The Evolving Leadership of NBA Star LeBron James

Abstract

The purpose of this case study article is to discuss leadership in sports and to offer support for the multidimensional model of leadership (MLL) beyond the typical study of coaches by using a case study of a basketball star player. Using cultural icons to study leadership styles non-empirically is a growing field. The case of LeBron James is especially interesting as there is no consensus regarding his leadership ability, which may be attributed to the evolving nature of his leadership through three key time-periods of his basketball career between 2004 and 2018. By conducting a contemporary review/reflection using public interviews of LeBron James and applying contemporary leadership theories to their content, this article presents a case for the study of leadership and the ability to nurture leadership through experience. It offers conceptualization to the emergence of transformational leadership from shared leadership and provides an instance for the ability to recover authentic leadership. Implications for future research on leadership are discussed.

Keywords: Leadership, transformational leadership, shared leadership, authentic leadership

“To me, it is how many guys you can inspire and how many can you make believe.” – LeBron James

Introduction

Sport transcends ethnic, cultural and linguistic boundaries (Falcous & Maguire, 2006). Within sports, basketball is the second most popular sport in the world after soccer (Hancock, 2013). ?Basketball was invented in 1891 in Massachusetts by Canadian-born physical education James Naismith (Thorn, 2007). ?The National Basketball Association (NBA), which is currently valued at over $6-billion-a-year business with average team value of $1.3 billion (“The business of basketball”, 2017), was established in 1946 by combining two leagues – the BAA (Basketball Association of America) and NBL (National Basketball League). ?Although the National Basketball Association (NBA) is an American icon and operates physically only in the North American market (US and Canada), the NBA brand is multi-national with global reach through technology, media and entertainment. ?As only a small percentage of NBA fans get to attend games in North America or games that are played internationally, technology (including digital and social media) plays a critical role in bringing the game to fans in international markets. ?NBA games are broadcasted globally in over 40 languages in 215 countries, which make NBA games one of the most popular professional spectator sports in the world (Lin & Yang, 2010). ?The globalization of sports in recent decades has allowed talented athletes from all over the world to compete against each other on a regular basis (Lane, 2004).

Through its development, the NBA has been a fertile ground to leadership. ?For instance, the success of the NBA since the 1980s is partially attributed to the leadership of its legendary commissioner David Stern, who led the league for 30 years (1984-2014). ?Stern transformed the NBA from a league with low game attendance, rare television contracts, negative perceptions, and poor financial performance into a global successful brand (Andrews, 2006). ?Stern’s replacement and current NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, was also selected into Fortune’s 2015 list of worlds’ 50 greatest global leaders (47th) together with James (31st) and NBA former Chinese star Yao Ming (26th). ?A global leader was defined by Terrell and Rosenbusch (2013) as “an organizational leader whose work involved responsibilities requiring him or her to lead portions of the organization’s or company’s business and personnel across the borders of country, language, time zone, and culture” (p. 1058).?

Besides the legendary commissioner, coaches in the NBA have also shown valuable leadership that has translated into multiple championships to the teams they were part of. ?The leadership of five legendary league coaches account for 51% of all NBA championships between them (35 total championships - Phil Jackson 11; Red Auerbach 9; John Kundla 5; Pat Riley 5; and Gregg Popovich 5). ?But leadership in the NBA is not limited to commissioners and coaches. ?Some of the leagues’ players have demonstrated leadership on a global scale throughout the years. ?When discussing leadership of a player in the NBA on a global scale, the name of NBA superstar Michael Jordan (nicknamed God or His Airiness) is often brought into discussion. ?Jordan is arguably the greatest basketball player in history (Fagiano, 1994). ?His leadership role evolved from his consummate expertise (Fagiano, 1994). ?As a postmodern “product”, Jordan has helped the NBA’s projection into the world of economic globalization by bridging cultural landscapes (Hanson, 2000). ?It is no wonder that in discussions about basketball’s best of-all-time players, LeBron James is often mentioned alongside Michael Jordan. This paper evaluates the evolving leadership of Lebron James between 2004 and 2018. ?

Literature Review

The interest in the phenomena of leadership has no political, geographical or temporal boundaries (Mackenzie & Barnes, 2007).? Definitions of leadership vary and depend upon the domain and context used.? A simple definition of leadership is offered Northouse (2004) as “a process whereby an individual influence a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (p. 3).? Bernard (1938) described leadership as a matter of art rather than science.? Leadership theories tend to focus on the leader as a person (i.e. traits, attitudes, values, behavior, etc.), follower characteristics, situational contingencies, or a combination of these (Bess & Goldman, 2001). ?Graen and Uhl-Bien (1995) considered three domain approaches to leadership: leader-based, relationship-based, and follower-based. ?Even though numerous models, theories and heuristics about leadership exist, there is neither clear causal link between quality of leadership and performance nor a clear model of choice (Mackenzie & Barnes, 2007). ?

Leadership in sports is also a growing field of research, focusing mainly on coaches (Chelladurai, 1994; Chelladurai & Riemer, 1998; Coleman, 2012; Loughead, Hardy & Eys, 2006; Vella, Oades, & Crowe, 2010) and rarely on players.? When team sports are considered, the peer leadership of a player, also known as athlete leader, is defined as “athlete occupying a formal or informal role within a team who influences a group of team members to achieve a common goal” (Loughead et al., 2006, p. 144).? Athlete leader role can be held by an informal leader, i.e., when no formal role such as a captain is given to the leader.? Athlete leaders, like all leaders, support three main functions: tasks, social, and external.? Tasks relate to leading the team to accomplish goals, social to satisfy needs of team members, and external functions relate to receptions, meetings, and press conferences (for a full list of functions served by athlete leaders, see Loughead et al., 2006).? Although professional basketball players are rarely seen as global leaders, in years 2015 and 2017, LeBron James, a professional basketball player in the National Basketball League (NBA) and a cultural icon, was chosen by Forbes Magazine as one of the world's top 50 leaders (31st in 2015; 13th in 2017).? This paper would explain some of the reasons why.

The most popular model for sport leadership was created by Chelladurai and Saleh in 1978 and is called the multi-dimensional model of leadership (MLL).? This model combined contemporary theories of leadership including transformational leadership and situational leadership and demonstrates the importance for leaders to be flexible and adjust to the context of the situation.? As presented in Figure 1 below, successful transformational leadership with outcomes of member satisfaction and group performance (item 7 in the figure) takes into consideration multiple factors and the interaction between them.? This includes the situation/context (1), the characteristics of the leader (2), and the characteristics of followers (3), a.k.a. group members.? In addition, the model focuses on three key behavioral elements: required (4), actual (5), and preferred (6). ?Required behaviors includes expectations of the leader which are situational in nature and affect the code of conduct and the social norms.? Actual behaviors are generated from the leader’s characteristics and include both adaptive behaviors (per situation) and reactive behaviors (per followers).? Finally, preferred elements are views and expectation of followers from their leader.?

Figure 1 – Multidimensional Model of Leadership

LeBron James – The King of the Basketball World

LeBron Raymone James (nicknamed King James), who is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, was born in 1984 in Akron, Ohio. ?He was raised by his mother in a single-family home and often moved between houses of friends of family members with little stability, neither financial nor social (Saslow, 2013). ?James attended high-school at St. Vincent–St. Mary in his hometown of Akron (Maschke, 2012). ?In 2013, James was selected by the Cleveland Cavaliers as the first pick in the NBA draft and signed a $90 million endorsement contract with Nike even before playing a single game in the NBA (Kerezy, 2010). ?His physique (6 ft. 8 in, 250 lb.) and athletic ability on the basketball court have brought him multiple achievements including three NBA championships to date (2012 and 2013 with the Miami Heat, 2016 with the Cleveland Cavaliers), three selection as the most-valuable-player (MVP) of the NBA finals, NBA’s rookie of the year award (2003-2004), four-time selections as the most valuable player of the league (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013), 13 times NBA all-star nods, and two gold medals with the US team at the Olympic Games (Beijing 2008; London 2012).

LeBron is part of a unique group of basketball stars that are so famous, they do not even need last names (Thorn, 2007). ?His athletic talents have made him admired and emulated (Primm, DuBois, & Regoli, 2007). ?His success on the court is supported by off-court success, including multi-million endorsement deals. ?In the 2014-2015 NBA season, for instance, James earned $64.6 million: $20.6 million from his NBA salary, and the rest ($44 million) by endorsements from Kia Motors, Nike, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Samsung Electronics, Beats by Dre, Upper Deck, Tencent, and Audemars Piguet (Badehausen, 2015). ?According to Badenhausen (2017), James is the world’s second highest paid athlete (behind Cristiano Ronaldo) with earnings of over $86 million, from which $55 million are from endorsements.?

But is LeBron James a leader? And if so, is he an authentic leader? A transformational leader? A global leader? The short answer is that it depends. ?It depends on the context and the time-period it is evaluated against. ?For instance, in the 2014’s annual survey of the NBA’s general managers, only 14.3% of the voters found LeBron to be a great leader (Schuhmann, 2014).? As will be demonstrated in this paper, James is a much stronger leader in the third phase of his career.? This is because of combination of factors which are aligned with Chelladurai and Saleh (1978) multi-dimensional model of leadership, i.e. situational factors associated with the return of James to the team of Cleveland Cavaliers after four years with the Miami Heat, characteristics of James himself as a leader which were developed and crystalized in Miami, and finally, the characteristics of his followers, which include both team players and fans.? These evolving leadership skills demonstrated by James Since 2015, have earned him a spot in Fortune’s list of top 50 global leaders in 2015 and 2017.? Details about those selections are listed in Table 1.

Table 1 – Fortune’s Top 50 Global Leaders – The Case for LeBron James

Year

Description

2015

“With two NBA titles, James didn’t need to return to Cleveland - a place without a championship, let alone hope of a quick one. But, he said, he wanted to bring a group together and help them “reach a place they didn’t know they could go.” The Cavs, atop their division as of mid-March, are reaching. Meantime James, newly elected VP of the NBA’s Players Association, will face a fresh leadership challenge as labor negotiations with the league get underway”.

2017

“When LeBron James returned to Cleveland in 2014 after four years with the Miami Heat he didn’t promise an NBA championship, or instant success. Instead, he made a pact with Northeast Ohio. ‘I feel my calling here goes above basketball,’ he told Sports Illustrated. ‘I have a responsibility to lead, in more ways than one, and I take that very seriously.’

James has realized this ambition through the LeBron James Family Foundation, which will provide mentoring and full college scholarships to 1,100 underprivileged children in his hometown of Akron. He has also used his platform as the game’s most famous star to speak out on issues such as President Donald Trump’s immigration executive order and the relationship between law enforcement and black communities. And while he didn’t promise to end Cleveland’s 50-year championship drought, James did, in dramatic style, lead the Cavaliers to overturn a 3-1 series deficit against the favored Golden State Warriors”.

Source: World greatest leaders. Fortune. Retrieved from: https://fortune.com/worlds-greatest-leaders/

LeBron James has grown as a leader throughout his career, both on a personal level and as a player (Zemek, 2015). ?The evolvement of James as a leader was witnessed by millions of viewers on a global scale through continuous and constant media coverage. ?The next section looks at the growth of James as a leader between 2003 and 2018 by looking at three main time periods in his basketball career:

2003-2010 - The first phase with Cleveland Cavaliers;

2010-2014 - The Miami Heat years; and

2014-2018 (ongoing) - The second phase with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

2003-2010 – The First Phase with the Cleveland Cavaliers

In Cleveland, between the years 2003 and 2010, James established the basis for his adult life and career. ?While playing in Cleveland, he became a father for the first time when he was twenty years old and established the LeBron James Family Foundation in 2004, along his mother Gloria, to help-out children and single-parent families in need. ?In Cleveland, James has become one of the best players in the world and a successful business person, on its way to attempt and become one of the first billionaire athletes (Spiropoulos, 2014). ?At the same time, he made claims that demonstrated his immaturity and lack of understanding for teamwork or leadership. James’ first years in the NBA demonstrated his talent as a basketball player, but also his lack of leadership. ?In the following statement from 2005, for instance, he describes his talent in a narcissistic view while completely ignoring the outcome of his “leadership” on others or an achievement of a common goal:

“Everywhere I've been, I've been the best player. I love being a leader, and I love being the best. I just want to get better. It's not about being cocky or selfish or anything like that. It's just how I am” (Dupree, 2005, para. 5)

During the first phase of his career, James had limited success in trying to make his teammates around him better or win a championship. ?Here is a quote from James himself about that time-period in a retrospect from 2014:

“When I first got to Cleveland, I knew how to play for myself, how to get myself a look… but I wasn’t thinking strategically. I wasn’t seeing the game for my teammates” (Jenkins, 2014b, para. 11)

While with Cleveland in years 2014-2010, James was the best player on the team, but not a true leader. ?When the Cleveland Cavaliers reached the apex of the franchise history and reached the NBA finals in 2007 against the San Antonio Spurs, it ended with a disappointing series loss (zero wins and four losses in the Finals). ?The team was regarded with mild disappointment because they never won a title together, but they helped start the transformation of James from performer to conductor (Jenkins, 2014b). ?At that time, James himself was viewed by coaches as un-coachable (Salter, 2011). ?There was no doubt about his talents as a player, but there was no certainty about his leadership abilities or ability to evolve as a leader.

James’ decision to leave Cleveland and join Miami for the 2010-2011 NBA season marks the start of LeBron’s second career phase.? James’ decision to leave Cleveland was broadcasted live on the ESPN TV channel and was named “The Decision” (Kerezy, 2010). ?The key statement in it was:

“This fall, I will be taking my talents to South Beach, and will be joining the?Miami Heat” (Beck, 2010, para. 3)

According to Hems (2013), this famous announcement has made James unpopular. ?His authenticity and higher purpose as the Ohio-native that would bring glory to the state were shattered in one-hour of broadcast. ?The TV special was watched by 10 million viewers and generated frustration and hatred (Salter, 2011). ?It was considered an unethical act to announce leaving the franchise that supported you for seven years on national TV without prior notice. ?It was an act that made him be perceived as unauthentic, lacking transparency, and not trustworthy, honest, or genuine. ?Authenticity refers to being one’s true self.? In the context of leadership, it has substantial implications on the lives of the leader and his/her followers (Ilies, Morgeson, & Nahrgang, 2005).? As described in Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing, & Peterson (2008), authentic leaders are self-aware and have balanced processing, relational transparency, and an internalized moral perspective.? Authentic leaders are self-confident, genuine, reliable, trustworthy, and focus on improving follower’s thinking and strengths while creating a positive and engaging organizational context (Iles et al, 2005). ?Authentic leaders are well-aware of their effects on others, present a true image of themselves, and analyze data before making decisions guided by their internal moral compass. ?As such, they provide their followers with authentic experience that improve their lives.? They are transparent and present their true self to the world and share their plans, their successes, and their failures (Barnes, 2011).? James was not an authentic leader in 2010 when moving to Miami. He seemed to ignore how this decision will affect teammates, fans, and executives.? He kept the decision hidden from his colleagues.

According to Zemek (2015), by keeping his decision to leave Cleveland private from his team at the time was an expression of hubris by James. ?Further declarations by James that he expects to win multiple championships in Miami made him the subject of critique and anger and demonstrated his lack of understanding for team-work and the amount of work it takes to build a team and be a leader. ?James was considered a “traitor” by basketball fans in Cleveland and across the country (Kerezy, 2010). ?Fans famously burned James’ Cavaliers jerseys (Helms, 2013) and considered him non-credible and unworthy of respect. ?Years later, James admitted publicly that the ill-fated announcement on TV to move to Miami was something he regrets, but that that moment helped him grow as a basketball player and as a man (Yoder, 2014). ?He explained the decision as a need he had to challenge himself, to move away from the familiar and safe environment of his home state of Ohio. ?However, in many occasions staying authentic means staying true to your roots (Barnes, 2011). ?In the case of James, leaving his Ohio roots can be considered an unauthentic action. ?Chasing championships by moving to Miami was considered as a sell-off by James’ fans, i.e., giving up on your values in exchange for fame and glory. ?The lack of leadership displayed by LeBron James during the years 2004-2010 and his questionable authenticity with his decision to leave made him unpopular.? His decision to leave made him one of the top villains in the sports world for a couple of years (Yoder, 2014). ?

During the first phase of the Cleveland Cavaliers, the leadership of James was limited if existent at all. ?He did not display authentic leadership and was unable to transform the franchise into a championship team.? His style resembled non-transactional laissez-faire leadership, as was described by Antonakis, Avolio, and Sivasubramaniamc (2003). ?This style represented absence of leadership where the leader chooses to avoid taking responsibility and does not use his formal or informal authority. ?This usually results in ineffectiveness, and in the case of the Cavaliers – limited success and no championships. ?This makes the evolving leadership of James in the years to follow and the ability to regain authenticity impressive.

2010-2014 – The Miami Heat Years

In 2010, following his famous “Decision”, James left the Cleveland Cavaliers and joined the Miami Heat. ?The Heat was a championship-proven organization with two other NBA all-stars in Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, veteran supporting cast, and a team architect that knew what it takes to win NBA championships. ?Pat Riley, the President of Basketball Operations of the Miami Heat organization and the mastermind behind the organization, has won multiple championships before James joined Miami with the Lakers organization in the 1980s and with Miami in 2006 (Salter, 2011). ?In addition, Miami had a larger market than Cleveland and larger potential for James to establish his worldwide brand (Maschke, 2012). ?When James joined the Heat Organization, the team had an undisputed leader in Dwayne Wade, who has helped the team win its first championship in 2006 and was the team’s all-time scoring leader (Salter, 2011). ?After limited success between 2007 and 2010, Wade was determined to bring James and Bosh to Miami to build a legacy team that can contend for multiple championships, and as such, he was willing to mentor James and share leadership with him and with Bosh. ?This process led to an environment that can be described as shared leadership. ?The objective was to lead one another to the achievement of a clear group’s goal – NBA championship/s. Wade, as the hierarchical leader of the team, was willing to reduce his leadership role for the benefit of the team as the context and environment changed when James joined.

If there is a leadership continuum, shared leadership would lie on the opposite side of hierarchical leadership, as a complemental approach (Barnes, Humphreys, Oyler, Pane Haden, & Novicevic, 2013).? Pearce and Conger (2003) defined shared leadership as “a dynamic, interactive influence process among individuals in groups for which the objective is to lead one another to the achievement of group or organizational goals or both” (p. 1).? Shared leadership requires the hierarchical leader to create a community where leadership can be shared (Barnes el al., 2013). ?When shared leadership is present, “the leadership actions of any individual leader are much less important than the collective leadership provided by the members of the organization” (Yukl, 1999, p. 293).? When shared leadership is successful, it can contribute to loyal employees (Barnes, 2011), as well as superior decision making, reduced stress for individual leaders, greater synergy, enhanced creativity, and improved team success (Barnes el al., 2013).? Successful leaders who share the leadership role, according to Goldsmith (2008), defer to others with more expertise, strive to arrive at outcomes with others, and create environment where people focus on the larger good.

In the new team environment of the Miami Heat created in 2010, the three top team’s stars in James, Wade and Bosh needed to sacrifice for the benefit of the group. ?In other words, the team's leaders were required to do “what stars need to do when they merge: show a willingness to sacrifice” (Salter, 2011, p. 78). ?This included reduce minutes played, reduced salaries, increased media scrutiny, changed style of game, and an adjusted leadership role. Leadership was informally distributed between team multiple members on a rotating basis, with Wade taking a reduced role as the team’s leader and allowing Bosh and James to share the leadership role. ?In a group environment such as a basketball team, where players have different roles, shared leadership can be beneficial to increase diversity and create Gestalt-like approach when the sum of the parts (i.e. team effort) is greater than any effort by an individual player so that consequently, the team can be successful. ?As indicated by Fausing et al. (2013), “team work conditions are crucial to the success and application of shared leadership” (p. 255). ?The shared leadership in the Heat organization created good synergy and led to team success in comparison to previous years.

The Heat, with its “Big Three” superstar players (James, Wade and Bosh), started the 2010-2011 season slowly and lost many more games than originally anticipated, but the team improved and made it into the NBA Finals in 2011, during the first year of James with the team, but lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the Finals. ?This was LeBron’s second loss in the NBA Finals (and his first with Miami). ?According to Zemek (2015), after the loss to Dallas in the NBA Finals is where James learned how to be a leader. ?James’ press conference following the loss in the 2011 Finals marked one of the lowest points in his career as a professional athlete. ?In it, he made a statement that made him seem arrogant and egocentric:

“At the end of the day, all the people that were rooting on me to fail, at the end of the day, they have to wake up tomorrow and have the same life that they had before they woke up today. They have the same personal problems they had today” (Zemek, 2015, para. 15)

The loss in the finals was without doubt a crisis in James’ career.? A crisis can challenge one’s sense of identity, but can also plant the seed to triumph, redemption, and emergence from adversity. ?Leaders need to be resilient to be successful, which is not about deflecting challenges, but rather about absorbing them and rebounding stronger than before (Mangurian, 2007). ?Growing and becoming better from a failure is the essence of an effective leader, a notion that James understood in Miami. ?He used the loss to Dallas as motivation to become better. ?After getting close to the goal of winning the championship but coming short, the Miami Heat team returned the following year (2011-2012 season) with one common goal – winning a championship together. ?By then, James had established himself as one of the top leaders of the team, but the style was still mostly of shared leadership. ?The players described the atmosphere around the team as family-like and trust towards one another. ?Here a quote from James from April 2012 that demonstrates his commitment to his teammates at that time:

“It's not the pressure of not wanting to fail. It's the pressure of not wanting to let your teammates down. I hate letting my teammates down…I know I'm not going to make every shot. Sometimes I try to make the right play, and if it results in a loss, I feel awful. I don't feel (badly) because I have to answer questions about it. I feel awful in that locker room because I could have done something more to help my teammates win” (Augustine, 2012, para. 7)

During the 2012-2013 NBA season, James was the best player on the team and led-by-example, and the team responded to this by winning back-to-back championships in 2012 and 2013.? After winning the first championship in 2012, Lipman (2012) described how the leadership of James has evolved from a year earlier by listing four main transformations that took place. ?First, James acknowledged failure and confronted it directly by taking a more active role in the team. ?Second, he recognized a change was needed and worked on his basketball skills including off-season mentorship from NBA legend Hakeem Olajuwon. ?Third, James developed a sound strategic plan to take control and take responsibility, especially when games were on the line and he needed to step-up his game. ?Finally, he executed his plan with great focus and discipline. ?According to Lipman (2012): “Based on failure, analysis, insight, hard work and willingness to change, LeBron James completed as successful a one-year turnaround as any enterprise could ever hope for” (para. 7). ?In the fall of 2013, after winning his consecutive second championship with the Heat, ESPN pool found James to be the most popular player in the NBA (Helms, 2013). ?It was a long journey back to the top of the popularity list for James since his 2010 criticized decision to leave Cleveland and join Miami.

The four years that James spent in Miami were a great opportunity for him to grow and learn from champions. ?In Miami, James had his friend and teammate Dwayne Wade as a teacher of leadership, veterans’ teammates like Ray Allen and Mike Miller for encouragement, and the support of Pat Riley, the President of Basketball Operations in the Heat organization, to help him grow as a person and as a leader. ?Initially, James had to be led by Wade, but eventually James developed his own leadership style and was eventually considered the primary leader in Miami (Zemek, 2015). ?James himself admitted that in Miami he was not the sole leader:

"The last few years in Miami, I wasn’t the sole leader of the team. We had other leaders that helped” (Finnan, 2015, para. 3)

The situational context of the Heat organization between 2010 and 2014 allowed the leaders to adjust their style per the readiness of the followers. ?As teammates and the organization were highly capable and experienced (i.e. able, capable and willing), shared leadership was possible. Surrounded by people in Miami that were able, confident and willing, James and other participant leaders in the team could use high relationship to delegate and observe others performing.?

When discussing shared leadership, Barnes et al. (2013) presented characteristics of leadership that include shared purpose, social support, voice, and transparency. ?While James was in Miami, all four characteristics were evident. ?First, the shared purpose was of winning championships. ?The team was not shy about coming together to win and it was discussed often. Second, social support was initially provided by fans of Miami and was lacking globally, but support was regained once the team won championships in 2012 and 2013. ?James could recover his public image and redeem himself once success became evident.? Third, James created evident voice in expression of complaints (as he did after losing to Dallas in the 2011 Finals), as well as participating in decision-making processes of the organization, including recommendations for which players to get, retain, or let go. ?With regards to the fourth element of transparency, the years in Miami were about trust and sharing. ?The team success was put ahead of any individual achievements. ?Together, this demonstrate that shared leadership in Miami occurred. ?

To summarize the development of James in Miami between 2006 and 2010 and the evolvement that came following it from a shared leadership style to eventual transformational style, here is a quote from May 2014, two months before James left the team:

"Part of being a leader is making people also believe that sometimes they can do more than they actually can do. Giving them a sense of belief and confidence. And for me, I've always kind of done that. And I'm not downgrading what that individual can do. I'm just letting them know that they can do more than what they even though they can do, and bring more to the game, and bring more to who they are as an individual than they thought they could"?(Skolnick, 2014, para. 15)

This quote is a classical demonstration of a transformational leader that provides encouragement and helps others to achieve. ?As described by Burns (1978), elevating followers is a characteristic of transformational leader. ?James here attempts to elevate his followers (teammates), as many transformational leaders do. ?James helped guide his teammates to achieve what Bass calls the “extraordinary goals” (1985), which in this case translates to winning championships (and Miami won two of those while James was with the team). ?James here engages in a symbolic exchange with each follower and with the team, as discussed in Bess and Goldman (2001).

2014-2018 - The Second Phase with Cleveland Cavaliers

In 2014, after spending four years with the Miami Heat and winning two championships and four trips to the NBA Finals, James made the announcement during free agency that he is to sign a two-year contract and return to play with the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he started his NBA career in his home state of Ohio. ?In a way, this was an opportunity for James to complete a full-circle and return home as a changed person, as an established champion, and as a mature and established 30-year old leader. ?The return to Cleveland allowed James to reconnect with his roots and attempt to restore his authenticity and higher purpose that were shattered in 2010 with his move to Miami. ?A year earlier, in 2013, when James was selected as one of Time Magazine’s top 100 most influential people in the world, another legendary sports’ great Derek Jeter (baseball), described James as a person that “hasn’t forgotten where he comes from, and he’s given back so much to Ohio and Akron, his hometown” (Jeter, 2013, para. 2). ?As a free agent, James had the opportunity to return to Ohio and the Akron-Cleveland area, this time as the undisputed team leader (Jenkins, 2014b).

The announcement to return to Cleveland was very different than the one made four years earlier to leave. ?James had a rare case for a chance for a redo and he took full advantage of it, as good leaders do. ?Unlike the famous "Decision" from 2010 to leave Cleveland and join the Miami Heat, this time James made the announcement to go back to Cleveland using brilliant public relations move with a personal letter published through SI.com, the online arm of Sports Illustrated magazine. ?This approach, according to Jasso (2014), demonstrated mature media understanding, sincerity, transparency, knowledge of the audience, control of the message, and ability to move on. ?It was a pledge of excellence without over promising anything in Cleveland except for hard work. ?Even his former teammate from Miami, Dwayne Wade, supported the departure of James as the right decision for him (Pollakoff, 2014). ?In James’ coming-home public letter, he pledged allegiance to the state of Ohio and its people and explained that his calling went above basketball to become a leader in the community he grew up in. ?At the same time, he thanked the Heat organization for four years together. ?Accepting his role as a leader in Cleveland was another positive aspect for his image and legacy as he returned to Cleveland:

“I have a responsibility to lead, in more ways than one, and I take that very seriously” (Jenkins, 2014a, para. 10)

This responsibility does not stop at authentic emotions and objectives, but also by backing-up his words with actions. ?The inspirational motivation and charisma of James to lead the team described here are key aspects of transformational leadership, as described by Avolio, Waldman, and Yammarino (1991). ?Charbonneau, Barling, and Kelloway (2001) demonstrated that transformational leadership of caches can affect sports performance indirectly, through the mediating effects of intrinsic motivation.? It may be that a similar process occurs with athletic leaders such as James with his teammates and their interest in tasks (and in winning).?

To fully understand the differences between the contextual situations in Miami and Cleveland, one must remember that Miami was a proven championship-caliber organization filled with veteran players while Cleveland was a young team with no championships and a roster of mostly young players. ?While in Miami, James shared the leadership role with teammate Dwayne Wade and others. ?But when James announced his return to Cleveland, he was anything but shy about the role he wanted to have with his team of Cleveland. ?Even before the start of the season, James announced in a pre-season media day:

“I will be the leader of the team!" (Vardon, 2014, para. 3)

He added that he felt that he brings leadership qualities that others do not possess or do not know how to use. ?James further explained his ability to adjust his leadership style per context, which demonstrates understanding of situational leadership:

"I can lead by example, I can lead by voice, I can lead by command and I can lead by just my presence" (Vardon, 2014, para. 4)

At the same time, James understood he would need to adjust his leadership style to fit the less experienced teammates in Cleveland, who were able but insecure:

“Coming into this experience with a young group, I’ve had to really step up and take full responsibility of it. I’ve loved every moment of it” (Finnan, 2015, para. 3)

As a transformational leader in the works, James announced he would help his team reach a place they didn’t know they could go, and make them even better than what they think they can be. ?Surrounded by willing by insecure players, James reverted to use of low relationship to encourage and participate while increasing his relationships with individual teammates. By doing so, he portrayed an emerging style of leadership that has both transactional and transformational components.? The style of leadership applied by James supports attributes of leadership referred to by Eslen-Ziya and Erhart (2015) as "feminine leadership", which is collaborative and transformational and quite different than the traditional masculine and task-oriented view of leadership commonly discussed in leadership literature.? According to Kirton and Healey (2012), "feminine leadership is defined as interpersonally oriented, democratic, collaborative and transformational, which contrasts with masculine leadership, defined as task-oriented, authoritarian, controlling and transactional’’ (p. 4)

According to Situational Leadership Theory (Hershey & Blanchard, 1984), different situations may require different leader behaviors to match the expectations of the followers (Lord, Foti, & De Vader, 1984).? As such, leaders need to adapt themselves to a variety of conditions and challenges they may face (Graeff, 1997).? Effective leaders would seek to adjust their behaviors in order to meet their own expectations and those of their followers in different contexts (Hogg, 2001).? Thus, it is not only about who you are, but also about when and where.? To be successful in multiple contexts, leaders should have adaptive capacity (Bennis & Thomas, 2002).? Adaptive capacity is “the ability to change one’s style and approach to fit the culture, context, or condition of an organization” (Mayo, 2007, para. 6).

James’ return to Cleveland in 2014 united him with a roster with better talent than the one he left in 2010 (Wojnarowski, 2015). ?This included two NBA all-star players in Kyrie Irvin and Kevin Love and a supporting cast that included players that would not have joined the Cavaliers without James' presence (Zillgitt, 2014). ?Besides good teammates and opportunity to demonstrate his ability to lead, James got in Cleveland a captive audience for his business pursuits and a chance to elevate his marketing image (Wojnarowski, 2015). ?His celebrated return to Cleveland is not solely about basketball - it is also about redemption, maturation, absolution, and potential celebration (Zillgitt, 2014). ?The return to his home state was an attempt to achieve what he could not achieve in his first phase with the team, i.e., bring an NBA championship to the city of Cleveland (which he did in 2016).

Even before the start of the 2014-2015 NBA season, it was clear that James took his anticipated role as the leader of the Cleveland team seriously. ?Physically, James transformed himself by losing weight. ?But more importantly, he spent the summer before the season learning about body language and researching leadership styles (Manfred, 2014). ?He decided he must carefully monitor his body language, so he does not discourage young players (Jenkins, 2014b). This demonstrates what Avolio et al. (1991) called intellectual stimulation, an important aspect of transformational leader. ?James used video recordings to learn about the game play tendencies of his new teammates to evolve his own game to make his teammates better players and put them in a situation to be successful. ?It is not a surprise then that before the first team practice as a team, James (and not the team’s head coach at the time David Blatt) called for a players-only meeting where he told each of his teammates his expectations from them for the upcoming season. (Manfred, 2014). ?This approach demonstrates how far he has come from his first phase with the team in 2004-2010.

After a year Back in Cleveland and after losing in the NBA finals in 2015, James admitted that a learning process of teammates was underway:

"I didn't know them last year. I can't put my trust in guys that I don't know. That's not who I am. That's not who I should be. I got to see certain things out of those guys, and I think we're still learning each other." (McMenamin, 2016, para. 33). ??

However, during the following year (2016), James and teammates won the NBA championship and brought Ohio the first championship in major sports in over 50 years.? During his years back with Cleveland, James is the unquestionable leader of the team and his leadership is much improved from where it was when he was a young player with much to prove and not much to show for. ?In Cleveland, James acts as the main spoke person for the team and has been highly involved in mentoring teammates like J.R. Smith (Zemek, 2015). ?His talent as transformational leader and his leadership is evident even for individual players spending most of the season on the bench. ?Joe Harris, a first-year (rookie) player in Cleveland who spent most of the 2015 season on the bench, provided the following insight on James in Feb. 2015: “He’s very enthusiastic as a leader, and he makes sure that everybody is trying to match his enthusiasm" (Zavac, 2015, para. 7). ?These acts demonstrate another important aspect of transformational leadership as described by Avolio et al. (1991) – individual consideration.?

James’ hands-on approach in Cleveland have made James an ultimate decision-maker (and some say also the de-facto coach). ?James’ teammates have accepted him as the undisputed leader of the team, as demonstrated by teammate Kevin Love, who stated that James “has an ability to teach us all, and we're all in a position to really learn from him” (Zillgitt, 2014, para. 23). ?The journey with the team in Cleveland has been not without struggles, which is something James was well-aware of when he made the decision to return to Cleveland. ?In 2014, he stated:

“It's going to be a process. I keep on harping on that word, but it's the truth… I've been there before and understand it. But you do have to go through it even though you don't like to go through it” (Windhorst, 2014, para. 15)

Experience, in this case, seems to be the best teacher. ?James learned though his experience in the league that building a team is a process that takes time. ?The emergence of his transformational leadership style embodied within it individual consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation and charisma – all important behaviors typical of transformational leaders, as identified by Bass (1990) and described by Avolio et al. (1991).

??????????? In recent years, James portrays transformational leadership.? According to Mackenzie and Barnes (2007), transformational leadership is an analytical approach that uses the leader as a change agent to improve the organization and offer adaptive problem solving while bonding individuals to their job and the organization.? The concept of transformational leadership, as presented by Burns (1978), suggests that certain leaders can elevate their followers to levels beyond their expectation by tapping into the human need of self-actualization.? Transformational leaders influence followers to transcend their self-interest for the benefit of the group to achieve optimal performance level (Bass, 1985).? Those leaders inspire followers to perform beyond expectations and experience high level of trust (Barnes et al, 2013). Transformational leaders are usually proactive, raise follower awareness for interests of the group, and help followers achieve extraordinary goals (Bass, 1985).? Such leaders should be able to change their own behavior when needed to affect their followers and create a transformational experience for the followers.? As such, they engage in a symbolic exchange with each follower and with groups of followers (Bess & Goldman, 2001).? Transformational leaders create cohesiveness and inspire other to achieve greatness as well as provide inspiration and guidance to transform the entire organization (Barnes, 2011).

According to Avolio et al. (1991), transformational leaders modify followers’ goals and aspiration while demonstrating individual consideration, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and charisma.? Antonakis et al. (2003) adapted the view of Bass (1998), to describe the following attributes of transformational leaders: (a) Idealized influence (attributed) – The socialized charisma of the leader, confidence and power, including his/her ability to focus on higher-order ideals and ethics. (b) Idealized influence (behavior) – Emphasis on values, beliefs, and mission using charismatic actions. (c) Inspirational motivation – Energizing followers by viewing the future with optimism and communicating idealized but achievable vision that stresses ambitious goals. (d) Intellectual stimulation – Challenging followers to think creatively and find solutions to problems using logic and analysis. (e) Individualized consideration – Advising, supporting and paying attention to individual needs of followers to generate satisfaction and self-actualization of followers.

Conclusions and Discussion

The case of James demonstrates the risks in romanticizing leadership and considering it in a binary fashion, that is as present or not present, as discussed by O'Reiley et al. (2015). ?As demonstrated in this paper, the leadership of James has evolved, as he learned to become a better leader from experience and as he matured as a player and a human being. ?Learning, according to Maples and Webster (1980) is “a process by which behavior changes as a result of experiences” (p. 21). ?James’ experience in the NBA has helped him learn and evolve as leader, which resulted in behavioral changes that can be evaluated based on his words and deeds on and off the basketball court. ?Terrell and Rosenbusch (2013) claimed that the constructs of learning and leadership feed each other as leadership both seeks and produces learning while learning both enhances and develops leadership. ?In the same way, development through experiences enhances and develops global leadership while global leadership seeks and produces development through experience.

The case presented in this paper demonstrate how components from MML model (Chelladurai, 2007; Chelladurai & Saleh, 1978) are applicable not only to coaches and executives in sports but also to informal leaders and team players.? Although James’ leadership does not fit one traditional leadership style all throughout his career, this paper argue that James is an established leader and that the four years he spent in Miami in a shared leadership atmosphere were critical to his development as a leader overall and as an effective transformational and authentic leader specifically. ?

Mackenzie and Barnes (2007) identified eight key assumptions common to most leadership approaches. ?To attempt and evaluate James’ case for leadership, Table 1 is presented. ?The analysis performed demonstrates James meet most (seven out of the eight) main criteria as a leader. ?Performing such analysis, a decade ago would have probably yielded a different conclusion. ?The case of LeBron James is a fascinating tale in providing support that leadership can be made, as in the famous argument whether leaders are born or made. ?According to Locke (2014), to approach this question, one must differentiate between leadership effectiveness (i.e. performance as a leader) and leadership emergence (i.e. being tapped for a leadership role).? Emergence as a leader relates to inborn traits, but the effectiveness of the leadership itself is dependent on the context, the type of job, and the person’s ability to develop leadership skills rather than traits. ?In the case of James, the emergence of his leadership and the effectiveness of his leadership style depends on the context, his role in the team, and the development of the skills he acquired through experience.

Table 1 - The Case for LeBron James as a Leader

#

Assumption

(Per Mackenzie & Barnes, 2007)

The Case for LeBron James

1

Leadership is generally a good thing and more of it is better.

Yes. A common belief is that strong leadership in a team sport can result in increased performance and associated with winning, which is a goal of James and the basketball teams he has been part of.

2

Leaders are rational actors and the model allows them to practice leaderships in the real world.

Yes. NBA games are real. James get to practice leadership in the real world on and off the court and has been defined as a leader by his teammates or global media.?

3

Most leaders are good citizens and favor behavior with the target to do well and benefit society in a realistic and honest way.

Yes. James operates a foundation to help family in need in Ohio. He does charity work and supports improvements in society, including reducing discrimination, support for active lifestyle, etc.?

4

Leaders usually do not perform actual work.

No. LeBron plays basketball for a living. In this regard, he is not a traditional leader.

5

Leadership do not manage technologies.

Yes. Basketball uses technology to enhance performance, but the leadership of James is not about managing technologies.

6

Leaders use instruments to assess a group.

Yes. LeBron has been known to use video recording to study the game and learn how to improve the play of himself and his teammates.

7

Leaderships generally ignore organizational place and emphasize on the follower’s approach to the job.

Yes. LeBron has made sacrifices for teammates, including agreeing to a lower salary to leave his team budget to acquire additional players.

8

Leadership is a holonomic process, i.e. applicable to all situations, units, and the organization as a whole

Yes. James do not apply his leadership style only in basketball games. He uses it with team management, media and off the court.

LeBron James, in his current position with the Cleveland Cavaliers (2014-2018) applies a different leadership style than what he experienced in the first phase with the team or the shared leadership style he was part of during part of his career in Miami. ?In Cleveland, he is an authentic leader highly concerned with the effects of his leadership on others, including the effects of his words and actions on children from all over the world, to which he inspires to serve as a role model.? In the years between 2003 and 2017, James has transformed himself from a great player into a great leader. ?His ability to evolve as a leader and develop a combination of leadership styles that overlap has been part of his success of his career. ?Fruits for his labor as an evolving leader can be seen with his ability to lead his current Cavaliers team into the NBA Finals in the years 2014-2018 and win a championship in 2016. ?His election as the Vice President of the NBA’s Players Association in 2015 demonstrates his influence goes beyond one team or one group of players. ?He has become a global leader that extends his influence beyond basketball and can adjust his style to the contextual situation around him. ?When the leader inspires to make others around him better and make them believe they can be more than the sum of their parts and achieve great things as James did in Cleveland, the team is destined to success and King James is on his way to sport royalty.

Recommendations for Future Research

As a single case study using several leadership theories, the primary limitation is generalizability, but the conceptual insights offered by the case are important. ?According to Stuart, Cutcheon, Handfield, McLachlin, and Samson (2002), even flawed case studies have significantly altered the evolution of theoretical assumptions. ?Using cultural icons to study leadership styles non-empirically is a growing field (Barnes, 2015). ?The case of LeBron James (a sports figure) acts as a tool to study leadership, its development, and in this specific case – its evolvement. ?James’s case demonstrates how exposure to shared leadership can enhance other leadership styles like transformational leadership. ?At the same time, it can show how a leader considered unauthentic can recover his image as an authentic leader by following his moral compass. ?Such case studies can help challenge the dominant logic associated with conventional organizational leadership and be valuable sources of learning for contemporary organizational leaders. ?They can help identify contributing factors to foster development of an environment where certain leadership style/s would flourish.

This paper used public quotes and a chronical timeframe of actual events to demonstrate the evolving nature of leadership and construct an image of the leadership style of a sport icon and how it relates to his followers and the environment in which he operates in.? By doing so, it the study supports the MML theory of leadership in sport beyond its common use with sport coaches.? Athletic leaders can be powerful leaders and result in performance outcomes for the team and the fans.? As recommended by O'Reiley et al. (2015), future studies of leadership activities should take not only the leader into consideration, but rather use a multi-perspectival approach including the “processes, positions, purposes and results of leadership” (p. 497).? By doing so, leadership study can move away from romanticizing leaders and evaluate them instead as life-learners that continuously evolve.

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