Emile Dungy Leadership Style

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Mentor Leadership

Dungy defines his personal leadership style as “Mentor Leadership.” Dungy describes mentor leaders has having a “direct, intentional, and positive impact on those they lead (Dungy, 2010).” This leadership style has mentoring at its core. It emphasizes character building, modeling and teaching positive attitudes and positive behaviors that others would be wise to emulate. This positive model then can be passed on to future generations. The primary focus on mentor leadership is “to shape the lives of others, modeling and teaching attitudes and behaviors (Dungy, 2010).”

Dungy offers up seven principles for the success of a mentor leader. These seven principles are really the practical application steps to Dungy’s leadership …show more content…

One area of leadership where he may exhibit the most weakness is in the area of challenging the process. As a head coach, Dungy was never one for innovative new plays or taking big risks. Dungy is remembered in Tampa for his conservative play calling and winning games through the execution of fundamental football. Dungy readily admits to one low point in his coaching career where he wishes he would have challenged the normal coach replacement process. In 1996, after failing to make it to the Super Bowl, the owners of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers came to Dungy and expressed their desire to change the offense, starting first with offensive coordinator, Mike Shula. They wanted him fired, but Dungy did not agree. However, Dungy realized that if he failed to do the will of the owners, he may likely be out of a job and more importantly, the rest of the coaching staff would be without work. Dungy, in a bad situation, agreed and fired Shula, despite his own internal convictions that this was the wrong move. Dungy believes that this move ultimately caused disharmony among the coaching staff and began the demise of his tenure as the Buccaneers head coach. If he had to do it over again, Dungy would have tried harder to save Shula’s job, even if it risked his own. While the whole situation was a learning experience for Dungy, it is an example of his hesitation at the time to be bold and challenge the

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