Personality traits, motivation, leadership styles, emotional and social competencies, and attitudes towards coaching were investigated in a sample of Slovene coaches. Four groups of coaches could be described by two discriminant dimensions. One was interpreted as group leadership, defined by democratic leadership, reports on problems related to coaching, more task than performance orientation, and reduced directivity. The second was interpreted as permissiveness, characterized by weak behaviour control, low achievement imperative and a lack of high aspirations, reduced domination, lower openness, poorer social skills and feed-back tendency. Successful athletes’ coaches were focused on their trainees’ emotions and needs, inclinated to democratic leadership; they were dominant personalities ready to talk about the professional problems, unwilling to use social skills to command athletes. Less successful athletes’ coaches were less focused on relationships, task oriented, didn’t show a tendency to include anyone in decision-making, commanded their trainees often and communicated with them a lot, although the meaning and purpose of it was questionable. The coaches in team sports resembled each other regadless of the quality of their trainees. They differentiated from the individual sport coaches due to less expressed group leadership behaviour and lower permisiveness. Type of sport makes coaches more alike than the level of success.