3 Simple “Money Heist” Lessons for Maximizing Motivation

I binge watched the "Money Heist" this past May. That's Netflix's title for the Spanish "Casa de Papel" series showing how eight criminals, recruited and trained by criminal mastermind "El Profesor," take over the Royal Mint of Spain to steal billions.  The characters (Toyko's my favorite), the plot twists, drama and romance are so well strung together.  I told my daughter about it.  She watched episode 1 Friday night and binge watched the remaining 21 episodes over the weekend.  She's couldn't stop.

The way El Profesor recruited, trained and motivated his team to execute his elaborately orchestrated plan was brilliant.  You see how he bonded these individualistic, highly skilled team members into a cohesive team that work together sticking to their plan despite all the obstacles.  His leadership makes it happen.

Let's explore three lessons I took from his leadership and discover how we can up our own leadership and improve our ability to get our teams to perform optimally.

Note:  This article is spoiler free.

Lesson 1 - Get to Really Know Your Team Members Individually

Minutes into episode one, we jump into Tokyo's flashback running from the law.  After 15 clean and successful heists, she lost her partner in crime and the love of her life in the last one.  She's heartbroken in a bad way. Her picture's all over TV as part of a Spain-wide manhunt for her.

She tells us the day she was headed to the slaughterhouse with the police closing in her on, her guardian angel appears.  That's how she refers to her boss, El Profesor.  She is so endeared and committed to him and as the story develops, you understand why.

El Profesor works with the other eight on his team in similar ways.   El Profesor needs what each one has to offer to his master plan.  We see him get to know them and their personal issues  He learns what it is they need in their lives and connects what they need to what he needs for his plan to succeed.  He converts this group of criminals into a cohesive team that faces a ton of pressure and stress and still sticks to the plan he sets in motion.

When running a business, we can easily easy just stick to business.  We can easily forget or outright avoid the topic that we work with individuals that have personal lives, loved ones and goals they want to achieve.  This is an issue that's even more likely to happen when you work with virtual team members spread out across the globe.

My recommendation is to dedicate time to getting to know your folks well.  Open up to them about yourself so they know you.  Let them see who you are and what motivates you.

Exciting stuff to come in my next articles where I cover Lesson 2 - Connecting Tightly to a Cause.  Click her for part 2.