Leadership Lessons from Angry Birds
(Seriously.)
“To live our lives with an infinite mindset is to live a life of service.”
— Simon Sinek
Spoiler Alert: If you really want to watch Angry Birds 2 without knowing basic plot points ahead, more power to you and maybe don’t read this.
I watch a lot of animated movies with my two little men. Sometimes they serve up good life lessons in addition to entertainment. However, it’s not very often that those lessons include leadership topics.
Suffice to say I was pretty surprised to come away from watching Angry Birds 2 Movie thinking about some core leadership skills.
Red was generally the protagonist in the first movie and something of an unexpected hero due to his status as a loner who was teased as a hatchling and avoids pretty much everyone. He led the other birds to channel their anger in order to save their eggs from the pigs. He is celebrated as a hero and his sense of self has become identified with his heroic acts.
So when Angry Birds 2 starts with a new threat, Red assumes it’s up to him again to save the day. At the same time, he worries that if he fails he will once again be a loner and a target for jokes. I mean, this is what happens when you make a feature length movie based on a video game.
When Red doesn’t know what to do or falters, he sees how well Silver takes charge and leads the team through challenge after challenge. Ultimately, he learns to not claim the spotlight for himself. The cool thing here is seeing Red realize lifting someone else up doesn’t mean tearing himself down.
Long story short, Red learns some big lessons on being a leader:
- No one knows everything.
- Good leaders can and should learn from their team.
- Great leaders give their team room to make choices, try things and succeed.
- The best leaders give credit and recognition to their team.
“You have to have the modesty of what you don’t know. And in life that is an infinite space.”
— David Remnick, Editor of the New Yorker
Recently I was lucky enough to hear Carla Moore speak at a conference about what she calls Enlightened Leadership. Moore said it’s about being humbly confident, so you are comfortable making space for others while also demonstrating a willingness to share the spotlight. (She also has some great lessons to share about passion and purpose in her book, Crash! Leading through the Wreckage.)
When you see yourself as one part of a whole and realize both your own limits but also infinite possibilities for learning, that’s pretty powerful stuff.
