Leadership in Business

This article discusses the leadership traits and styles displayed by Coach Boone and Coach Yoast in the movie. It analyzes their effectiveness and impact on the team's success. The article also explores the importance of leadership skills in developing a team and achieving goals. It concludes by evaluating whether Coach Boone is the right person to lead the team in the future and suggests other potential effective leadership figures.

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LEADERSHIP IN BUSINESS
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Question 1: Coach Boone and Coach Yoast appeared not to always agree with each other’s
leadership approach. What leadership traits did they display which differentiated them? To what
extent were they effective?
These two coaches were both loved by their respective teams due to their impeccable
leadership skills but their respective traits at times made them disagree with each other on
various issues. Coach Boone displayed the following traits he was socially bold this trait was
demonstrated by his willingness to move his family to the town of Virginia where he knew the
perception of the white community towards his black family and to take up the role of the head
coach despite all the opposition and prejudice that come with the title (Collett et al, 2010). He
was also tough-minded this is especially demonstrated when he woke up the team at 3 am to
train despite the open disapproval from coach Yoast who insisted that the team was just a high
school football team and not the marines (Boyce et al, 2010). Coach Yoast demonstrated more
empathy than Boone this is portrayed when he goes to talk to Petey Jones after the poor
performance that resulted in Boone scolding him in front of everyone while the game was going
on. Bonne is particularly not happy after Yoast returns Petey back into the game. Boone also
demonstrated the dominance trait, he did not turn back on any decision he made nor did he like
his decisions to be questioned. This trait is shown when he confronts Yoast concerning the
open defiance of his decision to bench Petey after he messes up his play but Yoast instead
returns Petey back to the field. It did not matter to Boone that Petey went back to the field and
played better than before all that mattered to Boone is that Yoast challenged his authority in
public. The maturity trait has been displayed by Yoast more than Boone, Yoast despite his
dissatisfaction with being second to Boone is more concerned with what is best for his players
than his career (Holbrook, 2009). He takes the time to motivate his players and show them their
value, on the other hand, Boone is more task-oriented he is more focused with winning the
game and any player that demonstrates any deviation from his goals is met with harsh ridicule.
This trait difference, in particular, caused a lot of problems between the two coaches were one
wanted results at the expense of the players and the other was more concerned with the players
(Walumbwa & Schaubroeck, 2009). Yoast as a leader was better at managing complex
situations than Boone this is demonstrated by Yoast’s ability to control his players when they
wanted to go and join the rioting white people at the beginning of the movie but are stopped by
Yoast while Boone’s lack of this trait was demonstrated by his reaction when disgruntled white
fans threw a brick through his window when Yoast’s daughter Sheryl was at Boone’s home. This
clearly caused a problem since Yoast was not happy how Boone handled the situation the next

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day. Both coaches portrayed the compulsiveness trait, they both valued their reputation and
integrity that was why Yoast did not want to work under Boone and that is why Boone did not his
authority to be questioned (Cranmer & Harris, 2015).
Question 2: Coach Boone states “This is no democracy. It is a dictatorship. I am the law”, and
used conceivably punitive measures during camp. Is this statement reflective of his leadership
style? Would it imply a task or people orientation?
Coach Boone’s statement “this is no democracy. I am the law” is the first example of his
authoritarian leadership style (Cummings et al, 2010). This leadership style is mainly employed
when the leader has all the necessary and relevant information. This leadership style is applied
by a leader by clearly telling the followers what you want to be done and how you want the task
done without inquiring or asking for their advice. Normally this leadership style is used under the
following conditions when there is little time and the leader understands what needs to be done
and when the followers are properly motivated. In the movie Coach Boone primarily uses this
leadership style, for example when the teams were boarding the buses to go to Gettysburg
College and Gary Bertier confronts coach Boone demanding that a specific number of positions
to be left for the white team, coach Boone openly shoots him down by asserting his authority
before him and all the parents present and states that he will be sole decision maker in the team
(Salahuddin, 2010). Before they leave Coach Boone demands that all players alight from the
buses and instead mixes up the two teams so that every white player has a black seatmate and
vice versa. He also makes it very clear that they will be sharing rooms in the same manner.
Coach Boone does not ask for their opinion or suggestions and outright seems not to care about
them complaining. When the two teams first fight Coach Boone clearly explains to them that any
failure to perform as expected or any misconduct will result in the perpetrator running a mile. He
understands and appreciates any person that plays for him and makes it very clear that he will
never cut anyone from the team but any shortcoming will result in a mile run. During the entire
training period he trains the teams how he sees fit especially his offensive sector, he also
respects and does not interfere with coach Yoast as he trains his defensive team. Coach Boone
demonstrates this autocratic leadership style when Coach Yoast tries to hand him some trick
plays but instead he instructs Coach Yoast to focus on his defensive play and leave the
offensive play to him. After consideration of his leadership style coach Boone is more task
oriented than people oriented. Task-oriented leadership is a behavioral method that is used by
leaders who concentrate on tasks that require to be completed so as to attain particular goals.

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Given his very precarious position of integrating two teams from different racial backgrounds
that hate each other so that they can produce a racially integrated team, Coach Boone was,
therefore, more focused on achieving this objective than anything else. This leadership
approach has been demonstrated by Coach Boone while they were in the Dining hall and asked
Louie Lastik what he knew about his roommate Jerry ‘Rev’ Harris and proceeded to give every
player a similar assignment of knowing their roommate and reporting back to him concerning
what they had learned about each other (Van der Wal et al, 2014).
(Bhatti et al, 2012).
Question 3: What leadership skills were integral in developing the team and aiding their goal
achievement? Explain & Examples?
Some of the leadership skills that were important in the development of the team and
achievement of the goals of the school include first the ability to inspire others, this may be one
of the most difficult duties of a leader (Kythreotis et al, 2010). A leader can inspire others by
setting a good example in the sense that if a situation is tough the leader needs to be tough as
well so that the followers will have a focal point where they can get their inspiration and
motivation to perform their duties as expected. As John Quincy Adams so eloquently put it “if
your behavior can motivate others to dream more, understand more, undertake more and
develop into more, you are a leader”. Therefore, if the success you possess motivates your
followers, you can with relative ease overwhelm any challenging situation in this current age or
in the future. The leader needs to be a good communicator this will enable the leader to
communicate their vision and aspirations to the team and highlight the strategies that will be

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used to achieve the objectives. An individual that can communicate effectively can be a good
leader this is because words have the capacity to give motivation to people and make them do
the unimaginable this is portrayed in the film by Coach Boone every time he clearly laid out what
was expected of everyone in the team. A leader needs to be empathetic with his or her followers
this will enable the leader to understand the issues that affect the followers, feeling and
understanding the pain of employees is the first step to becoming an effective leader (Germain,
2013). The world is changing every day, therefore, a leader needs to be intuitive so that they
can better deal with the information overload. This means that reasoning and logic will not assist
the leader through all the situations that they may face. Hence, more leaders around the globe
are learning the value of utilizing and trusting their “gut feeling” when arriving at a decision.
Team orientation is another useful leadership skill that will assist in the achievement of set goals
this is because good leaders place a lot of importance in encouraging the adult to an adult
relationship which nurtures team cohesiveness instead of encouraging adult to child relationship
that makes the employees feel underestimated by their employers. Self-assurance is another
important trait since leaders strong in this trait have a tendency to be free of any guilt and do not
need any approval from anyone regarding how they perform their activities (Odumeru &
Ogbonna, 2013). Leaders with this trait are commonly confident and free from any guilt that may
have a raised from past mistakes or shortcomings. Finally but not least is the maturity trait,
leaders who have such a trait are very concerned with the success and performance of their
followers rather than their own career advancement. Such a leadership trait is integral for the
overall success of the participants since the leader will try his or her level best to make sure that
every individual with the organization has achieved some level of personal success. This will
naturally cause such employees to work harder and be more productive since they will
appreciate all that the management has done to make sure that they reached some level of self-
actualization.

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(Khan et al, 2015)
Question 4: Is Coach Boone the right person to lead the team in the future? Are there other
leadership figures who would be more effective in continuing its development?
After watching the movie and analyzing the leadership qualities of Coach Boone I
personally feel that he was the right person to lead the team into the future. He displayed an
unwavering commitment to achieving the task set before him, the integration of the two teams
was a mammoth of a task that was expected to fail. The school board assigned him that very
specific task so that he could fail and lose his job instead he guided and directed the players
and not only did he succeed in integrating the two teams he went on to win the championship at
the end of the season. His authoritarian leadership style at first seemed like a problem but later
was revealed to be the necessary tool to guide the two teams, they needed a strong and firm
leader who did not falter when he reached a decision (Giltinane, 2013). He was the necessary
leader because he was also concerned with his team and their interpersonal relationship. Boone
understood that the key to success was to make sure that the players knew each other deeply
and that was why he instructed the players to know everything about each other and report back
to him. Coach Yoast was the other important leadership figure who was also very capable of
leading the Titans to the future. His maturity trait enabled him to gracefully accept the assistant
coach position so that his boys would not lose their chances of getting scholarships when they
said they would boycott the team. His willingness to lose his position in the hall of fame by

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threatening to expose the unfair referees and school board members that wanted the Titans to
lose so that Boone would lose his job, showed that Yoast was a good leader who had the best
interest at heart for his team even at the expense of his own career (Schafer, 2010). Garry
Bertier also displayed exceptional leadership qualities and would have also been effective in
leading the team into the future. Bertier’s leadership qualities have been displayed throughout
the film by the way he manages to inspire his team through his acceptance and cooperation
with Julius Campbell. Gary lead by example, the deep bond he forms with Julius Campbell
paved the way for the other team members of both races to follow. This created a strong
cohesion among the players that enabled them to attain all the success they had. Bertier also
displayed his leadership ability by his willingness to cut his best friend from the team due to his
adamancy to be a team player. His best friend constantly failed to cover Jerry Harris that
resulted in him getting hurt, he takes the responsibility and after getting permission from Boone
he informs his best friend that he is no longer part of the team since he threatened the team’s
success and was clearly not willing to let go of his hate and racism and be a team player (Bodla
& Nawaz, 2010).
Question 5: Assess Boone’s overall leadership, using appropriate models/theories. Relate the
Theory/Tools of leadership.
Coach Boone generally used the authoritative leadership style when dealing with football
players. He portrayed a strong sense of direction and had a clear picture in his mind of what he
expected from the team members and the coaches alike. According to the situational theory of
leadership, there exists no single leadership style that is best for every situation, it all hinges on
the situation that is unfolding currently and the type of leadership style and strategies that will
best-suit the task at hand (Thompson & Vecchio, 2009). In accordance to this theory, efficient
leaders are those leaders that have the ability to adjust their style depending on the situation
and after consideration of factors such as the variety of task, the characteristics of the group,
and any other unforeseen circumstance that will enable the completion of the task (Mujtaba &
Sungkhawan, 2009). According to this theory, there are four major leadership styles they
include telling: this leadership style involves the leader instructing the followers what to do and
how exactly they should do the task also known as an authoritarian leadership style.
Participative: this leadership style involves the leader giving fewer instructions and availing the
followers or group members the opportunity to take a more active role in the decision-making
process but still retains the authority to make the final decision (Dolatabadi & Safa, 2010).

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Delegation: this leadership style involves a very hands-off approach to managing followers.
Such leaders give full decision-making authority to the followers or group members and they
usually take full responsibility for the outcome of the decisions made. Selling: this leadership
style involves more back-and-forth dialogue between the leaders who try and persuade their
followers to adopt a certain process and the followers or group members offering their
suggestions regarding the suggested action (McCallum & O’Connell, 2009). The appropriate
leadership style to be used will primarily depend on the maturity level, is the level of knowledge,
of the followers or group. There are four maturity levels they include low maturity: group
members in this level do not sufficient knowledge or willingness to accomplish the assigned
task, therefore, the authoritative leadership style will be employed in such a situation. Medium
maturity (M1): followers in this group have the willingness and enthusiasm to complete the
assigned task but they do not have the sufficient knowledge to do the same, therefore, the
selling leadership style will be used. Medium maturity (M2): group members in this category
possess all the necessary knowledge and capability to accomplish the given task but are not
willing to take responsibility. When dealing with such characters the participative or democratic
leadership style is used. High maturity: followers in this level are extremely skilled, possess all
the knowledge, willing to complete the task and enthusiastic about the same. When managing
individuals in this level the most appropriate leadership style would be the Delegating style. This
situational model of leadership emphasizes on flexibility in order for leaders to be able to
change accordingly in regards to the needs of their group members and the demands of the
prevailing situation.

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(Mujtaba & Sungkhawan, 2009)
(Thompson & Vecchio, 2009).

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