Our values govern the way we behave. And as a leader, you can gain respect quickly by consistently acting in line with your personal and organisational values. George Clooney’s Good Night and Good Luck is in many ways a film about values. It dramatises the CBS broadcaster Edward R Murrow’s… Read More »Values-based leadership: Good Night and Good Luck
It seems strange, to me at least, that women could ever legitimately be paid less than men for doing the same job. But equal pay legislation is just 40 years old, and Made in Dagenham tells the inspiring story of the female workers at Ford’s UK Dagenham plant and their… Read More »How to change history: Made in Dagenham
Ivan Reitman’s 1993 comedy Dave may not be most people’s first choice of a great leadership movie. But for me it demonstrates perfectly a key facet of leadership: that it is a choice rather than a position. In the movie, the White House recruits uncanny presidential lookalike Dave Kovic (Kevin Kline)… Read More »How to win over your team: everyman leadership in Dave
We can all name our favourites: those inspirational movie speeches that make our hair stand on end and ready to take on the world. But what is it that gives those speeches their power? And what can leaders learn from them? In her insightful book, Resonate, Nancy Duarte identifies rhetorical… Read More »Inspire like Braveheart: five keys to a motivating speech
Many organisations have a vision and values, but only in the best does that vision truly galvanise its people and result in better performance. Why? Because often that vision either isn’t compelling enough, or leaders fail to act consistently with the goal they have set out. In Mel Gibson’s stirring though… Read More »Why Braveheart’s clarity of vision can help every leader
War is the most unforgiving environment for a leader, with every decision affecting both your own life and that of others. It’s an environment vividly painted in Black Hawk Down, Ridley Scott’s re-telling of the US military’s ill-fated incursion into Mogadishu in 1993. Based on Mark Bowden’s absorbing book, Black… Read More »Leading under pressure: Black Hawk Down
Lessons from Moneyball and Up in the Air When I organised management training, one of the key challenges identified by delegates was how to handle difficult conversations. And no wonder. Communicating bad news or addressing difficult issues is one of the toughest parts of leadership. Many leaders feel ill-equipped to deal… Read More »The secrets of communicating bad news
Advisers who can’t be trusted. Threats from more powerful competitors. A divided organisation who have no faith in your ability to lead, and are deeply suspicious of your motives Oh, and potential assassins at every turn. That’s the scenario confronting the new monarch in Elizabeth, Shekhar Kapur’s fascinating film on… Read More »Baptism of fire: how Elizabeth stabilised her nation