This weekend I had family from Arkansas visit, which included my little cousin Kayden who is 5. All he wanted to do all day was watch the Lion King because it was his favorite movie of all time, so I figured while it was still fresh in my head I could discuss some leadership styles through out the film.
Mufasa is the the King of Pride Rock. Mufasa demonstrates true transformational leadership by helping his followers to develop and grow into leaders by responding to needs of his pack and going beyond the expected performance. “Transformational leaders are passionate, driven individuals who are able to paint a compelling vision of the future” (Northouse, 2103). Mufasa was a priceless mentor and strong role model, he taught Simba how to be a leader through inspiration, encouragement and discipline. He invested a lot of time and patience in order for his son to understand and learn the traits of a leader to create the vision of becoming King. He has true determination and teaching abilities in order to guide Simba.
Even when Mafusa is dead he still comes back to Simba to tell him to “Look inside yourself simba, you are more than what you have become!” He is still leading Simba because he a true transformational leader and is “raising the level of morality” (Northouse, 2013) in Simba. Simba now understands the qualities and attributes his father had taught him, enabling Simba to develop into a transformational Leader, following in the his fathers footsteps. Simba returns to the Pride Lands,was honest with his followers about the past. Without doing this Simba wouldn’t have been able to rebuild trust amongst the group.
Also in the beginning of the film the trait approach was a huge factor. It specifically focuses upon personal attributes of leaders, viewing leadership solely from the perspective of the leader. In this case it was believed that Simba will be a great leader due to the fact that his father is king and he will inherit these traits from birth. According to this the great man theory, intelligence, determination, honesty, integrity, vigor, influence, drive, and the desire to lead are common traits which effective leaders’ possess.
In this club Simba is singing how he just can’t wait to be king. These are the traits that he believes he is going to get although they are not all good ones. As a young cub, it is common to misunderstand what it takes to be a great leader like his father.
Northouse, P.G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Michael Thomas Holsberger says
I definitely enjoyed your take on comparing leadership and a Disney movie. When you mention Simba singing about how he can’t wait to be king, I think back on how I was as a teenager. When we’re younger, we think we know everything and feel we’re capable of anything. To some extent this is true. If we set our minds to something, many of us can accomplish great things in life. However, without the necessary skills and life’s lessons to go with that drive for greatness, we’re left just singing a song that’s all dreaming and no reality. This movie does give insight to how great of a leader someone can be through hard work and determination, but let’s not forget that we all need some support and teaching along the way as well. Simba definitely learns from others, including his deceased father, lessons that guide him down the proper path to becoming king. In this movie it also shows that there will be traps along the way that we must avoid (Scar) in order to reach our goals as well. Great idea using Disney to help talk about things from our class, it was very creative!
Chelsea Sade Spruell says
I must say you have inspired me to analyze a Disney film. In all seriousness, this was a very well written and creative blog post. Although Mustfa was killed 15 minutes into the movies he did leave an impression.
Your analysis of his transformational leadership qualities was spot on! Also, simba as an emerging leader reminds me of myself at the beginning of this course. Hopeful and excited for a new challenge, but then thrown asunder by the uncontrollable events of life.
Lastly, I would have liked to read your commentary on uncle scar and his crew. They created a very interesting puzzle piece to the leader follower dynamic.