Book #21: Make It So: Leadership Lessons From Star Trek: The Next Generation

Book #8 completed for the year: “Make It So - Leadership Lessons from Star Trek: The Next Generation”.

I always admired Star Trek from the standpoint of their leadership on display.  Sometimes when I was a manager in retail, I saw the store as my ship, and my associates as the crew.  Our store managers were our captains, and the ASMs were the “Number Ones”.  

The book is written from the perspective of Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Enterprise NC-1700-D.  He was admirably portrayed on the show by classic actor and stage legend Patrick Stewart.  The perspective is as if you were taking a class in leadership for someone about to embark on their quest across the cosmos.  

If you ever want to learn leadership value, read this book, and watch both the original Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation.  There are reasons why people will debate endlessly about James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard.  It’s not just a nerdy thing, it’s pretty well portrayed even in a physical setting.

I want to create a bigger list of things I’ve learned, because this lessons in this novel should be taught to anyone seeking value in leadership.  But the main points are:

- While the past affords us the opportunity to learn many useful lessons that can be applied in the present, we can also gain insight for today by giving some thoughtful consideration as to what lies ahead for us in the future.

- The unknown is not to be feared, but understood.

- A man’s learning, experiences, and wisdom need not die with him, but may live forever if recorded as his legacy.

- To learn from the past, we must first know those people who played pivotal roles in our history.  To anticipate a better future, we must first know those people who will lead us toward the best that we may become.

- “Focus” is the cardinal quality of an effective leader

- A leader who has a sense of urgency learns to master his circumstances and not to be mastered by them

- Train your subordinates to feel comfortable presenting strong well thought ideas and approving them

- The road from legitimate suspicion to rampant paranoia is very much shorter than we think

- Wrongful destruction of another person’s reputation will soon become the death of one’s own

- If peace is to last between 2 peoples, one should not allow the actions of 1 person to come between them

- It is possible to commit not mistake and still lose.  That is not a weakness.  It is life.

- While humans have been savage in the past, we should not be tried for past savageries and should be judged on our own merits

- The trial of life never ends

- History will judge humanity, in part, by your actions: by how each of you applies your potential, by what you make of your possibilities, by what you do with your discoveries, by your respect for life, by how well you understand others and how well you help them understand you, and by how you react to the unknown.  Indeed the trial of humanity never ends.

While this book certainly paints a fictional portrait of leadership in the stars, one would only need to replace starship terms with generic ones, and the lessons still stand true.

Fantastic book, leaders must read.

On to Book #9: Ian Fleming’s James Bond in John Gardner’s “Nobody Lives Forever”