5 leadership mistakes of Star Wars Galactic Empire
If the Galactic Empire had avoided these leadership mistakes, perhaps we wouldn’t have had to endure the Star Wars prequels…Not sure that’s logical, but here are five leadership mistakes identified by Forbes magazine that the Empire committed, and some suggestions on how the mistakes could have been avoided.
Five Leadership Mistakes of Galactic Empire in Star Wars
- Consolidating power – Rebels won in part by taking out two leaders of the Empire.
- Distribute power beyond key leaders.
- Prepare succession plans.
- Ruling by fear – this deprived Imperials from having a stake in the Empire.
- Find way to give employees a stake in the organization.
- Inspired employees perform better than fearful employees.
- Zero tolerance for failure – Imperials focused more on avoiding punishment than producing for Darth.
- Ask for input before deciding on course of action.
- Severe punishments prevent learning and growth.
- Single minded obsession – Obsession w/ defeating rebels and turning Luke to dark side diverted attention from other areas, like assuring the Death Star was secure.
- Pursue goals BUT
- Stay flexible and aware so you can adapt to changing conditions
- Create more than one plan to achieve goals
- Failure to learn from mistakes – After one Death Star is destroyed they (continue) to build another!
- Mistakes happen. Learn from them.
- Repeating same mistake leads down the road to failure.
The Emperor and Darth Vader created a culture of both fear and a dependence on their authority, and those mistakes ultimately lead to the Empire’s downfall.