Traits and Competencies of Dewey Finn - Movie Review Example

LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT by Student’s name Course+ code name Professor’s name University name City, State Date Evaluate the leadership styles traits and competencies of the lead character and the Principal in the The School of Rock. To what extent do any of these appear to change or develop? This paper begins with the assessment of leadership styles, traits and competencies of the central character ‘Dewey Finn’. The type of leadership style portrayed by Finn is inspiring leadership (Northouse 2012 pp. 40). As a leader, he effectively applies several of this type of leadership’s foundational principles, where he both inspires followers and upholds his groups’ vision. As such, Finn clearly understands what he wants to achieve and puts concerted efforts in convincing his group members that they should effortlessly practice to win the local band contest. He assists his members in practising singing and wins their belief that they will eventually win the competition despite the various difficult obstacles facing them. As a strong leader, Finn makes all the groups’ decisions without discussing or consulting the members (Buchanan and Huczynski 2012 pp. 121). However, he firmly believes that his members would be better inspired if they would be persuaded that his decisions represent the best course of action. Finn therefore does a lot of elucidating and marketing of his decision for defeating possible opposition to what he wants to accomplish. Finn also injects a lot of interest for the aims he has put for his group. Finn demonstrates several leadership traits in the movie. The first leadership trait displayed by Finn is confidence (Strang 2007 pp. 427). As such, Finn created an environment of confidence on winning the music contest to the pupils, parents, audience and the school principal. When everything went wrong in front of the parents, Finn remained composed and poised. The pupils as a result also showed the confidence they had been instilled by Finn of winning the contest after having practised hard for it. They also portrayed implanted confidence by Finn despite having known that he impersonated as a qualified teacher. As a result, the pupils increased their morale of participation and the poise of a win. In the long run, Finn’s team won the battle due to their implanted steady confidence by him. The second leadership trait of Finn is emotional mastery (Casimir and Waldman 2007 pp. 50). Finn exhibited emotional ability through controlling his anger. This is attributed by the fact that, even after being fired from his previous job and having impersonated Ned to get a job, Finn never passed his anger to the pupils. He willingly taught them how to play music in a contest. Moreover, when Finn was discovered to have been impersonated his colleague and was questioned by the principal, he freely admitted having committed the felony without showing anger. The third trait of Finn is a lack of blaming others (Strang 2007 pp.426). As such, Finn did not sound defensive because he spoke out honestly about his behaviour and willingly admitted his mistake. Finn did not blame Ned for having thrown him out of the house due to overdue rent money. Additionally, Finn did not blame his previous employer for having sacked him. Instead of wasting his time blaming his colleagues, Finn spent the misfortune fixing the issue. Through lack of blaming the others, Finn admitted his fault and did not find a scapegoat within the crisis. The other leadership trait of the lead character is empathy (Mintzberg 2011 pp. 82). Finn treated all of his colleagues with a lot of consideration. As such, he was empathetic of all people irrespective of their age, sex or job status. Moreover, Finn listened carefully with a lot of understanding and maintained respect to the other characters in the play. Listening carefully and being respectful of the other people made him gain trust among characters and more specifically, the pupils. The other lead character’s trait is commitment. Throughout the movie, Finn stuck to his promises and commitments. As such, Finn kept a promise of pursuing his music career even after being fired by the band he was working with, and decided to teach school children to participate in a huge music contest. In the team, Finn was the most hardworking and committed person. He used to lead the pupils by example, for instance by showing them how to play guitar. Finn also showed commitment when he agreed to take the kids to the competition when a disagreement arose over his impersonation. As a result of his beyond doubt commitment, the principal, parents and his former colleagues decided to join him during the competition. Finn also deployed his intuition to guide him through the process of achieving his aims (Kirkpatick and Locke 2008 pp. 54). Finn trusted his insight that he would be a teacher in spite of not having trained as a teacher before. He believed his intuition that if he could do well in his previous band, he could also teach the kids’ rock band effectively and win the pending competition worth $10,000 in prize money. In addition, Finn trusted his intuition that his band members would be signed up for the contest despite having the contest being overbooked. It was his undoubted trust within his intuition that made the band gain a late entry. The other leadership trait is having a sense of humour (Senior and Swailes 2010 pp. 25). Like other types of efficient leaders, Finn possessed a sense of humour precisely when things appeared to be going wrong. For instance, at a certain moment, Tomiko the backup singer said that she was shy due to her weight. Finn responded to her that he also possessed a weight issue and that when he gets on stage to sing people go mad on him. He also joked with her that everyone has his/her job. The other trait is good communication (Casimir and Waldman 2007 pp. 48). Finn could sufficiently take out what was in his brain and explain it clearly to other people. For example, Finn could adequately train the pupils how to perform in the band through how he had learnt from his earlier band. Similarly, Finn managed to convince the principal through the phone that he was Ned, the substitute teacher she wanted to hire. As such, he explained himself clearly to the principal making her believe that she had got the right candidate for teaching the kids. The other trait is the development of the surrounding people. Finn developed the skills of those around him by training the children on how to perform in their band. Through developing their skills, the pupils’ skills also improved and advanced their morale even further. Additionally, the children developed some skills which Finn did not have therefore benefitting the whole band. Moreover, Finn shared his knowledge with the team, thus offered them the chance of achieving superior results. Good results gained Finn a lot of esteem and loyalty amongst all people. The other leadership trait is the capability of coping with failure and setbacks (Casimir and Waldman 2007 pp. 52). After Finn realised that he would not be able to teach the pupils the standard education, he instead persuasively encouraged them to learn how to play a musical band in order to participate in the oncoming band competition. He utilized his scarce resources in ensuring that the kids became experts in a band performance. Whenever a member pointed out a negative remark concerning the band, Finn could advise and encourage him/her whilst assuring him/her that they would win the prize on offer. Finn made his band members practice thoroughly until they gained the required skills. Through encouraging the team to practice thoroughly, it gained positive morale, confidence and high hopes of winning the contest. The lead character in the film possesses multiple leadership competencies. The Finn’s first leadership competency is interpersonal skills (Jokinen 2005 pp. 207). As such, Finn treats the other characters with respect and sensitivity. He also considers and reacts suitably to the feelings and needs of various people in diverse circumstances. The other leadership competency is resiliency. As such, he handles pressure effectively while remaining persistent and optimistic even under difficulties. The other leadership competency is flexibility (Visage, Linde and Havenga 2011 pp. 234). Finn accepts new information and change whenever they come his way and quickly adapts them. The other leadership competency is problem-solving. Finn recognizes and evaluates issues; gauges their relevance and precision as well as the information’s accurateness and generates alternative solutions. The other leadership competency is technical credibility (Jokinen 2005 pp. 206). Finn comprehends and applies policies, procedures, regulations, principles and requirements suitably connected to particular expertise. The other leadership competency is decisiveness. As such, Finn is known for making timely, practical and sound decisions even when having limited data or when solutions are producing unfavourable results. The other leadership competency is team building (Visage, Linde and Havenga 2011 pp. 239). Finn is capable of encouraging and cultivating trust, spirit, commitment and pride. As such, he fuels cooperation and inspires team members to complete the group’s goals. The other leadership competency is vision. Finn takes enduring view and creates a mutual vision with other people. He also influences his colleagues to transform that vision into an action. On the other hand, the type of leadership exhibited by the principal ‘Rosalie Mullins’ is laissez-faire leadership. Essentially, laissez-faire is the non-interference in the affairs of others, letting individuals and groups get on with tasks (Northouse 2012 pp. 45). This style is also referred to as free reign or delegative where the leader allows other people to make their decisions independently. Although the decisions made are made independently, Mullins remains responsible for all the decisions made by Finn and his group. In this scenario, Mullin made Finn responsible for teaching the pupils, but Finn was to be held accountable for any problem that could arise from learning (Buchanan and Huczynski 2012 pp. 125). Mullin could offer help in the event that Finn and his class required it. Mullin decided to hire Ned since she knew he could provide quality education but Finn impersonated him due to his need for money. The principal provided all the materials that were required for teaching to her substitute impersonated teacher – Finn. However, Mullin did not participate directly in the class’s decision making and only involved herself in the activities of the class during a parent’s day meeting. As a result of her last moment involvement in the decision-making, she was shocked to learn that Finn had impersonated Ned and the pupils were taught music rather than the conventional syllabus. Finn had succeeded in his breath-taking mission of teaching music because he could not offer any feedback from the kids to the principal; neither could he demand any intervention from Mullin. On the other hand, Mullin the principal portrays several leadership traits. The first leadership quality of the principal is the ability to delegate (Casimir and Waldman 2007 pp. 453). Although Mullin was a principal, she could not do everything for herself. As such, Mullin decided to delegate some teaching roles to a substitute teacher referred as Ned, who was unfortunately impersonated by Finn. The second leadership trait of the principal is taking responsibility (Strang 2007 pp. 427). Mullin took the personal responsibility for failure when it was discovered that Finn taught the pupils how to play band during a contest instead of teaching them the normal syllabus. As such, she did not make any excuses to the parents and asked Finn to explain what he was teaching for all that long. In this case, the principal took the blame and then worked out how to solve the current burning issue as fast as possible. This proved Mullin to be trustworthy and that she possessed integrity. The other leadership trait of the principal is having a positive attitude (Kirkpatrick and Locke 2008 pp. 50). When Finn did not teach the subject as required, the principal made a calm and happy air within the school by joining the pupils, colleagues and the parents in the local band competition. This motivated the band members even further making them produce brilliant results. Another leadership trait displayed by the principal is empathy. The principal decided to carry the cross of Finn and the pupils when she joined the band in the competition. As such, she gained trust from the band members making them put more in effort during their band performance. Furthermore, the principal has multiple leadership competencies. The first leadership competency is decision making (Bolden et al. 2003 pp. 2). The principal possesses the capability of making good decisions and leading good decision-making procedures. For example, when there was a need for additional teachers, she decided to hire a substitute teacher to replenish the supply. The second leadership competency is political skills. The principal, in this case, knew how to go about Finn, who had bent the rules by making him explain the situation, and she finally agreed to join his professional band in the contest. The other leadership competency is prudence (Visage, Linde and Havenga 2011 pp. 230). The principal was capable of seeing other people’s perspectives, was open and considered their standpoints. Added to this was the leadership competency of resilience (Jokinen 2005 pp. 206). The principal dealt with pressure from the parents effectively, remained persistent and optimistic irrespective of the parents becoming angry with her. Importantly, she recovered fast from Finn’s failure of not offering the pupils the expected education. The other leadership competency is flexibility (Hayes 2014 pp. 97). Mullin readily accepts new information and change. She quickly adapts to the dynamic conditions and new information. This is demonstrated by her acceptance of Finn having done an excellent job of forming and training a successful band that amazed everybody. The other leadership competency is team building (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano and Dennison 2003 pp. 127). The principal encourages and promotes team trust, commitment, pride and spirit. As such, she fuels cooperation and inspires team members to complete their set goals. The extent to what leadership styles appear to change is shown in various ways. For example, in the laissez-faire style, change is realized when Finn and his group are left on their own by the principal to make their independent decisions. In this scenario, the normal learning is changed to learning how to perform in a musical band which is at first resisted by both the principal and the parents. The first character to accept change in this case is Finn, the lead character. As such, Finn intelligently convinces the pupils to learn how to play a musical band instead of taking the normal learning lessons an idea which they readily accept. Therefore, the pupils become the second characters to accept the change effortlessly. On the other hand, the first characters to resist change are the parents when they questions what Finn had been teaching their children after realising that their children had learnt nothing in the normal education. The other character to resist change is the principal. Initially, Mullin gets angry with what Finn had been teaching the students after realising that he has changed the normal learning to playing music. Finally, all the characters unanimously accept the change and cheer the performing band loudly. Thus, the acceptance of change in lasses-faire style begins from the lead character (Finn), and develops gradually to each and every other character in the ‘School of Rock’. Finn and the pupils accept change willingly while; Mullin and the parents accept change half-heartedly. On the other hand, inspiring leadership appears to develop when Finn inspires his team to practice playing music and perform in a musical band contest. Despite the principal and parents’ opposition of the team’s participation in the band competition, Finn’s motivation finally drives them into accepting and supporting it in the competition. Therefore, Finn’s inspiration leadership develops well despite difficulties. Bibliography Bolden, R., Gosling, J., Marturano, A and Dennison P (2003) A Review of Leadership Theory and Competency Frameworks. http://www2.fcsh.unl.pt/docentes/luisrodrigues/textos/Lideran%C3%A7a.pdf [accessed 15 March 2016]. Buchanan, D and Huczynski, A (2012) Organisational Behaviour, Pearson: London. 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Visage, J., Linde, H and Havenga, W (2011) Leadership Competencies for Managing Diversity, Managing Global Transitions, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 225-247. Read More