Even great leaders have very human failings. In Darkest Hour, Gary Oldman’s Winston Churchill is irascible, insensitive and stubborn. But cometh the hour, cometh the man. In the early months of World War Two, the British Army faced annihilation as it was driven back to the beaches of Dunkirk in France. England stood… Read More »How Churchill led Britain through its Darkest Hour
Recruiting an outstanding team is a challenge for any leader. So imagine that challenge comes with intense time pressure, national media coverage and expectant fans and owners into the bargain. That’s the challenge facing Cleveland Browns general manager Sonny Weaver (Kevin Costner) in Draft Day. Even if you’re not an American… Read More »Character over talent, and other lessons from Draft Day
In Apollo 13, Flight Director Gene Kranz overhears two NASA directors discussing the low survival chances for the crippled spacecraft. “I know what the problems are Henry,” one of them says. “This could be the worst disaster NASA has ever experienced.” “With all due respect Sir,” Kranz intervenes, “I believe… Read More »Apollo 13 and the power of the counterfact
Do you feel able to bring your ‘whole self’ to work? What about your team, or your colleagues? In many work environments, we expect individuals to ‘fit in’ rather than be themselves. But being able to bring your whole self to work, to feel comfortable and display all your talents,… Read More »Embracing difference: The Imitation Game
In our last post, we looked at the the first four key influence tactics described in the Mind Gym: Wake Up Your Mind: Reason, Inspire, Ask and Feel Good. Here we’ll look at the last five tactics and where you can find examples of them in movies. Deal Deal is a simple… Read More »Under the influence: nine tactics for persuasion (2)
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
There aren’t many movies based on Powerpoint presentations. So it stands to reason that Al Gore’s slide show on climate change, the subject of An Inconvenient Truth, is just a little bit special. Gore shows that if you create a compelling story around an important issue, a presentation is as… Read More »10 ways to make your presentation memorable
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