Inception Has 7 Leadership Principles That Could Give You A Merry Christmas

1. The Father’s Role - At its core, Inception is a movie that teaches that the most important relationship a person has is with their father.  The Cillian Murphy character Fisher desperately wanted his father’s approval more than being one the richest men in the world.  Simultaneously, the Leonardo DiCaprio character Dom desperately wanted to re-establish his relationship with his two children.  Regardless of the level of your success, at our core we all want the validation that comes only from a father.
2. No One Can Steal Your Dreams – My daughter sings in the Children’s Church where we worship.  As she tried out for that role, there is always concern as a parent as to how to properly handle that issue if she doesn’t make the team.  Fortunately, the director said “If God put a song in her heart, who am I to take it away.  We always find a place to let the children use it.”  Are you a leader who helps facilitate making dreams a reality or do you take them away?
3. Respect Your Audience - Claudia Puig stated in her USA Today movie review that “Hollywood films generally regard audiences as below average in intelligence.”  Nolan challenges my intelligence and I appreciate that.  Pastors and other leaders, your audience appreciates you challenging their intellect just in case you are tempted to dumb down the message to “connect with them”.
4. The Power Of An Idea – One of the great themes of the movie was how a single idea can take root, become viral in our mind, and then significantly influence our life’s choices.  Proverbs 23:7 states “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he”  Leaders, what thoughts and ideas are you allowing to become viral?
5. Team Strategy Session – As the final mission was being developed, it was fascinating watching the team dynamics led by Dom. Each team member gave significant input from their area of responsibility. Because of the complexity of what they were to do, there was also tremendous trust that was placed in the expertise of their teammates.  Leaders, do you trust the expertise of the people you have on your team?
6. Dream Big – “You mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling” is one of the movie’s phrases.  As Dom was initially working with Ariadne, played wonderfully by Ellen Page, he continually challenged the complexity and excellence of her designs.  I want to challenge you to dream bigger than you’ve ever dreamed.  To help this become reality, go out today, don’t wait, and get John Maxwell’s book Put Your  Dream To The Test.  You will not be able to put it down.  Leaders, implement his suggestions and watch your dream become reality.
7. Positive Ideas Defeat Negative Ideas – It was interesting that as a strategy was being developed to defeat the antagonist Fischer, the mission became to plant positive ideas into his mind about an aspect of his inheritance over negative ones.  Amazing insight from the makers of this movie!  As leaders who influence people, I wonder what incredible results we could experience by continually communicating positive thoughts based in reality into the lives of those we lead!  

Inception will make a great Christmas gift!  More importantly, the leadership principles you can extract from the film could change a person’s life in 2011.

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