The Accountant is an action/thriller starring Ben Affleck as Christian Wolff. Chris has an exceptional talent with numbers. He can see trends, figure out discrepancies, and clean the books of crooked organizations.
When he is brought in by Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow) and his sister Rita Blackburn (Jean Smart), he’s tasked with finding out where the missing money went (mind you, Chris is an accountant for some pretty bad guys). As he goes down the rabbit hole, he uncovers a plot of deception he wasn’t expecting. He also leaves behind him a trail of bodies.
If you’re into action, thrills, and a little bit of drama, you will really like The Accountant. Affleck soars as he plays an autistic character out for justice. You’ll also find Jon Bernthal great as his brother Braxton.
But you’ll get more than action and thrills. You’ll watch The Accountant with the eye of a Reel Leader. As you do so, you may discover some of these leadership lessons in the film.
Quotes And Leadership Lessons From The Accountant
1. Neurologist (Jason Davis):
I’m not a fan of labels.
Chris’s father (Robert C. Treveiler) and mother (Mary Kraft) brought Chris to a neurologist because of his behavior. Chris stimmed quite a bit and it frustrated his parents. They wanted a diagnosis.
When the neurologist saw Chris, he didn’t give a definitive answer as to what Chris had. His lack of a diagnosis or label didn’t sit well with his parents. They wanted to know what he had.
The neurologist wouldn’t label Chris.
I was a fan of the neurologist. Especially after he said that he wasn’t a fan of labels.
Labels make things easy. You don’t have to think about a person or situation. You just slap a label on it and you’ve got your answer.
People are much more complicated than that. You must be willing to go beyond the label you or others have placed on people. Get to know them, understand them. The more you do, the more your relational equity will work.
2. Leaders help others:
Young Chris (Seth Lee) was assembling a puzzle at the neurologist’s office. He’d put the puzzle together upside-down, so he couldn’t see the image. It was impressive.
However, Chris had a problem. There was a missing piece. He began to stim and freak out. That was until a young Justine (Izzy Fenech) saw the piece lying under the table.
She walked over, picked up the piece, and gave it to Chris. Chris’s crisis was averted. She had helped him.
Great leaders know their people will need help at times. They’re not afraid to step up and into the chaos.
Watch your people. Look for times when they need help. Then help them.
They’ll be grateful for what you’ve done.
3. Our past can hold us back:
Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) was an analyst for the Treasury. She’d been brought in by Ray King (J.K. Simmons). He saw the potential in her. He also wondered why she hadn’t progressed past being an analyst.
Ray decided to ask Marybeth point-blank. She hemmed, hawed, and avoided the question until she couldn’t. Ray forced his hand.
Marybeth admitted she’d done some bad stuff when she was younger. She couldn’t get past her past actions.
Ouch.
But…
We’ve been there. We’ve also done this to others. We hold ourselves and others back because of our pasts.
Whether you’ve been convicted of a significant crime, looking at an employee with a spotty history, or some other red flag, we must remember people change. They don’t stay the same.
Be willing to look past the past. You’re going to find some great, overlooked talent.
4. Just because you can’t do it doesn’t mean others can’t:
Frank (Ron Prather) and Delores Rice (Susan Savoie) were a couple that Chris had helped at his accounting firm. Chris helped them find tax deductions so they wouldn’t have financial hardships.
To say they were grateful would be an understatement.
Frank and Ruth had invited Chris to come to their farm whenever he wanted. One day, he brought three melons and his sniper rifle. He set the melons on a fence far out from his location.
Frank sees Chris doing this. The distance was great, he estimated a mile or two. Frank tells Delores he couldn’t hit those on his best day.
Guess what Chris did? Bang, bang, bang. All three were hit.
We do what Frank did. We underestimate others because of what we can’t do. We tell others, “No, you can’t do that.” But only because it’s something we’re afraid of or can’t do ourselves.
Stop holding your team back by telling them no. Let them give it a shot.
You’ll be surprised at what your team can do when you let them try.
5. Lamar Blackburn:
I need you to be my eyes and ears.
Lamar and his sister Ruth own Living Robotics. It’s a prosthetics company helping people live better lives. However, there’s a problem.
Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick) had reviewed the financial statements and encountered a discrepancy. There’s money missing. And it’s not a small amount.
Lamar and Ruth bring Chris in to find where the money has gone. They both believe he wouldn’t be able to see the cause, especially since Lamar is the one doing the stealing.
But Lamar needed someone. He needed them to believe they would be his eyes and ears. They were going to watch out for his best interests.
While Lamar turned out to be a villain, his words above are valid. Leaders need others to be their eyes and ears. Leaders cannot be everywhere, all the time.
You have to bring in people you trust to watch over the organization. It might be a small group of people they oversee or it could be the whole organization.
Different people will see different things. Don’t be afraid to let others be your eyes and ears.
6. Sometimes, you’ll have to dig deep:
Little Tony, a mob boss, is murdered early in the film. We don’t know his connection or what he did. We only know he really upset someone.
Marybeth begins to review the audio of Little Tony’s murder. She can clearly hear Little Tony, but she believes there’s something else on the audio as well.
She digs. Digs deeper. And eventually hits paydirt.
As Marybeth isolates layers of audio, she begins to hear something. The man doing the murder is repeating the nursery rhyme Solomon Grundy:
Solomon Grundy
Born on a Monday
Christened on Tuesday
Married on Wednesday
Took ill on Thursday
Grew worse on Friday
Died on Saturday
Buried on Sunday
That was the end of Solomon Grundy
The nursery rhyme was such an odd thing to hear in the audio. Yet, this was the breakthrough Marybeth needed. She had audio, something to examine, and the key to breaking open the case.
All because she kept digging.
Digging deeper and deeper can be tedious. You may feel like you’re not making any progress. But as we dig deeper, we find nuggets of gold.
Don’t be discouraged because you have to keep returning to the same tasks, areas, or ideas repeatedly. Dig, mine, find what’s there.
You’ll eventually hit on something that can take you or your organization to the next level. Don’t stop digging.
7. It’s not your fault:
Lamar tells Dana that Ed Chilton (Andy Umberger) is dead. He was an employee at Living Robotics and the scapegoat for Lamar.
Dana is crushed. Her mind races. She wonders if Ed’s death was her fault for finding the financial discrepancy.
We all know that it wasn’t Dana’s fault. It was Ed and Lamar’s for cooking the books.
We’re going to have moments where we question ourselves. We will have to make tough decisions that impact the lives of those we lead. Sometimes drastically.
What we can’t do is beat ourselves up about it. If someone has decided to act in a certain way, there are repercussions. As leaders, we have to exact those repercussions.
It’s going to hurt. We’re going to feel sad, hurt, or depressed. Maybe even guilty.
We can’t. When we have to reprimand someone, it’s not our fault.
8. We want to belong:
Chris took Dana to his PanAmerica Airstream. He’d amassed a stockpile of goods and weapons there.
In trying to relate to Chris, Dana tells him a story about her prom. She’d seen a Vera Wang dress. The dress was $1,700. Expensive!
When Chris asked her why she wanted the dress, she answered plainly. She wanted to walk into the gym and have everyone say Wow.
Dana wanted to belong.
Don’t we all? We want others to see our best selves. We want them to look at us and go, “Dang, he’s successful. She’s got it going on. I want to be like them.”
It’s a sense of belonging. We want others to know and like us.
Be aware of this. While belonging is good, we can fall into the trap of doing things just to belong. Those actions can take us down a dark and dangerous path.
9. Chris’s dad:
Life is a series of choices. None of them new.
Chris had been bullied as a child. His dad knew this. As a military man, he couldn’t stand for his son being picked on. He had to help his son see that he could choose not to be the victim.
Sitting in their car, they see the bullies gather together. His dad tells Chris he has a choice to make. The choice isn’t new, it’s one that’s as old as time.
Chris eventually chooses to get out of the car and attack the bullies.
What choices are you facing? Do you see them as new? Or old?
All of our choices are as old as time. Someone, somewhere, has had to make the same choice as you.
Know that you’re not alone in your decisions. They’ve all been made by someone before you. Be confident in the choice you make.
10. It’s a team effort:
Lamar is exposed as a villain. Marybeth and Ray take down the rest of his organization after Chris kills him.
During a press conference, Marybeth has the opportunity to claim credit. Instead, she chooses to give credit to the team.
Standing on the podium, she tells the audience that Lamar’s downfall was a team effort. Everyone’s actions were important.
Do you desire the limelight? To be the one getting the accolades?
So many leaders do… so many leaders make the wrong choice.
When you’re leading a team, it’s not about you. It’s not about what you’ve done. What is done is a team effort.
Give credit to the whole team. Don’t hog the glory. Pass it around, let others bask in the warmth of the spotlight. They were a part of the success.
