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5 Leadership Lessons From the Barbie Movie: An Executive Coaching Perspective

Christina Pan
6 min readAug 9, 2023

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The Barbie movie was bold and creative and not what I expected it to be, even though I had heard it was about women’s empowerment. It was actually much more than that. As an executive coach and former product leader, I saw a few interesting, possibly non-obvious leadership learnings in the movie and it inspired me to write this.

5 Leadership Lessons From the Barbie Movie

  1. It’s hard being a leader. YES AND here are two positive reframings.
  2. We don’t need permission to be who we want to be.
  3. Good leaders motivate everyone to think bigger and better!
  4. The most inspiring leaders intentionally and strategically include and empower EVERYONE, not just some factions (due to being unintentional).
  5. Manage your mindset and you will be UNSTOPPABLE!!

1. It’s hard being a leader. YES AND here are two positive reframings:

  1. YES AND let’s give ourselves plenty of grace and self-compassion!

We can never give ourselves too much in this arena. Many of us give ourselves too little grace and self-compassion! Will Ferrell (CEO of Mattel) and Ken (Ryan Gosling) both broke down sobbing at separate times in the movie and admitted how hard it is to be a leader. Ken didn’t even want to be a leader of a patriarchy anymore after he learned it wasn’t about fun and riding horses like a cowboy.

2. YES AND the best part is leadership does NOT have to be stressful!

At least in terms of bad stress. Good stress helps us grow! When you have the right support network around you, hard challenges are still hard, but they’re not daunting and you’re actually excited to tackle them! This can look like executive coaching, peer circles, group coaching support, or any myriad of the right people and resources around you.

Barbie (Margot Robbie) was face-planted lying on the ground sobbing in hopelessness when she lost confidence and didn’t know what to do next. The key learning: Barbie, Ken, and Will Ferrell didn’t have to suffer so much if they leveraged the powers of coaching!

2. We don’t need permission to be who we want to be.

Startup folks, including myself, love this phrase: “Ask forgiveness, not permission.” It means YOU decide and get sh-t done, don’t wait for permission.

We don’t need permission from anyone to be who we want to be — whether it’s subconsciously or overtly our family, partner, boss, board/advisors, investors, executive team, predecessor, mentor, friends, peers, teammates, whoever!

Ruth Handler (Rhea Perlman), the creator of Barbie, said this herself to Barbie in the movie: Barbie didn’t need her creator’s permission if Barbie wanted to become human, or whatever Barbie wanted to do next with her life — and it wasn’t in Ruth’s control either.

When it comes to being the human and leader you want to be, you decide!

3. Good leaders motivate everyone to think bigger and better!

There’s a gotcha though: The movie shows the vast difference when you have an unlimited mindset vs. when you don’t.

It’s easier to think bigger when you’re born into a world that tells you that YOU CAN DO ANYTHING (Barbies in Barbieland).

Many of us were NOT born into that and face inherent systemic inequities where we are told the opposite, e.g. “you can’t do that” or “you can’t achieve that” (Kens in Barbieland, as well as all the women and some men/others in the Real World).

I can’t speak highly enough of the tremendous value of executive coaching in flipping these societal or cultural limiting beliefs and training the mind for an unlimited mindset. Good leaders can coach their teams on this unlimited mindset and spread this goodness too!

4. The most inspiring leaders intentionally and strategically include and empower EVERYONE, not just some factions (due to being unintentional).

When people feel disempowered, they’re not going to be motivated to want to be on our team and won’t give their best. We saw this with the Kens in the first half of the movie and the Barbies in the latter half. We saw this with Allan (Michael Cera), Ken’s best friend, who felt perpetually overlooked and ignored, and thus retaliated by joining the Barbies against the Kens. We see this in the Real World where patriarchy rules and inspires Ken to use patriarchy to solve his disempowerment.

We also saw that leaders cannot force buy-in (as we all well know). Trying to force buy-in often ends in chaos and backwards progress.

Ken tried forcing the patriarchy on the Barbies and on the other Kens — which worked for a bit and then backfired when the Barbies were empowered once more and pitted the Kens against each other. Mattel couldn’t even force (manipulate) Barbie back into the toy box— she trusted her intuition at the last minute and smartly ran away.

However by the end of the cathartic Hollywood happy ending, everyone was empowered! It’s not just a cheesy happy ending though.

The leadership lesson is that Barbie had evolved as a leader, not by her choice, and everyone was genuinely included and fully empowered.

Barbie acknowledged to Ken the ways that she had disempowered him, and encouraged him to find his true own self outside of her. The Barbies were back to their original empowered selves. The Kens were empowered to be their own selves, not existing only to serve Barbies. Even Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) was acknowledged by President Barbie (Issa Rae) for being quasi-ostracized and disempowered by the other Barbies, and given a leadership role in the President’s cabinet.

This happy ending is not just for the movies. It’s a leadership lesson that’s within our control in the Real World. How many of us have given this a good try??

5. Manage your mindset and you will be UNSTOPPABLE!!

If you ever need an emotional energy boost or want to plant seeds of confidence in your kids, watch the beginning Barbieland scene.

It shows how invincible and amazing your energy can be when you have an unlimited mindset and all the confidence in the world, with no doubts or naysayers holding you back.

This scene was almost comical and inspiring at the same time because it contrasts so much to the Real World. Barbie wakes up happy everyday to her best life. All the Barbies are glowingly positive with all the “Hi Barbie” greetings to each other. Diversity is the norm: Barbies represent in all shapes, sizes, ethnicities, all types of accomplishments, and pursuits in life, from the President to Nobel Prize winners to an unlimited variety of careers and lifestyles.

The BEST PART is that every Barbie shows up with badass boss energy, with that unlimited mindset and unstoppable confidence! We get scene after scene of Barbies claiming their birthright of abundance and confidence.

From the executive coaching perspective, the way we manage our mindset is core to achieving our most desired dreams and goals, and it’s entirely within our control!

Again, no one does this alone! This is where having the right coaching, finding the tools and resources that work for you, and cobbling together your own version of a board of advisors is critical to cultivating an unlimited mindset and sustaining that confidence through life’s challenges. Even the Barbies turn to each other to reinforce this norm.

If you take away one thing from this movie and the lessons of Barbieland, remember:

Cultivate an unlimited mindset and you will be unstoppable!!

It is the best day ever. So was yesterday, and so is tomorrow, and every day from now until forever.

— Barbie

About Christina Pan:

I coach founders, executives, and leaders to unlock their best potential. We work together to suss out blindspots and limiting beliefs that are holding you back from your best career and leadership growth, reframe challenges into much more productive options and brighter horizons, and co-brainstorm mindset strategies, tools/better structure, and action steps that you’re excited to test out and move you forward in your most fulfilling life!

More on my executive coaching at my LinkedIn or Instagram at christinawpan.

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Christina Pan

Passionate about building products and teams that bring positivity to people’s everyday lives