"As a team leader, my management style is based on my personal career and is influenced by the work I have done for charities over the years. I seek to inspire the people around me with a shared vision and I treat all the people I work with as volunteers. I see every layer of management as the service organization that allows those who have a specialty or craft to do their best work. You can visualize this as in inverted pyramid where the tip is at the bottom and any person entrusted with the single point of accountability needs to see themselves as the ultimate servant to the team they are managing. I believe strongly in setting, achieving, and reviewing goals as a measurement process for personal and professional development. I feel strongly that aptitude with passion trumps ability with complacency. I'm still in this business because I love the games, the people who make them, and the fans that enjoy them. I want others around me who feel the same."
I have fun watching the people that worked with me at Virgin who have continued to have a life in the corporate world.
I particularly like Louis' attitude about the inverted pyramid style of management. Good managers know they are providing a service and are not simply there to boss the minions around. That latter attitude is very dangerous. (I'm not sure all EA execs share his attitude.)
And I know from personal experience that working for someone who doesn't understand games is very difficult. Making games is so frickin' complicated that trying to explain to someone who doesn't understand the process or the market why X or Y is happening is very hard.
© 2005 Stephen Clarke-Willson - All Rights Reserved
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