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Best Leaders Are Brave, Creative, Adaptable

BY: MICHAEL STERN January 13, 2001

To the purists, 2001 is the first year of the 21st century and the new millennium. To many more, however, it's a year that has long since been defined by a movie.

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey pointed the way toward a colourless, technocratic future for mankind, climaxing by some fiery psychedelia that many had trouble following. For two reasons - the miss on the future of technology (which turned out to be more about global communications than space exploration) and the inconclusive ending - I think 2001 is the wrong movie to be symbol of this brave new year.

Here are three movies I think make much better roadmaps for 2001, especially for all those who hope to hone their leadership skills and enhance their careers over the next 12 months.

1. Twelve Angry Men: the 1957 Henry Fonda film, not the 1997 cable remake with Jack Lemmon.

In this classic, Fonda plays a jury member on a murder case. It's been a long trial, the jury room is oppressively hot, and 11 jurors have made up their minds: Guilty.

Fonda is not a towering presence in this film, but a simple, decent man, an intelligent skeptic who will not give in to a decision he thinks is wrong.

By pointing out inconsistencies in the testimony and forcing the other jury members to question their assumptions, Fonda's character picks apart the prosecution's case. He doesn't insist the defendant is innocent; he says only that there is reasonable doubt. And one by one, he convinces his colleagues to overcome their prejudices and change their minds.

To me, this is the essence of leadership: assessing a situation, understanding your goals, and communicating your point of view in a convincing way. Leadership is using all of your gifts of persuasion and creativity, even if it means standing up against overwhelming odds.

Of course, not every issue calls for this level of grandstanding. But when the stakes are high - when your organization's future or principles are at risk - leaders must stand up and tell the truth, exposing the flaws in opponents' thinking and revealing the advantages of taking another path.

This isn't easy to do. In today's complex working world, leaders can't get people to buy into their point of view simply by telling them to. To win the hearts and minds of today's skilled, demanding workforce, you have to appeal to them as equals.

2. The Music Man: That's right, 76 trombones and all. If Henry Fonda was a gutsy individual who used logic to defy the conformist pressures of the 1950s, Robert Preston's flashy con man used verve and visualization to inadvertently create lasting change in his community.

Preston's Harold Hill was a smooth-talking salesman who could sell band uniforms to a town without a band, intending to skip right out of River City town before the locals got wise. But what's instructive about this movie is Hill's ability to galvanize the whole town with his vision of a boys' band - even if it was all based on a fraud.

Hill's promises create a surge of civic pride, foster interest in the arts, reduce levels of juvenile misbehavior and build confidence in at least one shy, lisping child (the ever-endearing Ron Howard, now a famous film director). In the end, Hill even redeems himself.

The Music Man shows how one person's vision and charisma can transform a community. It's an ode to what we are all capable of - inspiring and empowering the people around us to reach higher and further than they ever believed possible. That's the sort of leadership that organizations all over the world are looking for.

3. The Patriot: For those readers born since 1962, here's a film you may have actually seen. The Patriot was last summer's Mel Gibson blockbuster about a veteran Indian fighter drawn reluctantly into the Revolutionary War.

Having seen the horrors of war first hand, Gibson's character, now a farmer, stands up to his friends and neighbours by refusing to allow himself or his family to be drawn into armed rebellion against the British.

But this is not a time for fencesitting. By refusing to take sides in the inevitable conflict, Gibson's family becomes first pawns and then victims of the hostilities. By choosing not to take action - however noble his motives - Gibson has put his fate in the hands of others, with the usual disastrous consequences that result.

Gibson later overcompensates, becoming a confident and able leader of a ragtag militia unit. Here Gibson emerges as a creative leader, virtually inventing the guerrilla tactics that are now a part of every business person's lexicon: strike at your enemy's weak points; never let your opponent choose your battlefield; when engaging a superior force, strike hard and then run harder; and never fight the same battle twice.

Even though he nearly wins the Revolutionary War by himself, Gibson's character is a flawed individual with whom we can all identify. He makes mistakes, but he learns from them. If he was a little slow to realize that his principles were jeopardizing his family's survival, he made up for it by leading his troops with imagination, courage and vision.

Three different movies, three very different leaders. But all of them make better role models for today's work force than do the dull, bland astronauts of 2001, or their manic-depressive computer with the control fetish.