Management Lessons From ‘The Devil Wears Prada’s’ Miranda Priestly

I can’t quite recall the exact year I watched The Devil Wears Prada, but my guess is it was around 2006 to 2008, when I was a teenager. Fast forward about 16 years, I’ve just rewatched this gem, and I’m so glad I did! It’s a shining example of timeless art, the kind that you can enjoy time, across different stages of your life, and each time, you take out a different learning.

Discipline

This principle focuses on obedience and performing to advance the mission and goals of an organization. Miranda’s presence instantly commands discipline, which is best demonstrated during the scene where Anne Hathaway’s character, Andrea, quietly laughs during a run-through meeting with the team calling fashion “this stuff.”

Miranda swiftly educates Andrea on how the work at Runway has already directly affected her fashion sense despite Andrea’s disinterest in it. Although the public reprimand may have been unnecessary, Miranda needed Andrea to take seriously the mission and core values of Runway. This ultimately motivated Andrea to become current on fashion trends and update her wardrobe to better reflect her discipline and drive to excel at Runway and other publications in the future.

Discipline is integral in the work environment (virtual or in person) to help a team stay focused on the core mission and goals of an organization. Otherwise, the potential for wasted efforts is more likely.

Order

Managing an organization relies on the organized placement of people and resources. Just a 60-second tip-off of Miranda’s arrival to the office triggers this sense of order in the film. Staff quickly organize the office and hallways, refine their appearances, and stand ready to usher in Miranda to start the day.?

All Runway staff quickly fall in line and are certain of their duties while at Runway headquarters. There’s no confusion or uncertainty. This is important because this order helps people and resources of the organization stay committed to the task at hand.?

Initiative

This management concept centers around “origination.” This is likely the cornerstone of Miranda’s management style since she expects her staff to think outside the box to deliver results.

The instances are abundant in the film with Andrea being tasked to make the impossible possible. Scenes like when she’s tasked to find the unpublished manuscript of the latest Harry Potter book and deliver it to Miranda’s children in four hours (or else “don’t bother coming back”). Andrea not only manages to obtain the unpublished manuscript but has two copies printed, covered, bound and reset for her daughters’ train ride before her deadline.

Taking the initiative ensures the organization is quick to overcome obstacles (i.e. technical snafus or setbacks due to pandemic developments) instead of having to utter a Miranda Priestly one-liner such as, “by all means move at a glacial pace, you know how that thrills me.”

Unity of Command

Understanding who makes the final decision is key to accomplishing goals in any organization. Unity of Command is another one of Miranda’s hallmark management principles. Her approval system is even boiled down to simple nonverbals for presentations (one nod/good, two nods/very good, a smile/excellent, head shaking/dislikes, pursed lips/catastrophe).

Miranda had such strong unity of command in the film that before being formally ousted from her role as editor-in-chief, she had already amassed the written support of the designers, photographers, editors, writers and models who would also leave the publication if she were replaced.

Being clear on who provides marching orders and makes final decisions is paramount to accomplishing an organization’s goals and deadlines.

Division of Work

Lastly, this principle concentrates on relying on the specialties of team members to ensure accuracy and speed. Miranda applied this concept by distinguishing the tasks of the first assistant (Emily) and the second assistant (Andrea). As Andrea excelled at her role, the division of work shifted with Emily becoming the second assistant.

Miranda relied on this principle to help her make decisions quickly and with the best knowledge on-hand to publish regular issues of Runway.

While not the gentlest of bosses, Miranda pushed her staff to reach their fullest potentials and held them to the highest standard possible. This, in turn, left the staff with a publication that was the gold standard of the fashion industry. Share your thoughts on Miranda’s management principles or if you found any other positive management principles Miranda served up. That’s all.

Now, to the lessons. These aren’t new, but reminders that many of us could use at different stages of our lives.

1. Dress the way you want to be addressed or as the person you aspire to be. Visualise who you want to become and represent that persona daily. Your appearance is a way to communicate who you are before you even speak. Also, looking good, makes you feel good and in turn makes you confident, and who doesn’t want to feel good and be confident? Andy came to understand how her style could influence how people treated her and how she felt. I especially love that this didn’t change, even after she left Runway.
2. The most traveled path isn’t always the right one for you. Be confident in forging your own path. I admired how Andy, after being drawn into a world she didn’t plan to stay in, had the courage to leave, despite being on what appeared to be a fast track to success. If you’re excelling in an industry or career path you don’t enjoy, it’s easy to feel compelled to stay because growth and success are expected. But walking away from it can be a challenge.
3. Sacrifices are inevitable: Success often comes with a price. It’s a universal reality that we can’t have it all due to the finite nature of time, our most precious resource. As a result, work-life balance can become a myth, especially depending on the heights you aim to reach in your career. Frequently, the success you aspire to achieve may require sacrifices in other cherished aspects of life, like time with friends and family. It’s impossible to dedicate oneself entirely to everything.
4. Figure out what matters to you and stick to it. It’s important to know what you care about most and make that the star of your show. If not, you might lose track of who you really are and what you’re all about. Live by your rules and let them steer the ship of your actions and choices.
5. It’s perfectly fine to reinvent yourself and make changes to aspects of your identity you’re not satisfied with, no matter where you are in life. You are never bound by your past or defined by decisions you’ve made before, and it’s never too late to change. Always keep in mind that every single journey you embark on, whether it’s a journey of self-discovery, healing, or growth, is a lesson.

I’ll conclude with an observation and a question. A few years ago, an opportunity I had made me question if I’m willing to do whatever it takes to succeed. We often use “whatever it takes” innocently, implying we should do everything we can to achieve whatever goal we set our minds to. But there are times when I think we shouldn’t be ready to do just anything to get to our goal.

Miranda Presley’s decision to betray a friend and delay his lifelong dream, just to retain her position as editor-in-chief, made me reflect more deeply. Now that I’m older and have faced similar situations, I find myself thinking what decision would I have made if I found myself in that situation? What would you have done if you were in Miranda’s shoes? Would you have done whatever it takes?