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5 things Star Trek’s Captain Picard can teach you about leadership
Where No Man Has Gone Before: Star Trek
In the late 80s, Patrick Stewart was the classy and dashing Captain Picard, the main character of the Star Trek series, which started in 1966, originally starring Captain Kirk (and Spock!). The idea of exploring strange new worlds in the galaxy, speeding at warp-speed in a beautiful ocean cruiser-like spaceship was too good to resist.
Captain Picard may be fictional, but he’s my mentor nonetheless. He was portrayed as having an introverted, intuitive, thinking, and judging (INTJ) type personality and his analytical problem-solving skills provide leadership lessons to us even now.
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Key Ideas
Babylon 5
It's a cold-war set in space, with politics aligning towards left of center. It showcases the dangers of nationalism, with great leaders ending up causing enormous damage and harm because of th...
Battlestar Galactica
It's focuses on the survivors of humans in devastated colony worlds. The politics of this series reflect the left-wing reaction to the war on terror, stressing on the significance of democracy and civilian leadership.
The old ‘70s series, and it’s newer remake have, surprisingly different political ideologies, with the same basic story line.
Game Of Thrones
... which is based on George R.R. Martin’s book series "A Song Of Ice And Fire", addresses a range of diverse political issues.
Most of the people hungry for power are showcased as maniacs and reflect on the wrongdoings of global political elites and career politicians.
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Key Ideas
Defining a leader
It is difficult to define the quality of a leader. To say that a leader is someone who has followers is too simple. A captain may have soldiers who follow orders, but it makes a captain a comma...
Examining another definition
Bradberry and Kruse define leadership as a process of social influence which maximizes the efforts of others toward the achievement of a greater good. But even this definition is too narrow.
- Some leaders influence others not for the greater good: Adolf Hitler is an example of leading millions, but his leadership was wicked and barbaric. Following the wrong leader can lead to terrible consequences.
- Leadership “maximizes the efforts of others”: Leadership alone cannot achieve this goal, for individual efforts depend on many factors. People may feel like they live in the shadow of leaders and may find their expectations unfair.
However, leadership can work towards increasing the efforts of others.
A new definition of leadership
Leadership is a process of social influence that works to increase the efforts of others in pursuit of a common goal.
What most do agree with is that good leaders don't wait for a title. They simply lead, and others naturally follow them.