Daniela Zuniga 11/24/14 Leadership Essay Coach Herb Brooks was an admirable leader. When he is given a group of players with nothing in common, he transforms them into a team with one goal in mind: to beat the Soviets. His determination to beat the Soviets and win the Olympics stemmed from his past experiences. He played hockey all throughout this childhood, high school, college, and some semi-professional and professional teams. When he tried out for the U.S National Men’s Hockey Team, he was the last player to get cut from the final roster. That Olympic hockey team went on to beat the Soviets and win gold in 1960. Since then the Soviets dominated hockey and were undefeated champions for many years to come. When Brooks was given the chance …show more content…
Coach Brooks’ leadership style was completely centered on being a task-oriented leader. He was an efficient coach because he forced his team to train and push their physical abilities beyond what they imagined possible. Brooks trained and conditioned the team to match the physical abilities of the well-established Soviet team. He had very little interpersonal communication with the players of his team. He clearly states that he is there to coach the team, not to mingle with them and their personal lives. When the coach meets the team, he says “I won’t be your friend, if you need one of those take it up with Craig or Doc,” Although Brooks himself doesn’t form personal relationships with the players, he makes sure they know have someone to confide in. Coach Brook’s only task he wanted to achieve was to beat the Soviets and win gold with a well-trained hockey …show more content…
He took complete control over the team by deciding the 26-man roster on his own. Originally, there was a week-long tryout scheduled to decide who would make the team. Brooks observed the players for 1 day and formed a roster that he thought would play well together. When his assistant coach Craig finds out about the roster, he protests that Brooks has only observed the athletes’ skill’s for one day. He also reminds Brooks that there is a committee of people who were prepared to analyze each player who tried out in order to pick the best players. Coach Brooks stubbornly tells him he doesn’t want the best players, he wants the players that will work with his team. Throughout the movie he trains the players by conditioning them intensely. After the loss with Norway, coach Brooks forced his team to stay on the ice after the game is over. He made them do grueling ice sprints as a punishment for their lack of performance and concentration. He repeats “again” over and over even when his assistant coach is hesitant to continue. Brooks doesn’t care about his subordinates’ opinions at this point, he had complete control over the team. In this scene, some of his leadership style disadvantages are
It took a disciplined mind, strategic, and vision to pull a team with this composition, these ego’s, to put aside their self-interest and egocentric tendencies to play as one, play for a nation. The term miracle on ice is one that will forever be linked to Her Brooks’ legacy, the fabled 1980 U.S. Olympic team which won the gold medal at Lake Placid, NY. According to Coach Brook’s, the team was mentally tough and goal-oriented. They came from all different walks of life, many having competed against one another, but they came together and grew to be a real close team. He pushed this team really hard. But they had the ability to answer the bell. (Herb Brooks Foundation, N.d.) Here Coach refers to the team or they, as the team they came together for a common goal. For anyone who has watched the movie or read the book it was obvious that it was his leadership was the cause of the team coming together to play as one. He addresses the team in a positive light and himself as the catalyst.
In the Miracle speech, the coach is using pathos to get to the player’s heart and wanted them to win by saying : “ Tonight, we are the greatest team in the world. You were born to be hockey players--every one of you, and you were meant to be here tonight” . He puts pressure on them for being the best team that they can be, for them to shut down the Soviet’s team. He speaked aggressive so the players would want to push their capability of playing, and for the players to put in their head that they’re the best so that they won’t give up in the game. Moreover, the coach want to put the team in the situation that they have to beat the Soviet’s team by using pathos when he said: “ This is your time. Their time is done. It’s over. I’m sick and tired
A main part of this story is about picking the Olympic team and how they became as strong as they were. Before beginning the tryouts, coach Herb Brooks scouted every player that was trying out. He watched film on them, talked to old coaches, and in some cases watched them play in a game or practice. It is important that he did this because then he did not come in to the tryouts not knowing any player and it showed that he already had in mind who he wanted for his team. As tryouts approached all the players and coaches were preparing for a week long tryout. Herb Brooks sat by himself in a booth and watched the first day of tryouts and picked his team on the very first day. This stunned all the othe...
when selecting the rowers should have taken into consideration both the psychological (personality types and traits) and the physical aspects (strength, speed, stamina, & coordination) and experimented the results of various combinations by mixing these aspects. He should have identified the growing internal conflicts and tried to look into the matter in the initial stages. Coach P from the beginning has focused on ascertaining his belief whether the Varsity team he chose is highly competent or not. Quantitatively, the members were highly competent in their individual abilities. Coach P. had several opportunities to counter this during the Atlanta Retreat. However, he failed to take actions on their failure as a team and waited to resolve it only in the end, just three days before the national games. The Army Varsity Crew is a dysfunctional group. They’ve not yet reached the Norming phase where trust among the members has largely been achieved. The coach should have made sure the structure and composition of the teams were properly made long before the seat races have started. The lack of presence of strong motivator in the Varsity team should have been met to give them a
In the locker room, the Spartans had just won a game, after the coaches walked out, Rake walked up to Neely and punched him in the face. Nobody knew what Rake did but they all knew something happened. It was never the same, Neely never planned to forgive Rake because he had caused him so much trouble and ruined his life and everyone knew it. So when Neely stepped up to the podium at Rake's funeral, the whole town of Messina, his fellow Spartans in their green jerseys and even Neely himself were aghast at the kind-hearted words he spoke in memory of his coach. This was a turning point for Neely Crenshaw. Long gone were the feelings hate and resentment only to be replaced with appreciation and acceptance for the man he formerly called Coach. Neely was a new person who through forgiveness found peace and renewed love for his sport that he thought he had
Before the 1980 Winter Olympics began, the US Olympic hockey team was not expected to do as well as they did. They had many powerhouse teams to beat and the team was just a bunch of college kids who wanted to play hockey. In the end, they had performed one of the greatest upsets in the history of hockey by defeating the USSR, the whom many thought of as the greatest hockey team in the world.
He decided the placement of all players, and what teams they would be in. When it came to Junior’s turn, Junior thought he was going to be in the C team, but surprisingly he got into the top team, the Varsity team as a Freshman. He was stunned, but when he asked why he was placed in the C team he said that he was one of the best shooters he had seen in a while, and that he would be their secret weapon. When Junior was given 3 stitches, Coach was there to comfort him and tell him that his team would be fine without him if he went to hospital. Later on, when Arnold was given a concussion both teams got into a series of shoving matches and push-fights. The tribal police had to pull twenty or thirty adult Spokane's off the court. Coach was passionate about that game, he was furious when the referees gave 4 of his players technical fouls to please the mainly Indian crowd. He cursed and screamed and was thrown out of the game. After the game, Coach went to see Junior in the hospital and apologized for putting him in the game, and that he should have cancelled the game completely because of the anger of the Indians that he left the reservation. He cared about his players and didn’t want them to run 50 laps of the gymnasium, he cared about their feelings while also being serious about letting them win. He's always quick to give Arnold words of encouragement and support. Before games Arnold
John W. Gardner born 1912, had a varied and productive career as an educator, public official, and political reformer. Gardner's belief in society's potential was his guiding force, but he was wary of the dangers of complacency and inaction. Perhaps best known as the founder of the lobby Common Cause, he was the author of several best-selling books on the themes of achieving personal and societal excellence.
Throughout the book “Leading with the Heart,” I read about prime examples of the following leadership theories: transformational leadership, trait theory, behavioral theory, and situational leadership. He recommended that leaders begin with the trait theory when beginning the selection process when starting his or her organization. In chapter one and as well as chapter two, Coach K refers to coachable players. Meaning, players or members that do not mind being taught and learning; willing to take a back seat to someone else in charge. Establish right away in the first meeting the only rule for the team: “Don’t do anything that’s detrimental to yourself, because if it is detrimental to you, it will be detrimental to our program (Krzyzewski, 2000, p.4). He reiterates that leaders must be very selective in this process, because the people you select represent you as the leader, and your company. In some cases leaders must sacrifice some skill and talent for people who have outstanding character. “Character and respect will outlast talent when talent can’t see past themselves.” Krzyzewski mentions that he will sign a kid who has the character of a leader and train them to gain the skill necessary down the road. I believe that this is why the Duke Men’s basketball program is very successful because he picks
The reason why Herb Brooks had the drive was because of his past with playing and being apart of Olympic Hockey. It all started back twenty years earlier than the 1980 Olympic games, when Brooks was on the United States National Hockey Team that was going be representing the United States in the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, California.
The first personal traits that Coach Dale was forced to exhibit were his toughness and his assertiveness. On his first night in Hickory he met the men of town in the barbershop who were all willing to provide their experience and insight on the team and how to coach. Coach Dale had enough self confidence to know that none of these “insights” were going to help the Hickory team win basketball games and let them know they weren’t welcome by turning his back and walking out. Additionally, he was forced to demonstrate his toughness twice more on the first day of practice by telling the temporary coach, “Secondly, your days of coaching are over,” and then by standing up to the group of men after he dismissed Buddy from the team. These actions made no friends of the men; however, th...
Any captain of a sports team must be committed and dedicated to their team. A captain must ensure that they are present and on time for every practice and game which he or she is intended to be at. Captains have many roles during practices, they are the first one there helping set up drills and organizing the practice. They need to make sure everyone is on the playing area on time and leading the warm-ups. The captain must lead by example by showing that he or she is there to practice or play his or her best and that everyone should give it their all, all the time (Mosher, 1981). They need to show that nothing else matters when that are playing or practicing; everyone’s mind should be strictly focused on the coach if he or she is talking, or the play they are working on, or the game they are in. The captain must be a strong leader and show dedication towards his or her sport.
At the time of 1980, a rule was in place that no professional hockey players could play in the Olympics; however, the Soviets were able to dodge this rule by claiming that their government-trained players were recruited from the amateur Central Army hockey club (Herb Brooks-Miracle Man). The American team consisted of a bunch of rag-tag college kids and amateurs while most of the players on the Soviet team had been practicing together for a decade and were coached in the finest training facilities in the world (Herb Brooks-Miracle Man). Many people are unaware of just how great the Soviet team was at this time in history (Russell). They had won eight of the past nine Olympic gold medals and five of the last seven world championships (Herb Brooks-Miracle Man). They defeated the NHL’s All-Stars, an American hockey team packed of the professional league’s star players, just the following year by a huge margin (Russell). The Soviets were even nicknamed the “Big Red Machine”, because th...
The problem with the varsity team is trust, or lack thereof. According to our text book, the definition of trust is the reciprocal faith in others’ intentions and behavior (Kinicki, 2013). In order for a team to succeed, there must be a level of trust and confidence by all members and especially the leadership of the team. The lack of trust started from the top with Coach Preczewski because he lacked leadership that the team needed. From the beginning, he made a difference between the Varsity Team and the Junior Varsity Team. Because of the difference that he made, it cause animosity between the two teams and lack of trust with the Varsity team.
Coach Herman Boone, who is played by Denzel Washington, is a very influential person. He is a perfect leader. While it cannot be found out for sure, Coach Boone can be classified under the trait theory of management, that “Leaders are Born”. The type of leadership he displays cannot be taught, he is able to bring together two different types of groups to act as one, to respect each other and play together. He shows power in the movie, he has a large capacity to influence others. Using his power, he gets the players to conform and forget how others think they are supposed to act towards each other. The goal specificity is also clear in the movie. Coach Boone expects his team to be ‘perfect’, he expects them to win the Virginia State Championship. Former head coach and now assistant coach Bill Yoast, played by Will Patton, is also a very influential person and good leader. He is in charge...