Coach Carter Leadership Styles PDF

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1 Individual Assignment 1

Individual Assignment 1 Coach Carter Movie Organizational Leadership

2 Individual Assignment 1 Introduction The movie Coach Carter, a story about Richmond High school Basket Ball Coach, Ken Carter who changed life of his team by guiding, motivating and inspiring his team. In the story, the coach meets the team in a basketball championship where the players were fighting among themselves and pointing out each other’s mistakes. He was invited from the Richmond high School by then coach to take up his position as the Basket Ball coach which he accepted. He understood that the players were very undisciplined and disrespectful fellows. He focused on gaining in team spirit and team work which the team lacked the most. He brought in commitment by making the team sign a contract which had certain conditions. He started as an autocratic leader. He gave punishments for those who did not follow his instructions. This acted as a negative reinforcer. He changed his strategies according to the situation. He had a vision for the team and did not care about others perception. All through the stages of building and coaching the team he had gone through different tough situation which he faced very boldly and fearlessly. When Coach found that his team was doing bad academically, he locked down the gym and cancelled all the matches. The college authority, parents and the media criticized him for this, but he did not change his decision. The coach focused not only on winning the match but on the overall achievement and development of their lives. Vision and Motivation Vision The coach was a very realistic person and his goals were long term. He knew his team and their behavior. His vison not only included winning the basket ball competition but also improving the lives of every individual in the team. He wanted them to be better

3 Individual Assignment 1 individuals and to have a better life and for this he taught them discipline which informed their lives and gave them choices. The actions taken by the coach were goal oriented. He wanted to bring in discipline, focus, trust, patience, team work, honesty and accountability in the team. The coach strongly believed in “standing together” (team work) and said that “if one man struggles, the entire team struggles”. His vision was to create a change in the life of the students personally and academically and focused on their future which he succeeded at the end by inspiring their life. The main aim of the coach joining the school was to change their lives. He told his vision to his team and what he visualized. He said he saw a system that was designed for them to fail. He told the team that, Richmond high only graduates Fifty percent of the students, out of those who graduate only six percent gets into a college and thirty three percent probably gets arrested or get killed. He wanted the team to think about their future, family and get a better life. He also said that he would do anything in his power to get the team into college and to get better life. Motivation As a coach, Ken Carter was able to inspire and motivate the team. Coach motivated them to focus both on basket ball and on academics. He created a contract with the team to maintain discipline and teach them the value of commitment. According to the contract signed by the team, each team member was supposed to report for practice on time, wear jacket and tie to college, should sit in the front row, attend all the classes and maintain a 2.3 GPA. He also motivated the team by saying that not only winning is important, one should act like champions and should show some class instead of humiliating the opponents. He motivated the team to respect each other by addressing everyone in the

4 Individual Assignment 1 team by “Sir”. He used negative reinforcers to motivate the team. He gave punishments (suicides and pushups) for showing attitude and not following the rules. The motivational theories that I could see applied in this story are: •

Reinforcement Theory: The coach used both negative and positive reinforcers to motivate the team. When the team breaks the rules or shows attitude, coach gave them punishments. In the situation, when Mr. Junior Battle said he can’t follow the rules and showed attitude, Coach punished him by giving him five hundred suicides and pushups. He used these punishments as negative reinforcers. At the end of the story, when Richmond team lost with St. Francis team, Coach Motivated the team by telling them, how proud he feels about them. He did not criticize them for loosing rather he supported them.

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Douglas McGregor X Y Theory: Here Coach used Mc Gregor Theory X. Here the team had little ambition, did not want to take responsibility and did not have trust or commitment with each other. Coach carter played the role authoritarian leader here. He had a set of rules wherein all the team had to follow. This motivated the team to practice harder, focus on the academics pass with good grades and get admitted to good universities.

The coach did get better results, the team knew what team spirit was all about. They learned the essence of trust, cooperation, team work, mutual respect. An instance from the movie is when Timo Cruz asked for a second chance, the coach asked him to complete two thousand five hundred push ups and one thousand suicide in a certain timeline. However, he was not able to complete it on time, that’s when one of the

5 Individual Assignment 1 teammate “Jason Lyle” said he would do the rest for him followed by the whole team and shared his punishment. Ethics Coach Carter was a man of great ethics. He gave importance to values, mutual respect, discipline and trust. He taught his team respect, disciple and the importance of education. •

Coach was an unbiased person he treated every player equally. Being the first day at school, Damien Carter was late for practice. Despite of being his son, coach punished him with 20 suicides. He always stood up for the better future of the players. He wanted the students to have a better life.

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When he was questioned by the parents and the college authority about locking down the gym and cancelling the matches, Mr. Carter politely and patiently answered their questions and stood by what is right. He also asked the college authority, if the players couldn’t honor the simple rules of the basketball contract, what’s the guarantee that they would break the law when they are out of the high school. Coach also said that he took up this job to effect change in them and if the authority votes to lock out, he would quit his job.

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Mr. Cater taught his players to respect each other and their emotions. He addressed everyone in the team with respect by the usage of the term “Sir”.

During a

conversation when Mr. Worm (player) used the word Niggah, Mr. Carter explained that it was a word used to insult their ancestors and strictly warned them not to use it.

6 Individual Assignment 1 Dilemmas Faced The dilemmas faced by the coach in this story were •

When he was called by the parents and authority to decide about the gym lock out. Here coach had to decide whether to support his team to focus on the academics or to go with the opinion of the parents and the public to open the gym and letting the players practice. He had to face a lot of criticism from the society and even faced their abuse. He also lost the vote during the board meeting, but he never gave up.

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Another dilemma the coach faced was when one of his player Mr. Battle’s mother came to him and asked him to take her son back on team while he was suspended from the team for his bad behavior. When she explained his situation and how he lost his brother four years back. At that time, Carter showed sympathy for him and was in a dilemma to take him back on the team or to punish him.

To resolve these dilemmas Kidders decision making principle was used. This speaks about how good people make tough decisions. There are three was of decision making in this are End Based, Rules Based and Care Based. Here Coach resolved his dilemmas with the help of End based decision. Because he knew that if he opens the gym as demanded by the society and the parents, he would be putting the players future in trouble. He wanted a better future for them. So, he even decided to quit the job rather than going with the board’s decision. These dilemmas could be resolved in a different way if the college authority, parents and the society understood the real intentions of the Coach. If the college was strict with the

7 Individual Assignment 1 education system, attendance and gave equal importance to academics too, this situation could have been handled in a better way. Leadership Effectiveness Coach Carter was very effective as a leader. He was a person with a lot of passion, enthusiasm and focus. He took his job in Richmond to effect a change. He was very good at decision making knew what’s right at which situation. His strategies were a bit different. During the practice sessions Coach explained the power and influence of women in basketball. he took examples of his sister Diane, who taught him man to man Defence, and how Delilah, his childhood friend taught him trap defence. The strategies he used were innovative and interesting. During ever game Coach and the players used these strategies for defence. He always motivated the players and even told them he would do anything in his power to give them a better future. The Coach was successful in achieving his goals however was very strict and stubborn with his rules and anyone disobeyed, or disrespects would be punished. If we consider the Carter’s Big 5 personality traits. •

Openness: Coach carter never hesitated to share his experience with the players. He always spoke what he felt and was very open. He told his experience as a student in Richmond and what would happen if the players do not take academics seriously. He also shared about some of his team mates who ended up in prison and even dead. He also shared experience on how he learned basketball from women.

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Conscientiousness: Coach Carter was very particular when it comes to conscientiousness. Coach prepared a contract which consist of a set of rules which

8 Individual Assignment 1 for the players and got it signed by them. He also made sure that everyone in the team followed the contract and anyone not following these rules were punished. He also asked Principle Garrison about the progress reports even though Coach did not get a positive response, he was very particular about his plans. •

Extraversion: Coach carter was an extrovert. He maintained good relation ship with everyone and was very expressive. He was a very confident person. When the team lost the final game with St. Francis Coach told his team how proud he was. The coach even maintained good relationship with the previous coach who appointed him.

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Agreeableness: Here, Coach carter disagreed to the decision of the society, college board and media. This disagreeable nature brought in change. Coach carter never agreed to the decision to open the gym. He said he would quit if the gym was opened. He faced a lot of criticisms for gym lock outs and practice cancellations but never gave up on his decisions.

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Neuroticism: Coach carter was never affected by any of the criticisms. He was strong, bold, remained positive and confidently faced all the situations. He was never depressed when a person trashed the window of his store and abused him at the traffic signal.

As far as intelligence is concerned Coach had good analytical intelligence. He analysed the problems and that existed and evaluated it. He understood that it was not the students who were responsible for the failure, but it is the education system which not giving enough importance studies and graduation. He was an experienced person, so he had practical intelligence too. He had experience as a student in Richmond 30 years back. He could visualize the future of the players if it goes the same way. When it comes to creative

9 Individual Assignment 1 intelligence, he was very creative with his defence strategies and had very good skills. It was because of the Coach Timo Cruz found out his deepest fear. The contingency theory that was used here is the Normative leadership theory. Coach Carter used an Autocratic style of leadership. Here the coach makes the decisions and solves the problem himself. He does not consult or ask for opinion from any of the players. The coach made a set if rules which must be followed by everyone in the team and he did not ask for any suggestions or opinions. Key Lesson – Personal Leadership Development Some of the key lessons of personal development from the movie that I could use in my life, job or as a project manager are •

Team work: One of the key lessons I learned was team work. The movie was all about team work. Each person is unique and with different set of skills, working as a team we could learn a lot, makes us more innovative, increases our communication skills, develop our decision-making skills.

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Respect: The story speaks about giving respect. We have to earn respect. Respect also means acceptance. As a project manager, respect is very important as having respect in the team builds trust, open communication and support.

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Responsibility: One should have the courage to take responsibility of their doings. I learned not to blame others for my mistakes rather to acknowledge and accept them. Its very important when it comes to the project management. As project managers we will be responsible for several tasks and its not right to put blame on others.

10 Individual Assignment 1 •

Hard work: Another important lesson that I have learned is to work hard to achieve my goals. Being project managers, we may have several goals to achieve and the one of the major ways to succeed is hard work as it is the baseline to success. In the story too, Coach made them practice hard during the practice sessions and finally he got succeeded.

Thus, the movie Coach Carter taught us what leadership is and how a person could bring change and inspire others.

11 Individual Assignment 1 References Juneja, P. (n.d.). MSG Management Study Guide. Retrieved November 3, 2019, from https://www.managementstudyguide.com/reinforcement-theory-motivation.htm. Midgie, & Michele. (n.d.). Theory X and Theory Y: Understanding People's Motivations. Retrieved

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https://conestoga.desire2learn.com/d2l/le/content/287624/viewContent/5983963/ View. Coach Carter Movie - https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/70019004...