Disclaimer: no one, ever, will be able to accuse me of not being a true Star Wars lover, and I have proof. I’ll add: The Empire Strikes Back is one of my favorite movies of all time, and I don’t have proof, but if you don’t believe me, it means the dark side of the Force has seduced you. Period.
Today I will go through how the first interactions between Luke Skywalker and Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back show that Yoda, as wise and powerful as he is, needs to take his smartypants toughness down a notch to be a great leader and mentor.
Don’t belittle your mentee in front of other seniors!
So Luke has just arrived in Dagobah, and his X-wing has crashed, and he is tired and uncomfortable. Then Yoda appears, and he starts bugging poor exhausted Luke, and he neglects to introduce himself properly. I get that Yoda has been exiled in that dump for nearly twenty years, talking only to ghosts, so I will let that go. What annoys me is that later on, Yoda starts talking with Obi-Wan’s ghost just to say, in front of Luke, that he is not ready, that he can’t be taught, that he is too old, and a bunch of other not-so-nice things.
Dude, Yoda, this is not cool. It is not good leadership, either. A good leader would provide constructive criticism to stimulate growth and development. A good leader encourages learning, offers mentorship, and creates a safe and inclusive environment without ageism! Do you folks remember how Yoda was also super harsh with young Anakin, also complaining that he was too old? Hey, Yoda, do you recall how that ended?
Yoda, you are lucky I like you. Very much.
Ok, let’s continue.
“Do or do not. There is no try” is not good advice at all
Luke needs to take his X-wing out of the water, and he has no idea how. Yoda tells him to use the Force, but that is far out of Luke’s comfort zone, and he says he’ll try. Yoda replies.
Do or do not. There is no try.
While the sentence may sound inspiring and super cool, it is actually pretty discouraging. It sets up an all-or-nothing mindset that is totally unhelpful for anyone attempting to achieve a challenging goal. Yoda here suggests that if you cannot achieve something immediately, you should give up rather than persist and try again. This is the opposite of what a good leader and mentor would do. They would never make you jump out of your comfort zone and let you fail strepitously. A good leader and mentor would guide you so that your comfort zone gets bigger and bigger. They will encourage you to try, and if you fail, they will help you see why and what you need to improve. Then you try again, and again, and again, until you take the spaceship out of the water. No wonder that with a mentor like Yoda, it took Luke thirty years to move the freaking X-wing out of the bottom of the sea. Not the same sea, but you get what I mean.
Don’t be tempted by the easy path of the show-off
After Luke fails to recover the X-wing, Yoda does the job himself. I will be kind to Yoda with this one because I think he truly wants to show Luke that if he believes in the Force, he can do whatever he sets his mind to.
However, these actions can be damaging if experts get accustomed to always executing the hard tasks themselves because it is faster than letting the students try and fail and try again. If you don’t have the time and strength to gently guide, coach, and lead, you should not take any “padawan.”
I have read recently that leaders’ ultimate success is when they create other leaders that create more leaders. I agree, and I often wonder if Luke’s missteps with Ben Solo (Kylo Ren) had something to do with how he did, or didn’t, learn to be a leader.
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