Behavioral Approaches to Leadership at the Film Stand and Deliver - Movie Review Example

The paper "Behavioral Approaches to Leadership at the Film Stand and Deliver" is an inspiring example of a movie review on management. The purpose of this memo is to briefly describe the leadership event(s) that took place in a 1988 American drama film that is based on the true story of high school math teacher Jaime Escalante. Consequently, we will use the theory and the concepts from the books and our observations and discussions in class to explain what happened and why it happened in the drama film. Additionally, the memo will basically give a theoretical/analytical summary of what the leader in the film did, what the outcomes were, and why.

Stand and Deliver is based on a true story and presents an inspirational tale of a teacher who is dedicated to rescuing a group of poor Latino students from potential delinquency by turning them into math whizzes. Jaime Escalante employs the use of humor, imagination and a variety of other means in ensuring that he gets his students at East Los Angeles high school to pass advance placement tests in calculus with flying colors and they consequently pass to an extent that the testing board thinks that the students have cheated and consequently forcing them to retake the tests.

Behavioral approaches to leadership give focus to the specific behavioral traits of a leader. We can describe Jaime’s style of leadership as both tasks oriented and people-oriented. As regards being task-oriented, Jaime lives up to the notion of a raving fan who delivers completely and improves above and beyond 100% every year. As a matter of fact, Jaime Escalante was never content to let his students become losers. As regards being a people-oriented leader, Jaime was determined to change the status quo and promised to teach math in his student’s language which would enable them to make it.

Situational leadership is based on the leader follower’s relationship and serves as a framework for analyzing different situations based on a number of issues. Based on situational approaches to leadership, we can term Jaime’s style as a house’s path-goal theory which is based on the expectancy theory of motivation. Initially, when Jaime started teaching at Garfield High School, he was initially disheartened by the lack of preparation of his students. He however never gave up on his students and constantly told them that they could do this as they were the best while encouraging them to go to college. Additionally, he fought to keep his students in his math program with the main goal of making them successful in life. The leadership traits that Jaime possessed include that he was focused and had a vision for his student. He kept telling his students that he will not only teach them math, but that was their language which will make them make it and not only go to college but go to college and sit in the first row as they were going to know more than anybody. Jaime was also determined to achieve his dreams even with all odds against him and was never distracted or discouraged until he achieved his goal for his students.

The behaviors that were important contributors to Jamie Escalante’s success as a leader were to inspire vision and encourage the heart. He had a vision of showing the world that his students who were from a poor background and were economically disadvantaged could still achieve the highest level of academic success and pass the AP Calculus Exam and in the process inspiring them to succeed in powerful ways. As regards to encouraging the heart, Jamie persuaded his first few students the only way they could control their future was through the right education and always reminded them that despite the fact that they would have jobs in engineering, electronics, and computers, they would still need to learn math to succeed.

Both Coach Boone and Jamie had a number of things in common with the important one being that both were guided by a vision. While Coach Boone had a vision for the team to win the championship, Jamie had a vision of ensuring that his students passed the AP Calculus math exam. It is consequently evident that they both withstood numerous challenges without getting distracted or discouraged with Jamie having to fight to keep his students in the math program while Coach Boone having to fight racial disparity. Their differences came in their leadership approaches with Jamie being diplomatic and charismatic right from the start while Coach Boone was started out as a dictator and later transformed into a transactional leader.

In the spirit of modeling the way, the leadership trait that I see in Jamie that I would like to incorporate into my leadership portfolio is his determination to achieve his dreams even with the odds against him. This is because most of us have dreams but lack the determination to complete them as we easily get distracted and discouraged by circumstances or lack of resources. Additionally, most people lose hope as in most cases we realize other people do not believe in our dreams and vision.

The other concepts covered in MGT 471 that I see in Stand and Deliver include the importance of being guided with a vision that is shared between the leader and the subject. Having a shared vision I have come to understand goes a long way in determining the success or failure of any program. The other concepts I found relevant include the power of resilience especially when it comes to doing what one believes in.

Please use the information in this memo to help me further refine my skills on the issues addressed by the film.