Recreational Leadership

Recreational leadership or recreation administration you study the theory and techniques for planning, facilitating, and managing recreational programs and activities or simply helping people to have fun.
Types of Leaders
a) Autocratic or authoritarian style
Under the autocratic leadership style, all decision-making powers are centralized in the leader, as with dictator leaders. They do not entertain any suggestions or initiatives from subordinates. The autocratic management has been successful as it provides strong motivation to the manager. It permits quick decision-making, as only one person decides for the whole group and keeps each decision to himself until he feels it is needed to be shared with the rest of the group.
b) Participative or democratic style
The democratic leadership style favors decision-making by the group as shown, such as leader gives instruction after consulting the group. They can win the cooperation of their group and can motivate them effectively and positively. The decisions of the democratic leader are not unilateral as with the autocrat because they arise from consultation with the group members and participation by them.
c) Laissez-faire or free rein style
A free rein leader does not lead, but leaves the group entirely to itself as shown; such a leader allows maximum freedom to subordinates, i.e., they are given a free hand in deciding their own policies and methods. In an emergency when there is little time to converge on an agreement and where a designated authority has significantly more experience or expertise than the rest of the team, an autocratic leadership style may be most effective; however, in a highly motivated and aligned team with a homogeneous level of expertise, a more democratic or laissez-faire style may be more effective. On the other hand, this type of style is also associated with leaders that don’t lead at all, failing in supervising team members, resulting in lack of control and higher costs, bad service or failure to meet deadlines.
d) Bureaucratic leader
(Weber, 1905) This type of leadership has no space to explore new ways to solve problems and is usually slow paced to ensure adherence. Leaders ensure that all the steps have been followed prior to sending it to the next level of authority. Universities, hospitals, banks and government usually require this type of leader in their organizations to ensure quality, increase security and decrease corruption. Leaders that try to speed up the process will experience frustration and anxiety. Charismatic leader
(Weber, 1905) leads by infusing energy and eagerness into their team members. It takes the company time and hard work to gain the employees' confidence back with other type of leadership after they have committed themselves to the magnetism of a charismatic leader.
e) Democratic leader
(Lewin, Lippitt, & White, 1939) listens to the team's ideas and studies them, but will make the final decision. Team players contribute to the final decision thus increasing employee satisfaction and ownership, feeling their input was considered when the final decision was taken. When changes arises, this type of leadership helps the team assimilate the changes better and more rapidly than other styles, knowing they were consulted and contributed to the decision making process, minimizing resistance and intolerance. A shortcoming of this leadership style is that it has difficulty when decisions are needed in a short period of time or at the moment.
PROFILES OF AN EFFECTIVE LEADER 1. Leaders maintain self respect.2. Leaders work effectively with people3. Leaders are responsible to the needs and desires of others4. Leaders are knowledgeable.5. Leaders are self-motivated and possess superior motivation.6. Leaders maximize resource utilization and productivity.7.Leaders capitalize on the organization's environment.8. Leaders possess superior emotional stability.9. Leaders possess greater personal physical, mental and moral courage.10. Leaders carries the burdens of the followers upon himself.
QUALITIES OF A LEADER
a. Be Enthusiastic.
The successful game leader must spontaneously enjoy his work of leading quite as much as the player enjoys playing.
b. Develop a Sense of Humor.
Catch the spirit of the game; you enter the game with the attitude of mind desired and stimulated by the leader. This type of leader inspires you with the proverbial "Let's go" idea.
c. Overlook Mistakes.
The leader with sympathetic understanding overlooks mistakes and recognizes that it is better to laugh with people than at them. If he blunders due to lack of skill, the leader should help him to develop the necessary skill.
d. Anticipate Blunders.
Previous experience will enable a leader to anticipate common blunders and to check them without interrupting the game.
e. Be Lenient.
The happy play leader, in contradistinction to the nagger, develops a wholesome attitude of mind regarding exactness and technique of play.
f. Develop Confidence Through Preparedness.
Confidence is acquired through experience, but even the experienced leader enjoys such confidence only when he is thoroughly prepared to do the particular work at hand.
g. Guard Against Overconfidence.
He fails to inspire their confidence, encourage initiative, develop originality, or arouse imagination.
h. Conquer Trying Situations.
Make every effort to maintain poise, striving always at least to appear at ease when vexatious situations arise.
i. Adopt a Positive Attitude.
First, last, and always, the primary function of a leader is to lead. Good leadership leaves no room for any half-way position.
j. Lead Just Enough.
The foregoing may provoke the query, "Under the direction of this leader, who never forgets to lead, what is going to happen to the initiative of the players, which we have set out to stimulate and encourage?"


k. Expect the Best.
A leader gets from his group the best it can give only when he expects the best and strives for it.
l. Discipline Positively.
Watch a successful play leader in action and note that he has no serious problems of discipline. As a cheery suggested rather than a dominating director, he uses methods that are neither too formal nor too lax.
m. Change Plans.
To command sufficient resourcefulness to put one at ease under trying conditions, the leader must have a repertoire extensive enough to include a great variety of play and games. Plan your work and work your plan, if you can.
n. Provide "Re-Creation," Avoid "Wreck-Creation."
The physical well-being and happiness of the people in a leader's charge should be his first consideration. Without proper precaution his work may become a process of tearing down instead of building up. No one should play to the point of exhaustion. Recreation followed by "the morning after" effects has been aptly called "wreck-creation."
o. Develop Athletic Girls.
There is an ever growing tendency to concur with the theory of Joseph Lee, as laid down in Play in Education, page 392: "Every girl should play with boys and should be encouraged to be as much of a boy as possible. . . . In short, a girl should be a tomboy during the tomboy age (eight to thirteen), and the more of a tomboy she is, the better."
p. Know Your People.
A few examples make clear how important it is for a leader to know the natural tendencies and desires of age groups.
q. Consider Outside Interests.
The leader, who wishes to make his work re creative, should take into account both the work and the play program of his people
r. Provide for All.
Any leader, especially a club leader, who seldom conducts play, and then only for short periods, should avoid games in which losers drop out, for often the one who needs the play most is the very one to be out first, and vice versa.
s. Consider the Place
Principles of Recreation
Recreation are organized activities usually done during leisure time and we can truly appreciate it if the activities involve in recreation are just like child’s play. Recreation activities renews, restores and ‘recharges the batteries’. Recreation is successful if the result is pleasurable and if not it is not called anymore as recreation but wreck-creation that may result to over fatigue.
Values of Recreation
1. Physical Health – recreation is essential to fitness of a person.
2. Psychological Health – it relaxes tired mind
3. Social well-being – gives happiness and satisfaction
4. Emotional Stability – gives life fulfillment and makes life meaningful
Scope of Recreation
1. Games and Sports
- Is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively
a. Individual, dual and team sports
Individual - Swimming, Track and field, Archery, Boxing, Cycling, Equestrian, Fencing, Gymnastics, Judo, Taekwondo, Weightlifting, Wrestling, Bowling
Dual – Badminton, Table tennis, Lawn tennis
Team- Basketball, Football, Volleyball, Hockey
b. Games for all occasions are games played during parties and past times like trip to Jerusalem, paper dance, etc. It can also be played indoors or outdoors.
c. Parlor Games is a group game played indoors. It is all about logic games
d. Passive games are games such as table games and cards, scrabbles, dominoes etc.
2. Dance Activity
a. Modern Dance -is a dance form developed in the early 20th century.
b. Social Dance - is a major category or classification of dance forms or dance styles, where sociability and socializing are the primary focuses of the dancing. Examples are cha-cha, waltz etc.
c. Folk Dance- dances that are based on traditional culture of a country
d. Aerobic Dance- is a dance that shows certain basic gymnastics moves.
3. Music Activities
a. Singing – solo, duet, trio, quartet, choir, community singing
b. Instrumental playing
c. Listening for appreciation
d. Composing or creating
4. Nature and outdoor activity
a. Camping
b. Hiking
c. Look-out
d. Field trips, picnics and excursions
e. Swimming
5. Drama activities
a. Story telling
b. Short one-activity-play
c. Pantomime
d. Puppetry
e. Comedy skills
f. Role-playing
6. Arts and Crafts
7. Hobby and collecting activities
Factors influence how people spend their recreation.
In preparing recreational activities leaders should take note of the different factors influencing people on how they spend their recreation. These factors can help leaders be able to plan an activity appropriate to the person.
● Personal or Individual factors: the stage of an individual’s life, his or her interests, attitudes, abilities, upbringing and personality
● Circumstances and situations in which individuals find themselves: the social setting of which they are a part, the time at their disposal, their job and their income
● Opportunities and support services available to the individual: resources, facilities, programs and activities; their quality and attractiveness; and their management.

Opportunities for Recreational Management
Degree titles
Hospitality sector: Hospitality Studies, Hotel Management, Hotel and
Restaurant Management, Catering Management, and Hotel Business.
Leisure studies: Leisure Studies, Event Management, International Leisure Management, Countryside Leisure Management, Recreation Management, Entertainment Management, Outdoor Recreation.
Sport: Sports Science, Sports Management, European Sports Management, Sport and the Media, Football Science, Sport Tourism Management, Play work, Exercise Physiology, and Physical Education.
Tourism: Tourism Studies, Tourism Management, Ecotourism, European
Tourism, Rural and Countryside Tourism, Tourism Planning, Visitor attractions Management.