The True Leader Mindset | MindfulStack

Today we see what we can learn from the Tony Stark of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, making some parallels with my personal experience.

PREMISE

Although many MCU films are considered more like amusement parks than actual films, we will understand how they can teach something when viewed from a different point of view.

Leadership is not an innate skill, but like many other skills, it can be learned with exercise, self-criticism and the desire to get involved.

Let’s get straight to the facts and see what Tony can teach us.

QUESTIONING YOURSELF — TAKING YOUR OWN RESPONSIBILITIES

Unlike all other MCU characters, Tony is the only one undergoing substantial evolution from the first Ironman (2008) to Endgame (2019). Not even Captain America and Thor, the other central characters, have the same growth as Tony.

A key to personal growth, which can help even when we want to improve our leadership, is in fact the continuous questioning of our opinions and taking responsibility for our mistakes and actions.

Tony has been doing this since the first movie: he closes Stark Industries’ heavy weapons division because he believes that he and his company have taken the wrong direction up to that point, he questions the Avengers’ work in Age Of Ultron by choosing to support the Sokovia agreements (i.e. the act that forces superheroes to register). We could go on forever.

I too, albeit for short periods, happened to be a Team Leader within a working group. Although responsibility for the mistakes could sometimes be shared, I still took the “blame” for the whole team as in many circumstances the final decision was still up to me.

In essence, it is recognizing that responsibility can be shared, but we must not pass it all onto other team members.

Most of the ideas about personal growth can be summarized up in these two concepts: questioning oneself through the awareness of one’s own mistakes and taking responsibility.

STAY ON THE FRONT LINE FOR THE TEAM — SPIRIT OF SACRIFICE

Several times during the MCU films Tony sacrifices himself for the entire Avengers team, contradicting Captain America.

He did so in the first Avengers (2012) by entering the dimensional portal opened by Loki to send the Chitauri to attack New York.

Finally, Tony makes the most extreme sacrifice in Avengers Endgame (2019), when he defeats Thanos very cleverly and decides to die to save the entire universe, surely beating, for emotional impact and realism, batman’s fake sacrifice in The Dark Knight Rises (2012) — sorry for Nolan 😝

We could think of some parallels, although of course we would never die for our real-life team.

However, a true leader knows how to sacrifice himself for his team if necessary, even if in a less extreme way than Tony.

What matters, is to know how to be on the front line and spend your time dedicating yourself 100% to the various projects in the pipeline, for the good of the whole team.

This obviously does NOT mean that the Team Leader must be a factotum, but a leader knows that commitment is key to bringing home the result.

Here too I can say that having experienced first-hand a team leader role and I believe I have shown the right dedication and commitment, often sacrificing time that I could’ve dedicated to playful activities, however I felt that the project to which I worked on was more important, perhaps not for “the good of the universe”, but for the sake of teamwork and the close-knitting of the group.

CONCLUSION

If you are looking for a way to improve your leadership know that first it is not an innate ability, but you can learn it.

If you don’t want to take my example try to follow Tony Stark’s and remember his lessons: question yourself, assume your responsibilities, stand on the piece and be dedicated to team work to bring home the result.

All this in my opinion cannot be separated from the fact that you have to dedicate yourself to a project in which you firmly believe, otherwise you would find more difficult to develop these skills.

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