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
Organisations with a strong sense of tradition and history can sometimes close the door to new approaches that might yield better results. In Moneyball, Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) shakes up one such establishment: professional baseball. Dispensing with traditional player scouting techniques, Beane uses statistical measurement of… Read More »Three major league leadership lessons from Moneyball
Creativity is usually considered a prized asset. But according to recent research reported on Lifehacker.com, many of us tend to reject creative ideas out of hand. The research showed the novelty of new ideas can make people feel uncomfortable, leading them to reject them in favour of the tried and tested. This… Read More »Why we reject creative ideas: lessons from A Bug’s Life
Imagine you’re in a meeting with 11 of your peers. They are all in agreement and keen to move on. You are the only one to have doubts, but the stakes are extraordinarily high: a man’s life. What do you do? That’s the premise of Sidney Lumet’s 1957 film 12… Read More »Six ways to influence 12 angry men
Unlocking the potential of their people is key to any leader’s success. So what can we learn from Hollywood’s top mentors? We’ve selected a team of the best mentors that movies have to offer, and deciphered some of the core messages that are crucial to their success. 1. The road… Read More »Introducing the movie mentor XI
Humour is a powerful weapon in learning and you can find plenty of it in Chicken Run, the brilliant animated pastiche of World War II escape movies. Our heroine is Ginger, the plucky hen who leads her fellow inmates of Tweedy’s Chicken Farm in an audacious mass breakout to secure their freedom.… Read More »Lead like Ginger: five lessons from Chicken Run
Watching Remember the Titans recently, I was struck by how often Kotter’s 8 steps for managing change appeared. Set in Virginia in 1971, the film tells the true story of the newly integrated TC Williams High School football team. In a town awash with anger and prejudice, new coach Herman… Read More »Kotter’s 8 steps for change in Remember the Titans
While Coach Carter received little attention on its original UK release, it’s full of powerful leadership lessons. The story of Ken Carter, who returns to coach basketball at his former school, is based on true events. Rather than simply improving the team’s results, Carter truly believes he can improve his students’ lives.… Read More »Four powerful leadership lessons from Coach Carter