A look at the psychology of greatness using classic Shakespearian characters. Paul Corrigan shows how, through his plays, Shakespeare demonstrates the different roles a leader can take and the different skills those leaders need.

“Whatsoever a great man does, the same is done by others as well”, says the Bhagavadgītā. Shakespeare is one of such great men. He decocted man’s cosmic world into his plays, and his characters display greatness along with humility and frailty. His plays, which so lucidly articulate the hidden process of interiority of the protagonists, are a living force even today. The problems that they portray and the consequences that they map are not dissimilar to those that the leaders of today’s businesses encounter. Today’s leaders are, of course, equipped with better tools to manage these, but they may not be superior to the spiritual depth or moral strength that we experience in these classics. In a refreshing approach, this book delineates theories of leadership and management through the characters and the themes of the Bard’s plays, contextualizing their infinite variety to the concepts being expounded in today’s business environment.

Drawing wide acclaim in hardcovera brilliant guide to management based on the principles explored in Shakespeares plays. Timelessly wise and externally popular, the plays of Shakespeare are packed with essential insights into human psychology and the use and abuse of power. In Shakespeare in Charge, Norman Augustine, former Fortune 500 CEO, and Kenneth Adelman, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, show how the Bards shrewd understanding of palace politics and the strategies of warfare can just as easily be applied to the twists and turns of the corporate world.

The issues fueling the intricate plots of Shakespeare's four-hundred-year-old plays are the same common, yet complex issues that business leaders contend with today. And, as John Whitney and Tina Packer so convincingly demonstrate, no one but the Bard himself can penetrate the secrets of leadership with such piercing brilliance. Let him instruct you on the issues that managers face every day: Power: Richard II's fall from power can enlighten us. Trust: Draw on the experiences of King Lear and Othello. Decision: Hamlet illustrates the dos and don'ts of decision making. Action: See why Henry IV was effective and Henry VI was not. Whitney and Packer do not simply compare Shakespeare's plays with management techniques, instead they draw on their own wealth of business experience to show us how these essential Shakespearean lessons can be applied to modern-day challenges. Power Plays infuses the world of business with new life -- and plenty of drama.

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them." William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night Around the globe people have been crying out for "Leadership": demanding it, begging for it. From the farcical spectacle of short-lived Australian prime ministers shoving each other through the revolving door to scandalous failures of governance in Australia's financial institutions and the moral abyss in church leadership, to the mess of Brexit and the chaotic unpredictability of the Trump administration, and now the greatest leadership challenge since World War II: Covid-19. Stable, reliable, sensible leadership has been in short supply. We often resort to the word 'Shakespearean' to explain our dramatic times. And indeed, we can learn a lot from Shakespeare about leadership – good and bad. The world's greatest analyst of human behaviour and motivation; a man well acquainted with crises of leadership in tumultuous times; a man whose dry wit, bottomless empathy enabled him to encapsulate countless valuable life lessons that still ring with relevance today. As someone who has spent a good deal of the last seventy-something years studying, performing and directing Shakespeare's plays, John Bell has absorbed quite a few valuable lessons in life, character and leadership from the bard, and then put these to good use running two successful theatre companies. Some Achieve Greatness contains invaluable lessons on leadership, drawn from John Bell's extensive relationship with Shakespeare and his own experience as a cultural leader, illustrated with an irreverent and contemporary set of cartoons by Cathy Wilcox.

Wry and insightful, Shakespeare, Einstein, and the Bottom Line takes us on a cross-country tour of the most powerful trend in academic life today--the rise of business values and the belief that efficiency, immediate practical usefulness, and marketplace triumph are the best measures of a university's success.