Lessons on Leadership from Aladdin

Watched this musical fantasy film last week, and what a visual treat it was! A movie that engages an audience from different walks of life and varied age groups all over the world, it made me think about a few situations from our work life and how Jasmine, Aladdin and Jafar alike teach leaders a lesson or two.. 

GREED Ain't GOOD 
Jafar is a Grand Vizier - possibly the best role in the kingdom one can ever aspire for (especially as a petty thief)! But no, he wants to be the King (promotion) at any cost! He neither has the skills nor the will to do any good.. His wishes and actions will neither do the kingdom (organization) any good OR get him anywhere in the long-run.. Yet he plots to achieve this using  wizardry (corporate politics) to control and eventually over-throw the existing king. He has plans to send away Princess Jasmine (the deserving successor) through marriage to a lame prince from a far-away land (distracting projects)!

YOUR ROLE AS A LEADER: Identify these individuals, have those tough conversations asking them to align to what’s good for the organization and not just to serve their selfish goals and if they continue to persist on the not-so-correct path, ask them to leave immediately! Will seem like a horrendous decision in the short-term, yet will do us loads of good in the long-run!

REMEMBER: NOTHING WENT WRONG WHEN JAFAR WAS LOCKED UP IN THE MAGICAL LAMP AND THROWN IN THE CAVE.. On the contrary, the kingdom was a happier place with fair & just administration and zero tolerance to sorcery!

THE ‘DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH’ CAN WELL BE YOUR SUCCESSOR
Jasmine, the truly deserving heir to the throne has been overlooked for reasons attributed to bias (her gender). To add to this, her father’s fear of her impending death at the hands of enemies (ability to stand to competition in the traditional sense) come in the way of her being chosen! The next best choice seems to be Aladdin – the ‘Diamond-in-the-rough’ (an individual that displays the right attitude & potential yet not the right background & experience) IF he’s allowed to marry Jasmine - The existing laws (organizational policies) will not enable any of the two possibilities!!

YOUR ROLE AS A LEADER: Identify these situations, listen harder (to Jasmine's pleas) and peer deeper - What differentiates  Aladdin from other petty thieves? Why does Jasmine think he’s special? What could go possibly go wrong? Enable the right decisions on delivering the shared objective and begin work on Plan B (Genie as the Grand Vizier?).

REMEMBER: BOTH JASMINE & ALADDIN WILL NEED TO LEARN, UNLEARN AND RELEARN IN ORDER FOR THEM TO BECOME THE ‘FORMIDABLE TEAM’ OF RULERS (LEADERS).. And, you will need to find a Grand Vizier to help them do a better job – Start the search now!!

BE BOLD FOR CHANGE
The Sultan is viewed as the one who has written the codes that disallow a woman successor to take charge of the kingdom. While he’s fairly certain, he did not write this rule, now he isn’t certain how to change it! Moreover there are numerous questions on his mind - How will people view it if I change the laws now to accommodate my daughter’s wishes? Will they ask for more laws to change for their convenience? What if women indeed cannot rule?

YOUR ROLE AS A LEADER: 1. Get your organizations to move away from “Policies” to “Guidelines” i.e. Switch  to a 1-2-pager that enable the right decisions >90% of the times from numerous pages that confound people.
2. Identify situations that necessitate bold decisions not addressed by these guidelines – Check what your peers in the market do, when faced with similar situations. Speak to your manager/ coach/ mentor / HR on how this can be enabled.
3. Communicate the rationale behind the decision - Why do the laws need a change? Why now? 
4. Reward people who take similar bold steps i.e. Reward Jasmine for going out of the palace to understand the true situation of the kingdom (and for finding Aladdin) and for calling out Jafar’s conniving act.
5. Equally take accountability should the decision not be your best one!

REMEMBER: WALK THE TALK - HIRE SLOW (ALADDIN) AND FIRE FAST (JAFAR) – Keep your ears to the ground rather than pat your back a tad too early, for there can’t be only one (conniving) Jafar in an entire kingdom!

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