If you haven’t recognized a theme in my blog posts, I would assume this one will seal the deal. I thoroughly enjoy taking movies and TV shows and pull leadership and growth behaviors out of the characters. We’ve seen Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and for my final blog post let’s look at the leadership principles found in the hit show The Walking Dead.
The Walking Dead is a show that revolves around a group of survivors trying to survive through the zombie apocalypse. While some may think this is just another show about zombies, the truth is the show is more focused on the group of survivors and the challenges the group encounters both from within their group maintaining order, and the outside threat of the undead. Rick Grimes is the defacto leader of his group and is presented with a variety of challenges to keep his people safe. With Rick’s role as team leader let’s look at the obstacles he’s presented and how he handles those problems through the lens of Team Leadership theory.
First let’s look at what it means to lead with the Team Leadership style.
“Hills Model for Team Leadership is based on the functional leadership claim that the leaders job is to monitor the team then take whatever action is necessary to ensure team effectiveness. The model provides a tool for understanding the very complex phenomenon of team leadership, starting at the top with its initial leadership decisions, then moving to leader’s actions, and finally focusing on the indicators of team effectiveness. Hill’s model attempts to integrate mediation and monitoring concepts with team effectiveness” (Northouse 2013)
Ricks role with the team is very closely aligned with this style of leadership. He oversees and directs his team, channels their strengths, and encouraged them to persevere.
In this scene, Rick and his team are tired of running and everyone is ready to give up. The team is huddled together near a fire after losing the home they shared and are contemplating how to move forward what they need to do to survive.
We see the team feeling very discouraged with how they could survive in this world. Rick comments on a story about his grandfather in World War II and his pursuit to survive during such a difficult time. Hes attempting to draw a similarity of the horror his grandfather witnessed and survived through, along with their current situation. He tells this story as an attempt to share with his group then even though the world they live in is a disaster, like his grandfather they can find a way to survive the horror.
In our lesson we learn that there are 8 characteristics tied to effective Team Leadership. One of the examples this clip demonstrates is Unified Commitment.
“Teams do not just happen: They are carefully designed and developed. Excellent teams are those that have developed a sense of unity and identification” (Northouse 2013)
Rick creates a feeling of unity within his group by reaffirming his belief that his team will reach Washington DC and survive. Rick creates this feeling of unity with his team with a couple quotes from his speech.
- “We do what we need to do, then we live”
- “This is how we survive”
- “We will be OK”
- “We are the walking dead”
In the Walking Dead universe, groups need to stay committed to their goals, not lose sight of who they are and maintain a sense of team unity. Rick demonstrates his ability to understand his team, take a leadership role, and motivate his team to stay on track when the world around them is crumbling right in front of their eyes.
References
Northouse, P. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Los Angeles, Calif.: SAGE.
Rick’s “We Are The Walking Dead” Speech Episode 5×10 (Them). (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3MO8jcQ8jU
University of Vermont. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2015, from https://www.uvm.edu/extension/community/buildingcapacity/?Page=teamleadership.html