Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Lion King Leadership Lessons


As I reflected on The Lion King performance that Robbie and I saw Sunday night, I was struck by how the story reflects what I believe about leadership. I strongly believe that everything rises and falls on leadership. In other words, how the leader goes, so goes the organization.

In the story, Scar kills his brother Mufasa who was the king. He then encourages Simba (Mufasa's son) who is heir to the throne to run away, which he does. Scar assumes the throne and unlike his brother, he is a very ineffective leader. He is looking at his leadership as a reason for him to be served, where everything is all about him.

Years pass and the pride land (which Scar is the king of) becomes bleak and desolate. Nothing is thriving. It has become a very unhealthy organization. All because of poor leadership.

As most of you know, Simba is eventually talked into returning to the pride land and he takes over as king. Because he leads in the proper way, everything once again begins to thrive.

This is obviously over-simplified, but the fact remains, everything rises and falls on leadership. And remember, we are ALL leaders!

1 comment:

Rick said...

Great parallel, I thought. Simple as it may be. Simple is best anyway... look at the simple kind of folks that are reading and commenting on your blog... namely ME! :-D