on. It is core to coaching effectiveness.

Why coaching style matters

Your coaching style sets the tone for training, competition, communication, and how athletes feel around you. Athletes learn far more than skills. They learn environments. They learn expectations. They learn how to respond to pressure based on what their coaches model.

Style shapes:

• athlete confidence

• trust and communication

• risk taking and creativity

• emotional regulation

• resilience under pressure

• team cohesion

• long-term participation

Technical knowledge matters, but style determines how that knowledge lands.

Transformational and transactional coaching: understanding the spectrum

One of the clearest ways to understand coaching style is through transformational and transactional leadership.

Transformational coaching

Transformational coaches develop people, not just performance outcomes. They build trust, inspire growth, and create environments where athletes want to take ownership.

You will see transformational coaches:

• building strong relationships

• emphasising growth and learning

• supporting athlete independence

• modelling composure

• connecting coaching to values and purpose

This style is linked to confidence, resilience, motivation, and athlete satisfaction at all levels of sport (Arthur et al., 2017).

Transactional coaching

Transactional coaching focuses on structure, clarity, and outcomes. It revolves around expectations, standards, and consistency.

You may notice transactional coaches:

• setting firm rules and boundaries

• using rewards or consequences to shape behaviour

• giving clear, direct instruction

• prioritising order and discipline

• maintaining strong authority

When used well, this style creates clarity and accountability. Overused, it can limit confidence and autonomy (Hoigaard et al., 2015).

Effective coaches blend both

The skill lies in adaptability. There are moments when relational leadership matters most, and moments where firm standards are essential. Knowing your default approach allows you to shift intentionally when needed.

Autonomy-supportive versus controlling coaching

Another influential dimension in coaching style relates to motivational climate.

Autonomy-supportive coaching

This style encourages athletes to think, contribute, and take ownership of their performance.

Autonomy-supportive coaches often:

• explain the purpose of training tasks

• ask for athlete input

• personalise communication

• support problem solving

• encourage reflection and independence

This approach is strongly linked to higher quality motivation and long-term engagement (Teixeira et al., 2020).

Controlling coaching

Controlling coaches rely heavily on authority and pressure. They may unintentionally shape behaviour through guilt, fear, or excessive direction.

This can create short-term compliance, but long-term it often leads to anxiety, reduced trust, or burnout.

Again, the goal is balance

Clear rules and high standards are important. But autonomy is what keeps athletes confident and engaged.

Coaching style is influenced by personality

Your coaching style does not exist in isolation. It reflects your energy, temperament, communication preferences, and stress responses.

For example:

If you are naturally enthusiastic

You energise athletes, but may need to pause and slow down in high-pressure moments.

If you are calm and steady

You provide grounding, but may need to intentionally increase intensity when performance demands rise.

If you are structured and organised

You create predictable environments, but may need to build in more relationship and rapport building moments.

If you are relationship-focused

You build strong connection, but may need firmer boundaries at times.

Understanding your personality helps you coach intentionally rather than automatically.

Communication: where coaching style becomes visible

Communication is where athletes feel your coaching style most clearly. Tone, timing, body language, pacing, directness, and emotional expression all influence how feedback is received.

Research consistently links high-quality communication with stronger coach-athlete relationships, which directly improves performance and wellbeing (Jowett, 2017).

Your style is not necessarily defined by what you know. It is defined by how your message lands.

Knowing when to push and when to pull back

Great coaches read the moment. They challenge when an athlete is ready for growth, and they soften when the athlete needs stability. Pushing and supporting are not opposites. They are both forms of care.

A helpful question is: Am I pushing for their progress or because I am uncomfortable with where they are right now

How coaches can deepen their understanding of their style

Instead of repeating the same reflective strategies from other blogs, here are three new ways to build insight that feel fresh, practical, and applicable across all levels of coaching.

1. A short self-check: What kind of coach am I right now

Rate each statement from 1 (rarely) to 5 (almost always):

1. I explain the purpose behind training tasks.

2. I give athletes opportunities to make decisions.

3. I set clear expectations and boundaries.

4. I rely on structure when things get stressful.

5. I focus on relationships before results.

6. I encourage ownership of mindset and preparation.

7. I prioritise discipline and consistency.

8. My communication changes depending on the athlete.

9. I ask athletes for input.

10. I take control when time pressure increases.

Patterns often reveal themselves quickly.

• Higher scores on 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9 reflect more transformational or autonomy-supportive tendencies. 

• Higher scores on 3, 4, 7, 10 reflect more transactional or controlling tendencies. 

A mix of both suggests flexible leadership, frequently linked to coaching effectiveness. This is not a diagnostic tool. It is a reflective tool.

2. Reflective questions that explore the deeper layers of coaching style

These questions help coaches explore the link between their experiences, values, and leadership patterns:

• What type of coaching did I grow up with, and how has that shaped me?

• What changes in me when I feel external pressure?

• What behaviours from athletes trigger a more controlling approach?

• What type of athlete brings out my best coaching?

• What type of athlete challenges me the most, and why?

• Do I coach the team I have or the team I wish I had?

• What do I value most: clarity, connection, independence, enjoyment, or performance?

• How do I want athletes to describe my coaching after a season?

• Does my coaching style align with the environment I am trying to build?

These questions help deepen self-awareness in ways that directly shift daily coaching behaviour.

3. Use a validated leadership or coaching questionnaire

Evidence-based tools can provide structured insights into coaching style. Coaches can explore:

• The Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS) Measures behaviours across instruction, democratic leadership, autocratic leadership, social support, and positive feedback.

• The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) Explores transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership patterns. Widely used and strongly researched.

• The Coaching Efficacy Scale (CES) Assesses a coach’s confidence in motivating, instructing, strategy, and character building.

  
  

If you'd like a copy of any of these measures and struggle to find them online send us an email at hello@surgepw.com we've got copies we could send through.

The goal is not perfection. The goal is awareness.

Every coach has strengths. Every coach has patterns. Coaching style is not something you are stuck with. It is something you shape.

The most effective coaches are not defined by being strict or soft, bold or calm, transformational or transactional. They are defined by their ability to understand themselves and adjust intentionally.

Self-awareness creates clarity. Flexibility creates impact. Together, they shape a coaching style that helps athletes thrive at any level of sport.

References

• Arthur, C. A., Bastardoz, N., & Eklund, R. (2017). Transformational leadership in sport. In R. J. Schinke & S. Hackfort (Eds.), Psychology in elite sport and performance (pp. 64 to 78). Routledge.

• Hoigaard, R., Jones, G. W., & Peters, D. M. (2015). Transformational leadership in sport: A review of the literature. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 13(3), 325 to 341.

• Jowett, S. (2017). Coaching and the coach-athlete relationship. In R. Hackfort & R. J. Schinke (Eds.), The Routledge international encyclopedia of sport and exercise psychology (pp. 364 to 379). Routledge.

• Mageau, G. A., & Vallerand, R. J. (2003). The coach-athlete relationship: A motivational model. Journal of Sports Sciences, 21(11), 883 to 904.

• Teixeira, P. J., Carraca, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2020). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 17(1), 18.