It turns out I’m not the only one that sees films as a good learning opportunity.

In King Richard, the excellent Oscar-winning biopic about tennis supremos Venus and Serena Williams and their dad/coach, there’s a scene where Richard Williams does the same thing.

He informs the family that they’re going to watch Cinderella, the old Disney classic. When it’s over, Richard asks Venus, Serena and their three sisters what they learned from it. “Be polite” is offered, as is “remember your shoes”.

But nobody comes up with the lesson that Richard has in mind, so he decides they’re going to watch it all over again. Uproar ensues and he (unusually) backs down. What he wanted them to learn, he explains, is that Cinderella was humble. When people disrespected her, she “kept her heart clean”.

So let’s imagine Richard Williams is asking me what I learned about leadership from King Richard.

1. Leaders must show humility

What makes the Cinderella scene particularly interesting is that nobody would describe Richard Williams as humble when it comes to his daughters’ talents. The film opens with him confidently pitching their abilities to various tennis coaches – the girls are primary school age at the time and all of the coaches ignore him.

But later we see Venus playing junior tennis against competitors who display rudeness, temper tantrums, and cheating – and their parents are even worse. Only one young opponent is shown cheerfully having her photo taken with the Williams family and being friendly and respectful to Venus, who had just beaten her.

It’s a reminder that our behaviour as leaders is always being noticed, whether we’re winning, losing or just keeping the train on the tracks. Every leader must own their emotions. Be humble when you win and gracious in defeat and everything in between.

2. Long-term planning can give you courage

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” seems to have been a constant refrain during the Williams sisters’ childhoods. But Richard Williams took that to another level: he wrote plans for both Venus and Serena before they were born.

And we see the impact of that forward-planning when, at several times in the film, Richard goes against the conventional wisdom on how his daughters will reach their goals of winning Wimbledon. A couple of examples: Venus didn’t participate in any junior tournaments for three years because Richard feared she would burn out. They also turn down a $3m sponsorship offer from Nike the night before Venus plays one of her first serious competitive matches.

Leaders should always attempt to put long term plans in place, even if nobody is asking for them – for the evolution and output of their part of the business, for their teams, and for their own careers. It’s easy to make a plan for a calendar year. But having a 3-year or 5-year or 10-year plan about where you think you’ll be heading can help you make the right decisions today.

This needs to be used with caution though. Marketers can sometimes focus too much on the long-term – “we want to win all 10,000 accounts in X market so we need a marketing plan to achieve that” – which can get in the way of focusing on completing step one of the plan, eg “we need to get the first 100 customers on board.”

3. Know what you want and be ready to seize the moment

In so many other sports movies, from Jerry Maguire to Moneyball, you see talented young players from working class backgrounds striving away until they get spotted – and then the agents move in and the machine cranks into life. At this point the talent is expected to follow the process.

In King Richard, we watch as the Florida-based tennis coach Rick Macci cranks the machine into life after he sees the sisters play. He hands over his standard contract asking for 15% of earnings. You wait for the Williams family to review it, negotiate a bit, and then accept it.

But Richard Williams is one step ahead. He immediately hands back their contract – with a list of everything the family needs to relocate to Florida. Macci knows he can’t pass up the opportunity to coach the Williams sisters, so he agrees to Richard’s detailed wishlist.

As a leader, you need to be ready to negotiate – with your CFO, with your other peers, with your boss, your suppliers, your customers and partner organisations. Always know what you’re going to need next and what is valuable to you and be ready to hustle for it at any moment. You never know when that moment might arise.

There are lots of other great moments about leadership and winning (and losing) in the film. It’s also a highly enjoyable watch with some first-rate performances – you can find King Richard on Amazon Prime.