This is an incredible movie about leadership, inspiration, and unity.
Category: Leadership & Influence Page 12 of 20
This is an awesome movie and an excellent example of leadership in action. Inspired by true events…
The story starts with John Crowley (Brendan Fraser) whose two young kids have a deadly disease called Pompa. They are not expected to live longer than a year or two at the most. Heartbreaking… But John decides to do something about it. He goes to see a doctor and scientist named Robert Stonehill (Harrison Ford) whose research about the disease could be helpful.
In the end, John helps Stonehill finance his research, in hopes of making a cure…
The question of leadership is that often times it is real life situations that demand that we step up to take the lead on something – rather than wait for someone else to do something about it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUCXtdTlUrk]
Some people recommend that it is a good idea to “fake it until you make it.” While this sounds like good sense, the challenge is that some people end up faking all sorts of things and forget that they are faking it in the first place.
Most of us would prefer the “real thing” versus the fake, pretend or inauthentic leader.
© Goldzone Education. All rights reserved.
This question is often asked by two different types of people:
- People who are aggressively pursuing their goals and are focused on bottom line returns.
- People who are doing the minimum, are disinterested and taking what life gives them.
For the rest of us, it seems obvious that by investing in ourselves, our skills, our knowledge and our abilities, that we will advance in life and get more of what we want.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffgYLJ4Smm0]
This 2003 movie will leave you stunned by the number of lies and cover-ups that Stephen Glass engaged in during his career as a reporter. The film is based on real events and also captures the high-pressure world of national political journalism.
Stephen is likable, friendly and very polite. The ultimate co-worker who remembers everyone’s birthday knows how everyone takes their coffee and is so self-deprecatingly sweet that when things start unraveling you feel sorry for him. Despite his audacious lies and deceits, you like him and wonder why everyone is being so mean. Stephen walks the fine line between good and evil so well, you watch in amazement. You feel sorry for him, you’re repulsed by him, you’re embarrassed for him…
Many people have issues around commitment. This is probably because of the loss of freedom that goes along with committing to something, or someone.
Think about it. If you commit to something, what happens? Right after you make the commitment, everything that is the opposite comes up to challenge your commitment. If you commit to stop using profanities in public… the next time you are in public something will happen that will seduce you to want to use a profanity.
Then you think, “What does it matter anyway?” or I will “just do it this one time.” Then before you know it, your commitment is worthless and you find yourself back at square one.
This is why so many people have difficulty following through on their commitments. It is so easy to make the commitment when you are feeling good and are thinking about the theory of it, and another matter altogether to do it. The doing part takes emotional energy that was not needed when you first made the commitment. It is the emotional energy or the emotional aspect of the commitment that carries you through the difficult times as your commitment is challenged.
If you commit to something because you were threatened in the moment, then when you take the threat away, the commitment goes with it. If you get swept up in the emotion of a moment and make a commitment, then when the momentary emotional drive is gone (for example in a meeting, or a company conference where everyone is excited about making a goal, objective or ideal happen) the commitment goes with it.
Spiritual Commitment
The best type of commitment and the most long-lasting are the ones that move you, so you emotionally commit. Then there is no going back. Your emotional energy going in the positive direction of what the essence of the commitment is all about, along with the spiritual reason behind it, will have you unwavering. Typically, a spiritual level commitment involves connecting with the higher purpose of the commitment. This usually involves the “greatest good for the greatest number of people.”
Overcommitment
If you commit to too many things without taking the time to emotionally and spiritually commit to seeing them through, then you will end up overestimating what you can reasonably achieve. You will also make more commitments than you can keep.
Good As Gold
The key is to “make your word as good as gold,” which means that you make small commitments – and keep them – before committing to huge, big and overwhelming commitments. By making and keeping small commitments you build trust with yourself. Plus others will also trust you more.
And this trust is the essence of building lasting relationships and is the key to success as a leader.
***
Below is a quote from a book by William H. Murray. It’s an old one but relevant to this subject:
Until One Is Committed
William H. Murray (from his book “The Scottish Himalayan Expedition”)
Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation) there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:
“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
Roadside bombings, drive-by shootings, tourists held at gunpoint, we are familiar with these headlines describing terrorist activities. Desperate for a method to get what they want, terrorists resort to tactics that invoke fear in the hearts of even the most secure and confident people.
Terrorists feel totally justified in taking other people’s lives and see their victims as guilty of one thing or another. They take it even so far as suicide, and sacrificing the defenseless and clearly innocent (like children) as a means to the end of their cause.
Perhaps, more insidious than the headline terrorists are the everyday terrorists who operate in the corridors of the modern workplace. We don’t have to look to the streets of a distant city for these people.