Inside Out

In the movie Inside Out, a young girl named Riley has recently moved from the mid-west to San Francisco, California. This has been detrimental to Riley’s mental health, and the world of emotions come crashing down. Joy has been the main character who has been the only one in charge of Riley’s emotions right up until a certain point in the film. Sadness and Joy eventually get lost in the film while on a journey to find their way back to the Headquarter’s control room with Riley’s other three emotions. While Joy and Sadness are lost deep in Riley’s, disgust, anger, and fear are the ones left in charge of her emotions. Joy learns a valuable lesson from Sadness. Joy believes in her mind that she is the only one who can make others happy from the Joy she pours out. However, she quickly realizes that without Sadness, we lack empath and sympathy. Empathy and sympathy only can come from overcoming the Sadness we once felt and, in turn, relay that experience to connect with others in their time of need. This lesson helped Joy learn from Sadness and Sadness, finding confidence as she realizes she is a valuable emotions team member.

I found three leadership lessons that I have observed from the movie Inside Out. The story’s climax began when Joy and Sadness became lost as they ventured too far from the Headquarters of emotions. Since Riley was able to have emotions, Joy has always been in charge of the Headquarters control room. Since she has always been in charge, they became co-dependent on Joy’s leadership since she has been the one in charge since day one. That was clear in the film that the others were not prepared for Joy’s absence. Leaving fear, disgust, and anger in charge was nothing short of a recipe for disaster. As a leader, you must work together as a team and trust your teammates, for instance, when you might be away. This also helps to prevent the ones in charge of getting burnt out trying to do everything themselves. If your team cannot function properly without your presence, that is not a leader

The second leadership lesson that I have learned was learning to value the differences of others. Joy had the idea in her mind that as long as she was in charge then Riley would always be happy. She let the idea control the fact that she failed to realize that the other emotions fear, anger, disgust, and Sadness especially are needed for Riley’s survival. Joy worked extra hard to keep Sadness far away from the control board as she possibly could. Not realizing that Riley needed Sadness to be able to use empathy and sympathy. It is not common to be fearful of something that is unfamiliar and sticking to what we know has been working effectively. It is also easy to view someone who does something better than you as a threat. When Sadness was able to connect with Bing Bong making him happy when Joy could not. Toxic leaders would sometimes think this way, good leaders can recognize potential in others with different backgrounds. With different backgrounds, people are able to view things from a better perspective allowing better insight for new solutions.

Finally, at the end of the movie, Riley was able to express her emotions to parents because Joy finally saw Sadness’s leadership potential. She then allowed the control board to be not only shared with Sadness but also with the rest of the emotions. Anger, disgust, and fear had shown their leadership potential by salvaging the remainder of Riley’s mind as the rest of her personality crumbled. Great leaders are the ones who are able to depend on their team. These leaders can effectively build up their team and are able to put trust in the employees to carry out tasks. To be a good leader is one who allows their employees to work independently even if the task fails at times. The key aspect I learned was to be able to recognize when it is time to let go and allow someone else to shine and take charge. Nothing can be done by yourself.

We determine how other people see us with the feedback that we receive from them, which means how others react when we come around, get invited to social events, and be included in planned events. People tend to act negatively towards somebody they do not prefer to be associated around. As human beings, we need to feel socially accepted, and when we are isolated, we tend to react emotionally. Those who are leaders or those whom people gravitate towards relate to their beliefs. The behavior of a trait for someone good at recognizing how others see them relates to the big five personality traits. These are similar to the ones we discussed earlier in the semester, but just a little more in-depth on behavior details. Those traits include extroversion, conscientiousness, openness, agreeableness, Neuroticism. Extroversion describes how someone would interact socially with others, know how to control their emotions, and be comfortable with assertiveness for people in social environments. This is similar to being an extrovert; they thrive in social environments because they are not afraid to voice their opinions. People with these traits gain energy from being around other people. Oppose to those who score low in extraversion are known as introverts. Conscientiousness is known to describe a person’s impulse control, which allows them to engage in direct behaviors and thrive in social environments. They have high levels of thoughtfulness and able to think about how their behaviors may affect others. People who have the openness trait tend to be more open and adventurous. Having keen insight and creative imagination, they can have a broad range of interests. While also being open to new world experiences and learning new things. Agreeableness comes with caring for others, enjoying helping, feeling empathy, and concern for other people. They were making sacrifices without receiving anything in return. Neuroticism is a person’s ability to control their own emotions. Those who have common traits tend to be more emotionally stable. They have self-control by having control of their own emotions. Not acting on impulse allows them to be more socially accepted.