From a certain perspective, Darth Vader's mass murder, brutal oppression, and frequent deception to serve his own ends makes him seem like a pretty bad guy. But if you look past all that to his action, you will find a very capable and effective project manager. Here are reasons why Darth Vader was an amazing project manager: Vader prioritized brutally. When he knew the plans for the Death Star had been leaked, he focused on mitigating that risk. When Luke came on the scene, he shifted priorities to recruit him to the Dark Side! In project management, if you can’t prioritize, you won’t get anything done, let alone anything done well. Vader consistently evaluated the performance of his team, and made changes to fix problems when the team didn’t perform. Sure, there may have been some fear and terror, but put all that aside. The inclination to objectively evaluate the performance of your team and not accept substandard performance is an important one. Vader made commitments, and worked hard to keep them. How did he manage to get that second Death Star operational so quickly anyway? Hard work, that’s how. Vader understood the importance of commitments, and more importantly, the significance of fulfilling them. Trust in teams is built on commitments. Vader never asked anyone to do anything that he wasn’t willing to do himself, and he made sure he had a clear understanding and appreciation for the hard things that his team had to execute. This is what made Vader better than just good. Continue reading...
Kepner-Tregoe Project Management delivers structured and proven solutions that bring clear thinking, direction, structure, and alignment to diverse project teams. We believe that on-time, on-budget, and on-goal performance is not only possible, it is expected.
