Leadership development: relationality and temporality in professional sport

This study explored leadership development from a relational leadership perspective in the context of a professional sporting organization during one season. While there is an increased recognition that leadership development is a collective practice, more research is needed to explain the relational nature of leadership development and how it is co-constructed. Grounding our research in the literature on relational leadership and based on in-depth qualitative interviews and observations with a professional sporting organization, we explored how leadership development is constructed collectively and experienced over time. Thematic narrative analysis was applied to the interview data to explore these experiences. The findings revealed three themes that described leadership development in the organization: learning from experience, development priorities, and sharing expectations. The findings are supported by existing relational leadership literature and extend leadership knowledge in sport management by outlining how leadership can be developed by becoming intelligible to the social order through experiences over time. We have provided recommendations for developing leadership in professional sporting organizations.