Since I was given the liberty of selecting a fictional character for this task, I prefer to choose one character

named
Yoichi Hiruma. He is a character in the anime entitled "Eyeshield 21".
Yoichi Hiruma is the Team Captain of a certain high school football team called the Deimon Devil Bats. He wears
the jersey number 1 and greatly resembles the looks of a demon due to his spiky hair, sharp teeth, and pointed ears.
As an athlete, Yoichi Hiruma is depicted as an average player in terms of his physical attributes. However, he is
quite adept at maximizing the potential of all his resources at hand in order to reach goals. Also, he is capable of finding
an opportunity within a losing situation and converts it for a win. Further, playing mind games is one of his
specializations. In essence, he can be deemed as a ruthless tactician.
As a leader, Yoichi Hiruma rules his team with absolute authority, often including borderline inhumane treatment
of his teammates. However, he looks out for them and does whatever it takes to keep them from any harm not caused by
him. He is tough, but fair. The other players follow his leadership because they know that Hiruma will not lead them
astray (Fjeldal, n.d., para. 3).
I firmly believe that he was compelled to use an authoritarian style of leadership simply because the greater
population of the Deimon Devil Bats members are novices to the game of American Football. He displays a democratic
form of deliberation particularly only with one of the experienced members of the team, the kicker.
Despite being generally seen as an authoritarian, I believe, Yoichi Hiruma can be categorized as a situational
leader. He displays different approaches within the situational leadership theory in different episodes throughout the
entirety of the anime.
In order to better understand my point, Situational Leadership must be firstly defined. The Situational Leadership
Theory was specified and developed by Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard in the 1970s. Van Vliet (2013) summarized
the theory as one which indicates that a number of factors are decisive for the style of leadership. These factors are the
personal characteristics of the leader, the personal characteristics of the follower, and the followers competency and
motivation levels. The aforementioned determines the situation and the leadership style is dependent on it.
The Situational leadership theory displays four types of leadership styles namely Telling, Coaching, Supporting,
and Delegating. These leadership styles are deemed appropriate for different situations determined by the followers level
of competency and motivation.

The Telling style is appropriate for followers with low competency and low motivation levels. This situation may
have various causes such as having new or inexperienced followers. This situation is greatly observed in the early stages
of the Eyeshield 21 storyline.
The Coaching style is used for situations where the follower is highly motivated but lacks the proper knowledge
and skills to do a task. Yoichi Hiruma uses this style for developing the teams running back, Eyeshield 21.
The Supporting style is advisable for followers who are qualified to do a task but are unmotivated. Hiruma used
this approach towards three people in the team, the linemen known as the Ha-ha Brothers, in order to have them
participate and use their full potential in games.
Lastly, the Delegating style is suggested for dealing with followers who are both highly competent and motivated.
Hiruma used this with the teams kicker in the later parts of the storyline.
This is the leadership style which I would like to have. I have experienced all the leadership styles with my
college instructors. I find the flexible approach used by my instructors on me to be quite effective and efficient as it made
me do better during my tenure in college. I plan to do and implement the same should I be given the opportunity. I shall
strive to be as flexible as I can in order to be able to effectively and efficiently lead a team.

References
Fjeldal,

M.

(n.d.).

Character

Description:

Yoichi

Hiruma

(para.

3).

Retrieved

from

http://www.absoluteanime.com/eyeshield/yoichi.htm
Van

Vliet,

V.

(2013,

November

27).

Situational

Leadership

http://www.toolshero.com/situational-leadership-hersey-blanchard/

(Hersey

Blanchard).

Retrieved

from