Leadership is a complex and dynamic process that seeks to gain influence over people. A lot of work has been done on leadership traits, behaviors, styles and their interrelationships. There are examples of great leaders from everywhere across the spectrum, with the constant that leadership is about people, and getting the most of them. Generally, transformational and servant seem to be two styles that work for different dynamics.

In an effort to simplify, and visualize, the process, the leadership wheel focuses on four categories of leadership behavior: Setting expectations and standards, communication, providing support and resources and accountability. These for categories help to organize the leadership process and incorporate different inputs and themes into the process.

The inputs include the dominant individual style and traits of the leader, follower preferences, education, skill and competence, the task environment and the objectives. The leader is also responsible for determining the future direction and the objectives to be obtained. With this information, the leader is then able to enter the leadership wheel to combine the inputs into a successful strategy to achieve desired outcomes.

Setting Expectations and Standards
This category is about the relationship between the inputs and the outcome. Determine the direction to move and the expectations to achieve it. This includes describing the standard and quality of the intended product and service, what is acceptable and what is not, what the values are and is an opportunity to use group input to create shared values and start the process for collective effort. Without defined expectations and objectives, it is hard to provide leadership toward the attainment of those expectations and objectives.

Communication
Once the expectations have been clarified, they need to be expressed by the leader so they are understood. One of the break downs in the leadership process is the lack of communication regarding the expectations and how they are to be achieved and what people are responsible for. This category is also an opportunity for the leader to listen and gather information. Since communication is a two-way street, leaders should listen more than they talk and look to provide clarity and clear up ambiguity.

Provide Support and Resources
Once the expectations are created and expressed, they can be actively pursued. Providing support and resources is not limited to creating a supportive work environment, but includes motivating and encouraging the organization to attain objectives. It is also the category where the leader provides education, skill development and training necessary to achieve the desired outcome. This category is about the behaviors that the leader is doing to support the achievement of objectives. If there is a lack of competency, training, understanding, time, finances, human capital necessary to achieve a goal, then its attainment is an unreasonable expectation. Leaders can empower their followers to take risks and provide the guidance needed to keep projects and work progressing toward the defined objectives.

Maintain Accountability
This category is where the leader is monitoring and evaluating the progress and providing encouragement, recognition, rewarding achievement and utilizing performance improvement plans to address issues. If there is not accountability, then it is almost impossible to maintain consistency of a standard of excellence. Goal attainment, exceeding expectations and greatness should be celebrated, while areas of opportunities should be addressed and improved. This category is where work and effort is recognized and where people leave if the standards and expectations have not been met, despite the opportunities to do so.

This is a continual process where leaders are maintaining focus on desired expectations and communicating those expectations. If expectations are not defined, are unreasonable or are not communicated then there is a breakdown and a failure of leadership. It is also necessary to create the environment to support the attainment of those objectives and to train everyone into how to meet the standard. If there is not training or skill progression, then there is a breakdown in leadership. Finally, accountability is for the leader and for others. If a leader is ineffective in the other categories then they should also be held accountable to their breakdown and failure in leadership. If the organization is not meeting outcomes despite their defined expectation, communication of success and provision of necessary resources, something has to change. Breakdowns are possible in every category throughout the process, but the process helps organize the effort necessary to reach objectives.

Using data from Forbes and SBRnet, the franchise valuations have steadily grown since 2010. The median franchise value shows how dominant the NFL is in terms of franchise value with the median team worth almost $4billion. This is well above the other sports. It also looks like the NBA has surpassed the MLB over the last couple of years. If fan interest continues, and broadcasting revenue follows, this trend will continue.
The average value demonstrates the same trend, but is higher due to the influence of the largest market teams seeing substantial growth. These graphs also serve as the visual representation for the escalation in purchase price of franchises and the interest of Private Equity investors for minority ownership. As these values rise, and broadcasting increases, owners are able to capitalize on the possibility of a large return with minimal risk. The same is not true for other entities, the regional sports networks who broadcast in local markets have suffered from the rising cost of doing business.