7 Leadership Lessons from Jaws, the Summer Blockbuster

Spoiler alert! If you have not seen Jaws, you should stop reading immediately and rent it on Amazon Prime, preferably the UHD version. I'm about to drop a whole bunch of spoiler-laden plot points below. And really, you should watch the movie at least once in your life.

Are you in summer mode yet? I've got my beach playlists going and watched Jaws for the first time this season.

When I was a kid, I loved and was terrified by Jaws. I remember playing the '45 of the score over and over as my brother and I played shark attack with my cousins. (There's a lesson somewhere in there about making sure your furniture is anchored to the walls!)

Steven Spielberg redefined summer blockbusters with the 1975 film based on Peter Benchley's thrilling novel about a giant man-eating shark that terrorizes a summer community on an island in New England. Its storyline is full of suspense, the characters (heroes and villains) are memorable and charming archetypes, and the dialogue is well-crafted and often funny.

You may not realize that Jaws is also full of lessons that can help you learn how to be a better leader — and how to avoid common pitfalls that others seem to run into.

Intrigued? Wade into the water to get your certification in Jaws-based leadership theory.

1. Communicate early, often, and with integrity

There are so many examples of bad communication strategies in Jaws. The mayor of Amity Island tries to hide the resort town's killer shark problem. At the mayor's direction, the town medical examiner changes his report for the first victim to indicate that it was a boating accident. This coverup leads to a second death — this time a little boy named Alex Kintner. The town meeting breaks down into debates about closing the beaches and putting a bounty on the shark. And near the movie's climax, when police Chief Brody tries to call for help after seeing the massive size of the shark, Quint smashes the radio on the boat — literally cutting off communication with anyone who might be able to help them.

It's a perfect storm of greed, unethical behavior, and outright stupidity.

Chief Brody (played by Roy Scheider) is on the opposite end of the spectrum. From the moment we meet him, Brody is transparent and always says what he means and means what he says. He doesn't sugarcoat tough news and advocates for closing the beaches from the very first incident. He calls in an expert and pleads with the locals to be more careful. He leads efforts to keep the beaches safe with everything from warning signs to helicopters and rescue boats. And he does it all without a cell phone, email, or Slack.

Good communicators use the tools at their disposal and the words in their vocabulary. Keep it simple. And never lie to the public. They will find out and slap you in the face.

2. Listen to the experts

When the shark expert from the oceanographic institute shows up — Matt Hooper played by Richard Dreyfuss — you'd think that Amity Island's problems are about to be solved. But Hooper faces an uphill battle with almost everyone he encounters. The mayor mocks Hooper's discovery of a giant shark tooth at the scene of a fisherman's gruesome death. The fishermen laugh the expert's warnings off. And Quint thinks Hooper is too slick and rich to be a real man of the sea.

Brody, who called for him to help the town — is the only one who takes Hooper and his expertise seriously.

Ignoring expertise happens in the corporate world, too. Executive leadership can sometimes be blind to their own organization's experts. Or they may not want to believe what these employees are telling them because it doesn't fit with their agenda or the story the company is telling investors and the public.

Distrust and cognitive bias within teams often lead to subject matter experts being ignored, even though they could hold the key to solving a company's problems. Ignoring experts can lead to costly delays, mistakes, or even a total collapse of the system the leaders think they're protecting.

And what if you're an expert and nobody will listen to you? Speak louder.

3. Trust your instincts

Chief Brody's hardened New York City cop instincts drive the plot of Jaws. Without his relentless pursuit of the truth, you have no story or movie.

When everyone else in the story is joking about the “shark situation” (vandalizing billboards, pretending to be a shark in the water, joking about the bounty offered), Brody is putting himself on the line every step of the way. Even his wife doesn't think the shark is a big deal until she sees a mythical giant shark illustration in a book Brody has been studying.

When you have experience, you must trust your gut in challenging situations.

4. When you realize you need a bigger boat, go back and get a bigger boat.

When Brody gets his first look at the shark, he knows they can't press on with the tiny fishing boat. But Quint's arrogance pushes Brody and Hooper into sticking it out, to his peril. If you need a bigger boat, you get a bigger boat.

The most famous line from the movie, “you're gonna need a bigger boat,” has become a popular metaphor for being out of your depth and needing to ask for help. So don't be Quint: when you encounter your own 3-ton shark, identify what you need to reach your goals, and ask for it. If you need better tools, more staff, or more time, highlight it to your manager or leadership team. Be clear with your request and communicate it early.

5. Never go it alone (Don't be Quint, part 2)

This one speaks for itself. There's self-sufficiency, and then there's stupidity. When you have people and resources at your disposal, don't try to do it all yourself.

Chief Brody is a master at delegation, teamwork, and putting plans into action. If only he would have stood up to Quint a little more, maybe we wouldn't have had to listen to that monologue about the USS Indianapolis. (Don't send me hate mail, my husband already refuses to let me fast forward through that scene which is torture enough.)

6. Face your fears

Sometimes you have to face your biggest fears to solve a problem. Chief Brody is desperately afraid of the water. Not sure why he moved his family from New York to an island, but there you are.

Despite his intense fear, he goes out on a boat at night (a little buzzed from drinking a lot of red wine) with Hooper. And eventually, he goes out on the rickety Orca with Quint and Hooper to hunt down the shark.

As a leader, you often have to do the hard things. I know executives who are terrified of speaking in public, but they have to do it, so they do. Having tough conversations, making important decisions, negotiating, learning new skills, firing employees, navigating complex politics… many leaders don't enjoy these responsibilities and some are even flat out afraid to do them. But you must do the things you're afraid of to develop and grow.

“There's nothing in the sea this fish would fear. Other fish run from bigger things. That's their instinct. But this fish doesn't run from anything. He doesn't fear.”

— Peter Benchley, Jaws

Speaking of fear, Jaws made a generation of kids (and their parents!) afraid of sharks.

7. Take ownership & do what needs to be done

When push comes to shove, Chief Brody and Hooper are the only leaders in Jaws who do the right thing.

Even though he's new to town when the report of the first shark death comes in, Chief Brody gets over to the beach, files the report, then hightails it over to the local general store to get paint, brushes, and wood to make “beach closed” signs. (Apparently, they've never closed the beaches in Amity before.) He then delegates that task to his deputy and hops on the ferry to warn some Boy Scouts doing a swim in the bay.

He briefly gets bullied into inaction by the mayor and his cronies, but after the second death, Brody decides he's done waiting and is on high alert for the rest of the film. And that's when things get really good.

Taking ownership is perhaps the most essential quality of a leader. Leaders who take ownership and responsibility create a culture that values results and performance improvement. And individual contributors who take ownership help make teams successful.

For me, Jaws has always been about Roy Scheider as Chief Brody, taking ownership from the first moment he answers the phone to find out there's a missing person. Ownership is leadership.

I'd love to hear what movies inspire you to be a better leader. Share your thoughts in the comments!