Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2012, just before Euro 2012, when Vicente del Bosque was coach of Spain’s national team; references to him as the current coach and the good-luck wishes to the team reflect that moment.
A leader, a good leader, is an ordinary person who brings people, and people’s wills, together. They are no more and no less than anyone else: simply the person under whose responsibility a work unit, a department or the like grows and works productively. In football, the leader is Vicente del Bosque (Spain’s national coach), able to unite the efforts of a group of brilliant players in pursuit of an overall victory, in this case the European Championship. Good luck to everyone.
We’ve talked about the secrets of a good leader and also about the things a leader shouldn’t do, but to talk about and understand leadership in a company, allow me to use the seventh art as a practical exercise in bringing wills and collective interests together. The film is The Last Castle, starring Robert Redford, which, whatever its artistic merits, shows genuine exercises in leadership over more than two hours.
Defining leadership as a competency
Leadership is the role held by a person who stands out from the rest and is able to make the right decisions for the group, team or organisation they lead, inspiring the others in that group to reach a common goal. That’s why leadership is said to involve more than one person: the one who leads (the leader) and those who support them (the subordinates) and allow them to carry out their role efficiently.
Practical examples from The Last Castle
If you can, take the chance to watch it: you’ll find it online and you’ll enjoy it. It tells the story of a veteran officer, played by Robert Redford, locked up in a military prison because of a mistake, a misunderstanding, and of how he gets all the prisoners to follow his orders and rise up against the prison’s warden, so that integrity, honesty and willingness win out even though the price to be paid is very clear. A true example of a good leader in business.
Let’s take it step by step.
“Leadership is the role held by a person who stands out from the rest…” Minute 7:10
The warden receives the prisoner and gives him a short interview and a lecture on the prison rules. A warden/leader who rules through regulations and fear. It’s the first sign that this boss cares more about the museum pieces in his private collection than about people. The inmate, by contrast, talks about people, and the prisoner cleaning the office salutes him out of admiration as he leaves the interview, even though saluting is forbidden.
Two very different examples of how to treat people. In the looks exchanged between Robert Redford and the warden’s aide, the director is already showing us that the sergeant is a different kind of man from the warden.
In these scenes the film shows two forms of leadership: one in which people don’t matter and everything is governed by rules and regulations, and one based on admiration and respect for the work done. Other scenes like these appear throughout the film, for example from minute 28:15 to minute 32:00.
“…is able to make the right decisions for the group, team or organisation they lead” Minute 33:00
An inmate is punished under those rules. Another invokes military law and is disciplined by being made to move stones from one place to another for a whole day, and then some.
It’s a decision taken to defend a comrade from an unfairly imposed punishment, and the result is a rule: another punishment. There is no acknowledgement of the mistake that was made, only of command and arrogance. The veteran inmate, by now just one more of the prisoners and unfairly punished, becomes the group’s true leader during that punishment, the one who will guide everyone to escape the unjust regulations.
From this scene on, he has dozens of loyal followers, because he is one of them, with no distinctions, living under the same conditions and taking on the mistakes his team makes. Here we see a team of people working to achieve a goal. A leader has to bring efforts together to achieve a goal, and plan how to get there.
“…inspiring the others in that group to reach a common goal…” Minute 1:17:30
We see an inmate plotting with the warden to inform on the prisoners’ plans. In the scenes that follow, Robert Redford reasons with him and turns him into an ally, despite criticism from his fellow inmates. Later, the film shows how this prisoner becomes a loyal ally of the plan led by the veteran inmate.
The leader earns his comrades’ respect: even when they don’t share his decision, they back him. The leader’s reasoning wins out, and the decision proves right and is supported by everyone as they reach their common goal. The leader has planned how to make the informer one more piece in the success of his work as a leader.
“Leadership involves more than one person: the one who leads (the leader) and those who support them (the subordinates)” Minute 1:35:10
The prisoners’ revolt begins. They use their plans and strategies to beat the warden’s rules and methods, and they win. This is the work of a leader who directs his subordinates effectively, a leader who gets his comrades to follow him despite the difficulties of the plan, just as you face your company’s production problems, the obstacles to succeeding in your work, and so on.
And in the end he proves his leadership through his actions, while the warden shows how unreasonable he is by having a man shot even as he raises the flag. The warden’s style of leadership loses, and even the soldiers side with the veteran inmate.
Other competencies
Featured image: Steindy 08:39, 5 June 2010 (UTC), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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