FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY

Principles of Management
---------***--------

GROUP REPORT
LEADERSHIP ANALYSIS
“Don’t quit on me”

CLASS: Principles of Management (QTRE303.2)

INSTRUCTOR: Hoang Anh Duy
GROUP NUMBER: 04

Hanoi, March 2019

 TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 1

LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................................... 3

1. WHO IS LEADER .......................................................................................................... 3

Ⅰ.Definition of leader ..................................................................................................... 3
II. The model of 3P .......................................................................................................... 3
III. Leader Core Responsibilities ..................................................................................... 5
2. WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?.............................................................................................. 5
Ⅰ. Definition ................................................................................................................... 5
Ⅱ. History of leadership .................................................................................................. 6
Ⅲ. Some essential leadership skills .................................................................................. 6

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .......................................................................................... 9

1. Managing power.............................................................................................................. 9
2. Leadership Trait Theories ............................................................................................. 10
3. Behavioral Approaches (1930s) ................................................................................... 12
4. Situation Approaches - Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory (SLT) 16
5. Contemporary approach ............................................................................................... 18
Ⅰ.Charismatic leader ................................................................................................... 18
Ⅱ. Transformational leadership ................................................................................... 19

SHORT SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO................................................................................. 20

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS ............................................................................................... 22

1. Taylor’s managing power .............................................................................................. 22

2. The coach’s leadership traits ......................................................................................... 23
3. Behavioral analysis ........................................................................................................ 27
4. SLT analysis .................................................................................................................. 30
5. Contemporary approach ............................................................................................... 30

RECOMMENDATIONS ...................................................................................................... 33

1. Coach Taylor’s style of leadership. ................................................................................ 33

2. The message of the movie as a whole ............................................................................. 35

CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 37

REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................... 39
MEMBERS’ ASSIGNMENTS .............................................................................................. 40
 INTRODUCTION

In today’s competitive world, leadership skills are crucial for both

personal and professional development. Leadership is an important function of
management, which helps an individual or a business to maximize efficiency
and to achieve goals.
Leadership is most commonly defined as influence, that is, the action
of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically
toward the achievement of group goals. (Koontz). Leaders are often regarded
as an inspiration for others, being one has its own set of pros and cons.
Good leadership is also important in order to run a business. Good
leaders can be united, come up, and get consensus from the members only
when the leader is supposed to communicate. Each of us understands
importance of leadership when it comes to our country. We all try to vote for
the best person in elections because it matters who is in our office.
Some people are born to be leaders. The quality runs in their blood.
Others are inspired by such people and work based on their embedded quality.
Some fail to achieve it, others are successful in attaining it through continual
efforts. Without gradual work, a person, who is not a strong leader from the
outset, is unlikely to become a good leader. So, which qualities are to be
developed?
Leadership is not something you can learn from a book, but you have
to gain this skill through experiences such as holding an office, organizing an
event, speaking in front of people, or participating in leadership programs.
Leadership is so unique quality that not everyone can possess. If you have it
in you, this only means you are lucky. At times, we are so caught up in the
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influence of others (mostly parents or teachers) – how they want us to be or
how they would react to our decisions - that we tend to forget what they really
want to and act in the manner they have taught or expect us to. If you feel that
you have it in you to be a good leader but are doubtful at the same, the
following should help you gain clarity.

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 LITERATURE REVIEW

This literature review was conducted to investigate history of birth,

formation and development related to the aspects of leading, including leader
and leadership.
First things, leading is the process of influencing other people to engage
in the work behaviors necessary to reach the organizational objectives. It
includes motivating subordinates, help to resolve work groups’ conflicts,
influence individuals or teams as they work, select the most effective
communication channel, or deal in any way with employees’ behavior issues.
Two most important factors of leading are leader and leadership.
1. WHO IS LEADER

Ⅰ.Definition of leader

Leader is a person that holds a dominant or superior position within its

field, and is able to exercise a high degree of control or influence over others.
He or she influences others to engage in work toward organizational goals and
who has managerial authority.
A leader by its meaning is one who goes first and leads by example, so
that others are motivated to follow him. This is a basic requirement. To be a
leader, a person must have a vision, a drive, a deep-rooted commitment to the
goal that he will strive to achieve it even if nobody follows him. More
important, he or she must have the skills to make it happen. Then, he or she
has enough power to encourage, persuade, or even impel his or her followers
to act.
II. The model of 3P
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 The 3P model depicts a leader’s responsibility. Here, a person is a
symbol of a leader who activates his team, simultaneously brings up a goal. He
or she monitors the quantitative and qualitative achievements of the team. The
leader often works within the team, as a member, carrying out the same roles
but with the additional 'leader' responsibilities. In order for a team to function
successfully, the team leader must also motivate the team to "use their
knowledge and skills to achieve the shared goals." He or she utilizes his or her
expertise, peers and creativeness to formulate an effective team. When a team
leader motivates a team, group members can function in a goal oriented
manner.

Figure 1- Mnemonic diagram of leader

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III. Leader Core Responsibilities
As a leader of a team, there come an abundance of duties to take. But in
general, the following five responsibilities are essential for every leader:
 Assemble team members with a combination of skills required to
accomplish goal
 Develop a strategy by which team members can use to reach the project
goal
 Assign tasks to team members including those that he/she will manage
 Determine completion timeline and monitor progress to ensure project is
on track
 Communicate progress to upper level management

2. WHAT IS LEADERSHIP?
Ⅰ. Definition

“Leadership is a matter of intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness,

courage, and discipline ... Reliance on intelligence alone results in
rebelliousness. Exercise of humaneness alone results in weakness. Fixation on
trust results in folly. Dependence on the strength of courage results in violence.
Excessive discipline and sternness in command result in cruelty. When one has
all five virtues together, each appropriate to its function, then one can be a
leader”. - Sun Tzu.
It is clear that leadership is a process of leading and influencing a group
of people to achieve the group’s goals. The process involves establishing a clear
vision, sharing that vision with others, providing the information, knowledge
and methods to realize it, and coordinating and balancing the conflicting
interests of all members.
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 When applied correctly, leadership can bring about positive outcomes
for people, businesses, and wider communities. This is why it is important to
adopt the approach to developing leaders to fit the current needs of an
organization, as well as invest in environments that enable leaders to be
effective.

Ⅱ. History of leadership

Leadership was born long ago, as many researches indicate that from the
ancient times of Egypt, human kind knew about leadership. In Eastern culture,
leadership symbolizes the image of generals, masters or kings.
Over thousands of years of human society, the concept has also become
more and more complex. Controversies over models of leadership or which
methods to determine leadership styles result in a plethora of studies.
Studies of leadership have produced theories involving traits, situational
interaction, function, behavior, power, vision and values, charisma, intelligence,
etc. Among a wide range of theories of leadership, there are the most prominent
one which would be mentioned in the next part of this report.

Ⅲ. Some essential leadership skills

a. Communication
As a leader, you need to be able to clearly and succinctly explain to your
employees everything from organizational goals to specific tasks. Leaders must
master all forms of communication, including one-on-one, departmental, and
full-staff conversations, as well as communication via the phone, email, and
social media.
A large part of communication involves listening. Therefore, leaders
should establish a steady flow of communication between themselves and their

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staff or team members, either through an open-door policy or regular
conversations with workers. Leaders should make themselves regularly
available to discuss issues and concerns with employees. Other skills related to
communication include:
Active listening
Clarity
Concision
Correspondence
Explaining
Expression
Nonverbal communication
Presentation
Verbal communication
Written communication
…
b. Delegating
Leaders who try to take on too many tasks by themselves will struggle
to get anything done. These leaders often fear that delegating tasks is a sign of
weakness, when in fact it is a sign of a strong leader.
Therefore, you need to identify the skills of each of your employees, and
assign duties to each employee based on his or her skill set. By delegating tasks
to staff members, you can focus on other important tasks.
c. Flexibility
Mishaps and last-minute changes always occur at work. Leaders need to
be flexible, accepting whatever changes come their way. Employees will
appreciate your ability to accept changes in stride and creatively problem solve.
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 Similarly, leaders must be open to suggestions and feedback. If your staff
is dissatisfied with an aspect of the office environment, listen to their concern
and be open to making necessary changes. Employees will appreciate a leader's
ability to accept appropriate feedback.
d. Feedback
Leaders should constantly look for opportunities to deliver useful
information to team members about their performance. However, there is a fine
line between offering employees advice and assistance, and micromanaging.
By teaching employees how to improve their work and make their own
decisions, you will feel more confident delegating tasks to your staff.
Employees will also respect a leader who provides feedback in a clear but
empathetic way.

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 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

People have been interested in leadership since they started coming

together in groups to accomplish goals. However, it was not until the early 20th
century that researchers actually began to study it. This part provides a review
of leadership theories and tracks their evolution over the past 70 years, from
the “Great man” idea of heroic leaders, through leadership trait theories,
behavioral theories, contingency theories and on to contemporary views of
leadership. In this assignment, we are using some following theories to analyze
the video:
1. Managing power
Power refers to an individual’s capacity to influence decisions. Authority
is part of the larger concept of power.
Five sources of leader power have been identified: legitimate, coercive,
reward, expert, and referent
- Coercive power: Power based on fear.
- Reward power: Power based on the ability to distribute something
that others value.
- Legitimate power: Power based on one's position in the formal
hierarchy.
- Expert power: Power based on one's expertise, special skill, or
knowledge.
- Referent power: Power based on identification with a person who
has desirable resources or personal traits.

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In today’s uncertain environment, an important consideration for leaders is
building trust and credibility, both of which can be extremely fragile. A leader’s
credibility in terms of his or her honesty, competence, and ability to inspire.
Trust is defined as the belief in the integrity, character, and ability of a leader.
The ability to quickly develop trust and sustain that trust is crucial to the success
of the relationship.
It’s important that followers trust their leaders. Because research has shown
that trust in leadership is significantly related to positive job outcomes
including job performance, organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction,
and organizational commitment. Managerial and leadership effectiveness
depends on the ability to gain the trust of followers. Downsizing, financial
challenges, and the increased use of temporary employees have undermined
employees’ trust in their leaders and shaken the confidence of investors,
suppliers, and customers.

Empowerment is the act of increasing the decision-making discretion of

workers. Those at the lower levels of the organization often have the knowledge
to make quick decisions.
2. Leadership Trait Theories
The trait model of leadership is based on the characteristics of many
leaders - both successful and unsuccessful - and is used to predict leadership
effectiveness. The resulting lists of traits are then compared to those of potential
leaders to assess their likelihood of success or failure.
This theory is based on the Great man theory, but more systematic in its
analysis of leaders. Like Great man theory, it assumes that a leader’s personal
traits are the key to leadership success.

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 The search for traits or characteristics that differentiate leaders from non-
leaders dominated early leadership research efforts. If the concept of traits were
valid, all leaders would have to possess specific characteristics.
The seven traits shown to be associated with effective leadership:
1/ Drive: Leaders exhibit a high effort level. They have a relatively high
desire for achievement, they are ambitious,
they have a lot of energy, they are tirelessly persistent in their activities
and they show initiative
2/ Desire to lead: Leaders have strong desire to influence and lead others,
and demonstrate willingness to take responsibility.
3/ Honesty and integrity: Leaders build trusting relationships with
followers by being truthful and showing high consistency between word and
deed.
4/ Self – confidence: Followers look to leaders for an absence of self-
doubt. Leader, therefore, needs to show confidence in order to convince
followers of the rightness of their goal and decisions.
5/ Intelligence: Leaders need to be able to gather, synthesize and
interpret large amount of information as well as to create visions, solve
problems and make correct decisions.
6/ Job – relevant knowledge: Effective leaders have a high degree of
knowledge about the team, industry, and technical matters. In – depth
knowledge allows leaders to make well – informed decision and to understand
the implications of those decisions.
7/ Extraversion: Leaders are energetic, lively people. They are sociable,
assertive and rarely silent or withdrawn.

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 The Trait theory gives constructive information about leadership. It can
be applied by people at all levels in all types of organizations. They can get an
in-depth understanding of their identity and the way they will affect others in
the organization. This theory makes the manager aware of their strengths and
weaknesses and so that they get an understanding of how they can develop their
leadership qualities.
Although this theory provides such detailed information and
understanding of the leader element in the leadership process, it is quite
complex and is not sufficient for finding effective leaders since explanations
based solely on traits ignored the interactions of leaders and their groups
members as well as the situational factors. Therefore, leadership research from
the late 1940s to the mid 1960s concentrated on the preferred behavioral styles
that leaders demonstrated.
3. Behavioral Approaches (1930s)
In contrast with Trait theory, Behavioral theory attempts to describe
leadership in terms of what leaders do instead of what leaders are. Leadership,
according to this approach, is the result of effective role behaviors. Leadership
is shown more by one’s act than his traits.
Theories that isolate behaviours that differentiate effective leaders from
ineffective leaders.
These are the four main leader behavior studies as following.
● Iowa University study
The University of Iowa study undertaken by Kurt Lewin explore three
types of leadership styles, including autocratic style, democratic style and
laissez-faire style.

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 Autocratic style Democratic style Laissez-faire style

Definition A leader who A leader who involves A leader who

centralizes employees in decision generally gives
authority, dictates making, delegates employees complete
work methods, authority, encourages freedom to make
makes unilateral participation in deciding decisions and to
decisions, and work methods, and uses complete their work
limits employees’ feedback to coach however they see fit
participation employees

Characteristics Leader directly Involve employees in Group making

makes decisions. decision making. decisions.

Centralized Decentralized power. Empower.

power.

Require followers Require followers’ Require creativeness

to obey and participation and and responsibility.
follow. discussion.

Supervise tightly. Supervise by regular Supervise by result.

feedback.

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 Benefits -Decisions are -High job satisfaction -Providing high job
made quickly and creativity. satisfaction.
-Work gets done -Develop employees’ -Increasing
efficiently. skills. productivity.
-Employees feel self-
controlling and are
motivated.

Down-sides High level of staff -Hinder speed/efficiency -Not good time

turnover and essential situations. management.
absenteeism. -Members may not have -If there is lack of
enough high-quality knowledge or skills.
knowledge.

Application -Leading X -Keeping employees -Employees are high

people. informed about matters educated, skillful and
-Untrained people affecting them. experienced.
who do not know -Leader wants to provide -Outside experts
how – what to do. chance for personal (consultants...) are
-Limited time to growth and job used.
make decisions. satisfaction. -Leader gives
-Leader’s power -Encouraging team feedback regularly.
is challenged by building and
employees. participation.
-The area was
poorly managed.

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 -When quality is more
important than
productivity.

Many still remain wonder that which one is the most effective? The
answer is that it depends on types of employees (X people or Y people); the
area that you work for (e.g: art requires creativity so laissez -fair is suitable;
policemen,manufacture will fit into autocratic) and the emergency,
importance of the problem. However, the one that has more advantage than the
rest is democratic.

● University of Michigan Study

The Michigan group came up with 2 dimensions of leadership behavior.

First was employee oriented which emphasized interpersonal relationships and
taking care of employees’ needs. The second one was production oriented
which emphasized technical or task aspects of job.

They also concluded that leaders who were employee oriented were able
to get high group productivity and high group member satisfaction.

● The Ohio State Studies

The Ohio State studies identified two categories that accounted for most
of the leadership behavior

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 - Initiating Structure: The extent to which a leader defines and
structures his or her role and the roles of employees to attain goals. It
included behaviors that involved attempts to organize work, work
relationships, and goals.
- Consideration: The extent to which a leader has job relationships
characterized by mutual trust, respect for employees’ ideas, and regard
for their feelings. A leader who was high in consideration helped group
members with personal problems, was friendly and approachable, and
treated all group members as equals.

Research found that a leader who was high in both initiating structure
and consideration (a high–high leader) sometimes achieved high group task
performance and high group member satisfaction, but not always.

4. Situation Approaches - Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership

Theory (SLT)
Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard developed a leadership theory that has
gained a strong following among management development specialists. To
build this model Hersey and Blanchard have based on the idea of Michigan
University. This model, called situational leadership theory (SLT), is a
contingency theory that focuses of followers’ readiness. And readiness refers
to the extent to which people have the ability and willingness to accomplish a
specific task.
SLT uses the same two leadership dimensions that Fiedler identified:
task and relationship behaviors.Four situational styles are

•Telling (high task–low relationship): The leader defines roles and tells
people what, how, when, and where to do various tasks
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 •Selling (high task–high relationship): The leader provides both
directive and supportive behavior

•Participating (low task–high relationship): The leader and followers

share in decision making; the main role of the leader is facilitating and
communicating.

•Delegating (low task–low relationship): The leader provides little

direction or support.

The final component in the model is the four stages of follower readiness:

R1: People are both unable and unwilling to take responsibility for doing
something. Followers aren’t competent or confident. The leader needs to use
the telling style and give clear and specific directions

R2: People are unable but willing to do the necessary job tasks.
Followers are motivated but lack the appropriate skills. The leader needs to
use the selling style and display high task orientation to compensate for the
followers’ lack of ability and high relationship orientation to get followers to
“buy into” the leader’s desires.

R3: People are able but unwilling to do what the leader wants. Followers
are competent, but don’t want to do something. The leader needs to use the
participating style to gain their support

R4: People are both able and willing to do what is asked of them. The
leader doesn’t need to do much and should use the delegating style.

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 Figure 2. Situation Approaches
It acknowledges the importance of followers and builds on the logic that
leaders can compensate for ability and motivational limitations in their
followers. However, researches show that possible explanations include
internal inconsistencies in the model as well as problems with research
methodology. Therefore, we have to be cautious about any enthusiastic
endorsement of SLT.
5. Contemporary approach

Ⅰ.Charismatic leader

Charismatic leader is an enthusiastic, self-confident leader whose personality

and actions influence people to behave in certain ways.
Five personal characteristics of the charismatic leader:
- Having a vision
- Having the ability to articulate that vision
- A willingness to take risks to achieve that vision
- A sensitivity to both environmental constraints and follower needs
- Behaviors that are out of the ordinary.
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Charismatic leadership may not always be necessary to achieve high levels of
employee performance. It may be most appropriate when the follower’s task
has an ideological purpose or when the environment involves a high degree of
stress and uncertainty. This distinction may explain why, when charismatic
leaders surface, it’s more likely to be in politics, religion, or wartime; or when
a business firm is starting up or facing a survival crisis

Ⅱ. Transformational leadership

Characteristics:
- Leaders are aware of the link between the effort and reward.
- Leadership is responsive and its basic orientation is dealing with present
issues.
- Leaders rely on standard forms of inducement, reward, punishment and
sanction to control followers.
- Leaders motivate followers by setting goals and promising rewards for
desired performance.
- Leadership depends on the leader’s power to reinforce subordinates for
their successful completion of the bargain.
Benefits
- Clarifying everyone’s roles and responsibilities.
- Judging team members equally on their performance.
- Providing chances for people who are ambitious or are motivated by external
rewards.
Downsides
- Followers may do little to improve job satisfaction.
- It can be stifling and lead to turnover.
Application: First-line leaders
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 SHORT SUMMARY OF THE VIDEO

We chose the video “Don't quit on me” for this assignment. This video is
one scene of the film “Facing the Giants “( in 2006, America, directed
by Alex Kendrick). This movie is dealing with one weak football team’s
process of the amazing victory.

The football team, Eagles, suffers from lots of continuous lost matches.
Given this situation, the head coach, Grant Taylor is in the edge of dismissal.
However, his firm faith never makes him to give up his team winning. So he
continues to struggle to make team become stronger, as deepens his
knowledge, makes suitable and effective statics and motivates whole his team.
Through his much efforts, he succeed in motivating his team and leading
them to miracle victories even against stronger teams. Finally, this team
becomes the top team.

In this scene, all members of Eagles are worried about the tough
competitor in the next match. As see this atmosphere, the coach Taylor directs
the captain Brock to crawl across the field with his teammate on his back and
blindfolded. At first the coach directs, Brock and team members undoubtedly
think it impossible. However, due to the coach’s statics such as his continuous
cheering beside Book or blindfolded condition made it possible for Brook to
achieve the goal performing his potential skills he cannot before. This
Brook’s success not only motivates captain Brook but also makes team
members believe they can win if they do their best. It becomes a trigger of
team’s process of success.

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 This scene of the video not only became one of the most famous scenes
in this film but also made this film famous all over the world.

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 FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

1. Taylor’s managing power

Powers Analysis

Coercive power As the name suggests, this type of power is based on

fear, which is the fear of failure as well as his team’s
negative attitude toward the situation in this video. The
coach’s team has lost several matches and has to face a
tough competitor in the next one. Because of that, all
players seem to be pessimistic, especially the captain,
Brock. Thus, he asks the captain to do an extremely hard
task to be exemplary for others as he believes if the
captain does not have faith then neither do the other
members.

Legitimate This kind of power is based on one’s position in the

power formal hierarchy. As a football coach, he has the power
to command his players to do whatever he says
regarding practice and play.

Expert power This power is based on one’s expertise, special skill and
knowledge. The coach obviously has this power. He was
the coach of Shilol Eagles, a football team in six years.
He has more knowledge than any other team member
about campaign, the experience to deal with all situation
in matches.

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 Referent power This kind of power is based on identification with a
person who has desirable resources or personal traits.
The coach has such a desirable personal trait as he truly
believes in the impossible and inspires the captain to
crawl across the field with his 160-pound friend on his
back being blindfold, which is really difficult and can be
impossible for those who do not have faith. At first, the
captain seems to think that the task is impossible and
even almost quits while doing this. But the coach keeps
motivating him with a firm belief that he can achieve
this, which makes him change his mind and continue.
Furthermore, the coach is able to recognize the real
ability of this captain. The coach knows that the captain
of the team can do much better than he usually do when
training. This is why the coach set the goal which the
captain thinks is impossible

2. The coach’s leadership traits

Traits Analysis

Drive Leaders exhibit a high effort level. They have a relatively

high desire for achievement, they are ambitious, they have
a lot of energy, they are tirelessly persistent in their
activities, and they show initiative.
Ambition: Grant Taylor is the head football coach at Shiloh
Christian Academy, and has yet to post a winning record in

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 his six-year tenure. However he still wants to lead his
football team to a victory one day. That’s why in one
practice session when team members have to do the death
crawl, Taylor told one of his members: “You could make it
to the 50 with Jeremy on your back instead of 30, if you
promise to give your best”. The coach has a high desire for
a winning match.
Initiative: Coach Taylor stayed up late all night in order to
find a new team’s philosophy as well new tactics. He
became more initiative by adding a few trick plays when
facing the Giants as known as the strongest competitor in
the football game
Persistence: Despite facing the risk of being fired, Taylor
showed his unlimited energy along with his dedication to
the team. He shows all his efforts by inspiring his players
besides making them practice. He is not willing to lose
another game and makes his players believe it is possible to
win.

Desire to lead Leaders have a strong desire to influence and lead others.
They demonstrate the willingness to take responsibility.
The coach is an exemplary person. Whatever he thinks it’s
good, he will share it with his players, namely the faith
over the fear in this situation. He shows his high
responsibility to the whole team.

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Honesty and Leaders build trusting relationships with followers by being
integrity truthful or honest and by showing high consistency
between his words and deeds.He trains his players with all
his heart and passion. He treats all his players equally by
motivating the whole team to win and boosting the team’s
spirit. Despite their different religious beliefs, he inspires
them to all have faith.

Self- Followers look to leaders for an absence of self-doubt.

confidence Leaders, therefore, need to show self-confidence in order to
convince followers of the rightness of their goals and
decisions.
He is such a self-confident person that he gives command
to the whole team. As a coach, he is not only confident in
his skill and knowledge but also in his faith. Whatever he
says to motivate his players, it feels like he is strongly
confident in himself.

Intelligence Leaders need to be intelligent enough to gather, synthesize

and interpret large amounts of information, and they need
to be able to create visions, solve problems and make
correct decisions.
He is intelligent to find a new approach to solve the team’s
problem. Since his team has been in bad mood, especially
the captain who is rather pessimistic about the future, he
finds that if he makes the captain to do something really

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 hard, the whole team will believe that there is nothing that
they cannot do.
His intelligence was represented not only by how to
perceive problems, how to deal with them, but also how to
communicate with his team members. In a training session,
Grant Taylor made Brock Kelly carry his teammate on the
back with a blindfold up to the end of the field. The
blindfold helped Brock focus on his crawl, not being
distracted by how far he would make it to the finish line.
Also, Taylor showed his judiciousness by choosing Brock
Kelly to be the first one to do the death crawl since Brock
is the most influential member.

Job-relevant Effective leaders have a high degree of knowledge about

knowledge the company, industry and technical matters. In-depth
knowledge allows leaders to make well-informed decisions
and to understand the implications of those decisions.
Grant Taylor had been a head football coach at Shiloh
Christian Academy for 6 years. Therefore, he had
experience in coaching a football team. The coach has
experience in leading his team and he knows which kinds
of practicing would be suitable and good for the team.

Extraversion Leaders are energetic, lively people. They are sociable,

assertive and rarely silent or withdrawn.

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 The coach is such an energetic and lively person. He keeps
saying “keep going, don’t quit” “Keep going…You’re
doing good…Give me your best” repeatedly all the way
while motivating the captain and sometimes even yells at
him to boost his courage to crawl across the field while
carrying a person on his back.

3. Behavioral analysis
Grand Taylor: autocratic leadership style

Factors Analysis

Situation Coach of a six-years football team

without any winning

the risk of being replaced

One of their best players

transferred to their rival team

Making decision All by himself: strategy design,

task division, told followers each
step to do, order “Move it… No
knees underground”

Use power Legitimate power – main source

Supervise followers Followed strictly, told what to do,

supervised in the process

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Require followers Listen and obey the command of
Taylor till the end.

According to other studies

Studies Behavioral Analysis

Dimension

University Employee This emphasized interpersonal relationships

of oriented and taking care of employees’ needs.
Michigan The coach takes the captain as an example
for others in the team to follow. He believes
that there is a strong connection among team
players, if the captain can do, the others will
be able to do so. He shows his insights into
his players by inspiring them and he knows
exactly what to do to encourage them.

Production This emphasized technical or task aspects of

oriented job.
The coach uses a typical exercise for his
players to practice: each person carries one
man on his back while crawling the ground.
Based on his own experience, he knows what
the captain can do to the fullest potential and
encourages him to keep moving. While
instructing him to practice, the coach shares

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 the right techniques with him so that the
captain can do his best.

Ohio States Initiating The extent to which a leader defines and

structure structures his or her role and the roles of
employees to attain goals.
The coach knows that the spirit is the key and
the captain is the soul of the whole team.
Therefore, he decides to choose the captain
to boost his spirit so that all the team
members can see and learn.

Consideration The extent to which a leader has job

relationships characterized by mutual trust,
respect for employees’ ideas, and regard for
their feelings.
The coach really understands his players’
feelings. He knows that they all fear the
failures in the match ahead and utilizes this
to evoke determination among team players.
“Brock, I need you. Gods give you the ability
of leadership. Don’t waste it.” All the words
from his heart shows that he understands the
captain and tries to make him believe in
himself.

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4. SLT analysis
- Eagles Team typical R2: pessimistic attitude, wanted to win the next match
with Giant, a very strong rival but unable to do

- Apparent leadership style: Selling. Coach Taylor asked them to do death

crawling and he provided directive and supportive behavior. Not only did they
not hesitate but gave their best to finish it.

- A shining example of willingness is Brock carrying his teammate with

blindfold. That method, together with continuous supportive saying like
“Don’t quit…” proved that if Brock puts all his effort and believes in himself,
he will create miracles and realize his potentials.

- 4 common leadership qualities from Coach Taylor:

+ Diagnosis: realized their situational needs which were directions and

motivations and met those needs.

+ Adaptation: Put himself in the followers’ shoes, knew what they thought
and felt then made suitable adjustment to their behavior.

+ Effective communication: strong eye contact, attentive listening and

appropriate responses. In addition, direct support and empathy were being
shown when Brock was hurt doing death crawl.

+ Manage and advance: flexible approach and styles so that the teammates
felt motivated and put trust on their leader.

5. Contemporary approach
The coach is both a transformational and charismatic leader

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Types Analysis

Transformational A transformational leader stimulates and inspires

leader followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes.
The coach keeps inspiring the captain to do an
extremely difficult task. The message here is that he
wants all the team members to have faith in the
impossible so that can win and do anything they want.
Much as his words might seem rather harsh, he wanted
to change the whole team’s attitude more positively. He
really knew how to improve the team spirit by choosing
Brock Kelly, who coach Grant thought as the most
influential player in the Eagles, to do death crawl first.
Not only did Grant helped Brock discover his inner
strength but also make David Childers realize that he
could kick even more than 45 yard.

Charismatic A charismatic leader is an enthusiastic, self-confident

leader leader whose personality and actions influence people
to behave in certain ways.
The coach’s passion motivates the captain to keep
moving even though he might quit while crawling the
ground. Every single word comes from his mouth holds
water that the captain totally believe in his own
strength. He keeps stimulating Brock until he achieves
the goal, gives him inspirational words such as “Keep

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moving”, “Don’t quit”, “Don’t you give up on me”. All
the words from his heart touches Brock, inspires him to
keep going and eventually changes his mind about the
match ahead. All the other members watch them and
are empowered by the coach’s words and actions as
well as the extraordinary result that Brock brings about
while listening to his coach.

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 RECOMMENDATIONS

“Death crawl.”

Talking of the movie, “Facing the Giants,” these words undoubtedly come
up in the conversation. The “death crawl” is a pivotal scene in the 2006 film.
This is a film about one high school coach who struggle to make a faith
decision that changes his life and his team. In this scene, the coach gives his
team a lesson on leadership and perseverance when he challenges a player,
Brock to crawl across the field with another team-mate on his back. Brock is
blindfolded and his coach encourages and challenges him with every inch
Brock crawls.

1. Coach Taylor’s style of leadership.

Coach Grant Taylor definitely used an approach that revolved self-
confidence. It was evident that as a coach he is not only confident in his skill
and knowledge but also in his faith. Whatever he says to motivate his players
it feels like he is strongly confident in himself and in his team. Coach Taylor
also has all the authority in capable to make an influencing decision. From
here we can obviously see that coach Taylor’s style of leadership can be
defined as autocratic. Autocratic leadership, also known as authoritarian
leadership, is a leadership style characterized by individual control over all
decisions and little input from group members. When the team is worry about
facing a big competitor coach Taylor decides to use his power as a coach of a
football team and choose Brock, the star player of the team to be the first one
to do the deathcrawl blindfolded, coach Taylor believes that if he makes the
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captain to do something really hard there’s nothing the team can’t do. Coach
Taylor held expert power which results from leader’s special knowledge or
skill regarding tasks performed by followers. Grant Taylor had been a head
football coach at Shiloh Christian Academy for 6 years. Therefore he has
experience in coaching a football team. The coach has experience in leading
his team and he knows which kinds of practicing would be suitable for the
team. Coach Taylor has a great influence on his team. He uses his power in a
good way but also he is stern on players during practice, for example, when
Brock did the deathcrawl challenge blindfolded with one of his teammate was
on his back. At the time Brook was going to give up, but the coach kept
motivating him with a firm belief that he could do this which made him
change his mind and to continue. Furthermore, coach Taylor can recognize
the Brock’s real ability to do much better than he usually does. He used his
power as a head coach to achieve the goals and to courage the team. By the
end of the deathcrawl every player stood up and began to realize what they
could do after seeing their captain finished the deathcrawl blindfolded with a
teammate on his back. At the start of the training session, every players did
not believe in themselves even the captain Brock ,but through his power
coach Taylor made all the players to believe more in themselves and what
they could actually do after one deathcrawl from the captain. He achieved his
objectives through strong sense of skill proficiency responsibility. Following
the Situational Leadership Theory, Coach Taylor wants to give to his players
the knowledge, faith and he wants the players to have the development for
themselves and the enthusiastic that they are missing at the moment.

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 Shared goal is to making others realize what you can achieve having the
same vision. At the beginning of the video, coach Taylor was the only one
with the goal to win and to integrate the team whereas all the team members
had doubt in themselves after some lost and the upcoming match was facing a
strong competitor. However, later through Coach Taylor training through the
deathcrawl challenge which was carried out by Brock the star player of the
team that all members had changed their thoughts and believed that they
could do more. Motivation is by encouraging people, leader has the ability
and power to inspire, motivate and energize. Coach Taylor had the ability to
motivate and inspire the team. The team was able to win the game through
motivation from coaches and each other. Good communicator is the other
concept it is how leader speaks in public and gain attention to his listener.
Coach Boone was classified as a good communicator as he communicates
with his team so well.

2. The message of the movie as a whole

A good leader motivates others to develop qualities and train them to do
better. This video shows how Coaches and team players showed their
leadership qualities, strengths as a leader. Each player contributed to the
victory. Especially, the faith of coach Taylor in his team which brings the
team confidence in themselves to achieve the victory. Facing the challenge is
a story of how effective leadership, teamwork and persistence will get you to
the desired goal. At a high level, the scenarios within the movie are not at all
unique. From a psychology perspective, the typical forming, storming,
norming and then performing stages apply. It is clear that the Executive
Leadership (coach) is crucial to moving the team forward and set the
35
tone .This can be related to any other organization as top leaders must present
the purpose, vision and overall direction of the team. While the leadership
was strong, they were not without faults and it is interesting that with the
combined approaches, the leadership of the team was able to handle most
scenarios in which they encountered.
In addition to executive leadership, the team was only able to move
through the storming stage because of middle-level managers. It is clear that
the executive leaders were able to get a number of players to see the vision
and goals quickly. By doing so, the team captains (managers) were able to
add an additional layer of leadership from a player’s perspective and brought
that directly onto the field (into the day to day activities).
From my perspective, it was a trickle down scenario. As the coaches enrolled
the better players on the team, those players then enrolled others and on and
on. Through his power as a coach and his vision as a leader of the football
team he decides the best way to motivate his players.
In conclusion, any team is going to have tough times but if you have
strong executive leadership and strong mid-level leadership, this is simply
part of the process of reaching your overall goals.

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 CONCLUSION

Leadership is an important factor for leading an organization to success. It

is the art or process of influencing people to perform assigned tasks willingly,
efficiently and competently. Without leadership, a line manager cannot be
effective. With good leadership, organizational culture is not forced but
developed. Everyone understands the vision and goals of the organization, and
everyone has input into how they can be improved. People feel that they are an
important part of the organization and they give their best for the success of the
organization.
From the short video “Never give up, don't quit” this report analyzed Coach
Grant Taylor's leadership in various approaches.
In term of Powers, Grant Taylor showed 4 powers that make a leader:
coercive power, legitimate power, expert power and referent power. Which
create a powerful leaders have the influence to impact, guide, encourage and
sway others. His main source of power is legitimate power, he shouted at the
players with loud voice letting them know that the players they lost to were not
better in any way than them so everyone was scared of him and the thing they
could do was just only to listen.
There are 7 leadership traits that can be seen in Herman Boone’s actions and
the way he leads his team throughout the movie as well as the short video: drive
to lead, confidence, extroverted, relevant knowledge, intelligent and desire.
In term of Behavioral, Taylor’s leadership is typical of autocratic leadership
style. The coach had the highest authority on one team. The whole centralized
decision-making process for all actions is carried out directly by Tayler. When

37
the problems arose, he made the decision himself and told the people who
followed him step by stepping to do and then Taylor ordered the members to
do the death crawl: “Move it… No knees underground”. Coach Grant Taylor
proved to be an amazing leader and it results in Broke’s success.

Last but not least, we want to show sincere gratitude to our lecturer, Mr. Anh
Duy Hoang, for helping us to complete this report. We hope to receive your
comments as well as recommendations so that we can improve our knowledge,
performance and be a good leader in the future.

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 REFERENCES

1. Don't quit on me (form “Facing the Giants”) video, youtube.

< https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VZW54uJW4s>
[Accessed 8th February 2019]

2. Stephen P.Robbins and Mary Coulter, Management, 11th edition

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 MEMBERS’ ASSIGNMENTS

Task
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Nguyễn Thị ● %
Phương Anh 1713340006

1714450024 ● Findings and %

Phạm Thảo Nhi analysis

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Nguyễn Phương Mai 1714450020 Framework

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Phan Vũ Linh Hương 1711150033 analysis

Phạm Nguyễn ● Clip editor %

Thanh Huyền 1711150035 ● Literature review

Trần Khánh Linh 1711150101 ●

● Edit and %
Soyo Funakoshi Soyo 1990102013 summarize

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