What are your principles?

Trumbo is a stonking good movie, especially for progressive film buffs like me who do believe, (ironically just like the UnAmerican Activities Committee), that films can be real agents of positive change in the world. It would be interesting to list all the films that have bolstered or even created social movements. Spartacus, one of Trumbo's scripts, may well be one of them.

The acting is tight and up close. The story is very well told and richly brings this part of American history to life. Again I would praise the costumes and sets: so well done, so evocative of the period. It is both a funny and sad film that will make you think, lots! Go see this as soon as you can.

Films like Trumbo raise the question: how far would you go to assert or defend your principles? Would you go to jail for them...? Would you be prepared to die for them...? Most of us never have to make choices of that scale, thankfully. But we do have to 'stick to' our principles, do we not? Otherwise what sort of principles are they?

Every leader needs a set of principles. But uncovering these is not always straightforward: we live them rather than list them. But I think, as this film shows, we have to know consciously what our principles are so that we know when we will need to assert or defend them.

What are your leadership principles?

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Blog 150: in my 2014/15/16 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 and 2015). Please subscribe to this blog if you want to read more. Thanks. Click the label 'film' to see all the others.