Herman Boone in “Remember the Titans” as a True Adaptive and Transformational Leader Research Paper

Abstract

This paper exposes the particulars of how an effective leader goes about inducing/fostering change, concerning the character of Herman Boone in the 2000 film Remember the Titans. The main idea that is being promoted throughout the paper is that the character’s effectiveness as a coach is best seen partially reflective of his talent in acting as a transformational (adaptive/human resource) leader.

The author exemplifies the validity of this suggestion, regarding the three selected scenes in the movie, in which Boone has proven himself fully aware of the highly systemic nature of the task of leading the team of racially diverse football players towards victory. In the concluding part of the paper, the author confirms the discursive legitimacy of the initially proposed thesis.

Introduction

Even though the concept of leadership represents the legitimate subject of an analytical inquiry, one’s ability to lead people towards accomplishing a particular objective continues to be perceived as such that has a strong phenomenological quality to it. After all, there is plenty of examples of individuals who have proven themselves as effective leaders, despite their unawareness of even the basic provisions of the leadership theory.

Alternatively, it is also often the case that, despite one’s complete mental mastery of this theory, he or she ends up being dismissed as someone who simply does not have what it takes to be seen as a true leader by others.

Main Discussion

In the author’s opinion, this implies that it is specifically the adoption of the adaptive/transformational model of leadership (with the elements of charismatic leadership) that it is most likely to prove an asset, within the context of how managers go about making it easier for their subordinates to adapt to change. The author will explore the validity of this suggestion, about the 2000 film Remember the Titans while outlining the main indicative traits of adaptive leadership, as seen in the movie, and discussing the significance of the obtained analytical insights into the subject matter in question.

In the chosen film, the main character Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) is seen addressing the task of proving himself as an effective football coach at the integrated T. C. Williams High School in the year 1971. Having been an African-American in the school with the rest of the coaching body’s members consisting of Whites, Boone knew that it will prove extremely challenging for him to be able to reach this objective. To add even more complexity to the task, Boone announced that he will make a point in keeping the Titans football team as racially diverse as possible: something that at the time was considered a rather controversial practice.

In the beginning, it appeared as if Boone was going to sustain an utter fiasco while trying to win the respect of the team. After all, there were just too many factors working against him, such as the players’ deep-seated loyalty to the previous coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton), and the fact that Boone did not seem to be endowed with the prominent individuality of any sort. Nevertheless, it did not take the character too long to ensure that the Titans indeed regard him as being nothing short of a “natural born” leader.

The first thing that Boone did, in this regard, was letting the players know that he will not tolerate anyone questioning his authority as a coach. There is a memorable scene in the movie, in which the newly appointed coach is making it clear to the boys what does it mean to be on the team, “This is no democracy. It is a dictatorship. I am the law” (Yakin, 2000, 00.12.15).

By having adopted the strongly authoritarian stance from the very beginning, the film’s main character has shown that he does understand the discursive implications of the fact that the game of football is, in fact, the socially observable extrapolation of the so-called “masculine values” (Magzan, 2012).

The concerned values originate in one’s irrational strive to impose its domination on others. By having acted in the way he did, Boone has established himself as a culturally competent adaptive leader, in full accordance with the suggestion that “adaptive leaders need to understand the culture and how it shapes the way we do things” (Glover, Friedman, & Jones, 2002, p. 21). This, in turn, contributed rather substantially in helping the character to acquire the charisma of someone who embodies authority.

Nevertheless, the clearest indication that the character of Herman Boone does deserve to be regarded as a person who exemplifies what the notion of transformational leadership stands for, are the episodes where he is seen instilling the Titans with the team spirit. In one of these scenes, Boone takes the youths to the Gettysburg cemetery and asks them to cease paying attention to the specifics of each other’s racial affiliation so that they can function as the integral elements of one team, “If we don’t come together right now on this hallowed ground, then we too will be destroyed” (Yakin, 2000, 00.34.03).

Enough, the movie’s main character was well aware of the fact that, for the Titans to be up to the task of winning the state championship trophy, the team needed to be brought up to a whole new level of systemic wholesomeness. The only way to achieve it was to make sure that while on the team, young men treat each other as if they were brothers.

That is, Boone’s task was to change how the Titans perceive the surrounding social reality and their place in it: something the correlates well with the theoretical premise behind the concept of adaptive/transformational leadership. As Alavi and Gill (2017) noted, “Adaptive leadership may link the change vision and objectives to internalized values of followers in a way that guides followers’ behaviors until the completion of change projects” (p. 159). It must be acknowledged that the film’s main character succeeded rather splendidly in this regard.

While in control of organizational change taking place, it is also very important for adaptive leaders to make sure that throughout the process’s entirety, there exists a strong emotional link between them and the followers. This brings us back to the character of Herman Boone in Remember the Titans.

After all, the chosen approach to training the Titans, on the coach’s part, did appeal to the players on an emotional level. One of the reasons as to why this has been the case is that while addressing his professional responsibilities, Boone never ceased acting as a modest and trustworthy individual, completely unaffected by any racial or class-related prejudices. In one of the film’s initial scenes, where he finds himself confronting the group of hostile White coaches, Boone wisely decides not to pay attention to their insulting remarks.

Instead of paying these individuals with the same token of respect, the newly appointed coach acted like a true gentleman, “What an opportunity for me (Boone) to learn from the best (White coaches)” (Yakin, 2000, 00.04.28). This instantly removed the tension between the two.

Nevertheless, it was specifically Boone’s willingness to live up to the discursive provisions of his coaching philosophy that contributed the most towards legitimizing his authority in the players’ eyes. As it was pointed out earlier, Boone used to encourage the youths under his supervision to be treating each other in a “race-blind” manner.

He, however, was also willing to illustrate how this is being done in practice. On a few occasions, throughout the film, Boone proved himself thoroughly impartial, within the context of how he proceeded to make important decisions during each game. As a result, the players were provided with the powerful incentive to be fully committed to acting as Boone’s loyal followers.

Conclusion

In light of what has been said earlier, it will be appropriate to conclude this paper by confirming the cause-effect soundness of its initial thesis. There is indeed much rationale in assuming that, for as long as the organizational dynamics are strongly affected by the interpersonal interactions between coworkers, one will be much better off adopting the adaptive/transformational model of leadership. The leadership-related themes and motifs, contained in Remember the Titans, imply that this is indeed the case.

References

Alavi, S. B., & Gill, C. (2017). Leading change authentically: How authentic leaders influence follower responses to complex change. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 24(2), 157-171.

Glover, J., Friedman, H., & Jones, G. (2002). Adaptive leadership: When change is not enough (part one). Organization Development Journal, 20(2), 15-38.

Magzan, M. (2012). Mental models for leadership effectiveness: Building future different than the past. Journal of Engineering Management and Competitiveness (JEMC), 2(2), 57-63.

Yakin, B. (Director). (2000). Remember the Titans. Web.