Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Godzilla Vs. Kong

A Reel Leadership Article

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Godzilla Vs. Kong has been another victim of the COVID-19 pandemic. Having been delayed multiple times, Godzilla Vs. Kong finally saw a release this weekend in the movie theaters and on HBO Max (Little secret here, go see it in the theater if you can. This is a movie that was made for the big screen).

The movie continues the story from Godzilla: King Of The Monsters and Kong: Skull Island. It is the fourth movie in Legendary’s MonsterVerse. And it was well worth the wait.

Godzilla and Kong fighting in the ocean

In Godzilla Vs. Kong, Godzilla returns to the surface and is no longer humanity’s hero. He attacks an Apex Cybernetics facility. He utterly decimates the facility.

The world is wondering why their once-savior has returned to attack humanity. It’s part of the mystery though it isn’t hard to figure out.

You’ll get action and adventure. You’ll get epic fights. And you’ll also get leadership lessons from Godzilla Vs. Kong.

Let’s dive into those today.

Quotes And Leadership Lessons From Godzilla Vs. Kong

1. Leaders don’t want to be held captive:

Kong had been placed into an artificial environment. Sure, it looked like his home on Skull Island but it wasn’t. It was fake and he was a captive.

He wakes up one morning. He grabs a piece of a tree. He then heads over to meet Jia (Kaylee Hottle), a young, deaf girl whose parents were killed in an earlier attack and Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) had taken in as her own.

Things appear to be fine. The two are communicating. Then something happens.

Kong takes the piece of a tree that he has now fashioned into a spear, chucks it into the sky, and exposes that he is in a cage he didn’t want to be in.

As a leader, you’re going to be leading other leaders. They’re going to have their own unique ideas and thoughts as to how things should be done.

You need to learn how to respond properly to these leaders.

Are you going to hold them captive? Are you going to let them have freedom in the organization?

The choice is yours. The choice is obvious.

2. Dr. Ilene Andrews:

There has to be another way.

Others in the Apex Cybernetics facility wanted to release Kong. They knew he was growing restless. He wanted out.

Dr. Andrews was nervous. She knew there would be trouble if they released Kong into the real world. Godzilla was still out there and there couldn’t be two Titans in the world.

When two Titans are around each other, they have to fight. It’s like Highlander… There can be only one.

Dr. Andrews wanted to look for another solution. She didn’t like Kong being cooped up. She also didn’t like the idea of Kong fighting Godzilla.

There are a lot of things we don’t like doing as a leader. Yet we have to do them.

We don’t always have to do them the way we think we do. There are alternatives we can take.

Look for another way of doing things. Find something that will work that you didn’t think about in the beginning.

3. Madison Russell (Millie Bobby Brown who played Eleven in Stranger Things):

Dad, I’m telling you, there’s something provoking him that we’re not seeing here.

Madison returns to Godzilla Vs. Kong from her previous outing in Godzilla: King Of The Monsters. She is the daughter of Mark Russell (Kyle Chandler), an Apex Cybernetics employee.

When Godzilla attacks, Madison is one of only a handful of people who realize something is wrong. She has an understanding of the Titan that the adults around her do not.

She’s willing to look at who Godzilla is. She understands something is wrong.

When something doesn’t seem right, do you accept the situation at face value or do you try to dig deeper? Do you look at the past relationship you’ve had with the employee? Do you look into their past history?

When you do this, you begin to realize something is out of place. If there is, work to fix it, not attack the person.

4. Admiral Wilcox (Hakeem Kae-Kazim):

Do I have a reason to be concerned?

They had decided to move Kong to the Hollow Earth entrance. To do this, they had to transport him via ship. Admiral Wilcox was commanding one of those ships.

He knew they had avoided Godzilla’s area but he was still concerned. He asked the above question to Dr. Andrews.

We can take all the precautions we believe we need to take. We can feel safe and secure. And, still, there will be nagging concerns and doubts.

Many times these concerns are unfounded. Other times, like in Godzilla Vs. Kong, the concerns are well-founded.

Learn how to trust your instincts. They can lead you far.

5. Listen for the small clues:

Madison had listened to the Titan Truth Podcast hosted by Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry). In the podcast, Bernie had mentioned bleach. Madison caught onto this.

She wanted to meet with Bernie. She used the clue to hunt down a store that sold large quantities of bleach. She questioned the clerk and he gave up the goods.

All from one little clue!

What little clues are you missing? Your employees, customers, and rivals are dropping clues all the time. You have to be willing to see them and seek them out.

I want you to listen closely to what people are saying around you today. Are there any clues as to things that are going on? Listen and you will discover there are.

6. Trust is important:

Jia and Kong could communicate. Kong didn’t want Dr. Andrews or anyone else to know.

Why? Because Kong didn’t trust other people. He trusted Jia.

Trust is important. Trust will allow people to open up. A lack of trust will keep people closed up.

Work on earning the trust of those you lead. It’s not hard, it only takes honesty, repeated expected behavior, and care for your team.

7. You can sense what’s going to happen:

While on the Kong transport boat, Gia felt small vibrations. The water moved differently. Something was about to happen.

She was right. Godzilla was in the water. The Titan was headed for Kong and the transport boats.

She sensed this before any of the boat sensors did.

It’s important you pay attention to everything around you. Gia was able to sense the change in the water, even more so when she felt the ship’s wall.

Your environment will give you clues to what is going on or about to happen. Pay attention. Listen to your senses.

8. Know where you lead best:

Kong and Godzilla tussled. They fought and fought and fought.

Sometimes, the battle was on the boat, solid land. Other times, the battle was in the water.

When the battle raged on the boat, Kong had an advantage. When the battle was taken to the water, Godzilla had the advantage.

This made me think about knowing where you lead best.

There are organizations where you can rock it out. You lead well because the organization is suited to your leadership style.

You switch organizations and things are different. Your ability to lead seems to be stifled. You can’t get anything done.

This is because different organizations tend to lend themselves to different kinds of leaders.

Understand this. Find organizations where you can lead well.

9. Organizations often work on things secretly when they know it’s not right:

Madison, Bernie, and Josh Valentine (Julian Dennison) had found a secret area at the Apex Cybernetics labs. They were accidentally transported to the Hong Kong division of Apex Cybernetics.

There, they discovered something terrifying. Apex Cybernetics had been working on a crazy weapon. They were building a mecha-Titan, MechaGodzilla.

This wasn’t done publically. It wasn’t done ethically either. It was done in private because Walter Simmons (Demian Bichir) knew it wasn’t right.

Assess why your organization is working on things in secret. Is it because you’re trying to beat your rival to the market? Is it because you know it is unethical.

There are two reasons to work in secret. One is okay. The other is to hide.

Make sure you’re doing things for the right reason.

10. We can miscommunicate:

Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgard) had helped lead the mission to Hollow Earth. Jia was not a fan of his.

Jia signed to Dr. Andrews that Lind was a coward. Dr. Andrews told Lind that the sign had meant brave. This led to a funny miscommunication between Lind and Jia.

Lind signed to Jia that she was a coward. He had meant brave but miscommunicated because he didn’t know he was wrong.

This happens to leaders all of the time. They believe they’re communicating what they want but what they’re saying doesn’t translate to the team members they’re speaking to.

Make sure you’re communicating correctly with those you lead.

11. Jia (signed):

Godzilla. Not. Enemy. Please… be careful.

Kong returned from Hollow Earth. He was ready to fight Godzilla. Jia signed to Kong that Godzilla was not the enemy.

We can believe someone is an enemy of ours when they are not. We have to recognize the difference.

Oftentimes, what appears to be an enemy can be a rival. They’re not someone we should be scared of. They’re someone who challenges us to be better.

Know the difference between enemy and rival.

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