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

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-