Every senior manager has a leadership fantasy but they’re to
embarrassed to tell you. They do however give clues.
Maybe they secretly see themselves as
Dirty Harry shooting first and asking
questions later or Tony Soprano commanding
absolute loyalty. More likely they imagine
being the commander in NASA’s mission control
centre from the film Apollo13.
I worked in a large organisation
where the head of corporate IT was a guy
by the name of John Houston. If a senior
manager was experiencing a difficulty
with the IT system they would ring up
and say “ Houston we have a problem”.
Not only did they think this was funny
they thought it original. This is not
the only time I have heard a senior
manager quote from a well known film. I
worked for a chief executive whose idea
of industrial relations was to joke with
HR to, “ make them an offer they can’t refuse”.
Senior managers are no different to
the rest of us in being influenced by
popular films or t.v. programs it’s just
they have the power to indulge their
fantasies. I am not suggesting they
actually threaten to shoot some one in
Senior Management Team meeting or even
think the words ”Go ahead punk make my
day ” but the crisis planning meetings
in response to the coronavirus pandemic
did present the opportunity to role play
mission control at NASA’s command
centre. How many chief executives
weren’t able to resist concluding the
meeting with ,” failure is not an
option” the other famous line from the
film Apollo 13?
In hindsight I may have been guilty
of indulging my cinematic influences. On
taking up a new post as deputy director
I did a series of road shows to staff
explaining how we were going to get out
of special measures. I started the
presentation with the theme music from
Mission Impossible and then went on to
explain the mission, pointing out that
as in the films we were going to accept
the mission and prove it was possible.
It was intended as an attention grabbing
light hearted intro but it occurs to me
now that to my captive audience it might
not have seemed as cleaver or funny as I
thought. Mind you it was probably better
understood that my take on the “ Full
Monty”. The much talked about launch of
the directorates communication strategy.
Perhaps it’s no bad thing that senior
managers are so busy they have little
time for going to the cinema or watching
t.v. But it would probably be quite
revealing to know your chief executives
favourite film.
Blair McPherson former Director,
author and blogger www.blairmcpherson.co.uk