Conversations in Management
John
Wayne was talking about his fans. He was explaining that not
every fan would like every picture, but he knew
they’d keep coming back because of this simple promise. It was a
promise that spanned 48 years of film-making. And during that
time, he perfected the role of a self-assured, decisive hero to
the point where the characters he played and the man he actually
was merged seamlessly together. By the time he filmed his last
picture, The Shootist, Wayne had become an American
Institution.
This wasn’t
bad for a kid from Winterset, Iowa. He was christened Marion
Morrison, though he picked up the nickname, “Duke,” almost
immediately. After his family moved to California, he attended
USC on a football scholarship until an injury ended his
collegiate career. He found work as a laborer, extra and bit
player at Fox Studios where he received his first billing as
Duke Morrison. In 1929 his friend and mentor, John Ford,
cast him as the lead in a major production, The Big Trail.
The studio execs weren’t pleased with his name and instead
dubbed him, John Wayne. Unfortunately the movie bombed
and Wayne spent most of the 30’s appearing in a series of low
budget movies. At one point he even appeared as Singing Sandy
and in doing so, was the first in a long line of singing
cowboys. Wayne’s big break came in 1939 when Ford once again
cast him as the lead in a major production—Stagecoach.
The film was a hit and he was on his way to becoming the human
face of the American spirit.
In a lot of
ways, today’s workplace resembles the Wild West that Wayne
dramatized. There are good guys and bad guys—sheriffs
and rustlers. There
are folks with hearts of gold and darkly menacing types that
keep us on edge. Romances and jealousies regularly flare up with
white hot intensity. Projects move along with the precision of a
cattle stampede or dry up like a watering hole in summer. Then,
at the end of the day, as the sun settles beneath the horizon,
we often end up feeling, “rode hard and put up wet.”
There is,
however, a way to start taming the workplace. It’s the
three-step plan provided to us by the Duke—don’t be mean,
don’t be small and don’t let others down. Just think how
different work—and for that matter, life in general—would be if
everyone practiced these three simple rules. When you think
about it, not being mean shouldn’t be all that difficult.
Some folks, however, practice meanness like a blood
sport. They seem to derive strange satisfaction from inflicting
small “hurts” on those around them. When they’re called out,
they claim the were only “joking,” and it’s part of their
meanness to make it seem that you don’t have a sense of
humor. Being small is a close cousin of the
mean-spirited. It involves pettiness and taking major offense at
minor infractions. People with small characters tend to have
large egos. To them the world is a mirror reflecting only
their needs wants and desires. Probably the saddest
characters are those who don’t keep their word. They beg
for your trust only to betray it. They crave intimacy and then
violate it with impunity. They drip sincerity, but in reality
don’t care at all. Taken together, their impact on the workplace
is akin to the James Gang thundering toward a bank!
Maybe it’s
best to state this positively: be nice, be magnanimous and
treat everyone like a friend. It’s easy. Succeed and work
will seem less like the OK corral and more like a serenade from
Singing Sandy!
—Ebert
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