The Transformational Leadership of Coach Carter

Coach Steve Rocker is one of the most successful high school basketball coaches in Kentucky’s history. Coach Rocker was very successful in previous years. Strangely, this year was very different for him. For the first time in his professional life, he is falling short of his expectations, the community expectations, and the team’s expectations. His team lost a lot of games, but most importantly the boys had no motivation or desire to bring the team out of the rut they found themselves. His players have lost their will to win, their love for their teammates, and their passion to play. Coach Rocker’s motivational methods that have always worked before and resulted in success are now failing, and he doesn’t know why. He argues that his players have become selfish and bored with winning because they have been so successful in previous years. “And there’s no question that my guys have lost their drive to win because they’ve won so much in the past. Now all they want is individual ‘wins’…which just doesn’t cut it on a team” (Gongwer, 2010, p. 17).

Those that follow a transformational leadership framework believe that leaders possess many of the aforementioned qualities, but the focus is on one’s ability to inspire and empower others (Ross, Fitzpatrick, Click, Krouse, & Clavelle, 2014). These leaders literally ‘transform’ their followers by inspiring enthusiasm and performance towards a

There are several leadership styles represented in the film “Hoosiers.” This movie brings two different concepts called transactional leadership and transformational leadership. Transactional leadership styles are more concerned with maintaining the normal flow of operations, whereas a transformational leader goes beyond managing the daily tasks for leading their followers to success. Transactional leadership styles also include trying to establish direction, aligning people, they are dedicated to communication, creating teams, motivation and inspiration. A transformational leadership styles basically turn towards to creating the agenda and requests, they are dedicated to planning, policies and procedures. The leader’s job

His teaching styles were very unintentional but you could tell what he was doing. Since he had experienced a similar situation when he was once on a team, he had wanted to give his team a different form of coaching that they wouldn’t have had expected at Richmond High School. Coach Carter did a very exquisite job at portraying these learning styles, knowing that there could have been consequences to a certain amount. It was gratifying to see that Coach Carter would do anything for his team, win or lose, he wanted them to come out successful and at least learn something even if it was a

effective coach/teacher is “he told them they are a team now so they have to work as a team.”

“At practice, Coach was always shouting the word Dig!” (Ehrmann 2011, pg. 53)What coach doesn’t ask for their players to work harder, dig deeper, or strive? We all do. “But to Coach it always meant: Dignity, Integrity, and Grace.” (Ehrmann 2011, pg. 53). Joe Ehrmann’s book InSideOut Coaching is an amazing look into why coaches coach. My mind was blown. My book looks like a firework display of highlights, underlines, and notes. There are so many ideas in this short book my head swam. The book really made me question the what, why, and how I am coaching. His ideas and opinions are a game changer for me. I can relate to Parade Magazine’s assessment; Joe Ehrmann is “The most important coach in America.” upon completing the book. For me the D.I.G.

Coach Dean Smith was head coach of the University of North Carolina (UNC) men’s basketball team for 36 years, from 1961 to 1997. He tallied 879 wins during his tenure at UNC, with his teams appearing in 11 Final Fours and winning two National Collegiate Athletic Association National Championships. He also coached the 1976 United States men’s basketball team to an Olympic gold medal. Coach Smith led and mentored many future National Basketball Association (NBA) legends such as James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Vince Carter, Jerry Stackhouse and Michael Jordan, to name a few. His successful basketball strategies and game innovations no doubt contributed to his wins on the court, but as important to his sustained team success was his methodical approach to team building and genuine care for his players as individuals. Dean Smith was both a visionary and ethical leader. This essay will detail how Coach Smith was a visionary leader that fostered an inclusive environment and used transformational leadership, with a focus on individual consideration, to methodically mold his teams. Additionally, the essay will show how Coach Smith was an ethical leader as he avoided falling into the ethical trap of worry over image and used the essential intellectual trait of intellectual perseverance in confronting the ethical

Anonymous .2005.Coach Carter: Wiki quote. Retrieved November 23, 2011 from the World Wide Web :http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Coach_Carter

Basketball teams need a coach that believes in them. The team needs a coach that will work hard to help them achieve the goal of winning. They need a coach that communicates and shows interest in each of the players. On the other hand, they need a coach that can be directive, but also supportive. In the case study this week, Shirley was quite the opposite. Conflicting enough, by all appearances she did not have a total grasp of the concept of leadership in coaching basketball. Factors that could cause the lack of leadership could be confidence or even lack of knowledge (Cohen, 2000). In this paper, Shirley’s leadership style and behavior will be discussed, along with looking at situational factors and other leadership styles that

Charles Barkley once said, “I am not a role model. I am not paid to be a role model. I am paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court. Parents should be role models. Just because I can dunk a basketball does not mean I should raise your kids.” No adult has a choice as to whether a child looks up to him or her, but parents are responsible for raising their children as best they can. The first role models or leaders in most children’s lives are in fact their parents; although they may not be the best role models, they are often the figures that children first learn from. Even if there was a perfect parent, that should not limit a child from observing other leaders. John Wooden, considerably the most successful basketball coach in NCAA history, led the UCLA Bruins to 10 NCAA championships with an all-time win-loss coaching record 885-203 (UCLA site). A Game Plane for Life: The Power of Mentoring, is a collection Wooden’s anecdotes related to leadership and the applications of those methods to his coaching practices. Observing leaders from the past allowed Wooden to envision clarity in the future; a clarified vision of the future gave Wooden more power in the present. John Wooden was a consistent and prepared leader who fostered a community of trust and knew his values.

This paper summarizes the article written by Cam Caldwell, Rolf D. Dixon, Larry A. Floyd, Joe Chaudoin, Johnathan Post, and Gaynor Cheokas regarding the need for a new type of leadership in today’s social work environment, defined as Transformative leadership. The article itself varies in the definition, however in a broad sense Transformative leadership is maintaining good moral standing and sound business ethics among employees and individuals inside and outside the workplace. However, in order to reach this theoretical level of business related moral and ethical leadership known as

“Time-Out’s mission is to empower student-athletes to be successful adults. Time-Out is committed to providing prevention and support services that will prepare them to be self-sufficient adults.”

An author that is consistently referred to by Yukl, 2013 is James M. Burns, 1978 on transformational leadership. According to Burns, transforming leadership is a process in which "leaders & followers help each other to advance to a higher level of morale and motivation" (Burns, 1978). Burns (1978) informs the readers that the purported difference between leadership and management is in the character and behavior. Burns’s (1978) perspective on leadership has been used by others to develop leadership theories and influence on followers for positive performance (Yukl, 2013). Burns (1978) is said to have developed the idea that transformational leaders change the behavior and motivations of followers. In other words, influence on followers can be determined by the leadership method, behavior, and style. Transformational leaders strive to motivate and change followers’ mentality to redirect energy into action to complete the goals and mission of the organization (Burns, 1978). The argument is that the character and traits of the leader transforms and motivates subordinates to perform better and better (Yukl, 2013).

The film “Coach Carter” demonstrates many great examples of good communication between coach and athlete. I will point out a few examples of good communication from the film and I will explain why the examples I discuss demonstrate characteristics of effective communication. I will use a few excerpts out of the communication chapter of our text book, Chapter 11. I will use these excerpts from Chapter 11 of our text book to explain why the examples/quotes from the film, that I have pointed out, demonstrate good communication skills. The film “Coach Carter” is a great film about a high school basketball team that is located in a bad area of town. The

Transformational Leadership can play a role in creating a successful team. It can also be the process that changes and transforms people dealing with emotions, values, ethics, and standards. Transformational Leadership is the process whereby a person engages others and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower (Northhouse , 186). This applies to a team because you always have to be able to connect and motivate others