"We're following the leader, the leader, the leader, we’re following the leader wherever he may go. Tee dum, tee dee ......"
But why? Why do some people lead, some follow? What inspires us to follow anyone or anything??
Peter Pan is a free spirited - mischievous young boy who preferred to live in a world full of adventures and magic, and although this was very much frowned upon by the 'grown ups', his imaginary world become his reality and he enjoyed every second of it.
Wendy, John, and Michael Darling’s tale of adventure in Never Land has captivated and inspired audiences of children and adults for more than half a century, and although this story is coated with pixie dust, Peter Pan offers some valuable leadership lessons.
Here are the 5 lessons I have inferred from the boy 'who never wanted to grow up'
Lesson One: The Power of Storytelling
We can fly, we can fly ....... all it takes is faith and trust and a little bit of pixie dust
Sometimes all it takes is faith and trust for us to achieve extraordinary things. Peter Pan inspires Wendy and her brothers to believe that they can fly, by reciting stories of a magical place called Never Land.
Telling stories is one of the most powerful means that leaders have to influence, teach, and inspire. If you tell great stories, then you also have social power as a leader and people will want to connect with your vision. Research confirms that well-designed stories are the most effective vehicle for exerting influence.
Leaders must create a compelling narrative that creates a sense of connection, builds familiarity, and inspires trust. However, the primary power of any visionary leader doesn’t lie purely in their story – it lies, instead, in the willingness of their people to accept the story as their own. Think about it for a second …. no one is captivated by a person that they don’t believe in. Stories not only teach us how to act – they can inspire us to act. However, crafting such compelling stories can be challenging and isn’t something that may come naturally to a lot of people.
This summer I took part in the NHS Horizon’s School for Change Agents. It is here that I first heard the term: Public Narrative, described as a leadership practice of translating values into action. Marshall Ganz, a senior lecturer in Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School, developed Public Narrative as a way of bringing people together and motivating action through narrative. Ganz recognised that stories are the natural way in which we make sense of the world. Public narrative provides a frame for how we can craft stories to motivate commitment to a shared purpose and call to action. Why not give it a try!
Lesson Two: Curiosity and Imagination
Walt Disney once famously remarked,
“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things… and curiosity and imagination keeps leading us down new paths.”
As children we are naturally curious and imaginative. Always learning and always looking for new experiences and information. As we grow into ‘adulthood’ we often lose that natural curiosity and vivid eagerness. As great leaders we need to learn how to unleash that curiosity we had as a child once again.
Imagination and Curiosity are wonderful gifts that can help you problem-solve, explore, and innovate. In fact, Albert Einstein once said that “imagination is more important than knowledge!” When looking to improve the way we work, we can often get into the habit of deploying old solutions (ones we’ve used before) to new problems, when what is really required is fresh thinking, new insight, and creative implementation. Practicing curiosity stretches our learning and stimulates possibility, especially in those moments when we believe we have exhausted or are without resources. So, practicing a little inquisitiveness can unlock opportunities and lead us to embrace problems through a more creative lens, because when our curiosity is triggered, we think more deeply and rationally about decisions and come up with more-creative solutions.
A Good Imagination can help leaders to imagine a clear concept of what they want to achieve, that in turn will facilitate their creativity and breath life into their vision. Imagination can be closely tied to play. Think about that washing up liquid bottle that became a rocket or that empty carboard box that became a car or even a castle!!
Spending time playing can help unlock your imagination and nurture that creative thinking. Ever hear of Lego Serious Play? No well it is a legitimate way to bring play into your daily working. Lego Serious Play sparks creativity and imagination, it can lead to new ideas and approaches, improved communication, and better problem solving for leaders and their teams. Perhaps a more well-known method for fostering imagination is Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats Methodology. This method has been reported as effective and popular in encouraging people in the workplace to activate creative and innovative thinking.
Whichever method you opt for why not try and jumpstart your curiosity and imagination and be open to what is possible. And remember its ok to have fun and be a kid sometimes!!
Lesson Three: Followership
There's no denying that the Lost Boys are the best friends Peter could have. They trust what he says, stick by his side and never throw him under the bus. Steve Jobs may have founded and led Apple but could not have achieved success without the followers that worked for him. Health services around the world would not function without the support of much of their staff who are not in leadership positions. Followership may take the backseat to leadership, but it matters. In fact, it matters a lot! There are no leaders without followers.
As leaders we depend on those that follow us more than we may sometimes give them credit for. In a Harvard Business Review Article Followership is described, not as a person but a role, and what distinguishes followers from leaders is not intelligence or character but the role they play. The role followers will play will depend on the context of the situation, environment or position they find themselves in at any time. It is fair to say that the relationship between leader and follower could therefore be interchangeable.
In his quick three-minute TED Talk, Derek Sivers, founder of CD Baby, the largest seller of independent music on the web, manages to break down the sequence of events that lead to starting a successful movement. Sivers explains that as a leader it's important to recognize yourself as an equal with your followers. The First Follower is the first person to act on another person’s idea. According to Sivers, the courageous actions of the First Follower is what transforms an individual with a unique idea into a leader.We’re often told that we should all be leaders, however, Sivers points out that having all leaders would be ineffective. Without the people who have the courage to follow, and show others how to follow, movements would never get started. Sivers wraps up his message with some advice that we should all remember, as we navigate our own careers, or just life in general:
“When you see a lone nut doing something great, have the courage to stand up and join in.”
Lesson Four: Be More Pirate
While playing follow-the-leader and searching for natives, John, Michael, and the Lost Boys are captured and tied to the stake. Their biggest failure: they were so focused on developing the perfect strategy they were unaware of their looming foes. Doing things in the same way can sometimes lead us to make avoidable mistakes. Take Peters biggest enemy – Captain Hook for example Captain Hook is the main antagonist in the film. He is a bloodthirsty pirate that commands The Jolly Roger and he’s hell bent on revenge and doesn’t really learn from his encounters with Peter.
Captain Hook aside it turns out we can learn a lot from pirates if we buy into the rebellious mindset outlined in the book “Be More Pirate”. Be More Pirate was written by entrepreneur Sam Conniff and was originally published in 2018. In it he writes about the unimagined strategy of pirates as pioneers of change, leadership, and social innovation. It is fundamentally about rule breaking, about challenging and re-shaping systems. We are encouraged to be courageous and re-write out-dated rules. This takes me back to another impactful book, that accompanied my nursing training – The Ritual of Nursing, by Walsh and Ford (1989) – despite the 32 years that have passed since it was first published, I often wonder how many of these may still be in action today.
They may not have taken their lead from pirates, but in 2016 the IHI Leadership Alliance launched a campaign asking you to consider Breaking the Rules for Better Care. They invited you to help them ‘surface and share the rules, habits, policies, and procedures that get in the way of a better care experience for patients or staff’. They wanted leaders to view their existing system through a new lens.
They codified 3 types of rules:
Rules that need clarity – rules that nobody is clear on why they exist – myths or habits
Rules that need redesign – administrative rules that leaders have the power to change
Rules that need advocacy – rules that exist due to regulations or policies beyond organisational control
If you could break or change one rule in service of a better care experience for patients or staff, what would it be and why?
Lesson Five: Seek Adventure
‘Would you like to have an adventure now, or would you like to have your tea first?’
Adventures are, in Neverland, “a daily occurrence,” and much of the film tells of those adventures. It goads us to go to unexpected places to find inspiration and to try new things. It emboldens us to be willing to depart from your comfort zone.
We experience tasks and routines that are so familiar, or that we’re so good at, that we don’t have to think twice about them. Leaders are so used to motivating and empowering others that they often forget they need to challenge themselves as much as they challenge others. To be an effective leader we must understand the benefits of stretching ourselves to learn new things, grow beyond our current skill set, and develop a strong connection with those around us.
To make changes and grow as a person and leader, we must access our bravery and start the exploration of the space beyond our ‘comfort zone’. The first challenge that we are likely to be faced with in this exploration is ‘fear’. Fear can be paralysing and keep you firmly in you comfort zone. Afterall the ‘comfort zone’ is a place of certainty and safety. Suzanne Jeffers, a psychologist, and mother of two from Pennsylvania, wrote the book Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway. In the book she explains that the root of all our fears is basic: we fear we won’t be able to handle the situation if the worst happens. To which she has the simple reply: ‘You’ll handle it!
Stepping outside your comfort zone can have a transformative effect not just on you but on your entire team.With new perspectives you are better equipped to problem solve in innovative ways, Pushing yourself to try new things and accept uncomfortable challenges leads to ‘positive’ stress that builds resilience, so you feel better equipped to deal with a challenge next time. Ultimately effective leaders need to forge the path that will lead them to a place of being comfortable with feeling uncomfortable.
Are you aware of your comfort zones? Are you stepping outside them and into the ‘leadership zone’?
At first glance, Peter Pan seems like a movie about the wonderful, carefree spirit of childhood. But I hope I have shown that when you look at the story through a leadership lens, we can take some great lessons from it. I’ll leave the last word to Peter Pan ……
"Think of all the joy you'll find, when you leave the world behind and bid your fears goodbye." -- "You Can Fly!"
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