Ocean's Eleven, Twelve, and Thirteen

This is a powerpoint applying different leadership theories to the characters in Ocean's 11, 12, and 13.

Transformational Leadership

I think the movie School of Rock is a great example of transformational leadership. Jack Black's character really inspires the students to go beyond their expectations and achieve something great. One great rock band can really change the world. The clip I chose was of Jack Black's stick it to the man speech. I feel it lays the foundation for what he will build upon for the rest of the movie.

School of Rock - The Man speech

Bio on James McGregor Burns

James McGregor Burns was born in 1918. Burns attended college at Williams and obtained his doctorate in political science from Harvard. In between his college experiences, he enlisted in the Army and fought in Guam, Saipan, and Okinawa and served as a Combat Historian for the Pacific region. During this time, he was awarded four battle stars and a Bronze star for his service and dedication. Burns was very active in politics and national government during his lifetime. He won his first Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for his political biography, Roosevelt: The Lion and The Fox.  His second award came in 1970for his second political biography, Roosevelt: Solider of Freedom.  In the 1970’s he also published his book Leadership.  This book is still used today and  seen as one of the main tools in leadership study. In this book Burns made a distinction between a transactional leader and a transformational leader. A transactional leader is someone who trades reward in return for good work and loyalty. A transformational leader, a term coined by Burns, is someone who engages their employees to bring everyone together to achieve a greater outcome. This person creates change and excitement for the associates, effecting their work and personal lives in a positive manner. His ideas are still widely used today and are considered one of the best ways to inspire and enact positive outcomes.

Contingency and Situational theories

Behavior-based theories presented us with the idea that leaders are either task or relationship oriented. It wasn't until the 1970's when Fielder determined that a leaders effectiveness is dependent upon the situation.   His theory still accepts the fact that leaders are born and cannot change, but they do differ between task and relationship focused. Fielder postulated that the type of leader most desired is contingent upon the situation. The "least preferred co-worker" is used to determine each persons' leadership orientation. In the method, a person describe the traits and behaviors of their least preferred co-worker and in turn is actually describing their favored type of motivation. It gives insight into the person's values and ethics that they will be likely to follow, helping to determine if they are a relationship or task oriented leader. Fielder's model suggest that because leadership traits are stable and unchanging, it is best to adapt the work environment to the leadership type to achieve the best possible outcome. Following Fielder, Kenneth Blancher coined the term situational leadership. This took into account that yes, leadership effectiveness is contingent upon the situation but a person can learn to adapt their personal leadership style for a variety of situations. Unlike Fielder, Blancher assumed that people had the ability to change and could change their tactics based on specific scenario. Blancher also agreed that leaders were task and relationship focused, but they could also learn to be a blend of both and utilize this to achieve a desired outcome. Blancher also added that the leadership style per situation should that into account the employees' commitment to the job or task and the employees' competency to complete what needs to be done. With that, a leaders can use one of four leadership styles or even a mix of them to effectively lead in a situation. The four styles include selling (low support, low task), supporting (high support, low task), coaching (high support, high task), and directing (low support, high task). Blancher differs from Fielder because he know that employee attributes play a big role in a situation and that leaders have the ability to change their leadership theory. Fielder and Blancher both agree that effective leadership is based on the situation and that leaders have a tendency to be either task or relationship oriented.

Path-Goal Theory and LMX

Behavior-based theories are one-on-one focused relationships; they can be either task- or relationship- oriented. Two major schools of thought are path-goal leadership theory and leader member exchange theory (LMX). Path-goal leadership demonstrates how a leader can motivate their follower to achieve a certain task or end result. The interactions are based on an expected outcome. In this theory, a leader will provide support by clarifying goals, removing potential obstacles, and assisting when necessary. LMX theory is more relationship-focused where the leaders and follower connection evolves through interactions. There are three phases that the relationship can follow starting at Stranger (phase one) where there is low quality interaction, no trust, and followers are motivated by some outside factor. Next, leaders and followers become Acquaintances (phase two). This involves an average quality where they get to know each other and test the boundaries of their relationship. The highest phase of the relationship is Partnership, where each member has mutual influence on each other. Each person is motivated by the other and the exchanges are very high quality. Ideally, all relationships would progress to this phase, but there are many leaders who prefer to stay at lower levels to maintain control and dominance.

The Harry Potter series offered many opportunities to observe both of these theories in action.

Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts School, demonstrates a path-goal leadership interaction with the main character, Harry Potter. The overarching goal for the duo, is to find and destroy all of Lord Voldemort's horcruxes. These objects allow Lord Voldemort immortality, therefore in order to defeat him Harry must find and locate all of the horcruxes and destroy them if he wants to conquer Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Professor Dumbledore supports Harry by showing him memories that give hints and clues to objects that Voldemort may have used for a horcrux. He never gives Harry any answers directly. He shows Harry what signs to look for, and how he has found one horcrux himself.  Once, Professor Dumbledore takes Harry with him when he locates on horcrux. His behaviors help give Harry guidance on how he will find future objects. Unfortunately, Professor Dumbledore is killed at the end of the sixth book, shortly after Harry and him return from finding one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Harry is still supported by Professor Dumbledore in his journey through tools left to him and his two friends in Dumbledore's will. Professor Dumbledore has also give tools to other leaders in the Wizarding world who can continue to assist until the final goal is completed. It is only after Professor Dumbledore's death that Harry realizes he never new him on a personal level. A majority of their one-on-one interactions were solely focused on learning about, finding, and destroying horcruxes.

Lord Voldemort, who is the most powerful dark wizard in the series, can be used to observe LMX theory. Due to his lack of relationships, we can see how his leadership is undermined by those he should rely on. Death Eaters are the wizards who support and follow Lord Voldemort, although none of them can be said to have a phase three Partnership with him. However, this is based upon the fact that Lord Voldemort sees use for his Death Eaters, but he would never think any other wizard would be able to provide anything that is mutually beneficial. The only Death Eater who gets close to this phase is Professor Snape. Lord Voldemort trusts him enough to place him among enemy territory as a spy on Harry Potter, Professor Dumbledore, and the Order of the Phoenix*. Professor Snape in Voldemort's informant into everything relating to Harry Potter. Although, Lord Voldemort does use a type of magic called Legilimency to enter Professor Snape's mind to see if he is lying. There is not full trust from Voldemort's side. The interaction between Lord Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew is an example of phase one Stranger interaction. Pettigrew is a weak person who seeks out Lord Voldemort as a source of protection and power. He obeys Lord Voldemort's orders based on fear. Lord Voldemort is merciless to him and exerts his power over him even forcing Pettigrew to cut of his own hand. Lord Voldemort only relies on Pettigrew for a short time, while Pettigrew is helping him to gain his body back which he had lost years ago when he first tried to kill Harry Potter.

I could go on and on with examples but I think that each of these leaders demonstrate how behavior-based theories can be linked to specific actions. Traits are not the only indicator of a good leader.

"It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." 
-Professor Albus Dumbledore