“I’m king of the world!”
“Show me the money!”
“You can’t handle the truth!”
“Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.”
“Go ahead, make my day.”

Memorable quotes from memorable films. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, movies of all types end up in our collective consciousness. In reviewing a list of movie quotes recently, I was impressed by how just one short phrase was all I needed to be reminded of an entire film. Such is the power of the movie experience.

I find it fascinating too how in a very short period of time, we go from knowing nothing about the subject of a film, to laughing, screaming, crying, and thinking about it. Typically in less than two hours. And regardless of the emotion, we continue to seek out the experience, again and again. (My kids can tell you about the favorite Dad position when watching a thriller or horror film - a blend of half watching / half avoiding. You want to see what’s around the corner or in the closet, but then again, you really don’t.)

I love watching movies (800+ Netflix rentals/downloads since 2003), and I especially enjoy watching movies with my family. There’s something about going through the experience together that makes it that much more enjoyable.

However, I do tend to draw the line between family and work. I feel movies have a great place in the home, but shouldn’t be used at work. And here’s why.

As popular as it is to use them in leadership development and training programs, I have a real problem when people do so. As mentioned earlier, I love watching movies; I think they’re a lot of fun. I just don’t feel they’re an effective tool for developing or educating people. If it were that easy, all we’d have to do is sit people in front of the television 8 hours a day (many people do so anyway), and show them training videos.

Essentially, I think many people confuse inspiration with effectiveness.

I can be temporarily inspired or motivated by watching a leader in a film (e.g. George C. Scott as General Patton in “Patton”, Kurt Russell as Herb Brooks [1980 USA winter Olympics hockey coach] in “Miracle”, Robin Williams as John Keating in “Dead Poets Society”, or Richard Dreyfuss as Glenn Holland in “Mr. Holland’s Opus”), but am I really changed by the experience of watching the selected movie clip?

And more often than not, the context is not relevant: Will I be leading an entire army, Olympic hockey team, or classroom full of English or music students? Also, I can possibly see the value of using historical characters, but fictional characters? The latter do essentially what the screenwriter wrote them to do, and I have a difficult time relating to the leadership “truth” of that.

Instead of using movie clips in your next leadership or management development program, why not look within your own organization for some exceptional examples? Surely there’s someone in your company who can share a story or two about what great leadership or management looks and, more importantly, feels like. And so what if they didn’t conquer a nation or win a gold medal? By your own leaders’ showing the blood in their veins about their struggles and challenges, your people will identify more with “one of their own” than with some famous actor (paid pretender) up on the screen.

And isn’t that what you really want? Your people looking at someone they work with, someone they know, feeling that maybe one day, they too could be speaking to a class of emerging leaders, sharing their stories about what leadership truly means.

So when it comes to examples of great leadership, let Hollywood stay in Hollywood. Find some of your own internal stars, and make them the “celebrities” they deserve to be.

Today more than ever, companies are looking for leaders. Not the kind to fill management or leadership vacancies. They’re looking for employees, whether or not they have people under their direction, to step up and demonstrate a greater ability to contribute. They’re looking for people to lead in terms of what they bring to the table each and every day.

In a different time, one might have argued that this stemmed from a short-term focus on corporate profits, from a desire to extend corporate profitability at the expense of the employee. Today, however, the increased expectations flow from an intensely competitive marketplace. If you feel the pressure of your boss’s hand at your back, it’s likely being placed there by your customers.

And so what’s an employee-cum-leader to do?
Answer: Give people one hand to shake, and one throat to squeeze.

First, make it easy and efficient for people, both customers and colleagues, to work with you. Particularly given the inter-dependencies at work these days, no one has the patience for being delayed or frustrated. That’s the “one hand to shake”.

Second, be a leader and take full responsibility for the work you need to get done. Commit fully to getting it done exceptionally well, and similarly, commit to fixing it immediately and completely when it’s broken. That’s the “one throat to squeeze”.

Consider the following:
Both my electric company and my cable company make it relatively easy to do business with them, which when things go well, means it’s easy to pay my bill (”one hand to shake”). Now should I lose power at my home, with one phone call, I can found out from the electric company what went wrong and when service should be restored (”one throat to squeeze”). But if I lose cable service, the cable company can tell me only what went wrong; they can’t tell me when service should be back. Isn’t that kind of important for the customer to know? Don’t they have cell phones in the field? Aren’t they a communications company? Why is it impossible to get a simple answer? Personally, that’s too many throats to squeeze.

If your company is still in business, at this point it’s likely made most, if not all, of the requisite structural changes in response to the economic decline. If it’s like most companies, payroll has been trimmed, and there are few expectations of ratcheting up hiring plans anytime soon. Employees are expected to deliver exceptionally well to customers, both internal and external. And are expected to do so for some time to come.

No one needs the runaround, and no one has the patience for “not my job” or “I only work here.” Bottom-line, if your people can’t give your customers one hand to shake and one throat to squeeze, you’d better forget it. Because sooner or later, your customers will.

Have a comment on leaders or individual contributors who step up during tough times? Click here, and share your comments.

This past weekend at a local conference, I delivered a presentation on overcoming barriers to effective talent development.  I also had the chance to attend other presentations too.  At one, the facilitator split the room into sections, and labeled each one with a specific emotion.  He then asked people to stand in the section that best described the atmosphere in their company.  Would it be surprising to say that 70 - 80% of attendees were standing in the “scared” section?  No it wouldn’t; these aren’t times for the faint of heart.

It’s certainly reasonable to place oneself in the “scared” section.  The news about what lies ahead is still pretty uncertain and a tad threatening.  In a perverse way, people might think there’s something askew with you if you said you weren’t afraid.  However, this is where safety in numbers could bring us all down.

Now I would be the last person to say don’t be afraid.  We feel what we feel, and there’s not much you can do about that part of it.  If I have a feeling, someone’s telling me not to feel it, isn’t truly that effective.  However, if I can channel the fear, I will have some possibility and even some hope.

Based on decades of research and work in leadership development, Michael Lombardo and Bob Eichinger note that there are 4 qualities to experiences that result in significant personal development:

1)  You know very little about the experience as you go into it.
2) You have to make a difference.
3) You feel a chance of significant failure.
4) You feel a tremendous amount of pressure.

Forget about the self-help-how-to leadership books read from the comfort of your La-Z-Boy.  Leadership and personal development is an active undertaking.  And if you think back to the experiences that shaped who you are today, you’re likely to experience the truth, as discomforting as it may be, in Lombardo and Eichinger’s findings.  We grow when there’s significant outside and inner pressure and when there’s something real at stake.

So, yes, it makes sense if you stand in the “scared” section.  It’s perfectly normal.  And if it’s any comfort, remind yourself that you’ve been here before, that it’s a familiar feeling (albeit more intense), and the key is to contain the fear, if possible, and use it to push yourself to grow further.