Overcoming the Inner Villain

Not sure about you but I loved it when the kids were little so I could unashamedly watch kids shows. I love a good Pixar or Disney movie.?

Right from the get go you can usually pick the villain. You know who to barrack for and who to hate. The hero of the movie seems to trust them, but we know better, right? We get to see the glances and the actions, the hero doesn’t.?

I see good leadership like that, to have a different frame or meta view on peoples personalities just like the observer view we get in the movie.??

We like to be able to pick the villain out and be aware of them, it’s survival?and protective and for movies it’s a formula!?

However in the movie Frozen, Elsa is a tragic villain. You can see parts of herself protect her and others from harm. She shuts people out to protect them from harm. We are even privy to the moment in her childhood when she changed.

Other characters in the movie are scared of her and misjudge the behaviours as evil and shun her.

The other villain is Hans, the prince that is 13th to the throne and was neglected as a child and his brothers even treated him like he was invisible. He made it his purpose to be a king by any means, so he conducted himself outrageously and swapped the focus of his attention between the two potential queens by trying to kill the other one. He made us believe he was a good guy but really was a bad guy.

In both these cases, their earlier years marked them in ways that are only visible to others by their behaviours.

Both of them needed a good therapist!

Whilst this is a Disney movie and seems extreme, the reality is, it's just like real life.

We are all driven by our past that makes us behave in certain ways. Some of us have been taken advantage of and swear it will never happen again so they jump down peoples throat at any hint of control over them. It’s a protective part of themselves that they needed when they were young. But it has not place in a workplace. A response rather than a reaction is better. A composed response.

If a leader has been brought up by a parent who was critical and demanded excellence they might well be that type of leader.

Self awareness would have been good for Elsa and Hans so they could see how their behaviour affects themselves.

Leadership is not done alone. You affect others and they affect you.

You need an interactive leadership model to make sense of how to lead. So you activate your team, not just instruct or direct them.

Here are two chapters in my book, I describe the interactive model in here- I call it Transformational nurse identities. You get to see your dysfunctional parts too. The bits that get triggered.

Stay tuned for the cards that accompany the book which are coming out in June. You can then plan who you do and don’t want to be using these cards.

I’m so excited to share these with you shortly.

Let me know if you want to be part of the first group to trial them.

Michelle