One of the perks of long flights is the fantastic selection of movies many airlines offer. On our trip to and from London, American Airlines offered a great selection of movies and television series. I was able to travel and experience some Reel Leadership. The first movie I watched was BS High. The second movie was Deadland.
Deadland tells the story of U.S. Border Patrol agents who covered up the murder of an undocumented migrant. When Angel Waters (Roberto Urbina) picks up The Stranger (Luis Chávez), he has no idea what he is getting into.
Angel brings The Stranger to the border patrol station he leads. He trusts the safety of The Stranger with his two coworkers: Border Patrol Agent Ray Hitchcock (McCaul Lombardi) and medic Salomé Veracruz (Julieth Restrepo).
What happens next changes all of their lives. And it could change yours if you watch Deadlands with a Reel Leadership mindset.
Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Deadland
1. The Stranger:
There’s the tree with branches that everyone sees. There’s also the unsee tree, the root tree growing the opposite way.
There’s a narration in Spanish that talks about trees. There are the trees people see—the bark, trunk, branches, and leaves—all above ground. They’re what can be seen.
The narrator also mentions the unseen tree. That’s the root system. When you think about it, the roots almost look like an inverted tree.
The roots of a tree don’t get much thought. They’re hidden away. They’re growing deep. They are just there.
Yet the roots matter.
You have two trees of leadership growing in your life. The first is the leadership tree everyone sees. It’s the tree you put on display at the office, in the field, or mingling with coworkers or investors.
Then there’s the hidden tree—the root tree of leadership. This tree is more important than the leadership tree everyone sees. Your root tree is where the hard work is accomplished. It’s the work you do on yourself to grow and mold yourself into a better leader (or maybe you don’t, and that’s a huge problem).
Tend to the hidden tree. The more you tend to this tree, the healthier the visible tree of leadership will be.
2. Ineffective employees may not be as ineffective as you think:
Angel tries to warn The Stranger from crossing the flowing river. The Stranger doesn’t listen. He enters into the rushing waters and is swept downstream.
It takes time, but Angel is able to find the lifeless body of The Stranger downriver. He takes what he thinks is the dead body and loads him into the bed of his Border Patrol truck.
As he’s driving down the road, The Stranger pops up. He’s not dead. He’s alive and well.
We can evaluate our employees’ effectiveness. Our metrics tell a story, but there’s also another story.
You can’t rely simply on metrics and assessments to understand the health of your organization’s people. You have to get to know them. Discover who they are.
When you do, you begin to understand where their zone of genius lies. You can put those ineffective employees into new positions that bring them back to life.
3. Hannah Waters (Kendal Rae):
I think you’re making a mistake.
Angel gets a call from Salomé. She tells Angel everything has gone wrong at the station. He needs to get back there now.
This call occurs when Angel is at home with his wife, Hannah. A visitor, Ignacio “Tito” Coronado (Manuel Uriza), had come to their home. Stranger still, the man claims to be Angel’s father.
Angel doesn’t believe the man. Tito appears to be senile. He could be trouble. Since Angel has to go to the border patrol station to deal with The Stranger situation, he says he will also take Tito there.
Hannah isn’t thrilled with the idea. She believes Angel is making a huge mistake in doing so.
Angel had a choice. He could listen to his wife or he could go against her intuition. Hannah spoke wisdom into Angel’s life. The choice was his to listen.
We have our own Hannah’s in our lives. These people could be our spouse, a coworker, or a mentor. We don’t have to listen to them. However, we can benefit greatly when we listen to what they have to say and apply it to our lives.
4. Cover-ups rarely go well:
Angel finds out Ray has shot The Stranger. The man is dead. A decision has to be made.
What was suggested? Angel says they should bring the migrant to the desert and bury him. He does just that.
The Stranger is brought to the desert, Angel buries him, and then says a prayer. A cover-up is brewing that brings down Salomé and Ray.
Deadland is a story of morality. It’s a dark tale that helps us see parts of ourselves that we may not want to see. One of those is the desire to cover up our mistakes, mishaps, and misadventures.
We can’t keep covering up. Don’t cook the books, blame an employee, or find ways to make your part in an issue look better.
Instead of covering things up, take responsibility. It’ll go better for you.
5. Great leaders take care of needs:
Tito is outside of the house, near a tree. Angel hears Tito and sees a chain with handcuffs. He becomes concerned.
Tito then says he’s hungry. Hannah steps up. She takes him into the house, feeds him, and makes sure he’s taken care of.
Far too many leaders see or hear of an employee’s need only to ignore it. They feel that if they turn a blind eye to the situation, it will go away.
It won’t. Your people have needs that need to be tended to.
Find ways to take care of those needs. Your employees will be grateful. On top of that, more work can be done when your team is properly equipped.
6. Jumping to conclusions is dangerous:
Salomé calls Angel. She tells him Internal Affairs agents (Julio Cesar Cedillo and Chris Mulkey) have shown up. Their appearance puts Salomé and Ray on edge. They begin to believe the IA agents are investigating the murder of The Stranger.
The real reason the IA agents showed up was because of Tito. They had heard a man had appeared in the town and they wanted to question him about something (we come to find out these agents had murdered Tito years ago).
Yet Salomé and Ray believe Angel is hiding something from them. They think he’s flipped on them. Instead, he’s trying to keep Tito safe from the internal affairs agents.
It’s easy to jump to conclusions. We don’t have all the information, are given misinformation, or see something that doesn’t feel right. All of this makes us wonder what’s really up.
We have to be careful when we start to draw conclusions. We have to wrap our minds around all of the information and make the right choice.
Be careful when jumping to conclusions. It could make you paranoid.
7. Lead with the right wording:
The agents show up at Angel’s house. Salomé answers the door when the agents arrive.
She began to feign concern for Angel and ask if he was safe. Had there been an accident? Was he dead?
The agents apologized. They said they should have led with Angel being okay and that they were there for something else.
Leaders can lead with the wrong things. The words we speak to our people can instill fear and dread or hope and excitement.
A lot of this has to do with the way we introduce or begin. If we’re not careful, our words can give the wrong impression.
8. Paranoia will destroy you:
Ray confronts Salomé. He tells her Angel may not be the loyal friend she thinks he is.
Why did Ray do this? Because he had found out Angel had met with a lawyer (this was to deal with Tito). Ray let his mind run wild.
Eventually, Ray committed suicide by hanging. His paranoia destroyed him.
Leaders know they have to be concerned about what could be. Yet, we don’t have to be paranoid.
If we always look over our shoulders, we’re never going to get a good night’s rest, trust another person, or believe in others.
Get rid of the paranoia. Begin believing the best about others.
9. Hannah Waters:
We’re all haunted by guilt from time to time.
Angel admits to Hannah he’s struggling with a migrant. First, Angel thought the migrant had died in the river. Yet, he keeps showing up.
Hannah comforts Angel. She tells him guilt is normal. It’s something everyone faces.
And she’s right.
We’re all going to deal with doubt and guilt. We’re going to make mistakes. Those mistakes are going to keep coming back to haunt us.
What do we do with that? We have to learn how to deal with the mistakes and guilt. This could be talking to a therapist, working through the issues ourselves, or talking to a loved one.
Don’t live with unresolved guilt for too long.
