George Bernard Shaw’s Leadership Lessons for CEOs

Introduction

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright, critic, essayist, and social commentator who lived from 1856 to 1950. He wrote more than 60 plays, including Pygmalion, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, Saint Joan, and The Doctor’s Dilemma. He also received the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was funny, provocative, stubborn, and almost always willing to challenge what other people had decided was sensible or respectable.

Shaw certainly was not a management writer, and I would not agree with every conclusion he reached. What interests me is the way he thought. George Bernard Shaw’s leadership lessons begin with his ability to spot the distance between what people said and what they actually did. He put opposing ideas into conversation, questioned conventional wisdom, and used humor to expose contradictions that people would rather ignore. Those habits are still useful for anyone who leads other people.

Those habits are especially relevant to the work of leadership. The problem on the table is rarely just the problem as first described. A hiring problem may also involve a founder who has trouble letting go. A performance problem may have continued because expectations were never clear or consequences were never enforced. A strategic problem may rest on an assumption no one has challenged in years. Good leadership begins by slowing down, looking at the whole situation, and being willing to see how your own decisions and behavior may be contributing to it.

How Much of the Problem Is Really Outside Your Control

“People are always blaming circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances.”

— George Bernard Shaw, Mrs Warren’s Profession

Circumstances do matter. Markets change, money gets more expensive, talented people can be hard to find, and customers do not always behave the way we expect. Shaw was not suggesting that we can wish those realities away. His point was that circumstances can become a convenient explanation for a result we do not like.

I often hear leaders say their people are not ready, their industry is different, their customers will never accept the change, or the timing is wrong. Any of those statements could be true. I still want to know which part of the situation is genuinely outside the leader’s control and which part has simply been accepted as fixed. I also want to know what decision the explanation may be helping the leader avoid. Those questions usually give the member more room to act.

The Leader May Be Contributing to the Problem

Shaw’s characters often think the obstacle is somewhere outside themselves. As the story unfolds, we see that their own behavior is helping to create the conflict they want to escape. I see the same pattern in organizations. A CEO wants accountability but keeps rescuing people. A founder wants a strong leadership team but overrides its decisions. An owner wants more freedom but holds on to every important choice.

That does not mean every problem is the leader’s fault. It does mean leaders have to examine the part they are playing. Two questions are particularly useful: “How might I be creating the very condition I want to eliminate?” and “What would I have to stop doing for someone else to step forward?” These questions can be uncomfortable, but they move a leader away from blame and toward something they can actually change.

Progress Usually Requires Some Unreasonableness

“All progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

— George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists

Shaw was not making an argument for irrational behavior. He was making the case for people who refuse to accept that the current way is the only way. Most worthwhile strategies contain at least a little unreasonableness. Someone has to question the industry practice, the customer assumption, or the internal habit that everyone else has learned to live with.

That is one reason dissent matters inside a company. The unconventional idea should not automatically win, but it deserves a fair hearing. Leaders should ask what a newcomer would question, which customer frustration the industry has learned to tolerate, and whether an idea is being dismissed because it is flawed or simply because it is unfamiliar. Experience can improve judgment, but it can also teach us to stop seeing possibilities.

The Way We Treat People Shapes What They Become

“Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.”

— George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists

Shaw’s version of the Golden Rule is provocative, but it makes a practical point. People do not all need the same amount of direction, encouragement, autonomy, or feedback. Treating everyone exactly the same may feel fair while overlooking what each person needs to do good work and continue growing. The standard can remain consistent even when the approach changes from one person to another.

Developing people does not mean protecting them from consequences. It means being clear about expectations, giving them real authority, offering useful feedback, and allowing room for responsible mistakes. Leaders need to ask whether they are building capability or reinforcing dependence. That can be an uncomfortable distinction, especially when a well-intentioned leader keeps stepping in so often that no one else gets the chance to grow.

Learning Can Feel Like Losing Something

“You have learnt something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something.”

— George Bernard Shaw, Major Barbara

This is one of Shaw’s observations that stays with me. Growth often requires us to give something up: an identity, a habit, a comfortable certainty, or a source of status. A founder who delegates an important responsibility may lose the satisfaction of being the person who solves every problem. A CEO who changes a long-held position may worry about looking inconsistent. A senior leader who confronts an underperforming friend may lose a comfortable relationship.

That is why insight alone does not create change. A leader may know exactly what needs to happen and still resist the loss that comes with it. The tradeoff has to be named honestly. What will be gained? What will have to be released? The business decision often becomes clearer once the personal cost is out in the open.

Indifference Is Also a Leadership Choice

“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them.”

— George Bernard Shaw, The Devil’s Disciple

Indifference is rarely announced. It shows up when leaders stop noticing what has become familiar. A struggling employee receives neither honest feedback nor meaningful support. A high performer’s destructive behavior is tolerated. Customer complaints are discussed but never addressed. A standard gradually becomes negotiable because enforcing it would be uncomfortable.

Leadership requires enough attention and care to step in, clarify expectations, confront behavior, and follow through. Silence communicates a standard just as clearly as any value printed on the wall. When a leader has tolerated a problem for months, one question matters: Who is paying the price? The answer usually includes colleagues, customers, and the culture, not only the person whose performance is in question.

Expert Advice Does Not Replace Executive Judgment

“No man can be a pure specialist without being in the strict sense an idiot.”

— George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists

Shaw’s wording is blunt, but the warning is useful. Deep expertise can narrow a person’s field of view. That is not a reason to distrust specialists. Leaders need good attorneys, accountants, bankers, consultants, and technical experts. They also need to remember that no specialist owns the whole business decision.

Every advisor sees risk through the lens of their profession. The lawyer may focus on legal exposure, the accountant on financial controls, and the banker on repayment capacity. Those perspectives matter, but the CEO still has to put them together. A leader should ask what question the expert was actually answering, which assumptions support the recommendation, and what may fall outside that advisor’s view. In the end, the leader owns the judgment.

Freedom Means Accepting Responsibility

“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.”

— George Bernard Shaw, Maxims for Revolutionists

Leaders sometimes talk about freedom as keeping their options open. They postpone the conversation, seek more information, or wait for better timing. There can be good reasons to delay a decision, but refusing to choose is still a choice. Someone else often pays the cost while the leader preserves flexibility.

This shows up in succession planning, partner disputes, executive performance decisions, acquisitions, and changes in strategy. The questions are direct: What are you choosing by not deciding? Who is paying the price? What additional information would truly change the decision? At what point does keeping your options open become a failure to lead? Freedom becomes meaningful when the leader accepts the responsibility and limitations that come with a choice.

The Work Is to Help Leaders Steer

“To be in hell is to drift: to be in heaven is to steer.”

— George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

Leaders rarely say they have decided to drift. They revisit the issue, gather more information, or wait for greater clarity. Meanwhile, the company keeps moving, and circumstances eventually make the decision for them. A meaningful commitment is the point where drifting stops. The leader identifies what they will do, who needs to be involved, when it will happen, and how they will know it was completed.

That is why Shaw still feels relevant to me. He did not let intelligent people hide behind intelligent explanations. He kept asking what their behavior revealed and whether their actions matched what they claimed to value. He understood that sincere people can still be mistaken about themselves, which is true of all of us.

The real work of leadership is not collecting more advice. It is seeing the issue more honestly, understanding your own contribution, making a sound decision, and acting on it. Shaw’s language may come from another era, but the challenge is current: face reality, accept responsibility, and steer.

Source Note

The Shaw excerpts in this article were verified against Project Gutenberg editions of the works identified with each quotation.