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Well made movies have great story telling that communicates messages in a very simple and easy to understand manner.

Recently, I saw Das Boot. I was bored and could not find another movie to watch. But it turned out to be the best 3 hours I spent in a long time. It has some surprising lessons in leadership, not something you’d expect to get from a movie told from a German’s point of view.

Das Boot

The whole thing about World War II and Nazis trying to take over the world and the way history is being told seems to paint all Germans during World War II as the bad guys. If you’ve seen Valkyrie, you know that is not true.

Valkyrie

Was it Sun Tzu who said you can learn a lot from your enemies? For your purposes in the workplace, I’d replace “enemies” with people you thought were less than perfect, or otherwise guilty of bad behavior. What would happen in the workplace if you took the time to learn from people who are in your opinion, dysfunctional?

There are no enemies in today’s day and age, just people in pain looking for help. Violence is their cry for help. I could write a whole book on that subject. The leadership challenges we face are not trivial, or easy, or going to be solved any time soon. The only thing you can do is to give yourself a chance to succeed!