Lessons in Leadership from French and Saunders Comedy – Leader as a Teacher

An important part of being a good leader is also being a good teacher. In a hilarious video titled “Ponies” by the comedy team of Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, we see two hapless but happy riders trying to teach their horses to jump. Because they are ineffective at teaching, they are perceived by their horses as leaders who can be ignored.

 

Dawn’s character rides Peter Pan. She takes him to a jump and asks him to come closer. We’d seen earlier in the skit that she had little control over Peter Pan. He’s just as happy to ignore her and graze. Dawn’s first mistake is trying to teach something when she doesn’t have Peter Pan’s attention or respect. She should work on that before even trying to teach him anything.

 

Jennifer’s character is riding Jigsaw. Compared to Peter Pan who just wants to graze, Jigsaw wants to go. Jennifer asks Jigsaw to do a low jump and he just dodges. Apparently, he’s not ready to make this leap. She could first ask him to step over the railing with the object on the ground. When he’s happy doing that, she can go for more by jumping a little higher. This allows Jigsaw to gain confidence in himself and Jennifer.

 

At one point, Jigsaw knocks over the railing on the jump. Jen calls him a “stupid fucker”. As the leader, he takes no responsibility for his own actions that cause Jigsaw to “misbehave”. Jigsaw is doing the best he can with what he knows. It is the rider’s responsibility to ensure that his horse is ready to perform the tasks he asks of it. When he doesn’t take that responsibility, he fails as a leader.

 

When you see these comedians in this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWd_r2sOPhs, notice how their lack of leadership makes their experience with the horses that much more difficult, even though they seem to spend a lot of time. good time.