Though at times he was very effective Lord Darth Vader proved not to be a great leader. His leadership lacked a lot of executive coaching and leadership mentoring:
Darth’s worst leadership traits:
1. Failure to motivate and develop subordinates
“Lifting up” of subordinates was a strong Darth’s leadership feature… however it was in form of holding them in the air by the neck or choking them by use of The Force. Honestly, they did make mistakes but excessive punishment is the quickest way to install fear and elimination of motivation and initiative.
Problem of fear culture was further accentuated by fact that he never praised his subordinates. It has been proven time and again that employees who feel engaged and respected perform better than those motivated by fear.
Concentrating all the power in key organisation figures (Emperor and Lord Vader) toppled the “Empire Inc” when the two were no longer part of organisation. Shortly before demise as any other organisation lacking capacity to develop own talent they were forced to poach from competition (in form of Luke Skywalker). They failed miserably as Luke was already thinking like a millennial and did not like their social responsibility plan + his organisation (Rebellion) provided better motivation and excellent development plan with some of the best executive coaching and leadership mentoring ever on film (or even in the universe ) – venerable Jedi masters Obi Van Kenobi and Master Yoda.
2. Failure to communicate effectively.
Although blessed with Jedi training and having ability to communicate telepathically for some reason he chose not to use that skill. His relatively simple orders without motive explanations or bigger picture did not give enough insight into his deeper thoughts and longer term goals. So if orders failed to produce result subordinates did not have plan B for achieving objectives.
This kind of leadership also reduces creativity leaving leaders left with only their own ideas. This explains construction of a second death star although same idea failed earlier.
3. Lacking integrity
Set of Darth’s values (social responsibility) and tools used in upholding them (mistake punishment, lack of trust) left a lot to be desired.
When questionable decisions for financial gain or personal benefit are made, employees know. And if they know, you’ve already lost the battle for respect. But if you lead by example and show integrity in your decision-making, it says a lot about you — the leader.
Conclusion
As I often say to my coachees who have trouble in managing complexity after being promoted: “if you prioritize well, choose and develop enough of your managers wisely and bring yourself to delegate with full trust you could even run the entire universe…”
Lord of the Siths Darth Vader failed in the matters of trust, talent development, delegation and letting go of notion he had to have full control himself, hence he couldn’t manage the universe…
On some other occasion we will be looking into some positive aspects of Lord Vader’s leadership…
May the force be with you…
more on leadership mentoring on Miroslav Klepac | LinkedIn
More on executive coaching in Expertive d.o.o. on Coaching u Expertivu – Expertive
