In the latest edition of Reel Leadership, we return to the MonsterVerse, a world where giant titans live and thrive. These titans include creatures such as Godzilla, Kong, King Ghidorah, Rodan, Mothra, and other gigantic monsters.
It’s a great throwback to films of old where Godzilla had to battle various threats. Now, we get to see them fighting each other and together.
Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire (first off, did you know the X is silent? It really is.) picks up after the 2014 Godzilla, Kong: Skull Island, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Godzilla vs. Kong. The story of Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), her adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle), and Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry), along with the addition of Trapper (Dan Stevens), a former love interest of Ilene. Many of the monsters have been relocated, the most important being that Godzilla has claimed his throne above ground, and Kong has gone underground to Hollow Earth and reigns there.
When a Monarch facility receives strange readings from its monitoring systems and Jia draws eerily similar shapes, people and monsters must act. A new threat is coming.
All of this leads to an excellent platform for leadership. Throughout Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, leadership lessons are abundant. Let’s check them out.
Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire
1. Beware, others can snatch your victory:
Kong is now living in Hollow Earth. You would think he’s enjoying his best life ever. He’s not. He’s struggling with a distracting toothache.
After trapping and killing some creature, he has dinner. He won the victory, but he did not win the day.
Another creature comes up and snatches Kong’s meal. His victory is gone.
Despite how hard we work, our victories can be snatched from us. This could be a coworker claiming credit, another organization coming in and buying out the competitor we were looking at, or some other kind of crushing snatch.
Be on the lookout after a victory. It could be short-lived if the victory isn’t defended.
2. Ilene Andrews:
We are not two separate worlds. We are one.
Ilene is giving a presentation to a large audience when she says these words. She’s talking about Hollow Earth and Topside.
Many people in this universe thought the two were completely separate. They weren’t.
Each section of the world is connected. They have meaning and relationship to each other.
The same goes for your organization.
Leadership is not separate from production or sales or engineering or whatever your organization does. They’re all connected.
The sooner you realize what you do as a leader impacts the other parts of an organization, the sooner your organization can heal. But the same goes for the people in the various departments of your organization. They have to understand you are one.
3. Be concerned about regular anomalies:
Ilene met with Hampton (Rachel House) at the Monarch station. They discussed the concerning anomalies being recorded there. The station recorded seemingly random spikes that looked like three triangles.
After reviewing them, both scientists agreed they should be concerned. These random spikes were more than random; they were regular anomalies happening at specific intervals.
Sometimes, we see something happen in our organization and think it’s a one-time deal. However, we have to be willing to look at the patterns.
Do these “one-off” events occur again and again? Then they’re not one-off events. They’re also not random.
4. Ilene:
I know you think outside the box.
Ilene takes Jia’s drawings and the readouts from the Monarch station to the conspiracy theorist podcaster Bernie Hayes. She is tired of hearing the Monarch scientists argue over the readings and their meanings.
She needed someone who could examine the readouts and approach them from a different perspective. That person? Bernie, the podcaster!
Do you ever get stuck in a rut at your organization? There’s a problem you can’t get past, but you know there’s a solution. Maybe others in your organization have tried to tackle the problem as well, but there’s no consensus.
Consider bringing the problem to someone who thinks outside the box. Their different perspective could be just what is needed to solve the problem.
5. Jia:
Something is calling me.
Ilene tells Jia that she’s headed to Hollow Earth. Jia says she wants to go, too. Ilene tells Jia no, but Jia persists.
The reason? Something is calling her. She feels like she has to go.
Leaders are like Jia. They feel a calling. Something pulls at them to step up and be an example.
If you feel that pull, answer the call of leadership.
6. When we get what we want, it’s not always what we expect:
Bernie had longed to go to Hollow Earth. He felt it would justify his podcast and prove his naysayers wrong. He had to go.
Ilene eventually greenlights his trip to Hollow Earth. However, the trip there was not what he expected.
Upon entering the transport tunnel, the ship’s speed ramped up. So much so that Bernie began to become sick. Then there was the turbulence. It tossed Bernie side to side.
It wasn’t the easy trip he thought it would be.
Many of us enter into leadership looking for sunshine and blue skies. It’s not that way.
Leadership will toss you around, beat you up, and try to spit you out. There are many challenges leaders face that they never even consider.
Be prepared for leadership to be more than you expected.
7. Listen to your gut:
The team made its way to Hollow Earth. They were headed to the ridge where Kong lived.
Trapper motioned for the team to stop their movement. They shouldn’t go the way they were going.
Mikael (Alex Ferns), the pilot, resisted. He wanted to continue on the path. He didn’t want any of Trapper’s hippy-dippy talk. There’s a path and no good reason not to take it.
Trapper persisted. He felt danger in his gut. Mikael ignored this and was eaten by a tree stump.
We’ve been taught that listening to our gut isn’t the way to go. We have to examine all the data, process it, and then make our decisions from cold, hard facts.
Most of the time that works. Still… there are times when we internally know something the data doesn’t tell us.
Listen to your gut. It can keep you out of dangerous situations.
8. Prepare for upcoming challenges:
Godzilla begins traveling across the globe. First, he goes to France, where he siphons nuclear energy from a power plant.
Next, he heads to the ocean to battle Tiamat. Tiamat was guarding a great source of energy he could use to charge up.
Throughout the movie, Godzilla was finding a way to prepare for an upcoming challenge. He had to be ready for the threat of Skar King and Shimo.
What can you do to prepare for upcoming challenges? There’s a lot.
- Find the best talent you can afford
- Continue educating yourself
- Develop new processes
- Get rid of what doesn’t work
And more… These are just a few things you may want to consider to power up your leadership for the challenges you’ll face.
9. Leaders take risks:
Kong and Godzilla had an understanding. Godzilla would stay above ground. Kong would rule in Hollow Earth.
Kong broke this truth.
He knew Hollow Earth needed help. Jia even told him this as she communicated with him.
So he went topside to get Godzilla’s help. It was a considerable risk. He took heat and damage for going above ground. Yet, he was able to secure Godzilla’s help.
Leaders take risks. They know what they do can be risky. They know people may not understand what or why they do what they do. But they do it anyway.
Be prepared to take risks.
10. Pain is a horrible thing to lead with:
Skar King controls Shimo through a crystal shard that brings Shimo pain. In the final battle, Baby Kong, a cute creature from Hollow Earth, brings Kong’s battle axe to the surface.
He sees the crystal shard Skar King uses to control Shimo on the ground. Baby Kong uses Kong’s axe to smash the crystal, freeing Shimo from Skar King’s control.
Upon being freed, Shimo joins Godzilla, Kong, and Mothra to defeat Skar King. Shimo is no longer controlled by pain but by something more.
Leaders may find leading with pain and fear an easy way to gain control. Hurting others can make them line up to do the next thing you demand.
But that’s not the method great leaders use.
As you saw in Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, once the pain was gone, Shimo turned on its master. The same goes for most people. They’ll turn on the person controlling them with pain.
Use love, kindness, and gentleness to lead. You’ll find you get a lot more compliance and acceptance from these actions than you do from controlling with pain or fear.
11. Stop making assumptions:
Jia had found her people in Hollow Earth. The Iwi were living there, and she could return to them.
Ilene tells Jia it’s okay for her to stay in Hollow Earth. She understood it felt like home to Jia.
Jia told her that was not what she wanted. She wanted to stay with Ilene.
Our assumptions can lead us down roads that weren’t there to begin with. We can’t assume to know what our people want or think or desire.
Instead of assuming, communicate with your people. Find out what they want. Don’t just assume to know.
