Analysis of Leadership and Motivation Theories in the Movie Coach Carter

Being a leader is one of the most responsible roles one can take. An effective leader knows what is best for the project team as well as have a complete understanding of the needs of employees, peers as well as of the superiors. Outstanding leaders are rare and the movie coach carter (2005) portrays an example of a phenomenal leader Mr. Ken Carter as the Coach in the movie. In the following paragraphs the author will emphasize on studying the leadership and motivation theories used in the movie with certain examples of different scenes to help in better understanding of the discussed theories.

This essay will focus on the following basic framework to effectively study the theories concerning the plot of the movie.

• Personal leadership development.
• Mission, Vision and motivation.
• Leadership effectiveness.
• Ethics.

Mission Vision and motivation

Samuel Jackson portrayed Ken Carter as the protagonist in the movie who had a goal and specific vision in which he decided to guide the team players that only playing basketball is not enough in terms of securing the future life to be fully successful they have to excel in every fields. For example, Sports, attendance and studies. He also had goal to instill better moral values as the athletes and to see all his students excel in different areas of life rather than just being good at basketball. The main objective was to remind the society about the original concept of the student-athlete program as he wanted the athletes to be students first and excel in studies so that they succeed in the court as well as in their lives and pursue different goals and careers in near future.

For fulfilling his desired vision, Ken Carter created a specific plan and designed guidelines which the students had to follow to keep on playing. He prepared a contract and listed all the rules and conditions which the team members had to fulfil to stay as the active members of the team. Every student in the team had to get at least 2.3 GPA, along with that presence in all the classes in the front row of class. The whole reason behind this approach was a good basketball season along with a good academic performance will deem the students eligible for a sports scholarship in colleges and they would be able to set their careers which were the vision of coach.

As the coach proceeded with his tactics initially it faced the opposition from the team but eventually students tends to understand the coach intentions instead and this acted as motivation itself for the coach as he wanted the society and the students to realize the potential of that wonderful project. Even on argument with the school principal coach did not changed his tactics as already knew that with the existing system of sports in school most of the players will not make up to college and finally ruining their lives by indulging themselves into wrong deeds and that’s why he wanted to change it. He wanted his pupils to achieve much more than just having a good basketball player in the season.

Marlow’s theory of motivation works almost perfectly with regards to the situation of the basketball team in this movie. The theory states that everyone has a hierarchy of needs which ranges from low to high. As soon as the lower needs get fulfilled, higher needs emerge. In case of the basketball team, when coach joined the team, he observed that there a lack of teamwork and the stamina in the players, so he begun with the teaching of respecting each other and setting up punishment on making mistakes or disrespecting each other. Although the punishment was designed in such a way that it will help in building up the stamina of the players. Once this need was completed the next was the performance as a team during the match for that he worked on that team should respect another team even if they have loosed the match to them. And finally, he observed that students are not performing well on academics, so he banned them from the gym and in the end, students realized the coach is right so performed good in academics as well. As the season progressed, all the above factors mentioned team accomplished a undefeated streak of winning in the season and selected for state championship. And even some of the students got the scholarship for the college.

Ethic

Ethics are defined as moral values which govern a person's behaviour. Coach Carter displays strong moral values and coach believed that mutual respect is necessary in between the teammates to achieve the goal as a team and individual. The coach respected his beliefs and values even when he was asked to either change his principles or quit the job. His strong moral conduct and his strict behavior resulted in various ethical dilemmas which can be described by Kidder’s four paradigms for understanding ethical dilemmas and are written as follows:

• Individual vs community
• Trust vs loyalty
• Justice and mercy
• Short term vs long term

The main ethical dilemma faced by the coach was when he decided to lockout the gym and didn’t allow any of the players to practice as they failed to keep up with coach’s plan and guidelines as per the contracts. He even cancelled the matches and abandoned the players to play any game unless they fulfilled the requirements of the contract. His action caused the team their first defeat due to a forfeit and ended the winning streak and the coach had to suffered a lot of backlash from the community which is a perfect example of individual versus community dilemma as the school staff, the parents, students, media and the whole community were against the decision made by coach Carter.

Although the opinions of the both sides were right at that time, but the coach had a vision of student’s future life after the school. it becomes their duty to perform academically whereas the society argued that the students showed excellence in their sport and coach had no right to stop them from playing and performing. The issue was resolved due to the coach's strong morals as he decided to quit the job rather than giving up on his principles and the school board decided to go against Ken Carter's will, the team members decided to respect his vision and fulfilled the contract amendments as they acknowledged his vision for them.

Leadership effectiveness

Being an effective leader is a tough job and in the movie Coach Carter. Initially, the players only listened him just to avoid punishment but as the team progressed in the tournament, they started acknowledging the coach as a good leader and started showing respect and earned the respect from the coach as well. This mutual respect between them helped in strengthened the team by boosting their morale, improving the team strength and encouraged the players to perform even better. The coach wanted the players to win not only in basketball but also in the challenges ahead of them soon and under his guidance and excellent leadership, many of the student-athletes successfully shaped their careers.

Ken Carter displays a diligent nature with a strict personality and a never give up attitude. He always pushed the team to their limits such as he repeatedly asked same questions to one of the players in the team, Timo Cruz, that “what is his deepest fear?” Or “if he is inadequate for the task?” The motive of the coach was to help him overcome his weaknesses and he successfully achieved that constantly motivating the players and showing trust in their abilities. Timo, who was the most rebellious of students later thanked the coach as he helped him set a goal and a purpose in life.

The coach shows great understanding in terms of weaknesses and strengths of players as he was able to pinpoint the biggest weakness by observing one single game. He worked on the team's stamina and instructed them to trust his judgement which led to team's first win in the season. This gives a vague idea about the coach’s practical intelligence as he was able to identify the weakness and able to overcome it with the help of his quick judgement and experience.

Ken Carter also displayed implementation of creative intelligence in his coaching techniques as he observed the common day to day behaviour and the qualities of the people around him and used them to create creative plays. For example, he used the behaviours of his family members to classify offence and defence for teaching his students the basic techniques of the game and made the process a whole lot easier and entertaining to understand.

The leadership style and the coach’s techniques can be simplified into three categories based on Fiedler’s contingency model:

• Leader-member relationship: The coach treated every single one of the teammates equally and didn’t hesitated punishing even his own son (Damien Carter) for being late for the practice. The coach respected every member of the team and told them to treat everyone else with the same respect they want for themselves. Mr Carter remained strictly professional while coaching and did not let his emotions hindered his judgement for the team.
• Degree of task structure: The coach prepared a contract for all the members of the basketball team which required the athletes to fulfil certain requirements such as maintaining an average of 2.3 GPA and attending all their classes. He made sure that everyone follows the tasks given to them on and off the court.
• Power and position of the leader: In the movie Coach Carter he made it very clear with the principal that on joining as Coach, he would do things his way. He was granted that choice hence he had complete control over the players. He used this power to completely change the attitude of the players as well as improving both their game and their academic performance. The coach’s only intentions was not to make player better in their game but to be responsible adults and stay disciplined in life as well.

Even though all the players were against his ways of coaching during the initial stages of his coaching, they accepted his techniques as the coach was able to deliver extreme results with remarkable improvement in the performances of the players. The dedication of the coach helped motivate the whole team to go from their worst season to their best season.

Personal leadership development

The movie Coach Carter has a lot to learn as there are many scenarios from which one can learn a thing or two about leadership. The coach displays certain qualities which can be incorporated into personal and along with that in professional life.

Key lessons that can be applied in the job

• Mutual respect among peers for optimum performance and for improving the working relations and environment.
• Long term success should be preferred over short term goals, but it doesn’t mean that the short-term goals can be overlooked.
• A disciplined approach along with clear vision ensures the successful accomplishment of desired goals.
• The coach quotes “one player triumphs we all triumph and if one player struggles the whole team will struggle” which gives an idea about how important team spirit is for success at the workplace as the whole team’s success is preferred over one's aspirations.

Key lessons for life

• One of the biggest lessons the movie has to offer is that life is full of ups and downs and tough decisions must be made to keep moving forward.
• Morals and behaviour affect a person’s life choices. Hence one should know about their strengths and weaknesses to overcome different situations.
• Professional life should never be mixed with personal life and one’s emotions should not cloud their thinking. Key lessons for a project manager:
• A project leader should be well versed in different types of intelligence to tackle the different situations as these personality traits can help motivate others as well as help in solving a conflict.
• A project manager should treat the employees equally and make sure the project stays on track.
• The leader should be able to make hard choices for the overall well being of a project and as well as for keeping the team motivated and focused on the work.
• The project manager must have a clear vision as well as a proper understanding of the end goals or products. The leader should be able to utilize the available information and resources in the best way possible.