I’ll bet more entrepreneurs model their behavior on Captain Picard from Star Trek than any nonfiction human. [..] Turns out, it’s positively de-motivating to work for a company where your job is just to shut up and take orders.
I like the post, but.. at the risk of sounding like I've thought about this for too long, Picard's management style wasn't of the tough "command and control" style described here.
Picard's crew had a significant amount of autonomy and a reasonable scope to question their direct superiors (although going too far up the chain usually seemed to backfire). The buck always stopped with the Captain and he set the crew's overall mission, aims and goals (with significant input and advice from his crew) but in terms of the day to day running of the ship (and even many of the crisis situations) he was not at the center of most decisions and relied heavily on his crew to do the right thing.
All this makes me realize that as much as being a sci-fi show, TNG was particularly good at demonstrating management styles and crew relationships (with many episodes dedicated entirely to these matters or contrasting them with those of other crews and civilizations).
I like the post, but.. at the risk of sounding like I've thought about this for too long, Picard's management style wasn't of the tough "command and control" style described here.
Picard's crew had a significant amount of autonomy and a reasonable scope to question their direct superiors (although going too far up the chain usually seemed to backfire). The buck always stopped with the Captain and he set the crew's overall mission, aims and goals (with significant input and advice from his crew) but in terms of the day to day running of the ship (and even many of the crisis situations) he was not at the center of most decisions and relied heavily on his crew to do the right thing.
All this makes me realize that as much as being a sci-fi show, TNG was particularly good at demonstrating management styles and crew relationships (with many episodes dedicated entirely to these matters or contrasting them with those of other crews and civilizations).