The Film "Coach Carter": Analysis of Leadership in High-performance Teams

Introduction

Coach Carter is an American drama film released in 2005. It is based on a true story of Ken Carter, who takes the job of basketball coach of Richmond High School and becomes famous in 1999 for benching his undefeated team due to poor academic performance. He realizes that the team members had a poor attitude, disrespect for teammates and poor basketball technique and endurance. Therefore, he decides to impose an obligatory contract on players which demanded good academic performance, a dress code, respectful behavior and strict commitment towards play. After some initial resistance from players, the team starts to build up and becomes undefeated in the new season. However, due to ignorance by players towards academic grades, the coach decides to lock the gym. He also cancels matches until the team shows considerable improvement in the academic performance further outraging the players, school management, and the community.

Coach Carter takes a stand for his decisions and convinces the players to endure a vision for the future and have a balance in life. He also engages with the school management and the community to inspire a change in the education system. The team becomes a high-performing team by showing equal commitment towards academics and basketball. Coach at the end finds that he has completely transformed the mindset of the team and congratulates everyone on the team effort.

The movie begins with a basketball game between Richmond High School and St. Francis High School. Richmond Oilers perform considerably poor and portray a poor sportsmanship. Ken Carter is offered a job as Head Coach of the Richmond High School basketball team, the school he himself played for and achieved great success.

Even though the job provided him with a low stipend, he decides to accept it. Before officially accepting the offer, he watches the team play against St. Francis High School. Soon he recognizes that the team lacks discipline and respect for fellow teammates. One effective quality of a leader is that he understands the strengths and the weaknesses of his team. He gauges the team based on its composition and dynamics. Such analysis is critical while building a team because team members often fail to realize their role within the team. This restricts teams, even with good performers and a good leader, from becoming a high-performance team.

Coach Carter: analysis of the scenes

Scene 1: Coach Carter meets the players (9 m)

The new coach Ken Carter arrives in the gym along with the former coach and immediately faces ignorance and lack of respect from the team. The former coach had failed in managing the team due to lack of authority and discipline in the players. Coach Carter asks the players to respect the fellow teammates by referring them ‘sir’ and do the same with him. He then establishes ground rules in the team and players are asked to sign a mandatory contract agreeing to terms like maintaining a 2.3-grade point average, wearing a tie on game days, attending all lectures, etc.

Autocratic leadership was adopted by the coach. There was no involvement of players while devising rules or the contract which they had to follow. Such leadership style was necessary as players were not well educated, not disciplined and were not responding to former coach’s orders. The Coach’s power was challenged by players like Timo Cruz, which is often observed in such a team environment. These are the silent leaders who often resist the change, rejects authority by others and try to take control of the team. Two best scorers from the last season left the team and the coach makes it clear that he cares about the team performance and not individuals. The fundamental principle he teaches to players is that the team is always superior to an individual. Basketball legend Michael Jordon quoted, “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships”. Reid Hoffman, Cofounder of LinkedIn states, “No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team”. This way Coach Carter started the task of turning a group of individuals into high performing teams. The first stage of the team development was forming, in which after the initial resistance players were trying to figure out the coach’s way of working. This stage also saw some characteristic of the storming phase, where players challenged Coach’s authority over the group. Silent leaders like Jaron Wills (Worms) and Jason Lyle were impatient and skeptical about new rules and were struggling along with others to understand its relevance to them.

Scene 2: Resistance from parents (20 m)

The coach decides to involve parents in his decisions for the students. He asks them to sign the contract agreeing to the terms and his way of operation. Most of the parents challenge his methods as they disagreed with the importance of maintaining a 2.3-grade point average in player’s academic life. Parents argued that ‘basket is life for their kids’. Coach wants to target this mindset of parents and asks them to have a vision of college education for their children. Mindset is the way you are programmed to think, to give meaning, and therefore also to act. It relates to structure and culture. In general terms, it is the characteristic of mental attitude that determines how you will interpret or respond to situations. As the African community in Richmond was reluctant towards education, they had a mindset that education is secondary.

The Coach, therefore, adopts an action mindset here, by engaging the parents to nurture a change within the community. He tries to convince them to maintain a direction, a vision for their children. He reminds everyone that playing basketball in the high school may not guarantee players social success in their life, but along with academic excellence, basketball can help students to get into college. And which is why players are called ‘student’ athletes. Action mindset by the coach tries to achieve a combination of both strategies; namely academic excellence and winning basketball thus maintaining a balance in a student’s life. He understands what things should be preserved and what should be changed.

Scene 3: Damien Carter enters the gym (25 m)

Damien Carter, coach’s son, arrives a few minutes late in the gym on his first day. He received the same treatment by the coach as his fellow teammates would have and are asked to perform pushups and suicides. This was a right approach by the coach by judging every player on similar grounds without any favorable treatment. A leader is respected within the team if he treats everyone equally and fairly. Treating his son like all other players was important leadership quality.

Scene 4: Timo Cruz returns to the gym (33 m)

Cruz returns to the gym and expresses a desire to play for the team again. Keeping his behavior in mind, instead of directly refusing him, the coach asks him to complete a huge series of pushups and suicides. He also puts a time constraint on the task, which makes it impossible to complete. This is an important characteristic of an authoritarian leader, where the coach teaches Cruz and other team members that every action has consequences. The consequence can be a reward or punishment and every team player must manage the consequences of his actions. Meanwhile, as Cruz finishes his time frame for the task, the coach congratulates him for the effort. He realizes that Cruz is short of the objective and therefore refuses him to integrate into the team. The coach may have faced a dilemma whether to reward Cruz for his exceptional effort or to be fair and stick to the objectives. Later, the team players express a desire to complete the remaining task for Cruz thus fulfilling the objective and accepting Timo Cruz in the team. Due to this act, the coach had significant achievements as a leader.

Firstly, he was successful in establishing discipline and his authority as a leader. Secondly, he managed to turn a group of individuals into a responsible team. Jason Lyle’s dialogue from this scene is evident of the team bonding, “We are a team. One person struggle, we all struggle. One person triumph, we all triumph” This stage is referred to as norming. In this phase, teams start to work together and understand the strength and importance of a team. However, this is an unstable stage as a team might go to the storming phase if an issue crops up. As the team matures they start valuing other’s opinion, manage conflict effectively and give respect to fellow teammates.

Also, the team is now able to express open criticism and thus tries to strive forward with a common objective.

Scene 5: Junior Battle quits (52 m)

Coach Carter realizes that team players are not obeying their contract by attending all lectures. He confronts the team about this issue and once again reminds them to about the vision for the future college education. The junior battle is asked about his absenteeism in the class to which he had no concrete excuse.

Therefore, coach suspends him from the team. Resisting to coach’s decision he quits and disrespects the team and the coach. An important characteristic of a leader is an assessment of the team’s commitment on regular basis. This way he can exercise situational leadership more effectively. Such leadership effectively considers the maturity and competence of the team member which is often overlooked. Every individual has the different skillset and it is not adequate to perform all task even with a good leader. In this situation, the team was doing good in matches but ignoring academics. Therefore, the coach again exercises his authority to maintain direction and to stick with the objectives. On the other hand, Coach is constantly trying to help students to have a futuristic vision towards which players are ignorant. Good leaders often try to think what is good for the team’s development and success, even if followers find it irrelevant. As Steve Jobs rightly said in an interview to Business Week in 1997, “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

Scene 6: Gym lockout (1h 22 m)

After receiving the academic results of all players, the coach decides to lock the gym. This comes after the team has successfully won the Baywatch High School Championship. He summons the players in the library and confronts them with their low academic results. He again offers players a way out if they prove a commitment towards academics. This kind of leadership is different from the autocratic style. It is the coercive style of leadership. The coach takes most radical decisions by locking the gym as he had no option. A good leader uses the coercive power only as a last resort because it may increase the resistance by peers and can ultimately undermine the leader. The leader who can pull the coercive style of leadership effectively when required has a unique “action logic” – the Individualist.

Action logic it the way leaders interpret the surrounding and react when their power or safety is challenged. Leaders with the Individualist action logic are aware of the possible conflicts, however, sees that as an opportunity to change or succeed. This encourages them to use their coercive power when necessary which sometimes leads to misunderstandings with top management or even subordinates. This use of coercive power by coach Carter attracted a lot of resistance from parents, community and school management. The coach was now in a middle management role wherein he is answerable to school management (top) and players and parent (bottom). As it important for the middle management to maintain their independence to avoid tearing situation, the coach initially answered all queries and stayed firm on his stand for the lockout.

Scene 7: Team meeting in the library (1h 27m)

As the lockout was becoming more and more serious with media attention and involvement of the council, the coach took time out to have an open discussion with the team. This was done so that players could discuss their grievances and debate on the necessity of the lockout. The coach honestly puts his views in front of all players and promises them that he will try his best to get every player into the college if they show commitment. This stage is referred to as storming. During this phase of team development, people disagree and sometimes blame the leader for devising a false strategy. The leader’s wisdom is questioned, and the team may become defensive and hesitant to take the next step. Silent leaders clash with the team and the leader creating instability and chaos. At this stage leader must practice active listening, inquire and understand the differences and provide an open platform for discussion.

The communication within the team is vital for the success, and moreover, team members must understand and embrace the change they are going through, which could be possible through honest and open communication.

Scene 8: Council meeting to end lockout (1h 39m)

The council meeting was arranged to understand the reasons behind a radical decision from the coach to lock the gym. Coach Carter puts forwards his views on the issue and stresses on the idea of bringing about a change in the society. Council also asks parents views before taking a vote. The decision was made against the lockout and coach decides to resign. An important characteristic of a leader is to negotiate his stand to top management and still maintain individuality in his decisions. Here, the coach also tries to create a sense of responsibility within the top management and the community. He gives the example of team players who failed to obey simple rules of a contract and warned everyone that these players may soon consider themselves above law.

Scene 9: The Performing Stage (1h 44m)

Coach Carter wanted the team to perform well on two fronts; academics and basketball court. Unless they were not committed to academics, winning basketball matches will not make them a high performing team.

After the Council’s decision to end the lockout, players decided to respect the decision of coach and committed themselves to academics. Moreover, they also performed well on the court winning an entry into state championship tournament. At this stage, the team transforms into a high performing team. It is mature enough to handle new challenges and accomplish them with team performance and not by relying on individuals. This is the level where leadership style can be shifted to the delegation and team members are given the freedom to make decisions. Leaders give minimal direction to the team, however, the team is held responsible for its actions. As the team is matured from norming, at performing stage team very rarely falls back to storming. Many teams fail to recognize the importance of the stages of development and often try to jump on the performing stage at the beginning. If the team is amateur, it is likely to fail in the storming phase as this stage is most difficult of all. A leader is responsible to help the team to progress through these stages of development.

More importantly, he must assess the competence and behaviors of the team members and then decide the type of support he needs to provide. This practice is called Situational Leadership.

Scene 10: The last game (2h 8m)

The team played for the first time in state championship tournament, which was an achievement for a young team. The team performed at their maximum potential and coach congratulates them for their effort. He does not forget to mention the progress made by the team academically and during the basket training. He also thanks them for the respect he received from the players. This is the last stage in team development, named as adjourning. During this stage, the team simply reflects on its performance and takes away lessons learned in the process. This stage is important to help the team move forward with the results; win or failure both must end somewhere to give a new start. With this last briefing, there is a bittersweet ending to the goal or project.

Conclusion

Coach Carter was a movie about how a leader can inspire a change within his team and the community. It may be necessary to challenge the status quo in some situations and therefore teams shouldn’t be afraid of change initiatives. Coach Carter teaches the players the importance of discipline and vision. Building a high-performance team requires patience and persistence. The leader must create an environment where the team could excel and adapt to changes gradually.

Coach Carter has successfully practiced Situational Leadership to deal with un-educated and arrogant team members. A combination of authoritarian, coercive and delegating leadership style was necessary to induce discipline in the team. Also, utilization of Individualistic action logic was key to the success, as the current education system was unable to motivate the students to progress and inculcate a futuristic vision in their lives.

This movie teaches some important characteristic of leadership and high-performance teams which could be summarized as follows:

1. Teams outperform individuals and leader must focus on working as a team and not as a group. Teams understand their goals and have a sense of cohesion.
2. Leaders are responsible for creating a clear vision for the team.
3. A high-performance team is matured from stages of development like forming, storming, norming and performing. Such teams are characterized by active listening skills, open advocacy, mutual trust, cohesion and good leadership.
4. Leadership style or approach depends on the mindset of the teams and the leader. It is also highly influenced by culture, personality, structure, and systems.

Works Cited

1. Carter, T. (Director). (2005). Coach Carter [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures.
2. Jain, R. (2019, June 5). Coach Carter: An Analysis of Leadership Qualities. Medium.
3. Ken Carter (basketball). (2023, April 1). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Carter_(basketball)
4. Leadership Lessons from Coach Carter. (2015, January 14). Skip Prichard. https://www.skipprichard.com/leadership-lessons-from-coach-carter/
5. The Impact of Ken Carter's Decision to Lock Out His High School Basketball Team. (2016, January 14). Vice. https://www.vice.com/en/article/5gqj3q/the-impact-of-ken-carters-decision-to-lock-out-his-high-school-basketball-team