I love the movie Remember the Titans because I believe that it is a great example of how leadership can affect an organization. The movie is based on a real life situation and stars Denzel Washington. I want to share why I believe this is a great leadership development story.

I have over twenty years of successful senior leadership and entrepreneurial experience with health care. I love to site this movie for its many examples of leadership.

In the movie, Denzel Washington plays an African-American coach, Herman Boone, who comes to a new high school to replace the long tenured and loved coach during the first days of integration. This situation has the individuals, the team, and the town divided. The racial conflict between the parties is exacerbated by the attention paid to status and ranking by the community. To be successful Herman has to use quality leadership skills.

Herman repeatedly uses on a metaphor that I feel exemplifies a leadership concept. He uses the idea of a bus as his metaphor for which direction he wants to go. As the leader of the team Herman directs the bus for a championship season. Those that are on the bus are in support of which direction the team is headed.

Once the bus is moving in the right direction, Herman wants to fill it with passengers that wish to take the journey with him. He makes sure that he has each individual’s support and buy-in before he considers them “on the bus”. Those that do not support or better the team’s chances of reaching the championship are put off the bus, or encouraged off the bus by those onboard.

The metaphor continues once the bus is headed in the right direction with passengers that want to get there with him. It is continued as Herman ensures that every rider is in the right seat. He wants the right talent or team member in the role that best serves the team. Under Herman’s leadership, players are moved to and desire to be in the seats that will get them to a championship.

Other leadership issues that the movie recognizes and deals with are issues that illustrate goal setting, working with departments and people in conflict, as well as how to unify a team in attacking and overcoming an obstacle.

I won’t give away the movie for those that have not seen it. I liked the movie when it was first released, but when I watched as a guide to leadership skills, I loved it. There are much leadership development that I believe can be garnered from this movie.