Week 4 Assignment: Essay
Secretariat is an American movie directed by Randall Wallace, reflecting individualism value and leadership style, which are shown by the actions of the character, Penny Chenery. Secretariat is a movie that tells about the life of Penny Chenery in leading her Meadow Stable. Secretariat is the name of a horse owned by Chenery’s family who can bring the business into success by winning many race competitions. Penny Chenery, the main character in the film, is the person who continues leading her parent’s business. Penny is a housewife with some kids and an accountant husband, the story is more around Penny’s life than the history about the horse races. The horse challenges are the best parts of the movie, but this is full drama between his owner and over the risk of losing all the farm where his father was engaged in horse breading all his life, trough financial issues. Through financial problems, there is a risk of losing all his father’s farms engaged in horse life
The movie depicts the Secretariat’s life and racing career before he was even born to after he wins the Triple Crown. It starts with Penny’s mother’s death and depicts the struggles of her trying to decide what is best for her father and the farm. At first, all they are going to get the farm back into profit and then sell it, but when Penny begins to go through her father’s record book and calendar, she finds the date of the coin toss. The coin toss is between her father and Ogden Phipps to determine which foal they will get, either something royal’s or Hasty Matelda”s. The obvious choice was Hasty Matelda’s, but Penny got something royal’s foal, which she wanted. The rest of the movie is all about Secretariat growing up, Penny’s struggles with the farm after her father dies with a stroke, and Secretariats racing career.
There is an assumption in some business circles that leaders who embrace intuition, family, and family duty are less capable of dealing with business strategy than those who sacrifice to give it all to their companies. This film reflects the path-goal theory as the style of leadership. According to this theory, leaders should let the associates know about the rules and procedures to finish the work, giving employees explicit instruction during the work towards achieving goals. Penny proves directive leadership upon making her first instruction to the horse trainer. Penney scolds the horse trainer because he cannot work effectively and loyally as she says, “So if you arranged a deal that gave them four horses at half their market value and they paid you back, plus an extra share on everything they made, that wouldn’t just be disloyal. That would be committing fraud” (Secretariat, 00:13:02-00:13:12). Penny shows all his mistakes, which can cause loss to their business. She applies a directive leadership style to guide the subordinates and the business into the business’s betterment.
Self-reliance is another essential aspect of successful leaders. The primary character trait that defines an effective leader is self-reliant and better able to lead yourself, others, and the organization. According to XXX, leaders must ensure they are aware of themselves, accounting for their failures and responsibilities. If a leader has self-reliance in their own self, they also have self-responsibility. This critical leadership value is reflected by the character Penny Chenery. Penny reflects autonomy upon coming to the gentleman’s club to meet Mr. Hancock. Penny has decided not to sell Secretariat as she says, “The farm’s in bad shape, as is Daddy. But I’m not willing to sell it unless I get what it’s worth” (Secretariat, 00:14:33-00:14:39). It asserts that Penny does not sell her horses even though her stable is in bad condition. She has chosen what she thinks good for her and her business, and she will take responsibility for that. She keeps her decision not to sell Secretariat because she believes that Secretariat will bring welfare to the business. Leaders with substantial levels of self-reliance and self-belief are emotionally independent, which means they can formulate and clarify vision and values and leverage the talent of others to achieve their full potential.