Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Team Foxcatcher

Team Foxcatcher is a Netflix original documentary. This film documents the rise and fall of Team Foxcatcher as the founder, John du Pont, descends into madness.

John du Pont, of the famous du Pont family, founded Team Foxcatcher due to his love of wrestling and wanting to help bring the United States a title. There was also a more insidious reason behind John’s founding.

John du Pont in a Foxcatcher hoodie

This is all explored in the great documentary Team Foxcatcher.

Not only do you get a fascinating, yet sad, story when you watch this film. You also will discover multiple leadership lessons from leaders and leaders gone bad.

Sit back, grab your bucket of popcorn, and get ready for Reel Leadership lessons from Team Foxcatcher.

Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Team Foxcatcher

1. John du Pont:

My goal in life is to teach…

Leaders Can Have Fun Too

Being Taken Seriously

Woot! Woot! It’s party time. Or is it? Is there ever a time for a leader to let down his guard and have fun with his team?

My answer is a resounding yes. Leaders can (and should) have fun.

Three men jumping off a snow-covered ground

Photo by Zachary Nelson

There’s multiple reasons why leaders should have fun. Some of the reasons are:

  • Having fun as a leader helps you connect with your team. Team members can struggle to feel connected to a leader who doesn’t show a fun side. They will see them as unapproachable and uptight. Break this idea and have some fun.
  • Having fun as a leader helps relieve your stress: Leading is stressful. There are deadlines, people to manage, and people to let go. This is draining on a leader. But, by stepping out of the seriousness bubble, a leader can recover from the trials of leadership.

Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Marvel’s Planet Hulk

Long before the rumors of a live-action Planet Hulk movie and the partial Planet Hulk story in Thor: Ragnarok, Planet Hulk was a direct-to-video Marvel animation film. The movie tells the story of a permanently transformed Bruce Banner as the Hulk.

Because of the danger the Hulk possesses, the Avengers decided to send him off to a peaceful planet. As you can guess, something goes wrong. The Hulk wakes up mid-flight and goes into a berserker rage. He destroys crucial navigational instruments and the ship flies off-course.

Marvel animated movie Planet Hulk

Crashing landing on the alien planet of Sakaar, he is greeted by aggressors. The Hulk (Rick D. Wasserman) is imprisoned along with other aliens. Their captors force the captives to fight for their freedoms.

Only then do the people realize who the Hulk is. He is the savior of their world.

5 Ways To Team Build

Motivating Your Team

You know how to motivate your team now. We’ve talked plenty about that over the last month.

But what does it take to build a strong, cohesive team? You have the groundwork laid. And it’s a firm foundation.

People running in a field, team building

Photo by Jed Villejo

Yet you will have to do more if you want to team build. Let’s look at what it will take.

5 Ways To Team Build

1. Host get-togethers outside of the office:

A team that plays together stays together. At my newest organization, we’re doing something called Team Bolding. It’s a play on the words Team Building and our company name.

There’s been a couple of activities that really made people talk. A visit to the local trampoline park. Hanging out at the local Parties In The Park. And more.

Getting your team members to associate outside of work is a great way to build the morale and camaraderie of your team.

What Your Team Needs (Motivation!)

Motivating Your Team

I asked in my annual reader survey what some of the biggest challenges leaders were facing. I’ve already covered some of those: Relationships, health, etc… This month, I’m going to cover another topic that was hot on the mind of readers: Motivating your team.

Having and creating a motivated team is something a lot of leaders think about. A motivated team is something leaders desire. They know their organization can be more effective if everyone was excited and ready to work.

Your team needs motivation. You can give it to them.

Photo By Cortney White

The truth is, most employees are disengaged. According to a 2014 Gallop study, only 31.5% of employees are actively engaged at work. This means there’s a whopping 68.5% of employees who are either not engaged or actively disengaged with their work.

Those are scary numbers for leaders. Over two-thirds of your workforce may be disengaged from the work you’ve hired them to do.