What ‘Wicked’ Teaches Us About How to Be a Good Chief

On Nov. 21, Wicked: For Good premieres in theaters and continues the story of Elphaba as she should rally from her exile to defeat the Wizard.

Once portrayed because the evil Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba is solid in a brand new mild as she leads the folks to liberate Oz within the retelling of the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz. 

For Bob Bies, professor within the McDonough School of Business, the hit musical-turned-movie presents the right car to showcase classes in management.

Bies is an skilled on organizational conduct and administration who additionally teaches a preferred first-year seminar, Heroes and Villains: Character and Leadership in a Global Context. In the category, college students discover what makes a hero and a villain and the way these classes will be utilized to their very own careers. An avid lover of movies, Bies has college students watch films like The Dark Knight and The Devil Wears Prada to illustrate lessons in leadership.

“I think in the reimagining of The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch is actually the good witch. Elphaba is the real hero,” he stated. “What do heroes and villains have to do with business? Well, our concepts of good and bad leaders are grounded in our concepts of heroes and villains.”

Explore Bies’ classes in management by way of the characters in Wicked and what separates the heroes from the villains and makes strange folks into leaders.

Ask a Professor: Heroes, Villains and Leadership in ‘Wicked’

How do you outline hero and villain?

Heroes are individuals who encourage and uplift. Villains are those that demean and diminish. Heroes step as much as do good, and villains step as much as do unhealthy.

Do you imagine individuals are born as heroes and villains?

We had this dialog [in class]. The actuality is that it’s extra nurtured. Whatever occurred in your life, normally there’s some traumatic factor or the group that you just’re part of that formed who you’re. All of us had been formed by our households and the setting we lived in. It will get developed. You flip into any individual who’s evil. You’re not born evil. All kids are born good, however generally life occurs, and it’s not at all times good what occurs to them. 

Elphaba is initially the evil Wicked Witch of the West. What makes audiences root for her in Wicked?

Because folks see her intentions. They see her actions and the way she’s at all times attempting to do good, notably by those that aren’t held in excessive regard, just like the monkeys. She’s at all times on the lookout for the great moderately than diminishing.