Leadership in Remember the Titans Essay

In 1971 Coach Herman Boone replaced a popular, successful white coach at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, in that community's effort to finally integrate its schools. The school and community were angrily divided by the federal integration order, and the volatility of the situation was heightened by the abrupt demotion of Coach Yoast and Boone's promotion to Head Coach. In this movie Coach Boone is on a mission to try to get the white and black players to unite and play together as a team. He wanted the two races to become a team. Around that time, there was a lot of racism and a lot of schools were segregated, so the players obviously didn't get along with each other at first. A lot changed when Boone replaced Yoast

Coach Taylor is a major character in the show, he embodies what a good coach and husband is supposed to be like. He cares for his team like

Leadership is shown in many ways in the movie and leadership is represented through main characters. Coach Boone first of all represents the entire black community overcoming the oppression that they have experienced through all of the years. He exhibits the determination that is inside all of the players to win the state championship

Leadership factors in Remember the Titans - the leaderships styles of coach Boone and coach Yoast were suited to the team and worked well with them. By the end of the film the team had a good relationship with the leaders; coach Boone, coach Yoast and Gerry.

As a black coach he faced way more challenges than Coach Yoast, the white coach, would ever have had to deal with. The situation that he was in was extreme; therefore, he had to take extreme measures to gain control of the situation. Eventually, the movie portrayed the fact that Coach Boone had the skills that a coach should possess. He was knowledgeable, caring, fair, and a quick thinker.

In the begging of the film, Herman Boone which is Denzel Washington was brought in as an assistant coach to join the all-white coaching team. Couple days later, because of high school rule Coach Boone had to be a head coach. But at first he was unwilling to take the offer the head coaching job at first because same things had happened to him when a white coach was selected as head coach over him in South Carolina. In this scene you can tell Coach Boone respects everybody and not hating people. But soon He finally accepts the head coach when he sees that the black people lived in the town saw him as a symbol of pride and hope because he could be the one could overcome the racism in the town. When he talks with coach Yoast, coach Yoast was worried because his white kids won’t start the football team but Boone told him “I aint going to cut them and eat them. Best player will play color won’t matter”. In this sentence he doesn’t care black or white or not, he wants to best player to win the games

Coach Bill Yoast doesn’t resemble coach Herman Boone, he believed that his players’ needs and personal interests should be supported and would result in success. Therefore, I don't think he follows just one leadership style. The idea that successful leaders adjust their styles based on the development of followers, or players in this case, as indicated by their performance in a given situation. In addition, his leadership style has noticeable notes of servant leadership in it as well. Servant leadership revolves around the idea of helping individuals use their talents to full potential.

Boone and his family face horrible experiences when moving to Alexandria. When moving to the neighborhood, many neighbors were so upset but many were also happy that he didn’t back down. He was offered the head coach position but turned it down because he felt it would be incredibly disrespectful to Coach Yoast. Boone & Yoast agreed to make the relationship work. The African American students meet with Coach Boone in the gym, the meeting turns into a disaster when Coach Yoast and the white students arrive and disturb the meeting. Gerry Bertier was one of the students among the crowd of white students to interrupt. “I’m Gerry Bertier. I’m the only All-America you got on this team. If you want us to play for you, you reserve over half the positions …we don’t need any of your people on defense we’re already set.” said by Gary Bertier to Coach Boone. Boone makes it clear that all players will be on the team regardless of the color of their skin.

As a leader you must be real with yourself and others for fake will not fix or implement change. In his position Herman Boone was real in a sense that he was genuinely honest and upfront in every encounter with others, he does not sugar coat things or beat around the bush, and instead of telling you what you want to hear, he tells you what you need to know. At times though it seems that Boone’s raw emotions such as his attitude, assertiveness and arrogance are a bit too real, we are able to see that they are key components in how he establishes his sense of urgency throughout the organization. At the start of the movie, the sense of urgency created by Boone’s attitude almost lead the team in the wrong direction, as the players did not respect or understand the way he went about doing things. For example, before the players leave for camp Boone is approached by Bertier about positions on the team, in the midst of the conversation Boone says “You take a look at her. Cause once you step on that bus you aint got your mama no more. You got your brothers on the team and you got your daddy. You know who your daddy is, doncha? Gary, if you want to play on this football team, you answer me when I ask you who is your daddy?” Statements such as these do not usually sit well with others, many including myself would find this very disrespectful. On the other hand Coach Boone’s ability to be real with himself as well as others allows him to express raw emotion and concern that explains his reasoning behind his actions, As shown in the scene after the first game when Yoates challenges Coach Boone’s public criticism in regards to Petey, he replies “you think you’re doing these boys a favor, by taking them aside every time I come down on them…I may be a mean cuss but I’m the same mean cuss with everyone on that football field the world does not give a damn how sensitive these kids are…you are crippling them” the tough love shown by Coach Boone towards his players expresses a real

As the movie progressed and Coach Boone’s vision came together, Coach Yoast slowly but surely began to show more support. Coach Boone’s consistent preaching, that he did not view the team as black and white players, but instead, simply as football players who must form cohesion and take actions not for self, but for team, eventually rubbed off on Coach Yoast. This is where the culture in the coaching staff began to form. Trust also began to build and the three coaches, now more cohesive themselves were able to accomplish much more in order to coach their players much more constructively. By the time the Titans had made it to the championship, all three coaches had put their differences aside, bought in to the vision and culture, and were able to coach their players to victory.

Coach Boone had an excellent follower or Co-leader. Coach Hines’ co-leadership abilities seemed to be the conscious for Coach Boone. He steps in and positively influenced Coach Boone decision. Also, Coach Yoast is excellent as a co-leader. The success of an organization or team is incumbent upon the abilities of everyone and all successful leaders have highly effective co-leaders.

Traditionally, analysis on roles for effective leadership surround corporate or military settings with clearly defined problems, discernable issues, and areas where hypothesis can be made, models formed, predictions tested, and outcomes verified. Analyzing a film like Seabiscuit for the roles of leadership present many interesting questions about leadership and what it means to be a leader. The film Seabiscuit chronicles the lives of individuals as they become intertwined to produce an outcome, training a horse to race. At what point do individuals stop seeing themselves, in their daily lives, as individuals and begin seeing themselves as members of groups having to take on leadership and

The 2000 film Remember the Titans starring Denzel Washington and directed by Boaz Yakin also depicts a realistic management scenario. Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) demonstrates strong leadership and communications skills. He motivates his team and develops a sense of cooperation that had

3. Herman Boone belongs in the Team Manager style of leadership. This is because he obviously has a very high concern for the task, which is creating a winning team. He demanded perfection and drilled the boys at practice to achieve that perfection. During the games, he was always completely engaged and adapted to changing situations. For example, he put Sunshine in as quarterback even though he was having some trouble throwing earlier, as he knew Sunshine would come through and help them win the game.

Presented early in the movie, Coach Boone announced he coaches a dictatorship method, in comparison to a democracy coaching style. Additionally, the approach made by Coach Boone was extremely efficient; however, I didn’t consider this to be the most appropriate way to introduce himself, along with his policies. If I was personally given this introduction from a coach, I would react in an unorthodox manner. I’d grant the coach complete respect throughout all of it, especially considering the coach just embarked a new opportunity, in a new school. However, I would question him persistently, work hard, and more than likely ask the coach to have a personal meeting about expectations and more intense questions driven by curiosity. The leadership