Leadership lessons from the theater

Last class of the subject of leadership in my MBA was one of the most memorial experience for me personally. To my surprise our dean Dr Tapan Panda has called almost every faculty from school of management and some of the women officials from Hero MotoCorp as our audience for our play which was supposed to be presented by us as our last activity for this leadership course.

This activity was supposed to be a whole day workshop which included from modeling our idea into play (pre-production to final production), In the morning my group was given just a word “hatred”, so when this word was given to us then immediately as a group we started discussing on how to make this word as our theme for our play. Here at this pre-production stage I contributed with idea which was very much related to the present education system of India i.e. positive and negative impact of reservation and how it creates a big divide among society based on caste system.

When we were clear about our theme for our play, we stared discussing about how to develop characters based on the theme which we decided. So at this stage as a group we came with an idea to invite our colleagues from 1^st year MBA batch as actors, there we asked a boy to act for the character who was supposed to be a student who got admission in a Delhi university college in spite of having average marks and a girl who in spite of getting excellent marks was not able get admission as the boy got admission over her seat on the basis of caste reservation. So in the end it was shown in the play as to how the girl developed hatred towards that boy and the whole education system. 

From the forgoing, we can learn leadership lessons from the theater. In the current market environment, command and control models of leadership have given way to approaches that emphasize vision, values, collaboration and coaching. Business leaders need to empower their employees to encourage team work and collaboration to free their employees to innovate. The theater director and the business leader share many similarities regarding roles and responsibility yet the techniques they employ differ sharply. Theater director’s job entails analysis interpretation and planning. He must spend his time working with those he is leading, coaching, cajoling, guiding and collaborating. Consider these skills an example of the principal of unity and multiplicity at work- a core competency of successful directors. “Best in class” theater director articulates a unifying vision and pull together a group of disparate talents and skills. They allow each individual the autonomy to bring his unique talents to bear on the role. The craft of “best in class” director can be analyzed in three stages: preproduction, rehearsal and performance. At preproduction stage the director forms his ideas about the play, develops a vision and begins selecting the team. It can be compared to business leader-entering a new market, launching a new product and examining existing and potential strategies. Deeper understanding of human nature is a must for both. Director emphasize good casting i.e. right people in the right roles. Similarly, business leader recruits bright people eager to work, who will fit into his team. Their training is equally important. Good theater director put collaboration at the heart of the work. Warm up exercise and improvisation attempt to build group trust and individual confidence.

Theater director engage in “Prismatic thinking”. Business leaders also need to encourage themselves and their team members to adopt a more open ended approach to problem solving. Business leaders look at the end result- profits, market share etc. “Best-in-class” directors are most interested in the process. Both must embrace continual learning to further their growth. The process of learning and doing is what creates engagement – fun.

In rapidly changing, increasingly complex world, in which the business professional operates, they seek to instill greater speed, creativity and flexibility into their organization, the principal of unity and multiplicity can become a key source of guidance. 

The Shawshank Redemption

The main character in the film, Andy Dufresne, was a highly intelligent and skilled person, both of which are threshold capabilities needed to become a leader (Goleman, 1996). He also displayed (in varying degrees), each of the skills that comprise the emotional intelligence framework. Specifically, Andy routinely exhibited motivation, empathy and social skill, while he only demonstrated self-awareness and self-regulation occasionally.

Andy’s motivation could be seen in two different ways: doing everything he could to get funding for a prison library and continuously planning his future escape from the “fictional” Shawshank state prison. As a successful, educated man, Andy felt that the growth of the Shawshank prison library was of great importance and undertook the task of procuring funding. Through weekly letters and continued effort, he secured adequate funding and resources to allow the library to thrive. Throughout the entire process, Andy was constantly reminded that he would never succeed at his endeavor. Despite the difficulty, Andy continued to maintain optimism in the face of failure.

Andy also had a significant amount of empathy for people. He considered others’ feelings and wanted to help anyone around him. When he first arrived at Shawshank, he kept to himself and the only person he talked to was Red. Eventually, Andy was chosen for a coveted, outside prison job where inmates would tar the prison roof. While doing this work, Andy overheard the main guard, Captain Hadley, talking about an inheritance he would receive. Although a dangerous idea, Andy approached the guard and told him that he could save money using a legal tax loophole. Captain Hadley, after a rather tense conversation, allowed Andy to help him in exchange for a few cold beers for his fellow co-workers. Another way that Andy displayed his empathy towards others was when he spent time in the library mentoring other inmates. A new inmate, Tommy Williams, was a young, married father who had been in and out of the legal system most of his life. After Andy remarked to Tommy that he was not a very good criminal, Tommy decided that he wanted to turn his life around and asked Andy to help him study for his high school equivalency test. Andy agreed to help him and ended up spending time tutoring him, a perfect example of his “ability to develop others”

The Another component of the emotional intelligence framework that Andy displayed was social skill., Andy went on to demonstrate expertise in building and leading teams when he set up the library and supervised inmates to run the library. Another example of his social skill can be seen when Andy inspired Red to try to get paroled, instead of sabotaging his chances by repeating the same answers at each board meeting. Seeing the similarity of Red to Brooks, who could not handle life on the outside, Andy felt that Red would be the perfect companion for his life in Mexico. Their mutual understanding of the difficulties of life both in and out of prison would provide both men with a support system to cope with any changes. The way Andy managed his relationship with Red is an example of Andy’s ability to move people in the desired direction.

The last component of emotional intelligence frame work that Andy displayed was self-awareness skill i.e.  understanding his skills and knowing what he would be able to contribute in order to gain an advantage while he was in prison (e.g., offering to help Captain Hadley, assisting Warden Norton in laundering money). Andy’s brief display of self-regulation was seen when he explained that he originally parked outside the home of his wife’s lover the night they were murdered and had been drinking. Despite having strong feelings (and strong booze), Andy regulated his emotions and instead of entering a potentially volatile situation, went home to sober up.

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE

In the movie, George Bailey gives up his entire life for the betterment of others and keeps others wishes ahead of himself, which helps him in the end where the entire town comes up for his rescue. The time when the guardian angel shows to George what life would have been like for others had he not been a part of their life, it is shown that he impacted and influenced the lives of people at a great level who otherwise would have gone down the wrong path. Throughout his life he worked as a great leader, influencing people to do better.

Leadership Qualities shown by George Bailey in the movie-

Team work – George Bailey, the protagonist of the movie quickly comes up with the idea of forming a chain gang to save his brother Harry when he falls through the ice, which otherwise would not have been possible if he would have tried alone. Which showcases the importance of team work and a great leadership quality.

Decision making – George tries to understand the situation and uses his presence of mind to determine that something doesn’t seem right about the prescription delivery, and as a result, saves Mr. Gower from poisoning a customer, which showcases that he does not blindly follow instructions and is able to take firm decisions on his own.

Courage- George displays qualities of courage when on various occasions he stands up to Mr. Potter, refusing to give in to the pressure to sell the Building & Loan or accept a job from him.

Generosity – George sacrifices his own hopes and dreams throughout the movie, sending his brother to college, giving money to Violet Bick, etc.  It’s not about you, it’s about others.

Staying calm under pressure – George maintains his calm at the time of bank run, when everybody is losing their minds, he takes control of the situation, and restores a panicky situation.

Critical execution– An important part of the movie, leading to the twist where uncle Billy is given the responsibility to deposit the money in the bank, given uncle Billy's past records, someone more trustworthy and responsible should have been given the responsibility to carry and deposit the money. Learning from lessons and reading about people is one of the important qualities of a leader. 

Leadership Lessons From Captain Phillips

In the movie “Captain Phillips” a US merchant marine cargo ship was attacked by Somali pirates. In order to save the crew, Captain Phillips ended up being taken as a hostage in a life boat with the pirates. After a standoff between the pirates and the military, ultimately pirates were killed and Captain Phillips was rescued. The movie exposes similarities and differences in the leadership styles of Captain Phillips on one hand and Somali pirates Captain Abduwali Muse.

Captain Phillips, while tackling the emergency situation, exhibited a good example by showing his spirit of confidence and maintaining his own sense of confidence and control by his exemplary behavior and proved, that as leaders, we need to be ready to succeed even in the worst conditions. As a leader you don’t have to be friends with the crew but you have to earn their trust. The Captain was a tough and demanding leader but he was predictable. Too harsh an approach for a business provides a framework for how to lead in stressful conditions. Economists categorize business conditions as “head winds or tails winds” and job of the leader was to anticipate. Captain Phillips shows himself as a competent, responsible, selfless, servant leader who puts himself in danger in order to save his crew members.

Pirate Captain Muse was just the Opposite-Inadequate for the job, selfish, cruel and determined in fulfilling his aim. He was a pure example of an autocratic leader. Considering their differences and similarities we can take out eight main lessons from these two leaders.

1.           Risk taking
2.           Listening
3.           Accountability
4.           Responsibility
5.           Strategy and planning  
6.          .Flexibility
7.           Empowerment of followers
8.           Emotional Intelligence 

Leadership means a process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of common task, Captain Phillips appears as a very serious, strict and reserved man. He is a real life leader. He makes immediate decisions and unites crew members. He is optimistic and encourages his team members. He knew the drill in situation of piracy attack and his crew followed his orders. He was able to see things objectively and from different point of views which is the critical skills for leaders. Even in most dangerous and unexpected situations as a true leader he remained calm, took initiative and improvised creative strategies and he had advance training and planning beforehand to handle the emergency situations. With his immediate decisions and outstanding insight, he exhibited high responsibility of his profession and protected his crew members. Thus he put forth a good example of a true leader and hero in real life situation by adopting the above mentioned traits expected of a good leader.

Nelson Mandela

As Nelson Mandela asks in the movie(Invictus), “How do you get others to be better than they think they can be?”

This is to me, the way a leader thinks, A Leader has to lead the group by an example. He is mentor of the team. He facilitates interaction, understands situation, provides structure, exherts pressure for action, builds operational capacity, focuses on long term effectiveness, establishes direction, Inspires, motivates and guides the people, He facilitates change to achieve the desired results.

In movie Invictus, Nelson Mandela recognizes the tremendous challenges faced by his government in a land torn apart by apartheid. Racial tensions were at an all-time high, people were struggling with the effects of crippling unemployment, and a new black government has shifted the balance of political power. Mandela orchestrated the situation and used rugby world cup which was never his passion to reunite his country. He spotted the core problem that was psychological divide that the country was suffering at that point of time and very wisely used rugby world cup to bridge the gap and create harmony among people of his country.

In one of the scene in the movie President Mandela invites Pienaar to tea for their first meeting. As Mandela believes that he can achieve the unity that he planned for through rugby so he needed Pienaar's assistance to get the support of the Afrikaners. Pienaar was charmed by Mandela's personal style and warmth upon his arrival at the Government House. He also observed that Mandela treated everyone around him with great respect, even the lady who served them tea.

In this movie, Mandela skillfully demonstrates his people-oriented leadership style. For instance, even on his first day in office as the newly-elected President of South Africa, he showed great courtesy to all his staff, blacks and whites, by greeting and smiling at everybody whom he passed by on his way to his suite. This earned him great respect from all staff, especially the white Afrikaners who thought they would be sacked once a black leader assumed office.

Mandela also decided to maintain the former white staff and build an administrative team of both the groups. The same also applies to his security staff. In order to lead by example and to achieve the unity he had long planned for, he believes that his team must reflect his vision.

In the end I can say only one thing that Nelson Mandela, also known by his clan name Madiba, was one of the greatest leaders because he gave people a long-term vision that infused their lives with meaning; which pointed them all in a new direction.

Apollo 13

Recently I got an opportunity to see a Tom Hanks movie Apollo 13, It is a movie which is a realistic dramatization of NASA’s mission. Because of mechanical problems, Apollo 13 failed to reach the home and was almost lost. The movie builds great suspense and is deeply absorbing. It shows men solving problems with intelligence, skill, teamwork, and bravery. It shows human dedication and perseverance that they won't give up, even though hopes from other people seems to increase. The movie also shows the process of preparing for space travel in the 1970s. It raises issues of loyalty to individuals on the team against the need for loyalty to the team as a whole.

Apollo 13 illustrates an abundance of leadership values and principles-

• The role that Ken Mattingly played in saving the mission, even when bad luck prevented him from being on the spacecraft, shows that even if you cannot be on the first team, you can still perform an essential role, save the day, and become a hero. Each of the astronauts, in his own way, is a positive role model.
• Another good example of leadership lies in the successes of bringing the crew back: the clear objective in this instance was to prevent the death of the crew, and highlights a sort of ‘Commander’s Intent’ directive where the leaders of Mission Control, namely Gene Kranz, the lead flight director. From his position, he directed the people underneath his command to come up with solutions to the numerous problems, acting as an intermediary, collecting information and making a decision based on what he knew at the time. The responsibilities of the people below him were with specific issues: determining the extent of the problem, then the solution to either fixing it, or minimizing its impact on the event. These items included the supply of oxygen and trying to figure out exactly how to conserve power because of a reduction in supply, how to scrub the CO2 out of the ship’s atmosphere, how to accomplish burns and ultimately, bring the crew home safely. The end result was the return of Jim Lovell, John Swigert and Fred Haise. They owe their lives to good organization and leadership on the part of NASA and the flight control teams.

                                

•   Lovell, commander of the 1970 Apollo lunar mission, faced several leadership challenges, the majority of which were well orchestrated.  One such leadership challenge occurred early in the scenes of the movie when the flight surgeon grounded Ken Mattingly, the originally slated mission pilot, as it was believed that Mattingly had contracted the measles.  Jim Lovell, as the mission commander, had to make a difficult decision, continue to prepare for the mission with the back-up pilot, Jack Swiggart, or scrap the mission in hopes of a future mission.  Ultimately, the mission commander had to make the call to remove the pilot from the crew and continue to train for the launch.            

The following examples from movie illustrate the Wildland Leadership Values and Principles-

1.Duty-

During the initial moments after the explosion on Apollo 13, Mission Control was working furiously to make sense of what was happening. New failures and alarms were occurring with each moment, and every engineer on duty was desperately trying to make sense of the tide of information. Kranz, as Flight Director, had the responsibility of understanding what his men were telling him and figuring out how to keep the crew safe and the mission on track

2.Respect-

“WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, SIR, I BELIEVE THIS IS GONNA BE OUR FINEST HOUR.”

One moment is a scene where one of the NASA executives shows up, complaining about the negative consequences that this potential disaster could have on the company’s reputation. The NASA director responds, “I know, this could be the worst disaster NASA has ever faced.” Gene Kranz (played by Ed Harris), the head of mission control turns towards the director and very directly says, “With all due respect, sir, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour.”

3.Integrity-

Just 72 hours before the scheduled launch of Apollo 13, Ken Mattingly was removed from the mission and replaced by Jack Swigert from the back-up crew as Command Module Pilot. Charlie Duke, also from the back-up crew caught the measles from one of his children, and exposed Mattingly the only other member of either the prime or back-up crews who were not immune to the disease. If Mattingly were to come down with the measles, he might contract it while alone in the Command Module while Jim Lovell and Fred Haise were walking on the Moon.

    

The Longest Yard

Recently saw the original Longest Yard or, as it's apparently called, The Mean Machine, it is a movie that crack a lot of jokes and a lot of bones.

One of the things I liked about the movie is the way it taps into the emotional aspect of not only playing the sport, but watching it. There can be deep seated psychological reasons for why a spectator, or fan, roots for one team over the other.  The prisoners that cheer on their team use the game, as fleeting as it may be, as a sort of equalization and revenge factor to the guard’s authority and corruption. Watching the scenes showing the prisoners cheering their team as they score a touchdown is almost as emotionally charging as the action itself.

And the last 45 minutes of the film is unlike anything I have ever seen. It was full of excitement and energy