The Concept of Leadership - Movie Review Example

Name Course Tutor Date Leadership project-Alexander the great Part 1 This film is all about the life of the Macedonian king Alexander who managed to conquer Egypt, Asia Minor, Ancient India and Persia. The film tries to unfold the youthful moments of Alexander when he was invading and conquering great empires such as the Persian Empire. The movie has also shown the early life of this King especially his strained relationship with his parents especially his father Phillip II who was a king of Macedon whom he inherited his kingship from. The film plot begins at around 283 BC when Alexander was just a young boy who grew up with his mother Olympia and his tutor Aristotle (Abbot, 11). In his youthful stage, he finds interests in music, love, poetry honor exploration and military. King Alexander was an ambitious and aggressive boy who admired to a great ruler in his lifetime; in fact, he showed this even before his father was still a king. Things started changing when his father Phillip divorced his mother Olympia with the claims of unfaithfulness. He married another wife called Attalus and anointed her to be a new queen; this act strained the relationship of Alexander and his father Phillip II (Abbot, 11). Alexander grow older and received academic instruction in history, mathematics, logic and other disciplines that made him to understand many issues in life. Due to his eagerness to rule, Phillip II decided to send him to the city of Pella, which was the capital of Macedonian empire to rule over it as he went out to fight other kingdoms (Fuller, 5). Later on, Alexander decides to join his father in war to conquer other empires, after the victory over many empires, he declares that no Greek city state should ever bear arm against Pella and that they give out the arms and men for the war against Persia. Pausanias who was Alexander’s loyal friend unfortunately assassinates King Phillip II. Alexander in turn kills Pausanias for his awful act of killing his father, later on Alexander claims the loyalty of the Macedonians and assumes all the titles of his father. He embarks on his mission to conquer the rest of Asia; he fought many fights against many empires in Asia. In Babylon, he declared that he was the son of God (Zeus) and that the whole world was his domain (Fuller, 5). News reached as far as Athens that Alexander is in India and trying to conquer every empire where upon Aeschines proclaims that he had outdone the gods hence he was a great king. His conquest ends when he killed his close friend Cleitus after an argument. He returned to Babylon from India after losing many of his war men. He marries a woman called Roxane a daughter of King Darius III whom he had conquered (Abbot, 17). After a short period, Alexander felt sick, when he was just about to die, he was asked to whom he was leaving the kingship since he had no son to inherit it and he replied that he was leaving to the strongest man. Part 2 This film is all about leadership change. We see the transition of the kingship from the hands of Phillip II to his son Alexander who later on is described as Alexander the great. These two kings practiced what other kings did in history. It was believed that for a king to be perceived to be powerful, he had to conquer other empires around to rule over them. Therefore, during the reign of these two kings, their main objective was to conquer other nations to earn fame. From leadership theories, trait theory fit their actions (Vectorstudy.com 1). Trait theory of leadership is tend to describe the type of behavior and personality associated with effective leadership hen the leaders tries to associate history of the community to the history of great mane whop existed. King Phillip II and Alexander the great looked in history and found that people who were regarded as great kings conquered many empires, that why they also concentrated in fighting many empires to earn that fame too. Another concept of leadership that manifests itself in their reign of these two kings is from the leadership myth where people believe that leadership is possessing power over others (Vectorstudy.com 1). This statement is not true, it is just a myth, but many leaders tend to take it at heart. King Phillip II and his son Alexander believed in myth that a leader should have power over the other that is why they spent most of the lifetime fighting other empires to get more power. Despite this popular myth, the use of force, manipulation and domination to influence other people is not a requirement for good leadership. Good leadership traits requires that a leader should seek other peoples’ consent and try strive to do the best of their interest to ensure that other people can also become effective leaders. One of the characteristic of a good leader is ambitiousness (House et al 1). This trait is seen in the life of Alexander the great, in fact, it was the driving force that enabled him to rise to greatness and manage to conquer many kingdoms. He was quoted saying that it was better for him to live a short, life with fame than living a long life with less achievements. Indeed his life was exactly the way he said; he died a young fellow with great achievements of uniting many kingdoms under Macedonian kingdom (House et al 1)Therefore, ambitiousness or aggressiveness enables many leaders to ascent to great heights; however, a lot of care should be taken since too much ambitious eventually breaks a man. Actually, both King Phillip II and Alexander did not finish their reign in good moods since they died early because of being overambitious. Phillip II was assassinated due to the enmity he had created during his cruel rule, same to Alexander who died early after fighting many fights and declaring himself to be a king. Another leadership concept that manifested itself in this film is the usefulness of teamwork. Alexander the great as young as he was managed to conquer great empires such as the Persian Empire because he had a working team (Vectorstudy.com 1). He had a great army of men who worked as a team. He really understood that teamwork was quite necessary for his success. In leadership, the leaders must be in a position to create a strong team fostered by unity on the part of all of its members. In a team, there must be interpersonal relationship where members should be given a chance to contribute and learn o work with others (House et al 1). This means that the main goal of a team is that members should be in a position to act together towards a common goal. King Alexander ensured this by creating a cordial relationship with many members in the army and worked with them closely that is why he managed to capture many kingdoms in Asia Minor and be called “the great”. Therefore, teamwork is a virtue that ought to be practiced by any leader leading any organization or a group of people. Moreover, as the film unfolds, we find that Alexander encounters many challenges in his lifetime right from his childhoods to his adulthood. We find that when he as a young man; he stays with his parents who had some relationship wrangles with the claims of unfaithfulness (Fuller, 5). Later on, his father and mother separates due to this factor, this situation can be a setback to any person of his status as a son to a king. This situation obviously could lead to inheritance problems. However, due to his brevity, he managed to balance the issues until he assumes his father’s kingship in spite of the prevailing circumstances (Kouzes &Posner 32). This means that in leadership, one has to be patient and be able to discern the best approaches to adopt in case a tough situation prevails. Part 3 Macedonian kingdom was just a small kingdom before the reign of Phillip II and his son Alexander. However, it extended its empire as far as Athens, Persia and India during the reign of these two kings (Fuller, 5). Macedonian kingdom celebrated these achievements by these kings however; they did not reign to their old age due to some unnecessary traits that usually tend to destroy many kings. They applied autocracy kind of leadership and they had some pride in their kingship that is why they failed to rule to their ripe age. My recommendation is that good leadership requires patience and considerate leaders who values the need of their people and even their neighbors. For a successful leadership in any firm, a leader should put into consideration the culture of the organization and embrace good relationship between the functional units of the organization (House et al 1). It is wise for a leader to accept opinions from other members for effective leadership; this means that when other peoples’ views are considered, even team building become easy and this way, the organization can easily achieve its goals and objectives. Leaders ought not to misuse their powers to exploit others because the enmity they create can in turn haunt them back like Phillip II an Alexander the great. Works Cited Abbot, J. “Alexander the great. Harper”. (2007). The University of Michigan. USA. Fuller, J.F.C. The generalship of Alexander the great. (2004). Da Capo. Massachusetts. USA. House, R. Javidan, M. Hanges, P& Dorfman, P. “Understanding cultures and implicit leadership theories across the globe: An introduction to project globe”. (2002). Journal of world business. Accessed on web, 13th Nov 2012. Kouzes, J &Posner, B. “The leadership challenge”. Jossey base. USA. Vectorstudy.com. Theories of leadership. (2008). Accessed on web 13rth Nov 2012. Read More