Leadership Principles and Values in Apollo 13 mission

Apollo 13 : A Successful Failure

The movie is based on the true story of NASA Apollo 13 mission which is given a title of "A Successful Failure". On April 11, 1970, astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert blast-off towards the moon. But while in space, an oxygen tank explodes, putting the trio in danger: they quickly lose oxygen, run out of power, and get exposed to dangerously high amounts of carbon dioxide with more problems like emotional friction. This mishaps surprise the scientists and technicians at Mission Control and they're not sure how to cure the situation which had escalated the situation. Everyone must work together to come up with the correct answer, so that astronauts should to come back home safely.

Apollo 13 illustrates an abundance of leadership values and principles which were

• Proficiency in the job – Be proficient as technical as well as leader
• Sound and timely decision making – The decision should be taken timely and accurately for the achievement of the goal with maintaining situation awareness in order to anticipate needed actions and develop contingencies and consider consequences.
• Ensure that tasks are understood, supervised and accomplished. – A leader should issue clear instructions which can easily understood by follower. With observing and assessing actions in progress and use positive feedback to modify duties, tasks and assignments
• Employ your subordinates in accordance with their capabilities – A Leader should distribute the work among its sub-ordinates according to their capabilities and provide early warning to subordinates of tasks they will be responsible for.
• Knowing your subordinates, inform them and look out for their well-being – The Leader should take care of their subordinate’s needs and put the safety of their subordinates above all other objectives. The leader should be capable of resolving conflicts between individuals in the team.
• Knowing yourself and seek improvement – A Leader should know their strengths/weaknesses and skill level and should actively listen to feedback from subordinates.
• Seeking accountability and accept accountability for your actions – The Leader should accept full accountability for both affluent and poor team performance with crediting subordinates for good performance.
• Set the example – The Leader should share his hazards and hardships with your subordinates. So, that the subordinates can learn from those incidents.

 The above stated principles can be analyzed by some of the dialogues in the movie which had motivated the sub-ordinate for achieving the goal.
“I am in command of the best ship with the best crew that anybody would ask for” - Jim Lovell, Commander

“We have never lost an American in space.  We are sure as hell not going to lose one on my watch.  Failure is not an option!” - Gene Kranz, Flight Director