Solid cardboard!

I have been eagerly anticipating Paper Towns ever since I heard news of its production, (having read the book last summer). Indeed, I even paid to go and see it as I was nowhere near a Cineworld cinema showing it at the time! I was not disappointed: this film is has stayed true to the book and evokes a rite of passage urgency rarely seen. Acting is top notch and in general the whole film is just good fun.

But as with all good movies, there are deeper and more reflective themes too. Having been a teenager once (♬ a long, long time ago, I can still remember... ♬) I can recall some of those questions, feelings and thoughts. I can remember feeling as if I was leaning at 45° over cliff just waiting to launch myself on the adult world. This film will remind you of what that is/was like. Go see it!

I think the leadership theme from this movie for me is that it is OK to go away... (and maybe even do it in a mysterious and dramatic way too!). Sometimes leaders think that they have to be there all the time, practising their leadership, being on show, being present...

But that doesn't always have to be the case. It is important for leaders to take time out, sometimes a lot of time out to recharge batteries, think about strategy, direction and indeed, leadership itself. And guess what, by being absent, leaders create the space for others to emerge as leaders. So when (or even if) the leader returns, she/he returns to a context in which there is more leadership (see the previous post).

When are you going away next?

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This is the Blog 111 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.