In the beginning...

I must admit to being a bit of an Arnie fan and it is great to see him back on the big screen. So Terminator Genisys was unlikely to disappoint me, and it didn't. This is classic blockbuster. The narrative was always going to be a bit convoluted but it just about hangs together (don't leave before the closing credits by the way...) There are moments of quiet as well as plenty of bangs, crashes & wallops. The special effects were pretty good back in the day of the original Terminator films, but these are superlative.

The casting is querky but all the more authentic because of it. Apart from the obvious person, the film feels like ordinary people caught up in something hard, dark, urgent and scary. There are (at least for me) several laugh out loud moments when Arnie's character says a couple of things. And I loved what will become a new catchphrase "I am old, I am not obsolete" said in his (probably trademarked) thick Austrian accent. I am waiting for the sequel...

When you have shape-shifting pre-programmed lethal robots around, you are bound to take time to trust people! Especially when you mix this with time travel to boot! But trust does happen nonetheless...

I have written before about leaders being trustworthy and indeed trusting the people that they lead. Without trust there is no leadership. But as a leader, you have to trust yourself too. Leaders must trust themselves to be consistent, honourable, focused... indeed worthy of others' trust. How do you develop such trust: how do stay mindful & observant of your own behaviour and recognise when you might be falling short of your own standards?

How do you monitor yourself?

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This is the Blog 101 in my 2014/2015 series of blogs about leadership ideas to be found in the movies of our time. You can read here as why I began doing this (with an update at the end of 2014). Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.