The Art of Strong Leadership

you're speaking with me Mr Sullivan

what does a good leader look like to you

is it the unwavering determination to

succeed at any cost we stay together we

survive is it the resilience in the face

of adversity or the ruthlessness and the

pursuit of Excellence I know how to find

the answer perhaps you prefer a

charismatic leader one who inspires

others to follow or maybe a quieter

figure with a listen and learn approach

whatever it is there's plenty of

qualities to explore when finding the

perfect leader

I'm afraid that I don't hear a thing

John told the enigmatic CEO of an

investment Bank offers us an intriguing

perspective on the art of leadership his

style can be described as autocratic

despite having dozens of talented

advisors and analysts below him his

decisions are ultimately fueled by his

own instincts curated from the Decades

of experience behind him he has seen

every outcome possible in the stock

market including the highest of bull

runs and the lowest of lows included in

the 1987 crash he survived every

obstacle Wall Street through at him and

is unfazed to the worst case scenario

this is what makes him so trustworthy

over his own judgment this top-down

approach is so effective in high

pressure situations such as the

narrative throughout marginal where the

risk of insolvency becomes dangerously

High when his lower down squabble over

the company's next move Todd comes in

with a definitive I'm telling you this

is it taking no from anybody He

commands respect and obedience causing

his lower Downs to carry out ethically

questionable practices while this may

seem extreme he doesn't quite create a

culture of unbridled fear this leader

I'm about to talk about certainly does

why do you suppose I just hurled a chair

in your head Neiman JK Simmons character

in Whiplash approaches leadership in a

brutal fashion Terence Fletcher has

simply put a Relentless perfectionist

demanding his Jazz students to push

themselves to the absolute emotional and

physical limits not just that here's a

master of manipulation faking a

comforting Persona to get his students

to let their guard down only to destroy

them with verbal and sometimes physical

abuse his motivation is to create a

musical Superstar who adopts his

perfectionist ideals while 1 in 100

students go on to fulfill his dream what

happens to the other 99 their confidence

is a shattered with many likely to quit

music altogether after losing the love

of their craft the lucky winner is not

quite so lucky either most Jazz

superstars died early in their 30s after

becoming dependent on drugs and alcohol

this is the unfortunate path for those

who are so hyper obsessive that they

sacrifice everything that makes him

human this all wines back to the actions

of toxic leaders such as Fletcher fear

intimidation and abuse are marks of a

poor leader who struggles to gain

respect in human ways in contrast told

command's results understands Human

Nature and incentivizes him to do what

he feels is best for the future of his

company while some characters feel

alienated and left out of the

decision-making process it's told's

actions that ultimately led to the

survival of the bank his decision-making

process is Swift and Unapologetic focus

on the selfish priorities to save the

bank at the expense of the rest of the

market this does raise ethical questions

of a leadership role if they had to pick

between the safety of their team and the

safety of the rest of the world who do

they prioritize foretold he sees his

company as his own responsibility and

makes the decision to ensure its

survival as for the rest is not really

his problem but should it be they knew

the taxpayers would bail them out they

weren't being stupid they just didn't

care Steve Carell's character in The Big

Show illustrates the fine line between a

leader caring for his team as well as

understand the negative implications of

certain decisions Mark Baum created a

Big Show in the housing market becoming

rich only if the market fails when it

came to selling the shorts he had to

decide between losing out on a billion

dollars and selling but risking being

viewed just like the rest of the greedy

Bankers who call the market crash such

as John told this wasn't just a billion

dollars for him but a billion that would

be shared across all the colleagues of

his hedge fund his team were begging him

to sell the shorts that they could all

profit but this ethical dilemma was

bothering him so much that he kept on

delaying his decision also making sure

his decision was respected and treated

as final sharing his authority by

repeating I say when we sell he

recognized that he was profiting from

the destruction of many ordinary

people's livelihoods but also didn't

want to ruin this opportunity for his

team this is similar to Kevin Spacey's

character in Margin Call who initially

refused to carry out told's orders

recognizing the chaos this would bring

to society eventually though he was

forced to sell the company's worthless

CDO assets destroying everyone except

his own team similarly Mark Baum gave in

depression from his team to sell it all

this begs the question thus a good

leader prioritize their team or the

greater good Mark he's wired in sorry

he's wired in is he yes

in a Twisted way you can make the

argument that Mark Zuckerberg

prioritized the greater good of society

by forcing the expansion of Facebook but

he did this by abusing his powers as the

leader and screwing over his team in the

process he knew that Facebook could

change the world if it was accessible to

more people for that to happen he needed

more Capital which was gained from

selling shares to investors reshares

were taken from kofam to Sovereign as

his were diluted without his knowledge

Zuckerberg betrayed his best friend

co-founder and colleague for the pursuit

of company also his vision for society

this shows how ruthless he may need to

be as a leader if you want to sacrifice

one thing in the pursuit of another but

I can't help but think that to be in

charge you need to find the perfect

balance you must take all the qualities

previously mentioned and make sure you

don't abuse them or Veer too much in One

Direction

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so who is the best example of a true

leader who embodies the very best

version they can be out of those

mentioned for me Mark Barnes strikes the

perfect balance of caring for his team's

needs commanding respect also

recognizing the struggles in The Wider

World Zuckerberg betrayed the people

closest to him making him untrustworthy

Terence Fletcher is obviously a sadistic

scumbag and although John told us many

qualities of a good leader such as his

commanding presence and away from

resilience he ultimately Falls agreed

with a moment's hesitation to be a

perfect leader well there is no perfect

leader but like all things in life you

must find a good balance thank you for

watching I'll see you in the next one

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