With the release of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, interest in the famous American President has never been higher. In Lead like Lincoln, I highlighted five key leadership lessons I personally took from the movie. Many other writers have identified additional lessons, both from the movie and the man himself. Mark Crowley’s… Read More »More leadership lessons from Lincoln
Watching Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, it’s striking how little America seems to have changed politically in 150 years. Two diametrically opposed ideologies still lie separated by a narrow middle ground. Similarly, it’s distinctive how relevant Abraham Lincoln’s leadership is for our contemporary world. Here are five lessons from Lincoln’s struggle to… Read More »Lead like Lincoln: leadership lessons from honest Abe
Marvel’s Avengers Assemble set the cinema box office alight in 2012, racing to become the third highest grossing movie of all time. And team dynamics is central to Joss Whedon’s record-breaking movie. To face a global threat, Nick Fury, director of international peacekeeping agency S.H.I.E.L.D., assembles a group of superheroes in… Read More »Team dynamics – Avengers style!
Since movieleadership.com launched in late 2011, the search term that brings more people here than any other is ‘leadership lessons from Coach Carter’. And no wonder: it’s not only a highly entertaining movie, but packed full of great leadership behaviour too. Take its climactic scene (spoiler alert!) where Carter, having… Read More »Great movie speeches: Coach Carter and recognition
One of the things many new leaders find most difficult is delegation: trusting your team to do a job you may feel you can do better yourself. But hard as it is, it’s essential to becoming a good leader. In his new book Do Nothing, J Keith Murnighan argues that many… Read More »Why trust is key to great leadership
Popular culture suggests extroverts are likely to make the best leaders. But according to Susan Cain’s ‘Quiet’, that’s not necessarily so. While extroverts thrive in certain leadership situations, there are many qualities that make introverts great leaders. In fact, introverted leaders can often be found at the top of some… Read More »Four qualities that make introverts great leaders
As leaders, a key part of our role is to develop and grow our people. Everyone wants to grow, right? Do well in life? So what holds them back? Coach Carter is one film that explores this question. It tells the true story of high school basketball coach Ken Carter… Read More »Break the bonds that stop your people from growing
War is an unforgiving environment for leaders, as we saw in Black Hawk Down. Add a mission that looks both futile and morally dubious, and it becomes even harder. That’s the situation faced by Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) in Steven Spielberg’s epic Saving Private Ryan. Following the brutal D-Day landings,… Read More »Great movie leaders: Captain John Miller