Coach Carter Essays

Coach Carter Essays Coach Carter Paper Coach Carter Paper Coach Carter was a great leader and coach, who encouraged is team and pushed them to be the best they could possibly become. Many of the characters are seen in a negative light at the beginning of the film however as the film progresses Coach Carter leadership style show how he influence his students in overcoming adversity and transform them to be become winners on and off the field. Some of the main themes in this film is the importance of leadership, unity, discipline, and education. Leadership Movie Coach Carter (2005) Film Transformational leadership is a process that changes and transform people. It is concerned with emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long-term goals. It includes assessing followers motives, satisfying their needs, and treating them as full human beings. Transformational leadership involves an exceptional form of influence that moves followers to accomplish more than what is usually expected of them. It is a process that often incorporates charismatic and visionary leadership. (Morehouse Sixth Edition 2013). This relates to Coach Carter because at the start of the film one of his student, Time Cruz was so adamant not to follow the rules of Coach Carter which leads him dropping out the basketball team. However later on within e film o see Cruz wanting to come back to join the team and to prove to Coach Carter that he has changed and will do anything to prove to coach carter to get back on the basketball team. This shows that transformational leadership theory was used as Coach Carter had the power to influence Cruz enough for him to want to change and to become more than just a good basketball player but also academically. Transformational leadership theory is built up from four main factors; idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration. Idealized influence it is the emotional component of leadership (Antiskid 2012). Idealized influence describes leaders who act as strong role models for followers. They can be trusted and respected by most people they work with which allows that leader to be trustworthy to make big decisions for who they are currently leading. Inspirational motivation leaders are individuals who communicate high committed to and a part of the shared vision in the organization. Team spirit is enhanced by this type of leadership which will lead to positive attitudes which helps to achieving goals. Intellectual stimulation is where the leader oho encourage innovation and creativity through challenging the normal beliefs or views of a group. An example of this type of leadership is they like to promote critical thinking and problem solving within the individuals they are working with to allow a better outcome on what they are focusing on. Individual consideration is where the leader is very considerate with the individuals they are working with by advising them as well as coaching them. They encourage the individuals to allow them to reach their goals. Effective transformational adhering results in performances that exceed organizational expectations. Figure 9. 3 illustrates the additive effect of transformational leadership because managers must pull together the components to reach performance beyond expectations (Morehouse, 2013). Motivational Leadership Motivation can be defined as the process that initiates, guides and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. Motivation is what causes us to act. A motivational leader will have the ability to motivate the team and make the team want to behave in a certain way and do certain things as the outcome will give them satisfaction. Coach Carter uses motivational goals, for example he puts a ban on the gym and they have to achieve good grades in school before they are able to play basketball again. Motivational leaders must be committed to the social good of the organization. The social good is a broad term that can refers to the leaders willingness to take on the responsibility of trying to advance the overall human good and value of the organization. Coach Carter has these three aspects of motivation (willingness, dominance, and social good) he display those behavior throughout the movie. Trait Approach to Leadership Trait approach to leadership can be related closely to the personality traits mentioned on the what is leadership page. Original research on Trait theories (Stodgily, 1948; Mann 1 959) and trait approach often started with a list of leadership qualities which were seen as necessary for a successful leadership. This pie chart shows the Key Traits associated with leadership. When research into trait theories was carried out in the sasss it was believed that leadership traits could only be inherited and not taught (Goodwin, 2006). This theory was criticized by the sasss as it was noted that these same leadership traits were shared by a wider group of individuals who were not in leadership roles. Research continued to be carried out on trait approach despite some criticism. Gardner (1989) suggested that one individual with certain leadership qualities that can lead in one situation is able to lead in a different situation too. Again, this was criticized for minimizing the impact of the situation (Sadler 1997 in Doyle and Smith, 2001 ) and for the example of leadership qualities suggests, some were seen as behaviors and skills rather than qualities (Doyle and Smith, 2001). It is difficult to link trait approaches to specific examples of leaders as many leaders have some or all of the traits that are reckon sized. Coach Carter falls into this category. Coach Carter is intelligent he is well educated but he also has previous experience and knowledge of coaching basketball teams. Throughout the film coach carter shows integrity through upholding his believes and values even when doubted by other such as the head teacher, Other staff members, certain team members and even the whole local community. Coach Carter also shows signs of other traits, self-esteem, extroversion, conscientious and open o experience. Therefore it is arguable that Coach Carter leadership style also uses trait approach. These are behaviors and skills rather than qualities therefore it is dependent on how the individual uses these behaviors to determine whether they are an effective leader. Many individuals have these traits however it does not mean that every one of them will be a leader (Morehouse, 2010). Coach carter has these traits and he use them in the way that makes his leadership style successful. Authentic leadership has an explicit moral dimension. Underlying both the racial and theoretical approaches is the idea that authenticity requires leaders to do what is right and good for their followers and society. Authentic leaders understand their own values, place followers needs above their own, and work with followers to align their interests in order to create a greater common good. Morehouse 2013). For example, Coach Carter stops basketball practice because of the teams bad academic performance, one of his player Time Cruz Quits the team for a second time, eventually going back to work for Runny. Late one night, Runny (Times Cousin) is shot and killed on he sidewalk while Cruz is walking back to him after greeting his friends from the team. Cruz ends up at Carters house that night, apologizing for his behavior and begging him to allow him back on the team. So Carter lets Cruz back on the team, saving him from a future like his cousins. The actions Time has done shows that he now realizes that his Actions can heavily result on his future and this is a major sign of change. One of the best scene and speech was Coach Carter addressing to the board and Time Cruz to Coach Carter. [To the people in attendance at the board hearing] You really need to insider the message youre sending this boys by ending the lockout. Its the same message that we as a culture send to our professional athletes; and that is that they are above the law. If these boys cannot honor the Simple rules of a basketball contract, how long do you think it will be before theyre out there breaking the law? Played ball here at Richmond High 30 years ago. It was the same thing then; some of my teammates went to prison, some of them even ended up dead. If you vote to end the lockout, you wont have to terminate me; Ill quit. Coach Ken Carter. By the end of the film the hearted of Time Cruz is now shown in a positive light. Time Cruz speech to Coach Carter as he was walking out the gym. Time decides to tell him what his deepest fear was (throughout the film the Coach has been asking Time what is his deepest fear) Time Cruz replies: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people wont feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as hillier do. Its not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. Sir I just want say thank you You saved my life. He phrases a quoted from Marianne Williamson in her book, Return to Love. From Time Cruz point of view since returning back to the team he has left the drug trade for good. At the end of the movie it states that he was successful of getting a scholarship and he attended Humboldt State University where he plays settable as a starting guard. This movie was inspiring and motivational. It show leadership style, leadership traits, and leadership principles. It was enlighten to see a group of teenage misfits are turned around into positive and life affirming men who go on to do great things with their lives despite people constantly telling them that theyre nothing. One of the most important lessons from this movie is that when you start believing in yourself and your team and telling them positive things like you can succeed or as in the movie you can go to college Hat it opens the door on personal growth. For example: Dont let circumstances define the destiny of yourself or your team. In this leadership movie Coach Carters boss, the principle, denies that even half of the boys will graduate from high-school and yet they do and many went onto college. When your own leaders start telling you that success cannot happen, you should feel confident to challenge them respectfully and show with your results that transformation can happen and goals can be met. Secondly, your team will never be perfect, believe in who you have. No one is what you want them to be but leadership is about rising above peoples nakedness and building on what they do have to see them succeed. In conclusion Coach Carter displays a combination of leadership styles in the movie. Transformational leadership is thoroughly demonstrated throughout the movie. Transformational leadership is the ability of a leader to get people to do more than they originally expected to do in support of large scale innovation and change. By inspiring the team, Coach Carter envisioned each players can achieve far more than they could ever imagine. As a team he had made them suffer and triumph together. Carter had a positive influence on en another and most importantly he encouraged everyone to work at their full potential. Not only as basketball players, by maintaining a GAP of 2. 3 or greater, it had set an opportunity for senior players to graduate as well as further their academics and basketball career to a college degree. Challenging the team to take greater ownership for their work, and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of followers were few of the many things he was able to accomplish. The study concluded that there are positive benefits of transformational leadership in social work.