Leadership Skills in Cool Runnings Movie: Critical Evaluation of Derice Bannock's Role in Team's Achievement

The essay provides an overview of Derice Bannock's leadership skills in the Cool Runnings movie and his role in the team's achievement. It analyzes his leadership traits, styles, and behaviors that were effective in the team for reaching their goal. The study highlights the participatory leadership style adopted by Bannock and his effective communication, relationship building, time management, commitment, motivation, and problem-solving skills. It also reflects on whether Bannock was the right person to lead the team and would he be the right person to lead the team into future competitions.

Running head : LEADING CHANGE – COOL RUNNINGS
LEADING CHANGE- COOL RUNNINGS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Introduction
The essay provides an overview about the critical evaluation of Derice Bannock
leadership and his role in team’s achievement. Effective leadership traits have huge
significance in developing the team and achieving the target (Yukl 2012). A leader plays vital
role in workplace by initiating and communicating plans to their team. Leaders not only
provide guidance but also build morale to their team members. This study highlights on the
Derice Bannock adopted participatory leadership styles for developing the team. This style
facilitated their team members to focus on their work as well as share their innovative ideas
(Sethuraman and Suresh 2014). This essay also reflected on the leadership skills showed by
Bannock including positivity, commitment, relationship building, motivation, time
management, effective communication etc. These leadership skills helped both the team and
Bannock to achieve the goals of the film. These leadership skills not only helped Bannock to
understand the key challenges faced by the team members but also solve the conflicts between
the members. This study also analyzes about whether Bannock was the right person to lead
the team. Passion being one of the vital factors for success in organization, it has been
analyzed that Bannock was the right leader owing to his passion insight. Bannock’s overall
leadership has been assessed in this essay by using appropriate theories that includes- traits
theory, transformative and participatory theory of leadership. However, this essay basically
focuses on the fact that leaders must exhibit particular skills as well as attributes for achieving
success in business.
The leadership traits of Derice Bannock in developing the team
In the Cool Runnings movie, Derice Bannock has been presented as an associative and
visionary leader. From the beginning of the movie, Derice Bannock exhibits the
characteristics of that leadership style in the Goleman's leadership styles. He takes the
obligation to embarrassing his country with the dishonour and appeals the committee to
reprove him for his mistake, but not the Jamaican team. Derice throws down earlier
experiences he had with Junior to create a team. Derice was enthusiastic about learning
everything about bobsledding and take the team to participate in the Olympics as Jamaica's
first bobsledding team. It is a pronounced sample of how individuals in due course join
together into a team. Derice attempts to generate a team link while competing in the qualifiers
and finally to the Olympics. He provides his team members with an energy talk about the
emotional state of how this is all going to pay off in the end. From this, the spirit of excellence

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can be learned. Moreover, it can further absorb that the team lead by someone who requires
accomplishing all responsibilities and tasks with a sense of quality inspires others to produce
well-finished work. By analysing the case, we can conclude that Derice showed
transformational leadership which is very close to visionary leadership style (Stam, Van and
Wisse, 2010) in which it is emphasised that leaders are not essentially born but they can be
shaped. Leaders have to learn to adapt change and understand Different Power bases which
are different for different situations.
Jamaica is a country moulded by internal riots and colonialism. However, the country
has delivered notable personalities often ranging from musician Bob Marley to the sprinter
Usain Bolt who all carried the Jamaican spirit in conquering the hearts of millions. The Derice
Bannock exhibited the same charm and charisma alongside a persistence to achieve the goals.
He was truly inspirational in his efforts to pursue Olympic dreams in a competition item
unheard in his nativity. The role of Derice was inevitable for the existence of the particular
team that debuted in Calgary, Canada; maybe even the history of their national team
(Whannel, 2008). His passion for his goals was critical for the development of the team as he
was able to successfully accumulate the talents and resources along with the mentorship of an
Olympian coach. He was a visionary in every sense and was able to transform the history of
his team members as these third world underdogs exhibited unmatched levels of
sportsmanship garnering acclaim from international competitors. Moreover, the personality of
Derice Bannock suggested that he was able to rise above failures as he looked for feasible
options and was even willing to pave new paths amidst continual oppression (Sheppard,
2014).
Did Derice Bannock always demonstrate effective leadership behaviours?
According to Cordone (2016), conceptual skills are more essential than human relation
and technical skills for the top-level management people. This is because these skills support
the leaders in decision making, organizing, planning, and understanding how different
businesses relate.

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Diagram: Skills needed for leader in organization Source: uoda-mba (2018)
Bannock in “Cool Runnings” film had strong conceptual skills along with required technical
and human relation skills that helped him to develop effective plan and make decision in
difficult condition. Although Bannock did not get enough supports from his team members
and enough investment in his team, his strong conceptual and interpersonal skills supported
him to overcome the challenges and to achieve the goals and objectives (Atkin, 2014).
The other reason of gaining success by Bannock is the effective leadership practices. Mullins
(2016) classified the leadership styles mainly as authoritarian/autocratic leadership,
participative/democratic leadership, and laissez-fair leadership.
Diagram: Leader styles Source: Mullins (2016)
Bannock mainly applied participative/democratic leadership style that encouraged his team
members to work hard and share their ideas and knowledge that ultimately supported
Bannock to make effective decision and plan for the film. However, he used
authoritarian/autocratic leadership style when he was de-motivated by his team member,
mainly by Sanaka Coffie. Although autocratic style practiced by Bannock initially de-

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motivated the team members, this style helped Bannock a lot to gain success and finally
motivated the team because of achieving success.
The good traits and leadership behaviors of Bannock also supported him to achieve his goals.
According Walter (2015), a good leader leads by example, over-communicates, keeps
commitments and promises, trust team, asks for feedback, treats everyone fairly, listens, and
acts with consistency. Mullins (2016) said a good is self-confident, creative, communicative,
decisive, and optimistic. Bannock’s team member de-motivated him. For example, Sanka
Coffie told him “the right foot for us is not the Swiss foot”. But, he did not de-motivate his
team members. Rather, he encouraged his team with is technical and motivational skills, and
leadership behaviors including self-confidence, commitment, treating everyone fairly,
listening and asking for feedback. In addition, Bannock stand aside from his Olympic dream
and looked for other games where he can compete. Then, he inspired his team and followers
with the knowledge gained. Because of his good traits/characteristics like honesty, openness,
and trustworthiness, his team members relied on him and followed him cordially.
Then, Bannock is considered as a trusted leader because he has had strong trustworthy
behaviors. There are five important levels of trusts that are confidence, skill, consistency,
loyalty and free faith (Robin, 2016). Bannock had ability to be able to get people in Cool
Runnings and the people were working by believing him because he was consolidated, open
as well as intellectual. He was reliable in this work and leadership. In addition, he inspired his
team members as well as followers are sure to participate in everyone. Bo (2015) said, a good
leader have five behaviors on that the team members rely on. These are telling the truth,
communicating roles and responsibilities, creating a workplace culture that values real people
relationships, being fair and open, and modeling the behaviors. Bannock had almost all of
these good behaviors that why the team members could rely on him and worked sincerely to
achieve the goals of the films.
In conclusion, it can be said that Bannock had the good and effective leadership traits and
characteristics, and behaviors. As a result, he was able to take effective and efficient decisions
during leading and motivating his team, and overcome the challenged faced in the team, and
achieve the goals of the “Cool Runnings” film.
The leadership skills those were effective in the team for reaching their goal:

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Derice bannock showed some leadership skills which were vital in the team for achieving
their goal.
 Positivity-we can see from the movie cool running that how Derice Bannock has trusted
his team mates and the positive energy he has on developing his team because there were
many conflicts between the team mates but he takes everything in a positive manner and
trusted that this team can make it to their dream of participating in an Olympics.(Agrawal,
2012).
 Effective communication- A leader is required to develop this skill as it helps to make
sure that the leader is able to communicate well the various strategies, policies, tasks,
vision, etc to the employees. Derice Bannock was effective in communicating with his
team mates so that they could understand well what was expected from them. This movie
has portrayed many incidents of this skill.
 Relationship building- The leader is always expected to foster the relationship as well as
to maintain a healthy relationship. Derice Bannock took effort and time to develop and
foster an effective relationship with the colleagues which was significant for the team in
achieving the target.
 Time management- Time management is a skill which a leader must possess in order to
attain the goals of an organization. Time management means how the leader decides
where to invest his time on and also to make the employees understand the importance on
managing time. Derice Bannock knew and decided where to invest his time on and on
which resources.
 Commitment- A leader is always committed to the company and its vision. Derice
Bannock was also committed towards his team mates. A leader who is not committed
towards his or her work will not be able to attain the goals. An example for this one is
when the coach asks what name will they give for the team, Bannock suggests the name as
‘cool running’ which he meant ‘peace be the journey’. So by this he conveys his team that
their strategy will focus and commitment.
 Encourage team work- A leader should possess this skill in order to make his or her team
work along towards attaining the goals of the organization. Derice Bannock always tried
to motivate his team members to work harder and effectively in the direction of achieving
the goals (Price and Weiss, 2011). Derice Bannock encouraged the team and tried to
identify the areas where they needed improvement by obtaining timely feedback, having
conversations with the team members, etc.

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 Motivation - The leader should always try to recognize and appreciate the team members
who perform well. Derice Bannock was very good at encouraging his team mates and he
always point each members strength which motivates the team.
 Effective feedback- Derice Bannock always provided regular or timely feedback to the
team members so they could know about their strengths and weaknesses and also could
identify the areas where they needed improvement (Price and Weiss, 2013).
Problem solving and conflict resolution- The leader should have this skill in order to solve the
problems of the team members. Derice Bannock always tried to identify the issues that had
been faced by the team members and also should put efforts to resolve the situation of
conflicts. One of the example for this skill was that when some of the team members make
some issues in a night club .Bannock makes his team mates aware of their goal and he bring
back his team for practice in order to attain their goal.
Was Bannock the right person to lead the team? Would he be the right person to lead
the team into future competitions?
Leadership skills are needed today to be successful in any industry. Passion is one of
the key factors for success. In that case Bannock was the right person to lead the team,
because he has the passion insight. Moreover, there are also leaders who identify leadership
with passion. For example, Index Group CEO ErolBilecik says that the words "Passion,
Excitement and Do not Give Up" come to mind under the leadership, and explains why: "I do
not think it is possible to drag believers without the" passion " Commitment to your business
is one of the best messages you can give to the other party as your leader. At the same time, it
is really necessary to create a 'thrill' stream. Your pursuit of your goals and ideals together
with your team is a very important thing in leadership.” As shown in the movie Bannock
embarks to shape a bobsleigh group, enrolling his companion SankaCoffie, and the other
wiped out sprinters Lewis and Brenner; alongside his planned mentor Blitzer.Furthermore, he
would be the right person to lead the team into future competitions. According to a study on
the functioning of the brain, the link between the leader or the person carrying the leadership
potential and the employee in the team is stronger than the other members of the team.The
team leader needs to get in touch with the team in order to be able to progress synchronously
and succeed.At the beginning of the features of team leaders is to have a vision to manage a
team. In addition, it is necessary for the communication to be strong, to be able to give
encouragement to the employees working on the team, to motivate them continuously about

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the work, and to have enough discipline about the follow-up of the work.Bannock had an
opportunity with communicating with his team.
Obsession in pursuiting both detail and a dream comes with passion and turns to excellence
(Peters,1994).A leader who has passion is driven forward from the vitality it produces. With
regards to driving yourself as well as other people passion and vitality are basic. David Loye
(1997)discusses the historical sources of left-right motivations; reexamines the theories of
Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, and Marx among others; and analyzes a wide range of historical and
contemporary relevant research.
An Assessment of Bannock's Overall Leadership Using Appropriate Models/Theories:
Fruitful groups have leaders that are solid, and the importance of this role is in all type
of games. Based on Bannock's role as the major actor in the Movie titled 'Cool Runnings' we
can clearly certify that he is a task-orientedleader.This is clearly defined in a major statement
made by Irv Blitzer his coach to him:
“A Gold medal is a wonderful thing, but if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be
enough with it.”
Traits Theory
This is an early supposition that leaders are born. That is, some people are naturally born with
the right characteristics. The following are some of the qualities Bannock Derice possesses
under the trait theory of leadership:
 Ability to adapt to situations
 He is always alert to social environment
 He is oriented by achievement andambitious
 He is cooperative and assertive
 He is dependable and stands by what he wants
 He has confidence in himself and he is very persistent
 He willingly assumes responsibilities and he tolerates stress

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Transformational Style of Leadership
Transformational leaders have the vision and passion to do the extraordinary. Working
with Bannock Derice was fun, due to the passion and energy he used all through.
Vision Development: Transformational leaders begin by the improvement of a dream, a look
at the future that will energize and change over potential adherents. Even though this vision
may either be created by pioneer or any colleague, the pioneer totally becomes tied up with it.
Vision Selling: Bannock constantly sold his vision to his friends and his coach. This took him
a lot energy and commitment because few people immediately bought into his radical vision
before others decided to join the show. He had to sell himself alongside his vision.
Determination of the way forward: While selling his vision, Bannock Derice actively sort
the progress. While some transformational pioneers know the path forward and others are
roused to tail them others don't, however they will cheerfully lead the investigation of
conceivable courses to the guarantee arrives.
Taking the lead: Transformational leaders remain upfront, they are constantly noticeable and
will confront be tallied as opposed to hole up behind their troops. They appear by their
activities how every other person ought to carry on. They additionally endeavour preceded
with endeavours to inspire and rally their devotees, continually doing rounds, tuning in,
calming and enthusing. Bannock did all these.
Participative Style of Leadership
Also known as the democratic style, these pioneers share the decisions with the social
event and is as often as possible arranged to assign commitment. This sort of activity has
confidence in meeting and is excited about making imperative social associations inside the
gathering. The conviction is that can't avoid being that by giving 'ownership' of the errand to
everyone, the get-together will work harder, making solidarity and a normal reason. This style
is exceedingly effective in a co-dynamic beguilement or when time restrictions are not as
requesting, singular help may be required, if clusters are pretty much nothing and when in the
independent periods of learning has been expert (top of the line level).

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Conclusion
From the above essay, it can be concluded that leadership can be effective if it is build
on the solid foundation that consists of clear vision as well as mission, specific strategy and
proper culture contributing to success. Moreover, it is necessary for the leaders to recognize
appropriate leadership skills based on the goals of business. Besides this, development of
personal attribute is one the vital factors for effective leadership. However, feedback is the
important tool in development of attributes. Effective leader also benefits the team by helping
them to face the challenging situations that arise in the competitive business world. As the
business environment constantly changes, the basic responsibilities of the leaders is to initiate
as well as manage the team changes for adapting with this changing circumstances. In
addition, trust, team building and empowerment are the important signs of the effective and
persistent leadership. It can be seen from this study that Bannock had good leadership traits
and behaviours, which made him the trusted leaders. Although Bannock did not get full
support from team members, adoption of effective leadership skills helped him to build good
relationship with the team members and achieve the target of the film. Moreover, Bannock’s
strong interpersonal and conceptual skills helped him to build effective plan as well as make
decision during the team building. Furthermore, Bannock also analyzed the attitude and
behaviour of the team before adopting the leadership style in leading the team to future
competitions. Hence, this shows that effective leadership helps the team members to improve
their performance and achieve success in business.

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