Leadership is the concept that helps to compete in the challenging business environment. The term leadership is defined as a force that influences and persuades the followers to integrate its efforts towards the common goal. The phenomenon of leadership is evolving overtime because it guides and gives the direction to the followers to achieve the objective with full efficiency. The leader receives the coercive power to influence the followers and bring the constructive changes. The concept of management and leadership often gets overlap but management focuses on stability while in case of leadership the followers adapt and lead to constructive changes in operations (Antonakis and Day, 2018). In the further paragraphs, it gives light to the application of leadership skills in the film Cool Runnings and the ability of the leader to achieve the goal.
Cool Runnings is a Disney movie, which was released in the year 1993 by Jon Turteltaub. This film is based on the true story of the Jamaica national bobsleigh team’s debut in competition during the 1988 winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. The focus of the movie was on Derice Bannock, who aspires to make it to the Olympics, however, was not able to make it due to the happening of the unfortunate event that leads to the loss in the race. But because of his dedication towards his passion, he was able to form a team and made it to the Olympics. It is observed that despite all the adversity and odds Derice Bannock was able to achieve the goals by applying the appropriate leadership style and works with all the integrity and honesty (CU today.info, 2018).
The term leadership is defined as the capacity to assess and prediction of a long-term plan or policy that inspires the followers towards the accomplishment of the said strategy. These individual creates direction for a working group of persons and motivates them to achieve the results for the organization. It is the function of knowing yourself, having a vision that is well transferred to the members, creating trust among the colleagues, and taking effective action to realize your own leadership potential. The philosophy of leadership provides the coercive power to the leader to direct the members and can take actions if any member goes against the desired outcome. The importance of leadership has grown over years because of the complexities in the business environment. The leader helps the team members to coordinate their efforts towards the desired outcome and providing the team with the unconventional strategies to apply creative solutions to the problems and overcome all the barriers that come in the way (Bolman and Deal, 2017).
This theory emphasizes the traits of the successful leader and believes that inheritance of such traits helps the organization to achieve the outcome in an efficient manner. This theory is the pleasing theory and valid for analyzing the traits of the individual which helps them to become a leader. It serves as the yardstick to judge the performance of the leader. It defines that a successful leader has the desire to achieve and has the self-confidence to motivate and guide the members towards the direction of achievement. The person has the cognitive ability to make a good decision and provides creative strategies to the problems. The leader possesses the qualities of being flexible, creative and charismatic. The person has the expertise in the business and performs the duty with all the honesty and integrity (Bucic, Robinson, and Ramburuth, 2010).
This theory provides constructive information about leadership and can be applied at all the levels and in all the types of organization. This theory helps to evaluate the position in their organization and acts a yardstick to measure the performance of the leader. It is observed that in the case of Cool Runnings there is the application of trait theory to judge the traits of the leader i.e. Derice Bannock and such traits helps him to lead the team and overcome the hurdles that come in the way of success (Changing Minds,2018).
This style of leadership is also known as participative leadership because this style encourages the ideas of the team members and provides the opportunity to all the team members to participate and provide the creative idea to all the problems. Application of such style makes the employees more committed and motivated towards the work as they have given the opportunity to express their idea and being rewarded for the same. Such behavioral style involves a group of individuals in the decision-making process and the process of communication flows two way. In such style, the feedback is used frequently to reinforce positive behavior and the goals of the organization are shared (Business Jargons, 2018).
There are also other styles of leadership .i.e. autocratic and laissez-faire but the democratic style of leadership is considered superior of both the other styles because in Autocratic styles there is no involvement of all the team members and all the decisions are in control of the leader, which creates a sense of dissatisfaction among the employees. In the case of laissez-faire the intervention of the leader is minimum, therefore it creates a delay in decision making and reduces the efficiency in the implementation of activities. However, the democratic style of leadership is the most suitable to the organizations. It is observed that the leader of the case Cool Runnings applies the democratic style of leadership and allows the participation of all the members of the team (Very well mind, 2018).
The model of leadership development provides the deep insight that leaders develop the skills with practice. It states that leadership skills cannot be learned from a book the leader must practice to develop the skills and become an emerging leader. The lejuste three components of leadership development is a model of practice. It is further described in three parts (Burke, 2017).
It states that the leader must grow and deepen a sense of self-esteem, self- confidence, and self-awareness because this helps the person to trust their ability to make choices, and understand the current situation and provide better solutions to the problems (MDRC, 2018).
It states that applying it helps to develop a relationship among the members and follows cooperation rather than a chain of command. Such a situation leads to sharing of experiences, values and creating a positive environment such style helps in solving the issues together and more efficiently (MDRC, 2018).
It states that the person must be a visionary leader because he listens to others and understands the situation. The person focuses to articulate the hopes of the team and deepens the skill of boosting self-confidence (MDRC, 2018).
It is analyzed that the team follows the democratic style of leadership in which all the members of the team were given equal opportunity to express their views and provide the creative solution to the odds faced by the team. It is observed that Derice Bannock was a democratic leader and gets fully involved in the decision-making process, which further helps to direct the team in an effective way. The team possesses the qualities of equal participation, inclusiveness, and deliberation, which further help the team to overcome all the obstacles and concentrates more towards achieving the goal. As a team leader, Derice Bannock has applied all its skills and traits to reach to the fruitful conclusions and develop the efficiency of the team. Such qualities of a democratic leader help the team to constructively participate in the decision-making and provide creative solutions to the problems (Forbes, 2017).
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From the discussion of the above paragraphs, it is observed that Derice Bannock has the traits, which includes synchronization in its workings and plans; He has the flexibility in its decision-making as he listens to his teammate Sanka Coffie and makes the changes in its process of guiding his team members. Derice Bannock has the close focus on the practices of its team and was sensitive towards the competitive teams to ensure that the efforts of the team are going in right direction. He possesses the quality of effectively communicating with the team members and allowing their participation in the decision-making process. He applies all his energy and efforts to make the team in the Olympics and overcome all the odds, which comes in way to success (Leaderonomics.com, 2014).
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It is analyzed that he has the courage and the intelligence to make out to the Olympics because after the conduct of misfortunate event he does not lose hope and have the belief that his team will make out to the Olympics. Such qualities of a democratic leader direct the team with all the creativity and help them in achieving its goal (TEAMWORK Definition, 2016).
In relation to the above context, it is observed that the Derice Bannock was trying to copy the Swiss team but as his teammate explains and convinces him, he follows the culture and tradition, which was different from the Swiss team. This changing behavior of the Derice depicts that he has the quality of effectively behaving with the team members as after applying his own skills the team was able to manage the complications and ultimately make out to the Olympics. By applying the creative solutions and dedication to his work, he was able to manage the team effectively and won the race by holding the Eighth position (TEAMWORK Definition, 2016).
This achievement depicts that Derice was able to arrange the resources and yield the maximum for the team in the minimum time. He effectively collaborates with the team members and has the confidence to achieve the difficult task (Management Study Guide, 2018).
The essential leadership skills, which are prerequisite to achieve success, are the ability of the leader to lead the team in an effective manner, ability to motivate and inspire the team members to work in a coordinated manner towards the vision of the team. In order to achieve the goal, the team must have the ease to communicate effectively which leads to the building of a healthy relationship and understanding of the members to work with coordination (Cashman, 2017).
The team members must be committed towards their efforts to have the confidence to make out to the Olympics. They must work hard to achieve their target and must have trust among the members to solve all the odds that come in the way of success (Very well mind, 2018).
The leader of the team must be expertise in the field so that he can give the best training to its team members and can achieve the target. The leader must develop the strategies to win which are different from the other teams and help in achieving the goal. The members of the team must support and respect the decisions of each other to ensure coordination among the team members and the efforts of all the members all integrated into one direction (Daft, 2014).
The unconventional strategies used by the leader to turn the issues into the advantage are the quality of the charismatic leader that applies the different strategies to achieve the goals of the team. Derice Bannock was able to make the accurate evaluation of the current situation to plan the unconventional strategies which are in favor of the team (Questia, 2017)
It is observed that the leader i.e. Derice Bannock was successful in applying contingency theory of leadership which depicts the efficiency of the leader in applying the different theories according to the given situation. It states that the leader applies different theories to the different situations and effectively interacts to the given situation. Derice Bannock was able to manifest different styles of leadership according to the given situation and however directing the team towards the achievement of its goal (Explore psychology, 2017).
As discussed from the above paragraphs, it is analyzed that Derice Bannock is the right person to the lead the team as he has applied the unconventional strategies and has put all the efforts to lead the team in a better way. He has evaluated the current situation of its team and was able to alter the strategies, which creates hurdle in achieving the goal. With all the hard work and commitment towards its passion, Derice was able to integrate the efforts of all the team members and provided with the new methods to develop efficiency and compete with the other team more confidently. He has the traits of effectively communicating with the team members and has a close focus on the activities performed by the team members. He was fully dedicated and was a good listener, which are the main qualities of a good leader (Like A team, 2018).
A leader is the one who is able to guide and influence its members towards the achievement of the goals of the organization. According to my learning’s I feel that Derice Bannock should continue to be a leader for the competitions in future because he has the quality of persistence, which depicts that he does not give up on any situation and believes that anything is possible if the person tries for it. He was the one who is adaptable to the changing situation and inculcates it in its team members to make the team members comfortable to the changing situation. He has the ability to persuade its team members and integrate their efforts towards the achievement of the common goal. (Lussier, and Achua, 2015).
Derice Bannock has the quality of self-efficacy which depicts the belief in one’s capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given attainments. He was able to meet the emotional and psychological needs of its team members and was able to persuade them verbally (Northouse, 2018).
It is analysed that under the leadership behaviour of Derice Bannock he has applied leadership model of Blake Mouton’s which depicts the balance the leader is able to make between concern for the people and concern for the task. It states that Derice Bannock was concern for its team members as well as for its goal. He collectively ensures that the team members are satisfied from its action and are diverted towards their goal to make it to the Olympics. The main focus of the leader was to apply the leadership style of team management which provides highest efficiency both to the team members and the goal of the team (Mind Tools, 2018).
The major issue, in this case, was that Derice Bannock was trying to imitate the strategies of the Swiss team, which created dissatisfaction among the team members, as every team is unique in its own way and each team must develop its own strategy (Smart learning way, 2015).
From the discussion of the above paragraph, it is concluded that the concept of leadership has grown over the years because this helps the leader to guide and direct the members of the team and provides the unconventional strategies to resolve the problems.
The film Cool Runnings describes the role of the Derice Bannock to make it to the Olympics. It also describes his dedication and hard work towards the achievement of the goal. The case also describes that he follows a democratic style of leadership in which it allows the other participants to provide creative ideas and considers their ideas. He was able to compete with the other team members and make it to the Olympics. He has the traits of self-confidence, flexibility, integrity, and energy to overcome all the hurdles that restrict the path of success. By applying the skills of effective leadership, it guides and influences the activities of the members to ensure that all the actions are in line to the pre-determined objectives.
It is observed that after all the struggles the team was able to make out to Olympics and leaves the message for the public to not lose hope and continue with all the dedication and honesty. It gives the power to fight all the odds and have persistence.
Therefore, it is essential that every organization must apply leadership skills and achieve the objective of the firms efficiently and effectively.
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