George Lucas: A Leader Who Turned To The Dark Side
In this companion piece to the Boss Levels video series, Head of Content for Custom Charts for Jira Christopher Berry looks at why so many leaders suck. And why, occasionally, you find one who doesn’t.
Sometimes a leader will start out agile, get too big for their boots, and become an autocrat. This is what happened to George Lucas. Between the original and prequel trilogies of Star Wars, Lucas turned to the dark side.
He became Emperor Palpatine.
As we all know, crotchety old Palps is the big bad of the Star Wars universe who wanted to control everyone and have everything his own way. The complete opposite of agile. Where did it get him? His empire collapsed under the weight of its own incompetence, and he got thrown down a reactor shaft for being so evil. (Not that I’m saying this should happen to Lucas, of course.)
As a software provider that makes a Jira reporting app for agile leaders, we believe agile leadership is the only real way to be successful. This was true before, and it’s even truer in the much more distributed work environment we now find ourselves in. To be honest, the pandemic was the ultimate advert for agile leadership. Leaders had to give up their control, promote self-organized teams, and be open to fast and constant change. With people working remotely, leaders must be agile, because bureaucracy doesn’t work.
George Lucas’s transition from the light side to the dark side of the Force is evident from how the Star Wars prequel trilogy turned out. Now I won’t lie, I’m a big fan of the prequels and will defend them to the hilt (particularly next to those derivative and boring sequels). At the same time, I can’t deny that they suffer from a number of poor creative decisions: rubbish dialogue, dodgy acting, dull characterizations, an overabundance of CGI, the entire existence of Jar Jar Binks.
Why did this happen? Because Lucas controlled every aspect of the prequels, and didn’t let anyone rein him in or temper his worst impulses. He wrote and directed all three movies, even though neither is his strong point. He made choices that should have been challenged, but weren’t, or if they were, he didn’t listen. You only have to watch the documentary on the making of The Phantom Menace (below) to see that he was surrounded by yes-men. By contrast, agile leaders want to be challenged; it makes them better leaders.
On the original films, things couldn’t have been more different. Lucas worked collaboratively and didn’t try to do everything himself. He deferred to the expertise of others when writing A New Hope’s script, passing draft upon draft to friends for feedback. On the fourth draft, he worked with two screenwriter friends, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck. On set, Harrison Ford famously fought back against some still-remaining bad lines: “George, you can type this shit, but you sure as hell can’t say it.” And Lucas listened. He also listened to his wife, Marcia, and the movie’s editor, when she suggested killing off Obi-Wan, keeping the cute mouse droid (lots of which just showed up in a great scene in The Mandalorian), and having Luke and Leia kiss before their big leap on the Death Star.
And when it came to The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, he hired screenwriters. He also handed over directing duties on both. He delegated effectively to people who had superior expertise and trusted them to deliver. A hallmark of agile leadership.
Lucas said himself that his impetus for making the original Star Wars films was partly to become rich enough to buy his independence from movie studios. On Star Wars, he saw 20th Century Fox like he saw the Emperor: micromanagers out to control everything.
The irony is that on the prequels, Lucas became the very villain from whom he had tried to escape.
In the video below, watch me debate Lucas’s successes and failures as a leader in more detail with Business Unit Manager for Custom Charts, Chris Cooke.
This monthly newsletter is part of the Boss Levels series from the Custom Charts for Jira team at Tempo Software, in which Business Unit Manager Chris Cooke and Head of Content Christopher Berry discuss leaders from history, fiction, and the present day. Check out the video series for debates on the aforementioned Emperor Palpatine, Elon Musk, Sylvia Earle, Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones, Captain Janeway from Star Trek, Blackbeard the pirate, and more.
We welcome contributors who want to talk about their favorite leaders, either in the video series, or as part of an interview for the newsletter. Hit us up!