Surprising yet powerful leadership skills from Top Gun: Maverick you don’t want to miss!
This article might want you to go back to the theater, maybe.
This is not only true with a few selected people. All of us encounter a point of inflection in life after which our lives won’t be the same. These points may not be necessarily good or bad but they are significant in that they invite you to take on a dramatically different life journey.
Tom Cruise, one of the world’s highest-paid actors today, definitely met one with the movie Top Gun back in 1986. This movie brought him huge fame and attention. Last May, after three decades, its sequel Top Gun: Maverick came out. What is outstanding about this movie is that although it’s been three months since its release, this movie continues to break records.
Tom Cruise’s latest action flick Top Gun: Maverick continues to break records even after three months of release. As of today (the third week of August 2022), this movie’s high-grossing numbers boast the sixth position at the US domestic box office. Speaking outside of the US, Top Gun: Maverick has so far generated over $700 million to date. It is noteworthy that this achievement is without China or Russia, two huge overseas markets.
The chances are, you have watched this film. You’ve probably watched it twice or more, like me.
Tons of blog posts were written to praise this film, and tons of posts analyzed why this movie is a huge success.
As an avid leader of leadership skills and self-development, I would like to offer you a fresh view you might get from this movie. This movie is not an educational documentary. But let me convince you this: There are some noteworthy impressive leadership skills pervade throughout that you don’t want to miss out on! Each point I am going to present you is with a kicker line from the movie you would surely remember have you watched it. Who knows, after reading this article, you may want to watch the movie again? (To be honest, I think this movie well deserves to be watched twice on the big screen!)
(Spoiler Alert: With each point, I will only provide a brief background story. If you have not watched the film yet, I don’t think reading this post first will take the joy away from you, as I believe the amount of information offered is quite similar to how much you will gain from watching its trailer or reading news articles. HOWEVER, If you want to stay away from any hints or segments at all, save this post for later and read it after you watch the movie.)
3 Surprising Leadership Skills in Top Gun: Maverick
“Don’t think, just do.”
Rooster is the only son of Goose, Maverick’s former wingman.
When Goose, who was like a family to Maverick, died in a tragic accident, it left a lingering trauma in him. Years passed by and Rooster wanted to fly just like his dad. When Rooster applied to US Naval Academy, Maverick intentionally pulled his admission papers in an effort to prevent him from becoming a pilot.
There is more than one reason why Maverick did such a cruel thing to his best friend’s beloved son. The only reason known to Rooster is that Maverick does not see Goose be intuitive enough when up in the air. Rooster has a proclivity for thinking too much in the cockpit, which can be utterly fatal in life-or-death moments.
Maverick makes a clear note, “Don’t think, just do.”
Doing without thinking means you do something by habit. A habit is a learned behavioral pattern that becomes reflexive over time. Because it is something we repeat often or at least at regular intervals, we display our habits without any conscious thought about it.
Maverick with his unparalleled experience and expertise in Navy aviation, strongly instructs Goose, who is like his own son, to let his habits navigate. This is of course after building exceptionally based on professional habits based on committed education, training, and discipline for a substantial amount of time.
The Power of Habit, written by a New York Times reporter Charles Duhigg, is one of the books that I am confident will change your life. After years of research and observation, Duhigg writes that approximately 45% of everything we do on a daily basis is habitual. He explains habits are extremely powerful because they create a forceful neurological craving in us. We by default lean towards our habitual pattern to satisfy the craving that won’t go away otherwise. Habits are extremely energy efficient as well. Because we display our habits without giving a thought, we save brain energy.
Think of it this way: Healthy and beneficial habits are like placing yourself on the right path to success. It is not the intention that’s going to change your life: It is the direction. You may keep eating junk food with every intention to be healthy and fit, but you will only end up finding yourself further from your ideal. Well-intended habits are like setting your direction. Once you are on the right track, you will eventually arrive at your dream place.
Explore what kind of habits can shape your path and your future. Choose the right ones and invest in them thoroughly with unwavering commitment, including education.
Then remember Maverick’s wisdom: Don’t think, just do.
“It’s not the plane. It’s the pilot.”
Every day, we see our world rapidly getting digitized and automated. I no longer see as many cashiers at grocery stores and fast-food restaurants. Many cashiers are replaced by kiosks. Robotics and AI are attracting lots of attention and financial investment. The rate of change is only going to accelerate.
Breakneck changes around us sometimes make us feel intimidated. We are worried if our worth will be diminished and our hard-earned careers will be completely wiped out.
In Top Gun: Maverick, Maverick and his team composed of five highly competent Navy pilots are tasked with a seemingly impossible mission. In order to not only achieve that mission but also come home safely, they are now required to take a huge leap of faith. The odds are clearly against them (Well, this is a must-have component to make any movie entertaining, isn’t it?). The pilots rightfully speculate if the plan laid out by Maverick is even achievable. Maverick answers,
“It is not the plane. It is the pilot.”
Jim Collins, the author of the classic business book Good to Great, did extensive research to find a pattern that every high-performing company possesses in common. Collins breaks down the pattern into 6 phases and makes it very clear that these phases need to be practiced in order for success that is not only exceptional but also long-lasting.
I want you to focus on the very first phase he argues because it becomes the core foundation for every future endeavor. Collins refers to it as ‘Level 5 Leadership’.
We usually think of leaders as people who have the highest influence in their organizations. They demonstrate a clear and compelling vision and actively stimulate higher performance standards. For what is worth, these people are quite rare and thus deserve our deep respect. If you want to stand out in the crowd and really reach your full potential, however, you need to take a step further. That’s Level 5 leaders. They certainly possess every decent professional aspect of level 4 leaders. On top of that, they build enduring greatness through a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. What makes a company great is not the technology or money. It is the leaders that lead the company. When you have the highest leadership in place, everything else will follow suit sooner or later.
I thought of this lesson when Maverick trained young pilots in the movie. Maverick makes genuine efforts to make them believe it is they who do the mission, not the planes they ride.
When you feel like you are pressured down by ever-changing technology and its power, remember that it is not the technology that makes the difference. It is you. You are the one who is going to utilize carefully chosen technology for your maximum success.
It is you who’s got the key.
“It is time to let it go.”
I like collecting good quotes and displaying them on the wall to constantly remind myself when I feel lost and confused. Strong quotes are immensely powerful because they show compressed wisdom and insight of people who have lived coveted lives.
One of my favorite quotes is by St. Augustine. He famously said, “There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.”
I have stories from my past that I honestly do not want anyone to find out. Those are stories of stupid mistakes, foolishness, and blinded naivete. Trying to view them in a more objective manner as possible, I find that those stories of mine are like organic matters with invisible hands. With their hands, they may grab you by the ankle preventing you from proceeding, or press your head down so that you won’t grow taller.
Two things I know for sure.
One: We all have an embarrassing past that we sincerely do not want to deal with.
Two: In order for you to free yourself from their influence, you need to make a decision of letting them go.
In the movie Top Gun: Maverick, Maverick’s trauma of having lost his very dear friend Goose to a tragic accident comes back, especially because he blames himself for that accident. As much as he wants to avoid it, it stubbornly grabs his ankle. Only when he makes the decision of letting it go, willingly or not, does he find a new day with broken relationships mended.
Brene Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, spent the past twelve years studying vulnerability, shame, and, worthiness — the topics that make our heads turn away instantly. In her book Dare to Lead, she mentions that leadership skills come from choosing courage over comfort, taking the responsibility for finding potential in themselves as well as others, and utilizing the courage to develop them. In other words, leadership skills are the skills to be able to pause, carefully and thoroughly evaluate the current situation, and realign the angle of projection. With the traps of unsolved issues whether from the past or the present, you can’t go as further as you want.
Brown points out: “Leaders must either invest a reasonable amount of time attending to fears and feelings or squander an unreasonable amount of time trying to manage ineffective and unproductive behavior.”
Being able to let go is an essential leadership skill one needs to have, whether it comes to leading a group of people or leading yourself. It is not an easy task to do, but just like what you can see from Maverick, it will pay you fashionably great!
