the branagh film henry V and leadership

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Timeless Tools for Leadership Development
In Chapter 9 of Noel Tichy’s The Leadership Engine, the author describes leaders as protagonists in a drama. Dramatic characters from film and literature therefore serve as apt role models for future leaders interested in managing change and driving their organization towards success. The film Henry V, relatively faithful to the Shakespeare’s play, reveals the qualities of an effective leader through the titular hero. Based on the real life leader and King of England, Henry V depicts a leader who embodies many of the qualities that Tichy deems important for developing a leadership engine: a learning organization that inculcates values and ethics into its mission, vision, and culture. Henry V illustrates the importance of teaching, risk-taking, and relentless energy as core leadership traits. Furthermore, the film depicts a leader adept at learning from the past and communicating a clear and comprehensive vision for change.
Problem Statement
Many organizations suffer leadership crises during critical times of change. Effective change management methods are needed to successfully steer an organization towards its ultimate goals. In many cases, organizations fail at successful change when they neglect the power of social identity as either a means of radically transforming organizational culture to match future goals or as a major impediment to change (Slater, Evans & Turner, 2015). If leaders expect successful change management, they need to have a plan by which followers can envision themselves in a new role or identity. Changes to organizational culture are inevitable, as are the daily tasks and processes that had once defined the organization, its different departments, and individuals.
Moreover, effective change management can help organizations to develop new climates of trust, accountability, and social responsibility (Sutherland, 2017). When leaders focus on values and principles, they can help followers to see the big picture issues and encourage passionate commitment and engagement. When organizations are stymied by bureaucratic or otherwise restrictive cultures and structures, leaders are systematically prevented from developing transformational styles that can empower employees and inspire followers to contribute to the fulfillment of collective objectives (Van derVoet, 2014). Leaders interested in genuinely contributing to organizational growth and effective change management can maximize performance via the application of evidence-based principles. Many of those principles are demonstrated aptly in the film Henry V.
Background
While King Henry V is by no means a flawless leader, and few if any are, the character demonstrates a remarkable ability to inspire followers to buy into his vision for England as a regional power. Although he means war, and all the death and destruction it entails, Henry V manages to motivate his countrymen through effective communication and an almost transformational leadership style. The film version of Henry V directed and starring Kenneth Branagh focuses a considerable amount of attention on several outstanding elements of the king’s leadership: one being his penchant for teaching through both example and words, and another being his willingness to take risks.
King Henry also communicates a vision for a stronger, more powerful England to those who might otherwise scoff at the idea of war with France. His infectious high energy also helps to motivate those around him to take action, particularly his immediate team of confidants and advisors. In the end, King Henry succeeds in his goal, which is a goal that benefits his followers as much as himself through a promise of peace and reconciliation. Drawing on an extensive history in the relationship between England and France, King Henry makes his decisions not with reckless haste but with decisive action. The new era of French-Anglo political alliance proves significant for the fates of both countries, proving Henry to be an adept transformational leader and driver of organizational change.
Solutions and Recommendations
Based on the film Henry V, leaders intending to guide their organizations through a tremendous crisis need to draw on several interrelated leadership strategies. Those strategies include the importance of teaching and learning, capitalizing on personal experiences, keeping the vision relevant to followers, maintaining high levels of energy, and remaining decisive and willing to take risks. At key moments in the film, Henry V executes each of these leadership strategies, while also exhibiting transformational leadership traits.
The Importance of Teaching
Teaching is one of the primary roles of leadership, with successful leaders making teaching a “personal priority,” and imparting a “teachable point of view,” (Tichy, 2007). The film Henry V also shows that strong leaders are willing to learn as well as to teach. Henry V, for example, learns early on in the film about his role and responsibility vis-a-vis France. Although the Archbishop of Canterbury has his own political goals in securing France for England, Henry does not allow the church to unduly influence his decisions while still taking into account the expediency of invading France. Henry’s goal is to keep England strong, and if doing so means intimidating France, then Henry is more than willing to take action according to the Archbishop’s advice.
Later in the play, Henry serves more as teacher than pupil. The most notable teaching scene in the film is when Henry arranges to teach English to Princess Katherine of France. Teaching English to Princess Katherine also serves overarching goals of forging diplomatic ties between France and England, and also reflects the main principles of transformational leadership in which followers are empowered systematically via knowledge and information sharing. Henry also retains a trusted array of advisors who he occasionally teaches based on his own personal experiences and the stories he has heard about the past.
Capitalizing on Personal Experience
According to Tichy (2007), leaders inspire their followers by drawing on their past successes and failures. Leaders refer to prior experiences to amend their own behaviors and also to inspire change and transformation in others. In the film, Henry V capitalizes on his own experiences as a leader but even more importantly, on the experiences of his predecessors. The events that take place in Henry V did not occur in isolation but are reflective of centuries of turmoil between England and France. Henry learns from the past to envision a stronger future for England.
Keeping the Vision Relevant
Strong leaders communicate their visions with clarity, providing both the grand mission and also the incremental goals and actionable steps needed to attain goals (Tichy, 2007). However, leaders also need to assure their followers that the vision is meaningful and relevant, with attention to social responsibility and ethics as well as to organizational goals. The leader’s visions, and most importantly, the leader’s actions, should also reflect core values. One of Henry V’s strengths is his ability to communicate a vision in ways that his audience can relate to; in this case, a vision that entails going to war with a formidable enemy. In spite of certain loss of life, Henry’s followers recognize the leader’s vision and trust his integrity to carry out his plan with the most decisive victory at Agincourt. A quintessential moment of the film occurs when Henry delivers his speech on St. Crispin Day. The speech includes powerful diction and persuasive imagery that keeps the vision of a strong England at the forefront of every soldier’s mind—evidence of Henry’s infectious energy and visionary leadership.
Energy and Passion
Leaders cannot be lackluster in their approach, or their followers would quickly lose interest. Especially during times of crisis and change, leaders need to dig deep and push forward even when exhausted or discouraged. At several points in the film, Henry could have allowed himself to be cowered by France and the bold Dauphin. During his darkest moment, Henry resorts to prayer to cultivate whatever emotional power he can muster to remain committed to the cause and most importantly, to keep the troops inspired. According to Tichy (2007) great leaders have an abundance of energy that is infectious and inspirational, allowing followers to dig deep to cultivate their own passion and skill.
Leaders do not eschew change or run from a major challenge, but rather embrace crises as opportunities for growth and improvement. Great leaders are also decisive risk-takers who take responsibility for failures while learning from them and moving onto the next workable project. Henry V demonstrates a remarkable willingness to take personal risks, as when he walks through the army camp in disguise and especially when the troops falter at Calais. Henry could have given up, but he refused, believing fully in his organization and the ability of his troops and all of his followers to succeed.
Conclusions
Great leaders like Henry V are future-focused, yet grounded in the actionable steps needed to inspire trust in the team. Applied to any model of organizational change or crisis, the example of King Henry V from the Kenneth Branagh film of the same name reveals an abundance of workable lessons for leaders. Strong leaders know their own strengths and impart their wisdom to others through teaching and learning opportunities but are never egotistical and even know full well when to leave (Tichy, 2007). The film finishes with Henry still serving his country as King, now aligned with France through military action and marriage. Henry successfully ushers in a new era for England because of his transformational leadership style and his determination to evoke positive organizational and cultural change.




References
Branagh, K. (1989). Henry V. [Feature Film].
Slater, M.J., Evans, A.L. & Turner, M.J. (2015). Implementing a social identity approach for effective change management. Journal of Change Management 16(1): 18-37.
Sutherland, I.E. (2017). Learning and growing: trust, leadership, and response to crisis. Journal of Educational Administration 55(1): 2-17.
Tichy, N.M. (2007). The Leadership Engine. Harper Business/Pritchett.
Van der Voet, J. (2014). The effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: Transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure. European Management Journal 32(3): 373-382.