Anthony Landale

Following the theme of films that have inspired my leadership thinking I want to suggest there is much to be discovered in ‘Looking for Eric’.

Although the Eric in this film is Manchester Utd star Eric Cantona, this is not a film about football. Rather it’s a film about how together we are so much more powerful than on our own. And more than this it’s about how when we are vulnerable and ask for help we can often be hugely surprised by just how much care, creativity and support is available. We just need to ask for it.

Without giving away the whole plot there is a brilliant scene in the film where a postman, a fervent Manchester Utd fan, asks Eric Cantona about his very best moment as a player. It must have been when he scored a goal, the postie suggests, one of those sublime moments when Cantona caressed the ball into the net, or perhaps one of those goals which won an important match. Cantona shakes his head. The moment he was most proud of, he recounts, was a pass. And what was special about that pass? It was a pass of extraordinary imagination and skill – but more than that it was a pass that defined an exhilarating standard of play and which allowed someone else to score.

And that, for me, is what ‘leading for the whole’ (rather than leading for the part) is all about. You use your gifts, your creativity, your ambition to help the whole team succeed. You do it because you can. You do it because it’s hugely fulfilling. And you do it because that’s how together you become the best.

Leadership nudge: what ‘pass’ can you deliver this week which will raise the standard in your team and allow someone else to succeed?

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