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
When I first watched Thirteen Days, I was shocked how close the Cuban Missile Crisis brought us to armageddon. I’m old enough to remember the end of the Cold War, but the hair’s breadth from conflict that the film portrays is eye opening. The film dramatises the traumatic period in 1962… Read More »Top five leadership movies: Thirteen Days
Whenever I tell people that The Shawshank Redemption is one of my top leadership movies, I often receive blank looks. Where’s the recognised leader, the rousing speeches to followers? But for me, it’s the perfect demonstration of a different kind of leadership: a demonstration that leadership is a state of… Read More »Top 5 leadership movies: The Shawshank Redemption
I remember the 1995 Rugby World Cup very clearly. It was at the height of my passion for the game, and the memory of New Zealand wing Jonah Lomu brushing white English shirts aside like rag dolls still burns brightly in my memory! The tournament also produced one of rugby’s… Read More »Top five leadership movies: Invictus