Assessing Derice Bannock's Leadership In Cool Runnings Essay.

Your task is to critically evaluate the leadership of Derice Bannock and his role in the team’s achievements. The following questions should guide your assessment.

1. What leadership traits did Derice Bannock display which developed the team?

2. SankaCoffie tells Derice Bannock “the right foot for us is not the Swiss foot”. Did Derice Bannock always demonstrate effective leadership behaviours?

3. What leadership skills were instrumental in the team achieving their goals?

4. Was Bannock the right person to lead the team? Would he be the right person to lead the team into future competitions?

5. Assess Bannock’s overall leadership, using appropriate models/theories

Effective leadership traits

The essay provides an overview about the critical evaluation of Derice Bannock leadership and his role in team’s achievement. Effective leadership traits have huge significance in developing the team and achieving the target (Yukl 2012). A leader plays vital role in workplace by initiating and communicating plans to their team. Leaders not only provide guidance but also build morale to their team members. This study highlights on the Derice Bannock adopted participatory leadership styles for developing the team. This style facilitated their team members to focus on their work as well as share their innovative ideas (Sethuraman and Suresh 2014). This essay also reflected on the leadership skills showed by Bannock including positivity, commitment, relationship building, motivation, time management, effective communication etc. These leadership skills helped both the team and Bannock to achieve the goals of the film. These leadership skills not only helped Bannock to understand the key challenges faced by the team members but also solve the conflicts between the members. This study also analyzes about whether Bannock was the right person to lead the team. Passion being one of the vital factors for success in organization, it has been analyzed that Bannock was the right leader owing to his passion insight. Bannock’s overall leadership has been assessed in this essay by using appropriate theories that includes- traits theory, transformative and participatory theory of leadership. However, this essay basically focuses on the fact that leaders must exhibit particular skills as well as attributes for achieving success in business.

In the Cool Runnings movie, Derice Bannock has been presented as an associative and visionary leader. From the beginning of the movie, Derice Bannock exhibits the characteristics of that leadership style in the Goleman's leadership styles. He takes the obligation to embarrassing his country with the dishonour and appeals the committee to reprove him for his mistake, but not the Jamaican team. Derice throws down earlier experiences he had with Junior to create a team. Derice was enthusiastic about learning everything about bobsledding and take the team to participate in the Olympics as Jamaica's first bobsledding team.  It is a pronounced sample of how individuals in due course join together into a team. Derice attempts to generate a team link while competing in the qualifiers and finally to the Olympics. He provides his team members with an energy talk about the emotional state of how this is all going to pay off in the end. From this, the spirit of excellence can be learned. Moreover, it can further absorb that the team lead by someone who requires accomplishing all responsibilities and tasks with a sense of quality inspires others to produce well-finished work. By analysing the case, we can conclude that Derice showed transformational leadership which is very close to visionary leadership style (Stam, Van and Wisse, 2010) in which it is emphasised that leaders are not essentially born but they can be shaped. Leaders have to learn to adapt change and understand Different Power bases which are different for different situations.

Participatory leadership styles

Jamaica is a country moulded by internal riots and colonialism. However, the country has delivered notable personalities often ranging from musician Bob Marley to the sprinter Usain Bolt who all carried the Jamaican spirit in conquering the hearts of millions. The Derice Bannock exhibited the same charm and charisma alongside a persistence to achieve the goals. He was truly inspirational in his efforts to pursue Olympic dreams in a competition item unheard in his nativity. The role of Derice was inevitable for the existence of the particular team that debuted in Calgary, Canada; maybe even the history of their national team (Whannel, 2008). His passion for his goals was critical for the development of the team as he was able to successfully accumulate the talents and resources along with the mentorship of an Olympian coach. He was a visionary in every sense and was able to transform the history of his team members as these third world underdogs exhibited unmatched levels of sportsmanship garnering acclaim from international competitors. Moreover, the personality of Derice Bannock suggested that he was able to rise above failures as he looked for feasible options and was even willing to pave new paths amidst continual oppression (Sheppard, 2014).   

According to Cordone (2016), conceptual skills are more essential than human relation and technical skills for the top-level management people. This is because these skills support the leaders in decision making, organizing, planning, and understanding how different businesses relate.

Bannock in “Cool Runnings” film had strong conceptual skills along with required technical and human relation skills that helped him to develop effective plan and make decision in difficult condition. Although Bannock did not get enough supports from his team members and enough investment in his team, his strong conceptual and interpersonal skills supported him to overcome the challenges and to achieve the goals and objectives (Atkin, 2014).

The other reason of gaining success by Bannock is the effective leadership practices. Mullins (2016) classified the leadership styles mainly as authoritarian/autocratic leadership, participative/democratic leadership, and laissez-fair leadership.

Bannock mainly applied participative/democratic leadership style that encouraged his team members to work hard and share their ideas and knowledge that ultimately supported Bannock to make effective decision and plan for the film. However, he used authoritarian/autocratic leadership style when he was de-motivated by his team member, mainly by Sanaka Coffie. Although autocratic style practiced by Bannock initially de-motivated the team members, this style helped Bannock a lot to gain success and finally motivated the team because of achieving success.

Application of different leadership theories

The good traits and leadership behaviors of Bannock also supported him to achieve his goals. According Walter (2015), a good leader leads by example, over-communicates, keeps commitments and promises, trust team, asks for feedback, treats everyone fairly, listens, and acts with consistency. Mullins (2016) said a good is self-confident, creative, communicative, decisive, and optimistic. Bannock’s team member de-motivated him. For example, Sanka Coffie told him “the right foot for us is not the Swiss foot”.  But, he did not de-motivate his team members. Rather, he encouraged his team with is technical and motivational skills, and leadership behaviors including self-confidence, commitment, treating everyone fairly, listening and asking for feedback. In addition, Bannock stand aside from his Olympic dream and looked for other games where he can compete. Then, he inspired his team and followers with the knowledge gained. Because of his good traits/characteristics like honesty, openness, and trustworthiness, his team members relied on him and followed him cordially.  

Then, Bannock is considered as a trusted leader because he has had strong trustworthy behaviors. There are five important levels of trusts that are confidence, skill, consistency, loyalty and free faith (Robin, 2016). Bannock had ability to be able to get people in Cool Runnings and the people were working by believing him because he was consolidated, open as well as intellectual. He was reliable in this work and leadership. In addition, he inspired his team members as well as followers are sure to participate in everyone. Bo (2015) said, a good leader have five behaviors on that the team members rely on. These are telling the truth, communicating roles and responsibilities, creating a workplace culture that values real people relationships, being fair and open, and modeling the behaviors. Bannock had almost all of these good behaviors that why the team members could rely on him and worked sincerely to achieve the goals of the films.

In conclusion, it can be said that Bannock had the good and effective leadership traits and characteristics, and behaviors. As a result, he was able to take effective and efficient decisions during leading and motivating his team, and overcome the challenged faced in the team, and achieve the goals of the “Cool Runnings” film.

Derice bannock showed some leadership skills which were vital in the team for achieving their goal.

• Positivity-we can see from the movie cool running that how Derice Bannock has trusted his team mates and the positive energy he has on developing his team because there were many conflicts between the team mates but he takes everything in a positive manner and trusted that this team can make it to their dream of participating in an Olympics.(Agrawal, 2012).
• Effective communication- A leader is required to develop this skill as it helps to make sure that the leader is able to communicate well the various strategies, policies, tasks, vision, etc to the employees. Derice Bannock was effective in communicating with his team mates so that they could understand well what was expected from them. This movie has portrayed many incidents of this skill.  
• Relationship building- The leader is always expected to foster the relationship as well as to maintain a healthy relationship. Derice Bannock took effort and time to develop and foster an effective relationship with the colleagues which was significant for the team in achieving the target.
• Time management- Time management is a skill which a leader must possess in order to attain the goals of an organization. Time management means how the leader decides where to invest his time on and also to make the employees understand the importance on managing time. Derice Bannock knew and decided where to invest his time on and on which resources.
• Commitment- A leader is always committed to the company and its vision. Derice Bannock was also committed towards his team mates. A leader who is not committed towards his or her work will not be able to attain the goals. An example for this one is when the coach asks what name will they give for the team, Bannock suggests the name as ‘cool running’ which he meant ‘peace be the journey’. So by this he conveys his team that their strategy will focus and commitment.
• Encourage team work- A leader should possess this skill in order to make his or her team work along towards attaining the goals of the organization. Derice Bannock always tried to motivate his team members to work harder and effectively in the direction of achieving the goals (Price and Weiss, 2011). Derice Bannock encouraged the team and tried to identify the areas where they needed improvement by obtaining timely feedback, having conversations with the team members, etc.
• Motivation - The leader should always try to recognize and appreciate the team members who perform well. Derice Bannock was very good at encouraging his team mates and he always point each members strength which motivates the team.  
• Effective feedback- Derice Bannock always provided regular or timely feedback to the team members so they could know about their strengths and weaknesses and also could identify the areas where they needed improvement (Price and Weiss, 2013).  

Problem solving and conflict resolution- The leader should have this skill in order to solve the problems of the team members. Derice Bannock always tried to identify the issues that had been faced by the team members and also should put efforts to resolve the situation of conflicts. One of the example for this skill was that when some of the team members make some issues in a night club .Bannock makes his team mates aware of their goal and he bring back his team for practice in order to attain their goal.

Transformational leadership

Was Bannock the right person to lead the team? Would he be the right person to lead the team into future competitions?

Leadership skills are needed today to be successful in any industry. Passion is one of the key factors for success. In that case Bannock was the right person to lead the team, because he has the passion insight. Moreover, there are also leaders who identify leadership with passion. For example, Index Group CEO ErolBilecik says that the words "Passion, Excitement and Do not Give Up" come to mind under the leadership, and explains why: "I do not think it is possible to drag believers without the" passion " Commitment to your business is one of the best messages you can give to the other party as your leader. At the same time, it is really necessary to create a 'thrill' stream. Your pursuit of your goals and ideals together with your team is a very important thing in leadership.” As shown in the movie Bannock embarks to shape a bobsleigh group, enrolling his companion SankaCoffie, and the other wiped out sprinters Lewis and Brenner; alongside his planned mentor Blitzer.Furthermore, he would be the right person to lead the team into future competitions. According to a study on the functioning of the brain, the link between the leader or the person carrying the leadership potential and the employee in the team is stronger than the other members of the team.The team leader needs to get in touch with the team in order to be able to progress synchronously and succeed.At the beginning of the features of team leaders is to have a vision to manage a team. In addition, it is necessary for the communication to be strong, to be able to give encouragement to the employees working on the team, to motivate them continuously about the work, and to have enough discipline about the follow-up of the work.Bannock had an opportunity with communicating with his team.

Obsession in pursuiting both detail and a dream comes with passion and turns to excellence (Peters,1994).A leader who has passion is driven forward from the vitality it produces. With regards to driving yourself as well as other people passion and vitality are basic.  David Loye (1997)discusses the historical sources of left-right motivations; reexamines the theories of Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, and Marx among others; and analyzes a wide range of historical and contemporary relevant research.

Visionary leadership style

An Assessment of Bannock's Overall Leadership Using Appropriate Models/Theories:

Fruitful groups have leaders that are solid, and the importance of this role is in all type of games. Based on Bannock's role as the major actor in the Movie titled 'Cool Runnings' we can clearly certify that he is a task-orientedleader.This is clearly defined in a major statement made by Irv Blitzer his coach to him:

“A Gold medal is a wonderful thing, but if you’re not enough without it, you’ll never be enough with it.”

This is an early supposition that leaders are born. That is, some people are naturally born with the right characteristics. The following are some of the qualities Bannock Derice possesses under the trait theory of leadership:

• Ability to adapt to situations
• He is always alert to social environment
• He is oriented by achievement andambitious
• He is cooperative and assertive
• He is dependable and stands by what he wants
• He has confidence in himself and he is very persistent
• He willingly assumes responsibilities and he tolerates stress

Transformational leaders have the vision and passion to do the extraordinary. Working with Bannock Derice was fun, due to the passion and energy he used all through.

Vision Development: Transformational leaders begin by the improvement of a dream, a look at the future that will energize and change over potential adherents. Even though this vision may either be created by pioneer or any colleague, the pioneer totally becomes tied up with it.

Vision Selling: Bannock constantly sold his vision to his friends and his coach. This took him a lot energy and commitment because few people immediately bought into his radical vision before others decided to join the show. He had to sell himself alongside his vision.

Determination of the way forward: While selling his vision, Bannock Derice actively sort the progress. While some transformational pioneers know the path forward and others are roused to tail them others don't, however they will cheerfully lead the investigation of conceivable courses to the guarantee arrives.

Taking the lead: Transformational leaders remain upfront, they are constantly noticeable and will confront be tallied as opposed to hole up behind their troops. They appear by their activities how every other person ought to carry on. They additionally endeavour preceded with endeavours to inspire and rally their devotees, continually doing rounds, tuning in, calming and enthusing. Bannock did all these.

Also known as the democratic style, these pioneers share the decisions with the social event and is as often as possible arranged to assign commitment. This sort of activity has confidence in meeting and is excited about making imperative social associations inside the gathering. The conviction is that can't avoid being that by giving 'ownership' of the errand to everyone, the get-together will work harder, making solidarity and a normal reason. This style is exceedingly effective in a co-dynamic beguilement or when time restrictions are not as requesting, singular help may be required, if clusters are pretty much nothing and when in the independent periods of learning has been expert (top of the line level).

Good traits and leadership behaviors

Conclusion

From the above essay, it can be concluded that leadership can be effective if it is build on the solid foundation that consists of clear vision as well as mission, specific strategy and proper culture contributing to success. Moreover, it is necessary for the leaders to recognize appropriate leadership skills based on the goals of business. Besides this, development of personal attribute is one the vital factors for effective leadership. However, feedback is the important tool in development of attributes. Effective leader also benefits the team by helping them to face the challenging situations that arise in the competitive business world.  As the business environment constantly changes, the basic responsibilities of the leaders is to initiate as well as manage the team changes for adapting with this changing circumstances. In addition, trust, team building and empowerment are the important signs of the effective and persistent leadership. It can be seen from this study that Bannock had good leadership traits and behaviours, which made him the trusted leaders. Although Bannock did not get full support from team members, adoption of effective leadership skills helped him to build good relationship with the team members and achieve the target of the film. Moreover, Bannock’s strong interpersonal and conceptual skills helped him to build effective plan as well as make decision during the team building. Furthermore, Bannock also analyzed the attitude and behaviour of the team before adopting the leadership style in leading the team to future competitions.  Hence, this shows that effective leadership helps the team members to improve their performance and achieve success in business.

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