Platoon

Topic – Formal and Informal leadership.
Movie Title - Platoon

Movie Summary - This is a scene from a 1986 movie 'Platoon'. The movie is about a young recruit during the vietnam war who faces a moral crises when he is confronted with the horrors of wars. The movie shows the various phases that Chris Talyor the young recruit played by Charlie Sheen passes through when the effects of combat take a toll on him. Lt. Walfe played by Mark Moses is the formal leader of the platoon who has weak leadership qualities and hence his role is taken over by Sgt. Barnes played by Tom Berenger who displays strong leadership qualities but is undergoing a psychological meltdown. The team completely disregard Lt. Walfe although he is their formal leader and take instruction from Sgt. Barnes when the are getting deployed in the field.

Concepts - In organizations, we have both formal and informal leader. A formal leader is given formal authority by the company by title or the position held by the individual. This can be a teacher in a classroom or the father or mother in a household. Whereas Informal leaders have no formal authority but adopt the role and is supported by the others in the group or team because of their experience or respect they have earned. Informal leaders can be best leader in a team given that he was chosen sometimes by the group naturally to lead them. The above clip shows how a informal leader makes the decision and the team looks up to him to play that role while the real leader is side lined.