Leadership in Movies

Through out the cinema world, there are many different themes or concepts that are portrayed. Writers use this form of media to address these issues, like leadership, through the actors in the movie. Apollo 13 and Remember the Titans are two great examples of movies that portray what characteristics a leader should possess in a given situation.

The Apollo 13 mission came to be known as "NASA's most successful failure." By the mere mention of those two words in the same sentence-successful failure-Apollo 13 and her crew provide a rich challenge to the notion that failure exists at all, outside of the "make-believe" reality created by our own minds.

For those unfamiliar with this particular real-life space drama, featured in the Apollo 13 movie starring Tom Hanks, the Apollo 13 spacecraft was launched into orbit on April 11, 1970 with three crew members. After almost three days of smooth operations, an oxygen tank onboard the craft blew up, sending the crews onboard and at NASA's Houston-based command center into overdrive to get the spacecraft back to Earth with its inhabitants alive. The explosion triggered a series of dilemmas, one following another, that lasted several more days. Because the problems occurred while the craft and crew were 200,000 miles from Earth, the situation was life-threatening and there was no margin-for-error.

The first leadership concept that was appeared was that not everything goes smoothly. These days, it seems that almost everyone has the rather silly expectation that everything should be easy and that discomfort or sacrifice of any kind suggests failure. There is no such thing as a perfect (or perfectly smooth) situation; there's just the situation (and our expectation that it should be something other than it is).

The next leadership concept that was presented is that present-moment awareness is crucial. Like many challenging situations, the unraveling of the Apollo 13 mission-as compared to the smooth flight revealed in the mission plan-required both mindfulness and skillfulness on the parts of all involved in the project. Worry too far ahead into the future