Leadership Movies


Many films present provocative and sometimes inspiring views of leadership. The models are often deeply flawed (it is drama, afterall) but sometimes insightful and incredibly useful for creating dialogue.

To generate a deep conversation about leadership, or just to reflect on what leadership means to you and how you operate as a leader in comparison, try any of the following movies and then creating a dialogue with the reflection questions that follow:

• A Beautiful Mind
  
• Airforce One
• Apollo 13
• The Apostle
  
• Batman Begins
  
• Bridge On The River Kwai
  
• Chariots of Fire
• Charlie Wilson's War
  
• Citizen Kane
• The Color Purple
  
• Crimson Tide

• Courage Under Fire (recommended by Ty D. Ried, MBA, Business Instructor at International Business College)

• The Dark Knight
  
• Dead Poets Society
• The Deal
  
• The Doctor
  
• Dr. Strangelove
• Drumline
  
• Erin Brockovich
  
• Fail Safe
• Field of Dreams
• Gandhi

• Gettysburg (1993): Early in the film, Union General Buford makes very difficult leadership decisions to hold Gettysburg until the rest of the army can come up. Later in the film, Col. Joshua Chamberlain exercises leadership while in life threatening crisis and under extreme pressure as he fulfills his responsiblity to hold Little Round Top. (suggested and summarized by Leonard Cizewski see also here)

• Glengarry Glen Ross
• Glory
  
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips
• Henry V.
  
• Hoosiers
• I Heart Huckabees

• Invictus: In what may be one of the greatest displays of leadership in all of history, Nelson Mandela uses sports to help bring South Africa back from the brink of civil war and to promote healing and reconciliation in a badly divided nation. (suggested and summarized by Leonard Cizewski on twitter)
   
  
  
• It's A Wonderful Life
• Jerry Maguire
• Karate Kid
• The Kingdom
• Ladder 49
  
• The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit
  
• The Manchurian Candidate
  
• Master and Commander
  
• Mr. Holland's Opus
• My Fair Lady
  
• Norma Rae
• October Sky
  
• Office Space
• Patch Adams
• Phenomenon
• The Pursuit of Happyness
  
• Pygmalian
• Regarding Henry
  
• Remember the Titans
• Saving Private Ryan
• Schindler's List
• The Secret Life of Bees
  
• The Shawshank Redemption
• Simon Birch
• Stand and Deliver
• Sunshine Cleaning
  
• Titanic
• To Kill A Mockingbird
  
• Wall Street
• The Wizard of Oz
  
• Working Girl
• X-Men
  

Then ask the following questions:


Who is the most interesting model of leadership in this movie?


What other models of leadership can you spot in the film?


What would happen if all leaders practiced leadership in the way depicted in this film?


What challenges does the film present? How are they handled in the film? What are some alternative ways to handle those challenges?


What evidence did you find for any of these leadership traits: courage, creativity, clarity, compassion?


What did you learn from this movie? How will you apply that to your role as a leader?

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info@frontrangeleadership.com

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Front Range Leadership, LLC specializes in helping you to develop high performance leadership.  We offer high impact workshops and coaching to develop your leadership skills at communicating for results, improving performance, and achieving your goals.

Contact us here:


info@frontrangeleadership.com

Front Range Leadership, LLC
Boulder, CO