It’s a sad fact that most communication falls on deaf ears. In the era of Twitter, smartphones and billboards that talk to you, we’re each assailed with messages every minute of the day. As a leader, how are you going to make sure your message is the one people listen… Read More »How to craft an effective story for your organisation
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
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
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
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
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