We continue our look at Oscar-winning Best Pictures and consider the leadership lessons we can glean from our viewing. In this episode, Richard Lummis and I take at the 1987 Best Picture winning film, The Last Emperor. Some of the highlights were: This was the first movie shot in the Forbidden City; How does one lead in an era or region of different values and different cultures? Are the trappings of your power as a business leader only that, mere trappings? If so what does this mean? How does your company do business outside the US? and Why does even the best leader sometimes need to bring in an outside expert to assist?
Tag: Leadership
In this episode of Popcorn and Compliance, Richard Lummis and Tom Fox take at the 2007 Best Picture-winning film, No Country for Old Men. Some of the highlights were: (1) One of the key themes of the movie is the tension between destiny and self-determination; (2) What have been the changes in law enforcement in the former wild west? (3) What does enforcing laws on the former frontier mean? (4) Crime has changed and become more sophisticated. The regulator and enforcers must also change, and (5) What happens when a hero or business leader grows old?
Richard Lummis and I are back with more business leadership lessons from American Presidents. In this episode, we look at leadership lessons from William Howard Taft, the 27th President, who had the misfortune to follow one of America’s greatest and most popular Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt. Taft was a mountain of a man, weighing over 300 lbs. He is also the only President to become Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court after he left the office of the Presidency. Highlights of this podcast include:
- Background of Taft.
- Education and early professional life in Ohio.
- Move to Washington, the role of Nellie and work in the Philippines.
- Work in the Roosevelt Administration.
- Presidential Term.
- 1912 Presidential election.
- Final thoughts on leadership lessons.
Resources
- National Park Service article on his home and upbringing.
- Taft as good-hearted
- Taft, TR and the Bully Pulpit-Forbes
In this episode of Popcorn and Compliance, Richard Lummis and Tom Fox take at the 1973 Best Picture-winning film, The Sting. Some of the highlights were: (1) Best Costume Design Oscar to Edith Head was a key reason for the film’s success; (2) How many red flags did Doyle Lonnegan miss involving Gondorff and Hooker? (3) How did Marvin Hamlisch’s interpretation of Scott Joplin enhance the movie? (4) The script was discovered in an agent’s ‘slush pile’ of unread scripts; and (5) How can a leader use the talent and resources available to him or her to achieve a goal?
Richard Lummis and Tom Fox are back to look at one of the very all-time greats, Casablanca. Highlights of this podcast include:
- What are our favorites scenes from the movie?
- What is the world view from Casablanca, including actions and behaviors, values and belief systems and stories of life?
- What are the leadership lessons from the nobility of Rick Blaine?
- What can you learn from one of the movie’s greatest lovers?
- How does compassion help in leadership?
- Do these lessons hold up today?
Richard Lummis and I are back to look at leadership lessons from one of the very all-time boxing movies, Rocky. Highlights of this podcast include:
- What are our favorites scenes from the movie? No one knows anything; you owe yourself, get the work done, and we are all underdogs.
- What are the leadership lessons from Rocky Balboa? Repetition will make you great; tech can be a great business advantage but never forget the human element and practice for the worst.
- What are the leadership lessons from Apollo Creed? The mind is the greatest muscle; pay attention to those behind you.
- What are the leadership lessons from Rocky’s trainer Mick?
- What is the leadership lesson from the boxing ring? Go the distance and think long term; it’s not about how hard you punch but how hard a punch you can take and go back into the ring when it’s the toughest.
- Do these lessons hold up today?
This episode begins a short series on Gilded Age Presidents, now largely forgotten. In this episode, we take up Rutherford B. Hayes and try to mine the issues he faced for some leadership lessons for the 21st-century business executive. Some of the problems we consider include:
1. Hayes Educational and Professional Background
2. The Disputed Election of 1876 and Compromise-(1)Election Commission; (2) Terms of the Compromise, and (3) Was it necessary?
3. Hayes’ Presidency-(1) Reconstruction ends-was it inevitable? (2) Civil Service Reform; (3) Cabinet Selections; (4) Port of New York; and (5) the Post Office.
a. Foreign Policy-(1) Paraguay War settlement; (2) Mexican border crisis; and (3) Immigration issues.
b. Great RR Strike of 1877, the Great Western Tour, his Indian Policy and Lemonade Lucy
4. Hayes Leadership Issues-
(1)“He serves his party best, who serves his country best.”;
(2) Rutherford the Rover;
(3) Use of veto and
(4) Conflicts with Congress over Congressional v. Executive Power.
In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider the episode Bread and Circuses, which aired on March 15, 1968, and occurred on Star Date 4040.7.
On a routine patrol, the Enterprise happens upon space debris from the S.S. Beagle. This survey ship disappeared 6 years ago, commanded by Captain R.M. Merrik, an academy associate of Kirk. When Spock projects the path of the wreckage back in time, he discovers a civilization of modern-day Romans on Planet 4 of the 892 System. The extreme similarity of the 892 System’s civilization to the Roman Earth is apparently a coincidence, demonstrating, according to Kirk, the validity of Hodgekin’s Law of Parallel Planet Development.
Scott prepares to disrupt power to the entire planet from the Enterprise just as Kirk is about to be executed on live Roman TV. Scotty beams up the away team just before their cell is crisscrossed with machine gun fire. Back aboard the Enterprise, Uhura discovers that the escaped slaves were not sun worshippers but worshippers of a different “son”: the Son of God.
Compliance Takeaways:
1. Being a CCO or compliance professional requires many soft skills.
2. Do you translate your compliance documents into the local language?
3. Does your compliance program enhance and enrich cultural diversity in your organization or acerbate the differences?
Resources
Welcome to the Greetings and Felicitations, a podcast where I explore topics which might not seem to be directly related to compliance but clearly influence our profession. In this episode, I conclude a two-part episode with John Aceti author of Profiles of Leadership. John talks about his long life or what he calls “from nothing to something”. Highlights include:
- Becoming a school principal.
- Starting a business/high school mentorship program.
- Cultural exchanges in high schools.
- Genesee County Schools Science programs.
- International travel to teach English as a second language.
- Leadership programs on Easter Island.
- Books to St. Lucia.
I would have expected Queen’s We are the Champions to be sung across Wembley Stadium Sunday evening in London but instead it was the equally familiar strains of Sweet Caroline as the English Women’s soccer team ‘brought it home’ by winning the 2022 UFEA Cup beating Germany 2-1. It was the first English victory in a major international soccer competition in 56 years. So, tip of the hat to the Lionesses for bringing the Cup home to the land which invented football.
As promised in yesterday’s blog, today we honor the passing of someone as famous as Nichelle Nichols and her character, Lt. Uhura. It, of course, is Bill Russell, perhaps the greatest champion in the history of any American professional sport. According to his New York Times obituary, “Russell was the ultimate winner. He led the University of San Francisco to N.C.A.A. tournament championships in 1955 and 1956. He won a gold medal with the United States Olympic basketball team in 1956. He led the Celtics to eight consecutive N.B.A. titles from 1959 to 1966, far eclipsing the Yankees’ five straight World Series victories (1949 to 1953) and the Montreal Canadiens’ five consecutive Stanley Cup championships (1956 to 1960).” In addition to his run of eight consecutive National Basketball Association (NBA) championships, he won one championship in 1957 and then ended with two more in 1968-69, for a total of 11 professional championships in 13 years. He was also a five-time MVP and 12-time NBA All-Star. In 1980, he was voted as the best NBA player of all time. In other words, he was the best of the best.
But it was for his work on and off the court in support of racial justice and equality which will always be his most lasting legacy. I will not detail the bigotry and hate Russell was subjected to while in Boston as a player. Suffice to say, it was a disgusting as anything you can image. Or as Russell said, “a flea market of racism.” Yet Russell was somehow able to stand above it and not simply persevere but be a national leader. “He took part in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and was seated in the front row of the crowd to hear the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his “I Have a Dream” speech. He went to Mississippi after the civil rights activist Medgar Evers was murdered and worked with Evers’s brother, Charles, to open an integrated basketball camp in Jackson. He was among a group of prominent Black athletes who supported Muhammad Ali when Ali refused induction into the armed forces during the Vietnam War.”
Russell was also instrumental in opening up head coaching positions for black athletes and others. In addition to his greatness as a player, he was inducted a second time into the Basketball Hall of Fame, as a coach. Marc J. Spears, writing in Andscape, said his “second induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach who made history as the NBA’s first African American head coach. He led the Celtics to two titles as a player-coach and also coached the Seattle SuperSonics and Sacramento Kings. He “was not the first Black head coach in professional sports, but he had the greatest impact as the first to be chosen, in 1966, to lead a team in one of America’s major sports leagues. Fritz Pollard, a star running back, had coached in the National Football League, but that was in the 1920s, when it was a fledgling operation. John McLendon coached the Cleveland Pipers of the American Basketball League in 1961-62, but the A.B.L. was a secondary attraction.” As noted, he led the Celtics to two additional NBA titles in 1968 and 1969 as the team’s player coach.
John Doleva, president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Basketball Hall of Fame, said of Russell’s induction as a coach he “made it known that it was important to him that the museum continue to induct Black pioneers and overlooked legends. “He saw over time that we were making the right moves in terms of African American players before him,” Doleva told Andscape in a phone interview. “There was evident widespread support of him being enshrined as a coach. Being the first African American coach was something to celebrate. He was a man of few words later in his life, but he quietly appreciated what we were doing. But he also gave me the look that there was more to do, which I took with enthusiasm.””
I cannot think of a greater tribute to Russell than the one which came from then President Barack Obama who awarded Russell “the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, at the White House in 2011, honoring him as “someone who stood up for the rights and dignity of all men.””
Right about now Red Auerbach is probably twirling a stogie in anticipation of lighting it up after another classic matchup between Russell and Wilt Chamberlain in the great beyond. Farewell Bill Russell for a life well lived.
