Everyday Leadership Series (9) -Leadership Lessons from Charles Spencer Chaplin

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Perfect Leader
In my opinion the perfect example of an excellent leader would be Charles Spencer Chaplin in following I am going to be reasoning why I think he is a great leader.


About Charlie Chaplin

Charles Spencer Chaplin who we know well as Charlie Chaplin was born in London, England, on April 16th 1889, he inherited natural talents from his parents, His father was a versatile vocalist and actor and his mother was an actress and singer she was well known for her performances and was given a stage name of Lily Harley. Charlie and his brother Sydney Chaplin had to survive on their own after the early death of their father and sudden illness of their mother.
(Charlie Chaplin: Overview of his life, n.d)





Beginning of his career

Charlie got his first chance to act in a legitimate stage show at the age of twelve where he played the role of “Billy” the page boy, in support of William Gillette in “Sherlock Holmes” Charlie started his career as comedian in vaudeville, which  took him to United States in year 1910.
(Charlie Chaplin: Overview of his life, n.d)









Charlie as a great leader

The reason why Sir Charlie is one of the great leaders in my opinion is because even after all what he has been through like after the sudden mental illness of his mother she was put in a mental hospital and early death of his father at a very young age he and his brother were sent to the orphanage. Even after this all he was able to follow his dream of becoming a Comedian this gives us a lesson that you should not let your past or present get in your way of accomplishing things in your life because the depression is always temporary and happiness last forever.

The Legacy of Charlie Chaplin was that he really believed that even in the middle of the Great
Depression of World War II it was important to make everyone laugh and ease the depression that people had of losing all that they owned. Since he had sympathy for social outcasts of the time and conveyed a comedic light to circumstances that normal people confronted in a day by day premise. Laughter appeared to be the main cure during that time in history. In one of his famous quotes he said 
“A day without laughter is a day wasted” (Charlie Chaplin). 
Charlie Chaplin was not only a comedian but he was also a great philosopher there are many of his quotes which proves that Sir Charlie had qualities of a great leader some of these quotes are as follows:






1.     Self-Confidence


“As I began to love myself I understood that at any circumstance, I am in the right place at the right time, and everything happens at the exactly right moment. So I could be calm. Today I call it SELF-CONFIDENCE.” – Charlie Chaplin

Confidence is a leadership aspect that can keep your team morale and productivity up being confident of the situation at hand and the way it will be handled is a sign of a great leader the quote speaks itself that the Charlie was a confident man.   (Borges, 2014)


2.      Respect
"As I began to love myself I understood how much it can offend somebody if I try to force my desires on this person, even though I knew the time was not right and the person was not ready for it, and even though this person was me. Today I call it RESPECT" – Charlie Chaplin

Treating every team member with respect is an attribute that all great leaders should strive to accomplish, Charlie had Respect for others. .(Borges, 2014)


  
3.      Ability to inspire
“To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain and play with it”-Charlie Chaplin

This is a simple sentence which keeps on inspiring the whole world even after 70 year. It is important for any leader to inspire their team and praise them for their accomplishments. When a person feels appreciated, they tend to be inspired to put forth their best effort while completing the task at hand.

4.      Good Sense of Humor

When problems arise, it is important to laugh them off instead of becoming upset and yelling at the team. A sense of humor will keep the morale of the team up as well as productivity. Charlie Chaplin had a good sense of humor as he made people laugh even in the depression of World War II.  (Impact, n.d).


5.      Positive Attitude:
Charlie had a positive Attitude even though he have been through a lot at a very young age he never lost hope on his dreams he had a positive thinking that made him achieve his goals.

After all knowing about Charlie Chaplin I came to a conclusion that Charlie Chaplin had the all the qualities that a leader should have which made him a great leader in my opinion.  

Thanks for reading my blog.
Are you Leading?

Dr. Deepak A. Patil

CEO, Lead ThySelf

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