Leadership, Creativity and the Arts as a Source of Inspiration and Example

LEADERSHIP, CREATIVITY AND THE ARTS AS A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION AND EXAMPLE

Great leaders abound in classic and modern literature. Though most of them are military leaders, especially in the theatre genre, where one can resort to find the most inspiring speeches. Speeches that moved ordinary men to do the extraordinary. After watching the clips from different movies during one of our classes, it was amazing how I’ve started to accumulate in my mind different books that I’ve read and different movies I’ve seen that give example of different types of leadership, on one hand so rich in its differences, and yet so the same in its substance.

In Shakespeare´s “Henry V”, King Henry gives his famous “Allegory of Saint Crispian”:

“We few,

We happy few

We band of brothers

For he who sheds his blood with me today shall be my brother”

This is one of the examples that talks to me the most for several reasons. These seemingly few words say so much: King Henry inspires his men, firstly by becoming one of them. One can argue whether the monarch “descends” to the common soldier´s level, or whether (and this is my personal view), he raises them all to the status of kings. They are not just a commander and his obeying troops: he calls them “brothers”. This significant status is made more special exactly by their scarce number “we happy few”; since it is not many men who will be able, as the discourse continues later to go back home after the battle and say they fought along “King Harry” at Crispian´s day:

“He that shall live this day, and see old age

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,

And say. “Tomorrow is Saint Crispian;

Then he will strip his sleeve and show his scars,

And say: “These wounds I had on Crispian´s day…

....And gentlemen in England now a-bed

Shall think themselves accurst they were not here;

And hold their manhoods cheap while any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispian´s day. “

Battle/team effort has, in these magical words a redeeming quality: all past sins of common men are erased by the sacrifice he made with his brothers for his people and his country. He is elevated to the status of hero, one that common men safely sleeping at home while he fights shall envy for years to come.

In the same sense, this type of speech has been seen in sports team building, and seems to me a great example of successful team building in the business