Captain’s List — James T. Kirk #2233

Corsair’s Profiles in Leadership Series

The captains of fiction and history have much to teach us. They are leaders who often serve in times of great challenge and turmoil. Articles in this series focus on an individual captain and utilizes their quotes, their writings, and their actions to inspire core leadership elements in all of us.

Captain Jim Kirk

For fifty years, the fictional character of James Tiberius Kirk has been the captain of the USS Enterprise. Its mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations. Nothing says challenge so much as space exploration, unless you add to it the allure of oddly sexual green skinned aliens in disco boots and short skirt… but we digress.

Jim Kirk is a character that has often been larger than life, especially when portrayed by William Shatner. Kirk is a man with many amazing attributes fit for a Starfleet Captain and a handful that make you wonder. Let’s look at the two that most set him apart.

“To boldly go where no man has gone before”

Kirk is bold, almost fearless. Through numerous seasons and movies, books and spoken word albums (ok, the last one was Shatner), he has led the way for his crew as the boldest of commanders. When the mission is exploration, no attribute could be more useful.

Kirk has faced down aliens and monsters, even immortals and gods. He has met nearly every variety of the unknown and fought many with an odd variety of 70’s judo (geez, those fight scenes were bad!) and double fist punches. He even had the courage to wear a red shirt.

For leaders, courage in the face of adversity is a strong and often mandatory attribute. Granted the business world is not filled with the same sorts of horrors as space seems to be several centuries from now, but courage and fear are infectious. When business leaders, coaches, and Starfleet Captains show fear, their teams follow. Nothing could be more detrimental to morale, productivity, or overall vision. Conversely, courage breeds success and happiness.

Kobayashi Maru

In the face of overwhelming odds, change the game. The Kobayashi Maru was a Starfleet Academy simulation. It was a test given to all cadets seeking to become leaders in Starfleet. Jim Kirk was famous for being the only cadet to ever beat the test. He did so by reprogramming it.

This test seems to be near gospel in the Star Trek universe. The test was featured in Star Trek II and then again in the latest reboot. It was also the subject of at least one novel and mentioned often in others. Kirk supposedly attempted this test on three separate occasions, finally beating it on his third attempt. While this could lead to long hours of debate between many a Trekker and a Trekkie, basically he cheated.

Starfleet preferred to classify his efforts as ‘original thinking’, a categorization that this article is happy to endorse. Kobayashi Maru was designed to be a unwinnable. Any leader in a similar situation would do well to consider trying to change the rules. Whether you call this out of the box thinking or note that if you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying, you still end up with the fact that rules are made to be broken.

Great leaders should never feel constrained by rules and norms. Yes they exist for a reason, but when the consequences increase — so should your sense of opportunity. A leader who is capable of finding loopholes or re-imagining the game entirely is one who is bound to be successful.

Boldness and a willingness to rethink the game are critical assets of leadership. After all, in the face of overwhelming odds and disappointment, what else are you going to do? Scream about it?!