I am an unapologetic James Bond fan.  I love the gadgets, the cars, and the action, but more importantly, I love his suave, devil-may-care attitude towards everything.  He has been assumed dead, shot, left to rot in a North Korean prison, almost cut in half by a laser, sealed inside a missile silo, come within 7 seconds (the timer read 0:07) of being blown up, and had his manhood beaten to a pulp.  He has NEVER been subject to an internal HR investigation, though.  Something that I find highly unrealistic.  I mean sure, he has had a rocket pack he’s kept in the trunk, a watch that also shoots a laser, pens that explode and also drip acid, cars that turn into submarines, cars that convert to airplanes, cars that shoot missiles, and watches that relay messages, but never ONCE getting reported by Ms. Moneypenny?  C’mon!  Eon studios: I continue to await your response regarding my screenplay.  I have some ideas as to who could play the supervillain based on me.

Now, given that you are reading this, I am going to assume that you at least know that there is a new Bond film in theaters.  And while it is probably safe to assume that anyone who has gotten this far in this post has excellent taste and refinement, which means you have likely already seen No Time to Die at least once, and even if you haven’t seen it (gasp), you likely still know that this is the last time we will see Daniel Craig in the iconic role.  So, in honor of his stint as 007, I want to pull a little wisdom from Casino Royale.  In one scene, Bond has screwed up, Royally (see what I did there), and M, played by Judy Dench, is in the process of chewing him out.  Now, keep in mind the tongue lashing is happening in her living room after he has broken into her house, so in fairness, I think he gets off pretty light…  At any rate, during this coaching session, she tells him that “arrogance and self-awareness seldom go hand in hand.”  She goes on to clarify that “Any thug can kill,” and that she needs him to take his “ego out of the equation and judge the situation dispassionately.”  Now to be clear here, James Bond has a license to kill.  Chances are you don’t, so don’t go around taking that as the lesson here.  However, the general thought prevails.  If you are going to be successful in any role that involves leadership, you have to follow this same rule when it comes to decisions that involve people.  That may mean growing an extra layer of skin, but if you are going to be successful long-term with people you have to take your ego, your emotions, your personal opinions, whatever, out of the equation and judge whatever situation you are faced with dispassionately.  Anything else can lead to short-sighted results and end with you being less effective than you could have been otherwise.  Who knows, if Bond had read this blog, he might have saved himself some, ahem, pain later in the movie.

For your viewing pleasure here is the above-referenced scene. https://youtu.be/DE5A1PzJQ18