The movie, Remember the Titans, is about two schools, that were segregated by colour, in Alexandria, Virginia during the early 1970s. As the white and black high schools were forced to close, they were merged and called T.C. Williams High School. Bill Yoast, the former high school football coach, was soon to be replaced by a successful African American coach named Herman Boone. Though tensions arose in the beginning between the different races on the team, the players and coaches were able to learn to accept one another and work together throughout their training camp and season leading them to a perfect season.
Coach Boone’s Leadership Traits
Throughout the movie, Coach Boone was able to demonstrate his drive by empowering every member of his team. He had believed in his ability to train, develop and the lead the team, even though he was suffering from discrimination by many people in the community. As the teammates were empowered by Coach Boone’s struggles, they were soon able to act independently and stop arguing during practices. Because of this leadership trait, the team was able to make better decisions for the team.
Coach Boone was a very confident and assertive leader. This ensured that everyone on the team followed his commands. During games, he was confident in the decisions to take a player off or change the plays. If he was unsure about his decisions, his players would have never been able to properly follow him. This lead to his team being confident in trusting him as well creating the team dynamic that he was aiming for.
In the movie, Coach Boone also demonstrated that he was very knowledgeable about the sport of football. During training camp sessions, he was able to demonstrate to the team football plays that were going to help them win their games. Not only was he knowledgeable about the game, he knew how to help make people get along. In the beginning, when the team was on their way to the training camp, the two buses were separated by colour. Later, Coach Boone forced the two buses to instead be divided by offensive and defensive players. The players were also told that they were to sit beside and room with a person of different race throughout the rest of the camp, allowing them to bond as a team.
As the movie progressed, it showed how flexible Coach Boone was, which is an important trait that every leader should possess. Though the two coaches had trouble to come to agreements at first, they were able to get over their differences in the best interests of the team. He was able to quickly modify his plans in order to meet the reality of the situation that they would have to work together. The two soon became friends and created plays that led them to be champions.
Coach Boone also had great communication skills that allowed him to motivate his team. During training camp, he was able to firmly instruct and discipline the boys. He appeared to them as very strong and this lead them to excellent outcomes, as they were undefeated all season.
Coach Boone’s Leadership Style
Coach Boone presented himself with a very hard exterior as he demonstrated the traits of an autocratic leader. He always had a firm approach on his play and ideas. Even though others were allowed to offer their opinions and ideas, he ultimately did whatever he wanted. He believed that if he worked in a command and control style, that it would best benefit the team as the group did not know each and did not experience feeling teamwork. During the movie Coach Boone even states that he would lead the team dictatorship style as “this is no democracy, it’s a dictatorship”. If the players did anything wrong, they were forced to run a mile. When two of the players, Gary and Ray, try to tell him what to do he publicly embarrasses the two and clearly tells everyone that he is in charge of the team in order to put them in their place.
Though sometimes during the movie, Coach Boone was more democratic when working with his assistant, Coach Yoast, as he came up with good ideas of who to substitute during games. Coach Yoast’s participation allowed their goals to be accomplished as a greater sense of team existed. Planning together and carrying out the plays created motivation for the team.
How Coach Boone Motivated His Team
Coach Boone was able to motivate his team in a wide variety of ways. The main way he used to motivate his team was through reward. He provided them with the extrinsic reward of being state champions. Being undefeated became the team’s goal and as they won all of their games they were rewarded in the end. Another extrinsic reward was when a player on the team, named Louie, earned a C+ average allowing him to play college football. Others on the team, including Julius, became All-Americans.
The players on the team also received intrinsic rewards that occurred naturally during their performance. As they won more games their feelings of self competency increased as well as their personal development in learning to cooperate with one another and work as a team. Coach Boone used the rewards as motivation in order for his team to reach excellence. The team’s satisfaction with their rewards increased their motivation to work harder.
The acquired needs theory is demonstrated throughout this movie as the team developed the need for achievement through their experiences. They desired and strived to do better during practices, solve problems together and work more efficiently as a team in order to succeed. Coach Boone has the need for power in order to control the actions of his players and as well be responsible for their behaviour. And the team as a whole had the need for affiliation as they different groups of people were able to connect and maintain friendly relationships with each other and meet unexpected friends, like Julius and Gary. Coach Boone was able to create a team environment that was able to help the specific strengths and needs of everyone on the team. For example, he helped keep track of Louie’s academics as he knew how important it was for him to get into college.
Coach Boone also used Locke’s goal setting theory as he set the goal to win every single game which highly motivated the team. He provided them with training and direction during camp where he also set his expectations for them. They were always to respond to him as ‘sir’ and wear suits on game days. During practices, he provided them with constant feedback and they were eventually rewarded when their goal of winning the season was accomplished.
The reinforcement theory was also demonstrated by Coach Boone as he used the punishment strategy in order to motivate his players. During training camp he told the team, “You drop a pass, you run a mile. You miss a blocking assignment, you run a mile”. This was in order to decrease the frequency of making mistakes through the presentation of an unpleasant consequence, having to run a mile, in order to meet his vision of perfection.
Was Coach Boone a Good Leader?
Coach Boone was a successful visionary leader. He was able to bring a clear and compelling plan towards the team and think of actions that were important and needed in meeting their goals for the future. He was able to challenge the process of being the first integrated school to have a football team. Though the team had to overcome many hurdles due to race issues, Coach Boone was able to create innovative plays and supported Coach Yoast’s ideas leading them to success. He was very determined and enthusiastic to win to the season. The effort and hard work that he demonstrated created respect towards him from the team and community.
Throughout the movie, he was able to teach the players how to act by setting an example himself. He behaved in ways that expressed his own personal values. Though living surrounded and threatened by racism, he was able to overcome conflicts with his team and community and become harmonious with everyone. Not only did the team change their personal views on one another, but the whole community was able to come together and celebrate the team’s achievements. As the team grew they were frequently empowered by Coach Boone as he let nothing like race come between them. He was able to provide the team the knowledge for them to act responsibly in games.
The coach also had a high degree of emotional intelligence as he was able to handle his emotions in social relationships well. Coach Boone had a high level of self awareness and regulation, even after his house was broken into by people who were against him. He also had great social skills as he was able to establish a good reputation for himself and was understanding towards others. Overall, Coach Boone had a strong sense of mission which was to win the state championship as well as being able to earn the trust of everyone on the team making him an excellent leader.