KNOWLEDGE

**KNOWLEDGE**

Knowledge is a critical part of leadership. A leader must have knowledge about their role, the culture of the organization, know their strengths and weaknesses and knowledge of self. The movie did not describe a lot about Herman Boone's coaching experience, just a little about his past experience as a coach in North Carolina and his winning seasons. There was mention of his involvement in the civil rights movement. Becuase of the racial tension, it is inferred that this is one of the reasons that the school board thought that Coach Boone would be the right man for the head coaching position. Then we find out later that his appointment was really supposed to a temporary fix to pacify the African Americans in the town who were in an upheaval because a Caucasian store owner shot and killed an African-American teenager. The school board never expected Coach Boone to stay in the position long enough to be successful. They underestimated his ability. Yukl speaks about the guidelines for increasing learning and innovation, and one of his points highlights leveraging learning from surprises and failures. He says that "surprises and failure usually provide more opportunity for learning than expected events and outcomes." This certainly seemed to be the case in Coach Boone's situation. (Yukl, p. 327)

Coach Boone was very insightful about what needed to happen to foster the teambuilding process. His civil rights experience gave him the knowledge to address the racial divide, understand the importance of diverse interpersonal relationships, and the ability to handle anger and aggression. He suggested that the players control their anger and harness their aggressiveness by displaying it on the field. Coach Boone demonstrated the ability to manage his emotions under some extremely difficult situations. He knew that in order to make the football players a "team" he had to first breakdown communication and racial barriers, negative attitudes and lack of respect that had split the team and the entire town. He used a dictatorship style of leadership to gain control and accomplish his goal. Everyone knew without a doubt that he was in charge. As described earlier in the paper, he took the team for an early morning run to the battleground where the Battle of Gettysburg took place. He passionately spoke about the need to bond together. He said, "If we don't bond together right now on this hallowed ground we will be destroyed. I don't care if you like each other, but you will respect each other..."

Assistant Coach Yoast had a lot of knowledge about the game and many championships to prove it. He was on track to be inducted into the football hall of fame. He was an effective communicator and coach. His leadership style was more participative. Yoast realized toward the end of the movie that Coach Boone was the best person for the job because he was able to transform the players on and off the field. He said, "you have to trust the soul of a man and not the look of him." It was a pivotal point for Coach Yoast to ask for Coach Boone's assistance with the defense and for Coach Boone to accept advice from Yoast about the offense. An effective leader must have self-awareness about their strengths and weaknesses and be able to accept constructive feedback.