Three Leadership Quotes from the Movie Black Panther
We just watched the movie Black Panther. Frankly, I thought it was ho hum. Maybe because I was comparing it to Wonder Woman which rocked.
However, I heard some great leadership wisdom from the Black Panther’s father, King T’Chaka.
(Image source: Marvel.com)
#1. “You are a good man, with a good heart. And it’s hard for a good man to be a king.”
It might be difficult for good-hearted leaders to deal with tough issues, at least when they’re young. As time passes, wise leaders learn it’s better to confront tough issues than to let them fester.
Some are great at being tough. Others are known for being kind. High performance leaders are both tough and kind.
5 ways to be tough and kind:
- Establish high standards and ask how you might help. Helping isn’t doing someone’s job for them. It’s enabling them to exceed past performance.
- Expect team members to follow-through. Ask about progress before deadlines arrive.
- Bring up poor performance before it becomes daily practice. Create development plans.
- Be curious when confronting tough issues.
- Be tough on yourself before being tough on others. Double standards deflate enthusiasm.
#2. “A man who has not prepared his children for his own death has failed as a father.”
The point of parenting isn’t shielding children from challenge and difficulty, but preparing them to endure it.
I’m not a fan of connecting fatherhood and leadership. It degrades team members to children. However, the sentiment of the quote is challenging.
Work yourself out of a job.
The more essential you become, the less effective you are.
#3. “You’re going to struggle so surround yourself with people you trust.”
Everyone needs trusted allies.
If you can achieve your goals on your own, you’re reaching too low.
How might leaders be both tough and kind at the same time?
How might leaders prepare people to thrive without them?
How might leaders surround themselves with trustworthy people?
Great reflections on the movie. King T’Chaka never says that they are impossible, just that they are hard. In that lies the rub of leadership. Pushing through to resolve the paradoxes and tensions. Believing that they can be resolved.
Thanks Gillian. Yes indeed!
Love this topic. Making leaders out of followers.
Great leaders make themselves redundant by equipping others to become leaders.
This takes courage to “work yourself out of a job” as you mentioned above.
Yes Gerry. I think it takes courage to make room for others. It’s also a matter of short-term vs long-term thinking.
Love this topic! I often say to members of my boards and to my HS theatre students that we show how much we care about an organization by preparing those who carry on to succeed. It’s tough, but isn’t the goal for the organization to thrive even after the leader leaves?
Succession planning is a key aspect of future-proofing (at least somewhat) an organisation. Very few will do it at all, and many that do make a pretty poor show of it. In many ways succession planning is an excellent example of a hard conversation that’s avoided!
“Trustworthy” is another difficult one. It’s different from reliability, and it’s difficult to measure and quantify, so many organisations ignore it. Since they can’t build a numeric scale to “gather metrics” on trust, they don’t think about it, which often feeds into succession planning (or the lack thereof…)
So many interlocking circles in this topic Dan!
Dan, I really received some outstanding revelations and inspiration from this blog today, thank you! In particular the “5 ways to be tough and kind” was very meaningful. However, I’m not sure what you mean by “being curious” when confronting tough issues. What do you mean by that statement? Curious in what way? Thank you again, I truly enjoy reading these daily!
Good message Dan, but you nearly lost me on your “I thought it was ho hum” comment. Alienating readers with a dismissive review of a groundbreaking movie isn’t a good way to draw them in.
I was going to say the exact same thing. It may have been “ho-hum” for YOU but it meant EVERYTHING to almost an entire race of people. Having said that, I agree with the lines you selected and their relevance for us as leaders. #wakandaforever
I am one of those people who believe you can talk about anything with anyone, it’s just a matter of HOW you do it. You can speak the truth in love. I once read that it takes 5 positive comments to counteract one negative one, and when I’ve had to speak to people and share something I knew they wouldn’t like, I applied that policy. In my last job, I was given the task to train others, and the person I trained the most, I identified her strengths and then had her use them. She was assigned to almost all of my groups and we shared clients. I was actually training her to take over for me. And, she thrived and exceeded our expectations. I always told her she could do whatever she set her mind to and that I knew she would accomplish great things in her life. I’ve found that genuine encouragement will go a long way. As for surrounding yourself with trustworthy people… I think the most important person to have in your life is God; you can’t get more trustworthy than Him. And, when He’s in the picture, and you’re seeking Him and living for Him, He will give you the discernment you need to know who’s worthy of trusting. Great read and good thoughts!!! Thanks!!
Dan, once again, thank you for helping me stay accountable to continuous improvement.