Any one who wants a primer on leadership basics should watch the film The Blind Side.
Regular readers will know that I have quite a bit of admiration for Sandra Bullock (Razzie Dazzling, Sandra Sequel) and she really ratcheted it up a notch with her sterling performance of Leigh Anne Tuohy in ‘Blind Side’ befriending, mentoring and leading Michael Oher to achieving great things despite unimaginable hardships.
While films make a regular habit of glorifying a number of sports roles, I sort of never thought I would see one that did so for the position of ‘Offensive Tackle’ in American Football. It sort of gave an extra personal connection for me as that was the position I played in my state champion high school football team.
But what really struck me was the living portrayal of brilliant leadership and management…
- Leadership happens one person at a time – Many people think ‘groups’, ‘teams’ and ‘organisation’ when it comes to leadership and management, but Tuohy shows that leadership and management is just as important one person at a time.
- Leadership plays to strengths – After a breakthrough to Michael that the football coach never achieved, Tuohy remarks, “You should really get to know your players. Michael scored in the 98th percentile in protective instincts.”
- Management addresses weaknesses – Grades, fitness, knowledge of the sport, trust, lack of aggression. Leigh understood the importance of these and invested deeply to overcome them.
- Leadership admits mistakes – In the biggest decision of the film and one dearly important to Tuohy, she accepts criticism despite how unfounded it is, and goes to extra lengths to re-examine it.
- Managers mind the stakeholders – And the numbers. Leigh could have tried to buck the system. She could have fought the rules on the grounds of Michael’s exceptional hardships and exceptional talents. But she didn’t. She accepted the parameters of her stakeholders (school administration, school teachers, NCAA) and made sure that the i’s were dotted and t’s were crossed right down to the last tenth of a GPA point.
- Managers influence – Leigh illustrated countless, priceless examples of practicing the art of influence on her family, friends, teachers, project tormentors, and of course Michael himself.
- Leaders care – Executives often debate to what degree leaders and managers should get emotionally involved with their teams. A big school of thought preaches an emotional distance, that it is all ‘business’. While there are certainly constraints and considerations (John Maxwell has a fine piece on this balance), I personally do believe that you can’t be effective as either a leader or a manager if you do not sincerely ‘care’ about the individuals involved. Thanks to Leigh for illustrating how this is done.
- Managers protect the Blind Side – It is easy for fans, coaches and leaders alike to get caught up in the winning potential of point-scoring ‘quarterbacks’ (especially in today’s QB-oriented NFL) forgetting the critical complementary roles. As I described in ‘Three Levels of Empowerment’, true em-Power-ment means ‘I’ve got your back’. I guess, as Leigh says in the first lines of the film, Lawrence Taylor changed all that…
“Now, y’all would guess that more often than not, the highest paid player on an NFL team is the quarterback. And you’d be right. But what you probably don’t know is that more often than not, the second highest paid player is, thanks to Lawrence Taylor, a left tackle. Because, as every housewife knows, the first check you write is for the mortgage, but the second is for the insurance. The left tackle’s job is to protect the quarterback from what he can’t see coming. To protect his blind side.”
Leaders quarterback scoring drives. Managers protect the blind side. Both together make valuable winning combination.
Leadership and Management / Turning Adversity to Advantage 
Fantastic film and fantastic use of the term leadership. I love the use of this film to drive home the points for leadership in your blog.
Good work.
I thought this was an excellent film. I love the way you have used it as inspiration to project your thoughts with examples around Leadership and Management. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog.
Great post. I love that movie. It’s very rare these days to have such inspiring movies. It’s amazing that you were able to come up with those points through The Blind Side. Leadership can be difficult at the beginning. But once you get to know the things needed, such as the points you have made, it would not be as difficult as it may seem. You should be someone whom people would look up to. You should be able to help your subordinates develop their skills and potentials.
Thank you for the insight! This is my first visit to your blog, and I can see that there is valuable & practical information with a fresh perspective!
One of the best inspirational movie I’ve ever watched. We can all learn from this movie on how we should handle people to bring out their best potential.
Hi,
We teach management to students and this time we would be showing them this movie ‘The Blind Side’. I was browsing through internet to have a look on various leadership and management related concepts which I could use during the lecture and there I came across your blog. I must admit that I’d be using the concepts you’ve elaborated over here since they explain the very basics of what we need to learn from the movie.
Thank you for being a help in disguise to me.
Nidhi