The Lessons of Team Building and Leadership in the Movie "Coach Carter"

Coach Carter is a drama film which was released in 2005 by Paramount pictures, and directed by Thomas carter. The movie is based on true story, in which Richmond High School (California, USA) head basket ball coach Ken Karter, Became famous in 1999 for benching his undefeated team due to poor academic results. As much dismayed by the poor attitudes of his players as well as their dismal play performance, Ken Carter thinks about to change them. His vision was so clear and he also wanted his team to have vision and to achieve goals in their life. For instance, in movie he was saying to his basket ball team “Junior, Lyle, Kenyon and Worm can play basketball at college level that’s a viable option for all of you But you have to perform in the classroom to have that chance, you have to have vision”(Gale, Robbins, Tollin, & Carter, 2005, 00:51:35). This statement by him tells us about his vision and his behaviour to encourage his team to have vision for achieving something. He also had belief if his team will follow some principles in their life then nobody can stop them to achieve their goals. For instance, in movie he said “If you do those things gentlemen, I guarantee you, at the end of game we will be there” (Gale, Robbins, Tollin, & Carter, 2005, 02:01:03).

As motivation approach of Coach Carter, Ken Carter was a great motivation for his basket ball team members. His motivation also encouraged team members to move towards their goal. For Instance, when one of the team members (Mr. Cruz) quit from the team, he felt insecure and wanted to join the team again after his friend got shot. The Coach Carter, despite receiving hatred and abuse from that person, accepted him as a team member and there was one more scene in the movie, when Cruz was panting and still penalized with doing 500 push-ups, one of the other team member offered to do the push-ups to help him for completing his task. This shows, Coach Carter maintained a balance of the self -esteem among the group members. Carter’s motivation worked for his team as they were selected to play in the final state tournament championship and during that match also he was motivating them. In the scene, during the final championship he was saying “when we step on the floor every second that clock is ticking, we are pedal to the medal” (Gale, Robbins, Tollin, & Carter, 2005, 02:00:25). Though his team did not won the championship but still he was saying to his team members that he is proud of them and they have achieved ever-elusive victory. As a result of his motivation, they won 5 college scholarships and 6 members of the team went to college.

Ethics

The Coach Carter movie demonstrates many great examples of following ethics by the Ken Carter in his life. With having vision and motivation he was the man to follow ethics and he wanted everyone to follow them. For joining his basket ball team he has some specific conditions to follow, For instance, team member has to sign the contract which includes, players must maintain 2. 3 grade point average. Secondly, all team members must attend all classes and thirdly, they have to sit in the front row of the classroom. He also asked the teachers to fill out weekly progress of members of his basket ball team because he wanted to know how the boys are doing in the classrooms. In the movie, there are some scenes which shows ethics play pivotal role in his life, For instance, he said “If you don’t perform in the classroom you will not play” (Gale, Robbins, Tollin, & Carter, 2005, 00:52:21). Even he mentioned in the contract that every team member has to meet certain academic standards nobody took it seriously and all team members were not doing good in the study and when he came to know about their awful results he locked the gym. There is a dialogue in the movie where he said “until we all meet the terms of this contract, the gym will remain closed” (Gale, Robbins, Tollin, & Carter, 2005, 01:22:32

Leadership Effectiveness

It is not important that effective leadership is about technical and intellectual qualities only but it also requires attitudes and behaviours which are related to humanity. Leadership is basically about serving an organization or other people. Coach carter shows a variety of skills and qualities that helped him to lead effectively. He wanted his entire team to aim high, not only in basketball but also in studies. Coach carter also showed the ability and confidence to believe in himself as well as his team. Coach carter had excellent communication and listening skills, by those skills only he took on the position by setting rules but he did not misused his power. Ken Carter has so many leadership qualities in him because of those qualities and leadership styles, he was able to manage every difficult situation and build the team while teaching them teamwork. He used situational leadership theory very effectively. There are some stages in the situational leadership theory and he used each of them like telling, selling, participating and delegating. Coach Carter used telling style by giving each member of the team contract to sign for accepting his terms and conditions for joining his team and he further demonstrated this by punishing the member who does not fulfil his terms and conditions.

At one point the team members were unable but willing, then he stood with them by giving them instructions and also receiving feedback from them, in this way the team was getting opportunity to be a part of decision making process as the Carter expressed his vision for helping the team to win, in the college life as well as in the future also. He used participating as the team was able but unwilling by surpassing the expectations on the basketball court but were not confident in their studies. He adopted an approach which was relationship based by building a much stronger relationship with the team members by showing some care about their future success after the high school, it was depicted by the statement in the movie where he said “I came to coach basket ball players and you became students. I came to teach boys and you became men”. He also used delegating when the team was undefeated on the court and they were also committed to do well in academics. The Coach influence had been very useful which enables them need a little or no direction in performing, also by giving respect to Jason Lyle’s word he said “You said we are team. One person struggles, we all struggle. One person triumphs, we all triumphs”. This statement shows the level of commitment the boys have towards each other.

Personal Leadership Development

Coach carter is not only a movie but it has deep message in it and the person can learn so much that would be helpful in whole life. I learnt many things from this movie that would help in my overall development. I learnt that it is imperative to be an extrovert person because these days the person should react quickly and should communicate without any hesitation then only we can achieve our goal without any obstacles. Extraversion can be very helpful for me because this is most important characteristic for doing any of the job or to be a successful project manager, because if the person will not able to express his ideas effectively to the other person then he will not be very successful in life.

In addition, from this movie I learnt that the person should be man of principles. There should be some principles in our life to follow, that would help to achieve a goal easily. As in the movie Coach carter was very specific with his ethics, because when he got signed agreement from the students and then the students did not fulfil the terms and conditions of the contract then he cancelled all the matches and locked the gym, and he said it will be locked until the conditions of the contract will be met. We can also learn punctuality from Coach because whenever someone comes late for the practice he always gives them punishment like push-ups, running etc. So, in our life also it is essential to be punctual whether it is your school, college or workplace. It is very obvious if any person will not go on time to the workplace then his image would not be that good. Coach carter behaviour was same with everyone he was not partial at all it is proved by one of the movie scenes when his son came for the practice and he punished him also. Moreover, we can also see in this movie that the coach changed the behaviour of the team members totally. This shows successful cohesiveness because in the court they trust and rely on each other. Earlier they all were not like this. By this, we can learn to be a goal oriented because if we work hard towards a certain goal and also believe on the concept that a team struggles and triumphs together. Then by looking at the goal together we can achieve it very easily. It is also a lesson of togetherness and teamwork because Carter’s guidelines ensures that the team members helps each other whether in studies or in game.

Teamwork can really help in our real lives, because at our workplaces also we need to work in the groups for the major projects. Carter also gives us the lesson of respect, dignity and manners. As in the movie, we can see he calls each player “Sir” and treats them as a responsible adults. He does not tolerate if anybody disrespect anyone. As in movie, When his team members taunts and humiliate their opponents after scoring, he punishes them and teaches them how to act like winners. So in our life also it is our duty also to respect everyone. If you will respect others, then others will also respect you, it is all about give and take. It was great experience watching this movie. I enjoyed this movie a lot and learnt many things that I can actually apply in my life and be a better developed personality.