Change Leadership Lessons from Remember the Titans
This paper examines the change leadership strategies demonstrated by Coach Herman Boone in the film Remember the Titans (2000), set against the backdrop of racial integration in a Virginia high school in 1971. Drawing on leadership theories including transformational and servant leadership frameworks, the paper identifies key qualities of effective change leaders — including vision, low anxiety, proactivity, and openness — and traces how Boone applies each quality through a structured change process. That process encompasses creating urgency, selecting the right team, developing strategy, fostering communication, empowering team members, and ultimately building a new team culture that transcends racial division.
- Introduction: Context and Setting: Historical backdrop and film plot overview
- The Leadership Style: Boone as change agent and leader
- Leadership Qualities of an Effective Change Leader: Vision, anxiety, energy, and confidence as leader traits
- The Change Process: Eight-stage change process Boone enacts
- Conclusion: Leadership overcomes racism toward team greatness
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its theoretical analysis in a concrete, well-known film, making abstract leadership concepts accessible and easy to follow.
- It systematically maps multiple leadership qualities onto specific scenes, demonstrating analytical discipline rather than loose commentary.
- The change process section uses clearly labeled sub-steps (vision, urgency, team selection, etc.) that give the argument an organized, professional structure.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses a film as a case study to operationalize leadership theory — a technique common in business and organizational behavior courses. By citing peer-reviewed sources (Hu & Liden, 2011; Rus et al., 2010) alongside the film, it bridges popular media and academic frameworks, showing how theoretical constructs manifest in observable behavior.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with historical and narrative context, then introduces the leadership style framework, before cataloguing the specific qualities Boone exhibits as a change leader. The longest and most detailed section traces the eight-stage change process Boone enacts, from creating urgency to embedding a new team culture. A brief conclusion ties the analysis back to the central claim about overcoming racial stigma through principled leadership. The structure is deductive: theory first, application second.
Introduction: Context and Setting
The film Remember the Titans is set in Virginia in April 1971, during a period in which the United States Supreme Court issued a historic judgment on state-imposed segregation in public schools. Following that judgment, T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, was racially integrated, and it is this real-world event that provides the setting for the film. The context is critical to understanding the plot because, during this period, there was deep social discord between Black and white Americans (Titans et al., 2015).
The story begins with the integration of the schools. As a result, the football teams of two previously separate schools were merged into a single new team. Herman Boone was appointed head coach — chosen by the outgoing white coach — and brought in to join an all-white coaching staff. After initial reluctance, rooted in a prior experience in which a white man had been appointed head coach over him, Boone accepted the position. He did so because he recognized that the Black community saw him as a symbol of pride and respect that was otherwise lacking.
The plot is set in motion when a Black teenager is killed by a store owner, sparking racial tensions in the area. That tension extends into the school and onto the team. As coach, Boone was unwelcome among white players and assistant coaches alike. There was also significant mistrust between Black and white players. These dynamics hampered the team's preparation and competitive readiness. Boone therefore had to build trust — between himself and the players, and among the players themselves — so that they could perform as a cohesive unit and support one another (Titans et al., 2015).
The Leadership Style
This situation represents a classic case of implementing change within a system or organization. Boone functions simultaneously as the team's leader and as the change agent, working to transform the culture of the team — overcoming racial division, building mutual understanding, and ultimately winning the championship. Leadership can be defined as a relationship between persons and situations that inspires others, builds trust, and works toward a common goal.
Leaders are generally people who know precisely what they want to achieve and articulate a vision capable of influencing others. They mobilize people's actions, beliefs, and feelings through motivation. Various theoretical frameworks — including behavioral theories, contingency theories, and transformational leadership theories — have been developed to explain how leaders influence followers and effect change (Rus, van Knippenberg, & Wisse, 2010). In the film, Boone is seen working to unite the team, build relationships of trust and solidarity, and shift the mindset of both players and support staff. Because societal forces are feeding the internal conflicts of the team, Boone must act as a genuine change leader rather than simply a sports coach.
References
Hu, J., & Liden, R. (2011). Antecedents of team potency and team effectiveness: An examination of goal and process clarity and servant leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(4), 851–862. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022465
Rus, D., van Knippenberg, D., & Wisse, B. (2010). Leader power and leader self-serving behavior: The role of effective leadership beliefs and performance information. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(6), 922–933. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2010.06.007
Titans, R., Yakin, B., Howard, G., Washington, D., Patton, W., & Harris, W. (2015). Remember the Titans (2000). IMDb. Retrieved 19 March 2015, from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210945/
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