Leadership in Remember the Titans

The film is set in 1971 Virginia amid racial tensions generated by the integration of a black high school with a white one. The Caucasian head coach Bill Yoast is replaced by African-American coach Herman Boone, who was originally hired as YoastÆs assistant and is unexpectedly put in the head coach position in a major role reversal. Boone is now expected to deliver a perfect winning seasonù13 games with no losses. Boone pays Yoast a visit and invites him to become the assistant head coach; Yoast, clearly opposed to the idea, responds ôWork under you?ö Boone replies, ôIf thatÆs the way you see itö (Bruckheimer & Yakin, 2000). Boone is subtly pointing out that YoastÆs perspective is simply the way he is framing the situation and is not the only way of looking at it. The role reversal provides immediate adaptive challenges for Boone, who had not expected to be head coach, as well as for

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e reflect [sic] leadership, Captainö (Bruckheimer & Yakin, 2000). There is a strong ethical component to the story, as well. Early in the movie, Boone states his opposition to the boardÆs decision to replace Yoast with him, citing an experience where someone at a previous job had done the same thing to him. Later, Yoast sacrifices his chance to be in the Hall of Fame to do the right thing and insist that the plays be called correctly. Where corporate leadership training sometimes lacks an appropriate emphasis on ethical standards, the movie makes up for that failing. The characters do the hard thingùthe right thingùand everyone comes out ahead because of it. The season is successful, the team changes from a hostile, divisive group to a unified team, and the characters regard their sacrifices as worth the cost. The organizational culture depicted by the movie starts out as rife with interpersonal conflict as imaginable. Not only are racial tensions at a peak, differences are hinted at in scholastic ability, intellectual capacity, lifestyle, economic status, motivation, and sexual preference. BooneÆs task of bringing together this vastly disparate group into a unified team seems virtually impossible at first blush. However,
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Approximate Word count = 1842
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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