Leadership Lessons From Meru

A Reel Leadership Article

Meru documents the first successful ascent of Meru Peak’s Shark Fin route. This ascent was accomplished by three climbers. These climbers are Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk.

This documentary felt a lot like the recent documentary Free Solo which chronicled Alex Hannold’s attempt to be the first person to free solo El Capitan. Both movies showed men doing feats that were thought to be impossible.

Man climbing Meru

Meru is a big-wall climb. Many elite climbers have tried and failed to ascend to the summit over the last 30 years. This movie documents the first ever successful climb.

Today, we’re going to look at Meru the movie and see what we can learn about leadership. As I sat and watched the movie, I was awed by the leadership lessons in Meru. I think you will be as well.

Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Disney’s Pocahontas

A Reel Leadership Flashback Article

Disney’s Pocahontas released in 1995 and is an animated romantic musical. Yeah, that’s quite the mix but Disney’s formula works for Pocahontas.

What Disney's Pocahontas can teach about leadership

Telling the story of the American Indian Pocahontas (Irene Bedard) and Captain John Smith (Mel Gibson), you see how two worlds can collide. Pocahontas comes from an American Indian tribe. John Smith arrives on a ship looking for gold. The Indian tribe were a fairly peaceful people. The people John Smith arrived with were ready to kill the savages.

Worlds collide. Love blossoms. And leadership lessons abound.

Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Disney’s Pocahontas

1. Great leaders earn respect:

There were two leaders on the Susan Constant, Captain John Smith and Governor Ratcliff (David Ogden Stiers). The Governor expected and demanded respect from the crew. On the other hand, Captain John Smith earned the respect of the crew.