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The Caucasian head Coach Bill Yeast is replaced by African American Coach Herman Boone; was to assume an assistant position reporting to Yeast. Remember the Titans was set in a cultural environment that refused to accept the idea of racial equality and how one colored man, coach Herman Boone, changed this. His arrival into town with his wife and daughter, and his appearance in Virginia High School to coach the Titans football team was met with much disapproval by the white community and to the contrary support and agreement of the black community.
It is here we see the cultural divergence of two vastly different communities. This is the first time we see Coach Bone’s skills as a mediator. He legates the defensive coordinator position to coach Yeast citing that he needs him to be there. He requires his presence to help smooth the transition for the players. At first coach Boone is quite an imposing figure. He exemplifies the persona of a pace setting leader. He expects everyone, his assistants, and his players to fall in line and do exactly what he demands of them. He has the drive and the ambition to succeed.
He also has the knowledge and the experience to execute. Coach Boone prepared the combined team of white and black players at summer football camp. There, he stretched the physical limits of the players, who buffered together. In one of the Remember the Titans 3 Titans: scenes, Coach Boone led his exhausted team to a field where the Gettysburg battle took place, where the blood of countless Americans was spilled. The black and the white players came to the realization that their distaste could be set aside and they could put their trust on one another, regardless of color.
Only then were they able to efficiently function as a team, eventually becoming the undefeated state champions of their time. From the personal convictions on racial equality and the standards by which coach Boone lived, he was able to influence each and every staff and player on his team. Their standpoint on discrimination greatly changed and this attitude was passed on to the Virginia public itself, who admired and applauded the efforts and triumphs of this colored man and his undefeated football team.
Both Coach Boone and coach Yeast use the path goal model of leadership. Coach Boone leverages a combination of achievement oriented and instrumental or directive leadership, while coach Yeast demonstrates a supportive style of leadership. Of the four path-goal theory leadership styles, it is not uncommon for leaders to use a suture of more than one or all four. The nature of contingency leadership means that one or more of the different styles might be utilized to achieve goals in a path like manner.
According to (Butler 2008) such a mixture is often the norm in the path goal model of leadership, “These styles are not mutually exclusive; in fact, the same leader can adopt them at different times and in different situations” (Butler 2008). Coach Boone uses a combination of leadership styles. Boone is very directive in leadership style with respect to motivating his players and coaches to achieve goals. He provides specific guidance and establishing clear and rigorous schedules and rules.
In one scene we see this Titans: 4 instrumental style of leadership combined with the achievement oriented style when Coach Boone explains the rules as it pertains to football performance: ‘We will be perfect in every aspect. You drop a pass, you run a mile. You miss a blocking assignment, you run a mile. You make a fumble, will take you and break your John Browns and then you will run a mile. ” (Yakking 2000). Later, we see Coach Boone inform the new player from California that if he cuts his hair he might get a chance to play ball.
In a scene later in the film, after a haircut, coach Boone tells him to take a play on the field by saying, “l like your haircut” (Yakking 2000). Coach Boone approaches the players similarly way in an effort to remove the obstacle of racism and prejudice that is getting in the way of achieving team goals. He informs each player, again in a direct, instrumental manner, that each of them must get to know every other player on the team, bringing to him a write up about each player as they move on to the next. Unless they do so and until they do so with each player, they will have to do “three-a-days or even four- -days” practices Boone tells them.
In essence, Coach Boone is the perfect text book path goal model leader as (Morehouse 2010). Defines one: “Subordinates will react favorably to leaders who are perceived as helping make them progress toward various goals by clarifying the paths to such rewards, the theory contends that the things a leader does to help clarify the nature of the tasks and reduce or eliminate obstacles will increase subordinates’ perceptions that working hard will lead to good performance and that good performance, in turn, will be recognized and rewarded. (North house 2010). Titans: 5 At the end of the film we see that the players recognize this and remain extremely motivated. During half time of the state championship game, one of the players speaks about Coach Boone. He informs the coach he knows demanded perfection and that he, personally, will never be perfect. However, he points to the undefeated season of the Titans and says that the team is in essence perfect. If it is alright with coach Boone, he says, they would like to finish the current game that way.
Such motivation and high goal achievement is the direct result of Coach Bone’s effective use of a combination of the instrumental ND achievement oriented leadership style that enables him to accomplish the team goal. Coach Yeast traditionally has lead his teams to winning seasons. However, he takes more of a supportive approach as his main leadership style. He favors coddling the players on the team much more than Coach Boone would ever do. At one point he undermines Bone’s authority by putting an offensive player Boone pulled from the game onto the defense.
While the player responds well to this type of leadership, in a later scene coach Boone explains to coach Yeast that this kind of help is not good in the long term: “Now I may be a mean us, but I’m the same mean cuss with everybody out there on that football field . You are not doing these kids a favor by patronizing them. You are crippling them. You are crippling them for life. ” (Yakking 2000). While coach Yeast keeps people happy, Boone motivates them to achieve higher goals because of his leadership style. As he informs the team early on in a clear manner, ‘This is no democracy.
It is a dictatorship. I am the land’ (Yakking 2000). Titans: 6 believe that Julius’ (Julius Campbell, the black unofficial leader of the black athletes) statement that “attitude reflects leadership, Captain” does not reflect NY particular leadership model. Rather, I think it focuses more on a flaw of poor leadership and the fact that we often model the behavior of authority figures. This statement actually reflects the self fulfilling prophecy effect, “the tendency for someone’s expectations about another to cause that individual to behave in a manner consistent with those expectations” (Greenberg 2002).
Julius explains to Gary (Gary Bertie, the white unofficial leader of the white athletes) that he knows that other people, including Gary, don’t give their utmost on the field for the team. He is explaining to Gary, because Gary criticized him for not giving him more on the field. In other words, this is not part of a leadership model or style; it is a common leadership error of thinking. You cannot motivate people to achieve goals by giving their most for the team or “company”, when they all too often see others including management not give as much. It actually robs motivation.
Julius knows that the whites on the team, including the captain, have an expectation of blacks as poor or lazy performers. He gives to the team and captain what he knows they expect and what he sees they also do, a fact that further makes him IEEE their demands as hypocritical. This negative response from self fulfilling prophecy is known as the Geol. effect, or “low expectations of success lead to poor performance” (Greenberg 2002). Coach Boone is a transformational leader. He leads his team to perfection and is able to promote unity, respect while changing bias and attitudes along the way.
Coach Boone has the main traits of transformational leaders: charisma, self confidence, vision, environmental Titans: 7 sensitivity, intellectually stimulating, interpersonally considerate, and inspirational (Morehouse 2010). Coach Boone has charisma. He is able to lure his players and his neighbors from being resentful of and prejudiced against him, to cheering for him when he succeeds due to his forceful personality. He is self confident. At one point coach Yeast tells him there is more to worry about than football. Coach Boone tells him, “I’m a winner. I’m a winner” (Yakking 2000).
Coach Boone never loses sight of his vision nor does he allow his players to do so. He is sensitive to his environment. In one scene coach Yeast refuses to accept coach Boone, telling him, “Now you know what it’s like to be me” in reference to the owns racism and prejudice (Yakking 2000). Coach Boone is intellectually stimulating with players and coworkers. He takes the initiative to have the mathematics teacher analyze the tendencies of one of his assistant coach’s, the unpredictable and as of yet unbeatable coach who makes it to state finals each year. This inspires Yeast and motivates him.
Boone also represents inspiration to his players, like his moving speech on the site of a graveyard of those who died fighting in the Civil War. Coach Boone is treated with resentment by his coworkers, new players, and by the town because of affirmative action. He tells coach Yeast, “Neither one of us want to be here” (Yakking 2000). Coach Boone is able to overcome the obstacles of prejudice and bias that threaten to overwhelm the team and the individuals on it. He overcomes prejudice among his players by making them get to know each other on a personal level.
By doing so he enables those with prejudice to see how false such prejudices typically are and how much they share in common with those they felt otherwise. By forcing individuals to explore different cultures and lives, Coach Boone basically implements a diversity training program among his teammates. With his coworkers, Coach Boone helps overcome prejudice by showing his own abilities and skills and Remember the Titans Titans: 8 by motivating players while producing team unity. He also does so by showing coach Yeast that when he treats the black players with more consideration, he is actually showing prejudice in reverse.
In other words, Boone uses diversity management as it should be, based on respect for skills and qualities not culture or color. As (Morehouse 2010) notes: “For diversity management activities to be successful they must focus on accepting a range of differences between people. That is, they should not treat someone as special because he or she is a member of a certain group, but because of the unique skills or abilities he or she brings to the job. ” Both Coach Boone and coach Yeast demonstrate emotional intelligence, but both also demonstrate a lack of it.
In the beginning of the film coach Yeast demonstrates a lack of emotional intelligence when he is angry because of Coach Bone’s enforced replacement of him. However, he does not realize that if he goes he is creating uncertainty among the players who are used to him who want to quit football if he leaves. He acknowledges this lack of emotional intelligence and ends up staying on as the defensive team coach for his players. This demonstrates that despite a lack of emotional intelligence, with practice and maturity one is able to develop it despite a difficult situation.
At the end of the film coach Yeast demonstrates emotional intelligence when he admits to the players on the team that coach Boone and the players have shown him a new way of thinking and being, one he now wants to readily adopt. This is a sign of his emotional intellect because it shows he has the ability to regulate his own emotions. As (Morehouse 201 0) notes, he is “aware of his own feelings and displays the most appropriate emotions” during this admission. When it comes to coach Boone, he demonstrates a Remember the Titans Titans: 9 good deal of emotional intelligence in the film.
He does so most when he is able to monitor the emotions of others. In one scene in the film, the father of a white player that coach Yeast has benched in favor of a black player comes storming into the coaches’ office and blames Coach Boone and blacks for his son’s abrupt dismissal. Coach Boone demonstrates emotional intelligence at this point by not acting to the father because he knows he is upset about something in his personal life. By not taking the insult personally, coach Yeast is then able to admit the decision is his and the father’s anger is successfully defused.
Had Coach Boone not been able to monitor the emotions of others, this scene might have turned into an aggressive or physically violent one. Despite a variety of his emotional intelligence, Coach Boone also demonstrates a lack of it throughout the film. In the beginning of the film a brick is thrown threw the window of his house, scaring his family. Coach Boone becomes extremely angry and then reacts negatively and emotionally to all those around him as he heads to the school. However, he is counseled by Coach Yeast who tries to make him understand that such emotional outbursts only make Boone and the team more of a target.
In other words, emotional intelligence is required for the good of the team which is something Coach Boone can relate to and makes him mature emotionally. Towards the end of the film coach Boone demonstrates a mixture of emotional intelligence and a lack of it. He knows the coach of the team before the state Hampshire is racist. He demonstrates emotional intelligence by trying to shake the racist coach’s hand after the game the Titans win. This shows emotional intelligence. However, he knows the coach will reject him in advance.
When the coach refuses to shake his hand he turns and says, “Hey coach”, throwing the racist coach a banana in reference to previous prejudicial remarks. This shows a lack of Remember the Titans Titans: 10 emotional intelligence because it could lead to a fight and ruin the Titans’ victory, no matter how morally satisfying it might appear too many in the audience. It s crucial for a leader to develop an understanding of the perspectives of those under their charge. As a leader your integrity needs to be kept in tact, by finding a way to overcome the negative plotting and scheming and still keeping one’s value and belief system.
Leaders sacrifice a lot for their goals. The consequences of undertaking change are great. Any leader who tries to change something in a substantial way is going to face situations in which they have to make critical decisions. The consequences of those decisions are going to affect whether said change happens or not. The movie Remember the Titans provides an excellent duty of leadership principles and challenges in the imperfect environment typical to real life leadership scenarios. Coach Boone is a great example of a leader.
Boone and his assistant coach Yeast provide a good example of the difference between leaders and managers. The two coaches don’t see eye to eye on the best way to manage the team. This difference in coaching styles leads to several confrontations between the two coaches and the players. The clash between Boone and Yeast represents what can happen when two very different leaders attempt to achieve the same goal using different approaches in real the irk place. Lastly, reflecting on my experience with team oriented sports.
As a team evolves and changes players start to recognize who they are and where they want to go as a team. Each player on the team learns to have respect and loyalty for one another. Each becomes leaders on that team. All players and coach’s learn that if one has to sit and fight about something, then they all need to band together. It is very important to create relationships with the team members, as it is Remember the Titans Titans: 11 crucial in management. The players will see they all have credibility, and become titivated to work harder and work towards a team goal.
With a clear vision of the goal and team work the team and individual are able to accomplish anything.