Issue Date: October 28, 2001

The CEO was a Capulet

Could the Bard teach Bill Gates about business?

All the world may be a stage and all of us merely players, but it's taken a while for boardrooms to take their cues from the theater (reality shows aside). Alas, tough economic times have spurred a growing number of companies, such as General Electric, Mobil and Deloitte & Touche, to send their managers to crash courses in acting in hopes of producing more dynamic leadership in these ever-changing times. We recently spoke with Sean Kavanagh, who manages the Ariel Group, a Boston-based, Shakespeare-inspired executive training program that ranks Fortune 500 execs among its graduates.

What can executives learn from William Shakespeare?

He addresses a variety of topics in life, which is why his work is so rich, but a lot of it is about leadership. One leadership style is not enough for executives to have. Depending on the situation, they may need to be a tyrant, a captain or democratic.

Give us an exercise from, say, "Romeo and Juliet".

We'll have two people perform [a scene], and then ask the audience if this is a situation that can be seen in the workplace. Like, Capulet represents the CEO, and Tybalt is the young, hotheaded member of the company who approaches his boss before a "battle." We invite participants to give suggestions about how to handle Tybalt. Then we invite [them] to improvise.

So you alter Will's words? The horror! Are managers at younger companies like dot-coms more theatrical than, say, banking types?

They tend to have known until recently only success, so they are less open. They think they have less to learn, so they are less interested in experimenting.

Are you saying a good boss loosens up over time?

The absolute toughest students are recent MBA graduates, because they want to get right to the content. What happens is that the senior executives, more comfortable with who they are, are much more willing to read Shakespeare with extreme gusto. They set the tone to encourage the younger folks.

Have you recommended, to date, that any executives quit their day jobs?

Ummm ... no.