I watched The Breakfast Club this past weekend for the first time in 20 years. I first saw it when I was 12 or so, right in the heart of the 80's when all it meant to me was teenage rebellion. While this theme is still predominant in the movie, I couldn't help looking this time at Mr Vernon - the lame duck vice principal - through the lens of managing a business.
Here is my analogy:
An arrogant and micromanaging boss is charged with an underperforming division comprised of uniquely talented, but uninspired employees who dislike each other. (it actually sounds like something out of Pat Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team)
The boss views the staff with disdain and believes they should automatically respect him because he is, well, the boss ("Bender, I make $31,000 a year and I have a home and I'm not about to throw it all away on some punk like you.").
The boss comes in intermittently (monthly performance review?) and berates the team for goofing off and continually letting the company down. The boss becomes enemy #1 and the staff bond over their dislike of him, along with other people's unreasonable expectations of them (parents, teachers), and how no one seems to care about what they really think. In search of therapy and a solution, they smoke pot, dance in the library, run around the school's halls, cry and laugh together. The end result is that this motley crew comes to trust and respect one another. They bond and collectively solve the problem that their boss forced them to address at the beginning - how were they going to become better people?
To use an analogy - if the deliquent teenagers can be seen as employees, then there is no question that Mr Vernon can be seen as the ineffective manager, the kind of person who has nothing better to do than micromanage his team to generate results. (my other favourite micromanager is Bill Lumbergh from Office Space).
Yes, I have had my Lumberghian-Vernonian moments of micromanaging in my business. It's not easy to let go and let your team thrive without your constant input. Employees are human beings and they will inevitably make mistakes, much to the chagrin of a demanding boss. But, as a few smart people have told me before, managing is all about letting go and giving the people around you the freedom to do amazing things. Figuratively, this is what happened in that library when the students were left to their own devices.
Vernon did not trust his students. Lumbergh did not trust his staff. Both meddled. Both were overpaid and rather useless. The Breakfast Club struck a nerve for disaffacted teens in the 80's just like Office Space struck that same nerve in office workers in the 90's. Both movies were addressing the same issue from the standpoint of how not to lead a team of people.
I love how the Breakfast Club ends - with the students' collective note to Mr. Vernon. It's pretty interesting to see how the group is able to come to terms with their demons and collectively work out the best solution, without the guidance of their leader.
Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it is we did wrong, but we think you're crazy for making us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out, is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basketcase, a princess, and a criminal. Does that answer your question? Sincerely yours, The Breakfast Club.
Learnings from this? Train your team well, give them the power to make decisions for themselves, get them to believe in what they are doing, and give them the freedom to make mistakes so they can learn for themselves. I believe the best managers celebrate their teams for being the brain, the athlete, the basketcase, the princess, and the criminal.
