8 Management Lessons from Star Wars
Sunday, May 20, 2007
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Saw this link over on TFN and loved it. Here's a clip from the Financial Express article - 8 management principles learned from Star Wars. Good stuff ...
Make occasional goodwill gestures
Most successful managers take pride in their ruthlessness. There is no room for sentiment in business (although there is room for business in sentiment, as Hallmark and Archies so wonderfully demonstrate). But George Lucas shows us that occasionally, being nice can be useful also. When Anakin has been bathed in molten lava and is crawling to certain death, barbequed and limbless, who is it that saves him? None other than the Emperor, who spends all six movies being uniformly mean to everyone. Yet, here, he tenderly nurses Anakin back to health. In return, Darth Vader swears undying loyalty, squishing the enemies of the Emperor. So even if you’re a successful manager, make the effort, do something nice once in a while.Don’t play minor roles in other ventures
Sometimes, people will approach you, asking you to ‘help out’ with their company. Usually this means they won’t pay you much money, but you may be tempted by the ‘prestige’. Don’t fall for it. As in so much else, learn from the Jedi. Sundry actors have taken bit parts in the Star Wars movies. Before you even notice them, they vanish, and soon, so do their careers. Liam Neeson has vanished. Samuel L Jackson appears only on talk shows. Jimmy Smits is currently working at McDonalds. As you can see, there’s a pattern here.Get out of the conference room
Senior managers tend to spend most of their time in ‘meetings’, particularly during summer when it’s hot and the natives sweat a lot. Throughout the Star Wars series, members of the Jedi Council spend their entire time in meetings, looking gloomy and thoughtful. Apart from Yoda, you will never see any of them outside their meeting room. Ultimately, Darth Vader wipes out the whole lot of them, except for Yoda, who spends the next 30 years in a tree, and Obi Wan, who spends the next 30 years in a smelly robe. The message is clear—air conditioning is good, but too much of it may leave you crushed by the competition.
JG
posted by Unknown @ 9:46 AM |
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