Elevation quickly brings viewers into the action. Much like A Quiet Place, Elevation has a unique take on an extraterrestrial threat. Instead of sound bringing almost instant destruction, Elevation uses elevation to denote when humans are in danger.
What elevation is that? Anyone above 8,000 feet is safe from the aliens. No one knows why this is the case, but they’ve found safety in higher elevations for three years.
When Will’s (Anthony Mackie of Captain America fame) son’s, Hunter (Danny Boyd Jr.), medical equipment begins to fail because he’s running out of filters, Will has to make a choice. Will he watch his son slowly die from a lack of equipment or will he go on a mission to get the filters his son so desperately needs?
We all know what choice Will has to make. He decides to go on the suicide mission. He will travel through the Colorado mountains and down to Boulder, CO, where a hospital has supplies. Joining him on his journey to the city are two women:
- Nina (Morena Baccarin)
- Katie (Maddie Hasson)
These two women don’t like each other. At least not at the beginning. Their journey to liking each other and Will’s journey to save his son are packed with pieces of leadership wisdom. We’re going to discuss those in this Reel Leadership article.
Let’s take a look at the leadership lessons in Elevation.
Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Elevation
1. Bring people up to date:
Elevation opens with radio news reports. We hear about what’s happening/happened.
There’s been an invasion. There’s chaos. And there’s safety above 8,000 feet.
These news reports laid the groundwork for what viewers needed to know.
What if we, as leaders, did the same thing? Every time a new employee onboards with the organization, we give them a rundown of what’s happened, happening, and will happen. We can easily bring them up to speed and get them acclimated quickly.
Our organizations would thrive. New employees wouldn’t feel lost. Old employees wouldn’t feel like they’re struggling to get their new coworkers to understand the organization.
Find ways to bring people up to date on what’s happening.
2. Hunter:
I just wanted to see other people.
Hunter decided to go below 8,000 feet. He took his binoculars with him to look out over the land.
What he really wanted to do was to see people in other communities. He could with the binoculars.
I believe it made him feel a little less alone.
However, while he was people-watching, he put himself in danger. One of the reapers (the creatures stalking the land) began to pursue him. He had to book it to the proper elevation to be safe again.
Hunter’s desire to see and be around others put him in extreme danger. We actually saw this in real life during the COVID-19 pandemic. People wanted to be around others so much that they disregarded safety protocols and suggestions. They tried to do anything to be around others.
It’s human nature to desire human connection and interaction. Remote work has taken some of this away from the office environment but also puts employees in control of when and where they interact with others.
Find ways to get your team to connect. There’s a longing for human connection. Provide appropriate ways to make this happen.
3. Bartering works:
Hunter’s birthday is coming up. Will wants to do something special for him. What does he do?
Will heads to the local store. There, he talks to the shopkeeper about purchasing Kraft Mac and Cheese for his son.
He didn’t have a lot to offer. However, Will came up with a few items the shopkeeper wanted. He was able to barter for what he wanted.
We can barter and deal with those we do business with. Business isn’t a cash-only transaction. There are other things you can offer your vendors.
Think about what you can produce. Is it office furniture? Maybe it’s coaching. It could be party entertainment.
What does your vendor need? Are they looking to remodel their office? You could offer your wares to them. They might be struggling to get over a hurdle. Offer to coach them in exchange for their goods. Are they throwing a company party soon? Offer to be the balloon maker or caricature artist for their event.
There’s more to paying for goods and services than cash. See if there’s a way you and your vendors can barter.
4. We don’t know what we’ll miss until we don’t have it anymore:
Katie asked Will what he would’ve been doing on a Friday night before the invasion. Will recalls his regular routine.
He’d be at a Country Club called the 19th Hole. It wasn’t something he enjoyed. However, his wife’s, Tara (Rachel Nicks), father enjoyed going. Going made his wife and father-in-law happy.
So he did.
Now that he couldn’t do this anymore, he began to miss it. He became sentimental for something he thought he didn’t enjoy.
There are a lot of things in leadership that aren’t fun to do. We may think we don’t enjoy them. They may seem like the bane of our existence.
However, we feel an empty void when we take away those tasks. Something is missing.
And we know what it is. That thing we didn’t appear to enjoy.
Embrace every aspect of leadership. There’s something to appreciate in all of it.
5. Nina:
Luck is not a strategy.
Will meets up with Nina and tells her he’s headed to Boulder. He needs to go there to get the medical supplies for his son.
Nina thinks he’s crazy. She’s tried before. In fact, she’s the reason Will’s wife is dead. Tara had gone with her on one of her expeditions and was killed by the reapers.
You can’t lead with luck as a strategy. Sure, we may get lucky once in a while. Yet, it’s not something we should count on.
We need to have plans that are flexible when things go wrong. Learn to create fluid plans that you can change as your situation changes.
6. Katie:
We’re going to have to fight them someday. Might as well be today.
Will hadn’t told Katie he was going to Boulder. She became upset when she discovered what he was planning.
Then she stepped up and said she was going with them. Why? Because she knew if she didn’t go today and fight, there would be a day in the future she’d have to.
So… Why not today?
Despite all of our planning, we often fail to take action. We think there’s going to be a tomorrow. We hope for that tomorrow.
Part of it is fear. We’re not sure if we can get things done. Make things happen. Be successful.
However, I want you to be like Katie. Know that you’re going to have to take action as a leader. Ask yourself why not today.
7. You can have faith despite the difficulties you face:
Will and Nina lose Katie in a mine they traversed through. They thought they’d be safe but Katie chose to run through one of the mine’s caves. This is when the reaper pierces her torso and drags her away.
As they exit the cave, Will sees Nina perform the Sign of the Cross. It’s a symbolic Catholic hand motion that represents the Holy Trinity.
Will asks her about the motion. He wonders why she still believes. For Nina, it was partially out of stubbornness.
We’re going to face all sorts of difficulties and trials as leaders. Sometimes, those difficulties can try our faith.
I want to encourage you not to give up when you face difficult situations. Instead of giving up, look to God. Ask him for help, guidance, and comfort.
I know he’ll give those to you.
8. There’s a difference between guessing and hypothesizing:
At the ranger station, Nina and Will talk about Nina’s research. She’d been researching ways to kill the reapers using chemicals from the lab.
Nina believed there was a way to disrupt the electrical field protecting the reapers. Will scoffed at this.
He told Nina she was guessing at a solution. Nina knew better as a scientist. She wasn’t guessing. She was forming a hypothesis.
Nina used her scientific background to find a starting point for a solution. From there, she continued to work forward as her results showed progress.
It wasn’t a guess. It was progress.
I’ve known too many leaders who would guess and go. I called it throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what would stick.
That’s a poor way to run an organization. You can’t throw everything out there and hope something works.
Instead, find a starting point. Test what you think might happen. See what happens.
If there’s progress, continue moving toward it. If there’s not, start over and try something different.
Each step will produce new results.
9. Will:
I only blame you because it’s easier than blaming myself.
Will had blamed Nina for Tara’s death. He kept saying it was because Nina invited Tara to find a way to kill the creatures (we come to find out they’re robots!).
But why did Will really blame Nina? He felt a sense of responsibility for her death. By blaming Nina, he alleviated some of his own guilt.
We place blame because we don’t want to feel the weight of our guilt or shame. If we place it on someone else, they become the target of our anger.
Stop placing blame incorrectly on others. Own up to your mistakes, faults, and actions.
The sooner you do, the sooner you can move forward with your leadership role.
10. There’s always something else:
There’s an end-credit scene in Elevation. In this scene, Will and Nina are looking through a telescope. That’s when the next thing happens.
We see something falling from the sky. A new ominous threat is coming to earth for Will, Nina, Hunter, and the other survivors to face.
They survived one thing only for another threat to appear.
There will always be something else in leadership. Whenever you accomplish something, there’s going to be another challenge or difficulty coming your way.
Be prepared. You already know there’s going to be something else. Get ready. Face it with confidence.
