Peter (Charlie Weber), an ex-CIA agent, has left behind the life of intrigue and espionage. He’s become a painter, living in a small town. He’s just trying to get by. However, something changes all of that. A young woman, Sophia (Madison Bailey), walks into his life… Claiming to be his daughter.
He can’t believe this. He and his ex-wife Elena (Rryla McIntosh) lost their child when Elena was shot.
But the thought of “What if” enters his mind. He goes down a rabbit hole that exposes more than he ever knew.
Peter’s story can help us explore leadership ideas and principles. Let’s do a Reel Leadership deep dive into The Painter.
Quotes And Leadership Lessons From The Painter
1. Watch your assumptions:
Peter is on the phone with his wife. They’re deep in conversation but you get a sense that Peter knows something is off.
He was right.
A man is sneaking up on him. Viewers are tense as they wait to see if the man is going to kill Peter. The man does not.
The man turns out to be Byrne (Jon Voight), Peter’s father.
The director purposely played up this section of the movie. They wanted the audience to be held in suspense. They wanted you to think Byrne was going to kill Peter. They wanted you to assume.
And then sigh when you realize what was happening.
We assume a lot of things. We assume:
- Employee motives
- Financial projections
- Outcomes to projects
- And more…
We have to be careful with assumptions. There’s an old saying about assuming things. I won’t repeat it here, but it gets to the heart of the matter.
2. Byrne:
Or a strength…
Byrne recalls Peter’s young days. In this recalling, we discover Byrne is not Peter’s biological father. He has adopted Peter after a terrible accident killed Peter’s parents.
Peter had hearing loss as a result of the incident. The doctor called it hyper-sensitive hearing.
In talking to Byrne, the doctor told him the hyper-sensitive hearing could be a weakness. The condition would make it difficult for Peter to be out in public, as everything would overstimulate his audio cortex.
Byrne saw something else. The hyper-sensitive hearing could be a strength.
What do you see as a weakness? Maybe in yourself… Maybe in others…
Could what you perceive as a weakness actually be a strength? Could you find some way to turn it into a useful asset?
Great leaders look for ways to make weakness into strength. Discover the reverse of what you expect.
3. It’s okay to be different from others:
Peter had become a painter after Elena was shot and they lost their baby (or so they thought). He and his wife had also divorced. It was a sad situation for everyone involved. Peter moved to an isolated cabin. He wanted to be alone.
To make ends meet, Peter began to sell his paintings. He had them on display at Lucy’s Tavern. He receives a call from Lucy (Leah Gibson) that a painting has been sold. He could come collect his payment.
But Lucy also had more in mind. She wanted to get Peter, now calling himself Mark, out of the house. Out to have some fun.
Peter reluctantly agreed to a beer. Then Lucy tried to push him for a second. Lucy was frustrated that Peter didn’t want to get out and have more fun.
Let’s be honest. We’re all different. Some of us are extroverts. Others are introverts. Then there are ambiverts.
Each person is uniquely designed. The way they interact and recharge may differ from yours. However, that doesn’t make them wrong.
Embrace the differences of those on your team.
4. Find ways to include critical redundancies:
Whenever Elena would get Peter gifts, she would get him two. Especially when it came to books.
Why? Elena knew Peter’s propensity to get paint on his stuff. She wanted to make sure he had a good copy, even if one got ruined.
They called this critical redundancy.
Organizations need to find ways to build critical redundancies into their business structures. If they don’t, they can find themselves in a world of trouble.
IT departments do this a lot of times with their data backups. They have backups:
- On-site
- In the cloud
- Physical copy off-site
Backup redundancy reduces the risk of data loss in the event of a security breach. The organization can be back up and running far quicker than if it had only one backup.
Where does your organization need to have critical redundancies?
5. Elena:
The hardest thing to see is what is right in front of you
Elena had sent Peter two copies of a book on master painters. Inside, she had penned a note for him.
Peter was confused by the note. What could it mean? Could it hold some meaning?
The note did. Elena had hidden a flash drive in each book. The flash drives contained data on a secret CIA program called The Interns. They were kidnapping kids and training them to be government assassins.
Does Elena’s note ring true for you? It does for me.
We’re so close to some things that we can’t see what’s right in front of us. We fail to see how our partners are feeling. We fail to see why an employee is struggling. We fail to see what’s really happening in our organization.
It can be beneficial to take a step back from things. To reevaluate what’s going on.
Doing so gives you the opportunity to see your world from a different angle. Give it a try. You might see something that’s been right in front of you the whole time.
6. Know who you can go to:
CIA Section Chief Naomi Piasecki (Marie Avgeropoulos), along with Agent Kim (Luisa d’Oliveira), dispatches CIA operatives to take out Peter. He takes out all of the CIA operatives with ease. However, he knew he and Sophia were not safe. They needed to get to someone who could help.
Luckily, Peter knew of someone. That someone is a computer repair shop owner named Niles (Jason Gray-Stanford). The two head to his shop, where Niles helps them get some information off the flash drive before the Ghost (Max Montesi) attacks.
Do you know where you can go when things get tough? Do you have someone you can count on?
The best leaders I know have built a support system of people they can call on when the going gets rough. These are their 3 AM people.
Build a network of people you can call on… at any time. You’re going to need a band of brothers (or sisters) to help you.
7. Sophia:
And then?
Byrne breaks the news to Sophia and Peter that Elena is dead. She’s been killed (We later learn Byrne was in the room when the Ghost killed Elena). Peter asks for a moment to process what has happened.
Peter wanted to devise a way to find out who killed his ex-wife. And then formulate a plan to exact revenge.
Sophia asks, “And then?” It’s a great question to think about.
In your organization, think about these “And then” situations:
- You have a gangbuster of a year, and there’s a windfall of finances
- It’s a tough year, and money is tight
- An employee quits without notice
- You acquire your biggest customer ever
Whenever something good or bad happens, consider the “And then” scenarios. What will happen afterward?
Will you save the windfall? Or spend it rewarding your employees?
When money is tight, will you cut back on spending? Or will you fire employees?
Each situation requires you to think of “And then…”
8. A mission that touches the heart will move your people:
Elena had recorded a video for Peter before her death. The video gave Peter a new mission in life.
The mission was to protect Sophia, their daughter.
Talk about a man on fire. Peter took the new mission to herat.
What’s the mission of your organization? Is it powerful? Does it move people to action? Or does it fizzle out?
Give your organization a mission that will ignite the fire within your team. When they have something worth working toward, they will do great things.
9. It’s good for your people to question you:
Agent Kim had begun to question Naomi’s actions. She felt like Naomi was escalating the situation with Peter.
Naomi pushed back. She didn’t like being questioned (you probably won’t either). However, Agent Kim’s questions were valid. They could have saved her life if she had asked them earlier.
You’re not unquestionable. In fact, leaders should be asked the tough questions. They should be held accountable.
If your people are concerned about your actions, listen to their concerns. They are seeing things you aren’t.
10. We can become misguided:
Byrne had been kidnapping and torturing children into killing machines. Even his own granddaughter!
He thinks there’s nothing wrong with what he’s doing. He’s helping the country be better protected. Heck, there are probably other countries doing the same thing.
That doesn’t mean Byrne is right in what he was doing. He was still wrong.
Don’t let yourself become blinded to what’s right because you see an expedited way to get results. The expediting will often lead to moral compromises.
Once you start compromising morally, you’re on a slippery slope you probably won’t recover from.
