Leadership lessons from Neville Longbottom!

 I'm a Harry Potter fan! Not into collecting the wizarding world items. But having a deep interest in understanding the minute details of the characters. My top 5 favorite major characters: Albus Dumbledore, Hermoine Granger, Neville Longbottom, Minerva Mcgonnagal and Molly Weasley (in that order!).

While all of the HP characters have taught me important life lessons, the leadership lessons from Neville are the some of most useful at workplace. Here are the top 7 (get it?):

1. Make difficult decisions to do the right thing: At the end of the first movie, Dumbledore very appropriately summarizes Neville's courage “It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.”
2. Be true to yourself and fight for what you believe in: Neville was not the most obvious Griffindor, but he kept fighting throughout the books for what he believed to be right. He had not fully "evolved" by The Order of the Phoenix, but still played a valuable role in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. This is specially true for people who may not be in defined leadership roles, or could be new in their career. No matter how others perceive you, be true to yourself.
3. Going out of the comfort zone: Fighting against the Dark Lord was very far from his comfort zone, but Neville proves that miracles do happen by continuing to stretch the comfort zone. (My previous article discusses comfort zones at length.)
4. Take your time to get comfortable with emotions: We don't find out much about Neville's parents until book 5, and even then he was not the one to bring it up. There could be some of those moments for anyone, and it's important to know that it's ok to take your own time! (While I am an avid proponent of going outside of the comfort zone, but it's a personal decision to determine the duration.)
5. Attention to detail when nobody else is noticing: I was always surprised by his knowledge of herbology. Though there wasn't a lot of detail in the books, one example that comes to mind is from the Goblet of Fire, where Harry survives the second task because Neville remembered reading about Gillyweed.
6. Courage to speak up: During the final moments of the Battle of Hogwarts, when Harry was pronounced dead, and all hope seemed lost, Neville still found the courage to speak his mind in front of Voldemort! We are often advised to not contradict people who are in stronger positions (at the moment), but the true strength of character is defined in those moments..... And truly strong leaders (not Voldy of course) actually do appreciate that behavior.
7. Persistence: He was not the most courageous kid for several years. But he kept trying. I remember the fifth movie where he couldn't disarm or stupefy anyone for a very long time. But he eventually became the one to take out one of the most terrifying horcruxes!

These are the top 7 lessons I learned from Neville! What are some of your favorites? From him, and from other characters?