Quotes And Leadership Lessons From The Iron Giant

The Iron Giant is a modern-day animation classic. The film tells the story of young Hogarth Hughes (Eli Marienthal). Shortly after the film begins, Hogarth finds a giant metal robot, The Iron Giant (Vin Diesel), near a power station. 

He quickly befriends the giant robot. Along the way, he teaches The Iron Giant how to speak, feel, and grow. But there’s also a paranoid government agent, Kent Mansley (Christopher McDonald), out to find the robot.

It’s a touching story about youthful expectations, helping others, and finding belonging. 

As usual, there’s more to a film than those things. There are leadership lessons in The Iron Giant that help you grow and become a better leader.

Quotes And Leadership Lessons From The Iron Giant

1. People may not believe you even if you’re telling the truth:

Earl Stutz (M. Emmet Walsh) is the captain of the boat destroyed by The Iron Giant. He was out at sea when a massive storm came in. The Iron Giant fell to Earth during the storm, crashed into the water, and then damaged Earl’s boat.

He returned to town and told his friends about his encounter with the extraterrestrial being. 

Did his friends believe him? No. They thought he was hitting the sauce again. 

Our visions and dreams can be too big for those around us to believe. They may laugh us off, tell us we’re too far out there, or just ignore what we’re saying. 

Don’t let that stop you. Your dreams and visions for the future can be made a reality. They may already be reality. 

2. Dean McCoppin (Harry Connick Jr.):

If we don’t stand up for the kooks, who will?

Dean owns a local scrapyard and was at the diner while Earl shared his story. Even though the story was far-fetched, Dean stuck up for Earl. He told Earl’s friends he had seen the robot, too.

When Hogarth heard Dean say this, he told Dean he believed him. 

Had Dean really seen the robot? No…

Then why did Dean say he saw the robot? Because he wanted to stick up for the little guy. The guy being made fun of. 

Dean knew that you have to stick up for others. Even if what they’re saying or doing sounds strange.

Who on your team do you need to stick up for? How can you do this?

Be willing to stick up for those you’re leading.

3. We can miss important things when we’re engrossed in our own world:

Annie (Jennifer Aniston), Hogarth’s mom, had to work late. She told Hogarth not to stay up late watching scary movies.

Know what Hogarth did? He stayed up late, watching scary movies. 

As he’s watching the scary movie, The Iron Giant is traipsing through Hogarth’s backyard. There had to be a loud racket happening as The Iron Giant broke the antenna on Hogarth’s house. The Iron Giant also destroys a fence and nearby machinery. 

It had to be loud.

Did Hogarth hear it? No. It wasn’t until he was brought back to the real world when The Iron Giant broke the antenna that he saw something had happened right outside his window.

We get engrossed in the world of leadership, much like Hogarth was engrossed in the movie. The things happening around us are on the periphery. They don’t catch our eye until something brings them to our attention.

This can be a dangerous situation for a leader. If you, the leader, aren’t aware of what’s happening until it’s staring them in the face, you will be facing many fires.

Learn how to get out of your own world, your own head. Pay attention to what’s around you.

4. Great leaders help, even when scared:

The Iron Giant lumbered to the local power station. There, he became entangled in the power lines.

Hogarth sees this happen. He’s scared as the station pops and crackles with dangerous electricity. 

He begins to head home when he has a change of heart. Hogarth turns around, flips the giant power switch outside the building, and frees The Iron Giant.

Hogarth was scared. He helped anyway.

There will be situations where you’re scared of the outcome. It could be a physically dangerous situation or one that puts your career at risk.

Great leaders will step in to help when the situation warrants it. Even if they’re scared.

Be willing to help.

5. Foreman Marv Loach (James Gammon):

It’s got me beat.

Government agent Kent Mansley shows up in town after the power station incident. He approaches the foreman of the site to ask what happened.

While Marv had some guesses… It could have been the storm. It could be something else.

Yet, Marv’s final answer was that it beat him. He didn’t know.

Watching Marv tell Kent this, Marv doesn’t look shaken up, unnerved, or uneasy. He appeared to be calm as he said he didn’t know.

What can we take away from Marv’s seemingly lackadaisical answer? It’s okay not to have the answer all of the time. When you don’t know, admit it. To play it off.

By admitting you don’t know, you can begin to seek out the answers. You can find the right way to do things. Or you might find the next step. 

Say you don’t know when you don’t know.

6. Perfectionism can be dangerous:

The Iron Giant pulls up a piece of a train track. He was hungry. He wanted to eat. And it was metal.

Whoops.

Hogarth tells him NO! They need to put the train track back in place.

The Iron Giant begins to lay the track back down. It’s a little wavy. He continues to work on it until the railroad track is entirely flat.

By this time, it’s too late. The train is coming around the corner. The train slams into The Iron Giant.

The Iron Giant could have said it was good enough but he continued working on it until it was perfect. It was the perfectionism that led to the accident.

How often do we continue working on something that is good enough because we want it to be perfect? Everything has to be ironed out before a launch, career change, or new idea is implemented? 

This desire to be perfect is the enemy of finished. We will never stop working on something if we desire perfection. We have to be content with good enough.

7. Great leaders inspire others:

Hogarth goes to his family’s barn, where The Iron Giant is staying, with a stack of books. He tells The Iron Giant he’s there to read him a bedtime story.

They go through the books. One of the books is an Action Comics story from DC Comics. Featured on the cover is Superman. His big, red S symbolizes hope, freedom, and action.

Hogarth tells The Iron Giant that he’s a lot like Superman. They’re both good guys who came from outer space.

Later in the movie, The Iron Giant takes a piece of metal with an S and says that he’s Superman.

We don’t see the immediate effects of Hogarth’s words but they come to fruition later in the movie. This happens all the time with leaders.

They share inspiring words, thoughts, and ideas with their team. It feels like those things fall on deaf ears.

Suddenly, they see their team members taking to heart what was said. 

Great leaders inspire their people. They help them become more than what they were.

Be the inspiring leader.

8. Dean McCoppin:

They don’t decide who you are. You do.

The Iron Giant and Hogarth go to Dean’s junkyard to look for scrap metal. This way, The Iron Giant could eat to his heart’s content.

The Iron Giant sets off one of the car’s horns. It wouldn’t shut off. The horn kept honking and honking.

Eventually, Dean comes out to see Hogarth outside. He invites Hogarth in and gives him coffee.

Bad idea.

This hypes Hogarth up. He’s zipping around the house, telling Dean all about his life. Including the bullies. 

Dean tells Hogarth an important truth. Other people don’t get to decide who you are. You get to decide this.

Remember this as you lead. You get to decide your actions and what that makes you. It’s not others that do but you.

9. Challenging situations often uncover our hidden talents:

Kent calls General Rogard (John Mahoney) to inform him he’s found an extraterrestrial being. The army needs to come secure or destroy it. So, the military rolls in with its full might.

This causes The Iron Giant to flee. He runs away, narrowly avoiding a bus full of children. However, he doesn’t see the cliff ahead of him. He begins to fall when something special happens. 

His flight boosters kick in. He discovers he can fly.

We will face difficult, challenging situations pushing us to our limits. We won’t know what to do. Maybe we wonder if we can even make it through the situation.

Do you know what will happen? You’ll discover an inner strength you never knew you had. You’ll find you’re smarter, stronger, better than you knew.

Don’t fret about challenging situations. They’ll bring the best out of you.

10. The Iron Giant:

I fix.

As General Rogard tries to call off the attack on The Iron Giant, Kent grabs the radio. He tells the ship to fire the missile! 

The Iron Giant sees the threat ahead. If he doesn’t stop the missile, the town will be destroyed. 

He chooses to fly into the sky to stop the missile, an issue he didn’t cause but Kent did. He would fix what he didn’t break.

Great leaders know the problems they will face aren’t all caused by them. Many issues will be caused by the people you lead.

What do you do then? 

Do what The Iron Giant did. Go, fix the problem.

Joseph Lalonde is the owner of JMLalonde.com. He shares leadership insights from movies, extreme sports, and life experiences.

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