What Is Leadership?

In leadership there are five main types of power positions.

1) Coercive power: where leaders convey their orders through threatening others in fear of them losing their own job or being demoted.
-Coach carter showed this power in the film by telling team members that if they did not respect him or each other, or comply with the contract, that they would be taken off the team or the gym would be closed.

2) Reward power: demonstrated through rewarding your team members for accomplishing goals or certain tasks which have been set (Green, 1999).

3) Legitimate power: comes from being in a higher position or job role.
-In Coach carters’ case he is the coach, a higher role than the team players. This power position comes from employees recognising the power of the individual and consequently respecting this. This was also demonstrated in coach carter as the team started to recognise that he was the coach and wanted the best for them, allowing coach carter to gain this power position.

4) Expert power: is gained from experiences and knowledge.
-Coach carter had expert power in that he had experience of playing in a basketball team and had knowledge of being a leader.

5) Referent power: comes from being respected and trusted because the individual wants to “gain approval” in this case to stay in the team (Green, 1999).
-Coach carter gained this power position in the film as the basketball team began to trust and respect him as they knew he was a good coach.


Northouse (see Western 2008) stated that there were four common themes within leadership. Leadership involves goal attainment and happens within a group context. It is also a process which involves influence from the individual to the group.

Leadership can therefore be defined as the process of bringing together the abilities of the people in the organisation or group and applying these to the challenges that the organisation/group encounters. It then seeks to use the “collective intelligence of the group” to achieve common goals (Woodard, Loves and Komives, 2000). Coach carter demonstrated this when working with the team to help them improve the way they played to get better results at basketball games.

Leadership is when one person influences the behaviour and attitudes of individuals (Mills, 2005) which Coach carter demonstrates throughout. He influenced the individuals by making them realise that they needed to achieve in school to do well when they finished and as a result a large number of them changed their attitude towards school and started to work harder. He also influenced their behaviour by teaching them to respect each other and refer to each other as ‘sir’ to demonstrate respect..

Coach carter is a transformational leader as he motivates and inspires his team to push themselves in order to achieve more, both academically and in extra curricular activities (Bass and Riggio, 2006). He sets goals for his team and empowers them to meet their significant goals to a high standard individually and a team. By doing so, this helps to develop commitment and admiration from the team members towards him. This is demonstrated in the film as they start to achieve well in school and understand that their coach wants the best for them.

A leader is important within a team because this individual is the one who helps the team to work together and overcome any difficulties that they face to ensure “effective day to day running of the team” (see Outhwaite 2003). Without leadership teams may not run as effectively, leadership helps to avoid this by pointing people in the same direction with similar objectives, therefore providing a better environment for the team to work in.

Leadership is an important attribute to motivate members of a team, keep them focused and “generate enthusiasm” (Sadler, 2003). Without leadership motivation may be lacked resulting in distraction.