Shakespeare on Management

Shakespeare on ManagementPaul CorriganKogan PageISBN 0749428457£16.99

Keywords Leadership, Management styles, Literature

How can one resist a title like this? The author sets out to show that Julius Caesar, King Lear, Richard III, Henry V et al. have a relevance to today's business leaders? He suggests that though modern-day managers may not have quite the same sort of problems, they can still learn a great deal from how Shakespeare's characters handled those around them. In effect, Corrigan is examining the psychology of "greatness" and identifying what it is that marks out Shakespeare’s great leaders from the not so great, and why. The plays taught 16th century audiences (and still teach us) lessons about how leaders organized their rise and how their failures precipitated their decline. There are lessons here on the art of leadership. In particular, Corrigan points out that there is, at last, a perception growing in the world of business, that managing is about people, rather than systems. People, with all their needs,desires, emotions, passions and ambiguities, are the raw material of theatre and dramatic storytelling, and Shakespeare is the master. His works are thus a place to look for insights and understanding about oneself and others.

The middle sections of this book look at the leading characters in a handful of Shakespeare's most famous plays and draw lessons on leadership from the lives- and deaths - of the (exclusively male) protagonists. He explains the challenge of motivating people when the odds are stacked against them, the perils of over-ambition, and the dangers inherent in the isolation that can come with power. The tragedy of King Lear, for example, shows us the dangers inherent in complacency and listening to flatterers.

This is a book that might be too indirect for some managers - the lessons could be stated more directly and quickly - but much less entertainingly. If you are shortly to go to the theatre to see a Shakespeare play, read this book first. It could enliven both your evening and your subsequent career.