See, even Gru's mood and facial expression is contagious all through the movie!
Descpicable ME! It’s like a cross between “The Office” and “The Simpsons”, but with humor and actual intellect! It was a spectacular movie, and even more so, it was a surprisingly thorough case study on the issues Contagious Leaders – right down to the Contagious Confidence of Gru, the villian!
With every line of this movie, I took notes on all the leadership skills that were demonstrated. Now what twerp do you know sits in
the movie with a pen to her napkin actually taking notes?? Yep, that would be me! But, here’s what I noticed… while laughing in most parts.. and even crying in one or two others. 🙂
As a leader, Gru, the villian, was faced with issues and elements all Contagious Leaders face, such as…
- having problems, people, and negativity that can rob us of our Contagious Confidence
- growing up with family members who don’t encourage or support our ideas that we have to overcome
- dealing wtih or listening to office gossips
- having to work with and overcome external issues such as the economy and banking industry – (i.e. The Bank of Evil that the movie says is “formerly known as Lehman Brothers)
- working with or living with people who doubt us and our skills and call us name or drag us down
- being compared to younger people with lower pay grades and seemingly “better” skills
- choosing to handle work/life balance issues – raising a family and doing a job
- nepotism (relatives in the workplace)
- motivating team members
- comminicating clearly and the illusion that this ever actually happens (just remember “dart” gun!)
- devising a strategy
- having to change that strategy or plan
- overcoming negativity and lack of resources
- working as a team
- changing direction, changing team members, changing location of the shrink ray – okay that last one was just about the movie, not leadership. 🙂
- and lastly, leading in tough times.
I get it that this is just a movie, but as someone who teaches leadership, there could be entire modules or vignettes used from this movie (with copyright permission from the studio!) to demonstrate leadership issues and solutions, or at a minimum, make a training class a whole lot of fun while making a point.
If you haven’t seen the movie, check it out – completely hilarious and fun – but also, clearly, filled with contagious content that sparked my leadership brain! Oh, and if you have taken a CORE profile, practice your skills on Agnes, Edith, and Margo – the little girls in the movie. Between Gru and the girls, you have one of each personality preference quadrant clearly represented! 🙂
My brother recommended I may like this blog. He was totally right.
This post truly made my day. You cann’t believe just how so much time I had spent
for this information! Thank you!