While Spider-Man has evolved significantly throughout the years, one constant has been his sense of humour and wisecracks when dealing with enemies. He's gotten to the point that other heroes think he's one of the most obnoxious persons they've ever worked with. There is, however, a rationale for this. Underneath the suit, Spider-Man is an ordinary adolescent who relies on humour to cope with his anxiety.

As a manager, one would often be put under difficult situations, and when the stress levels are high, it can seem impossible to succeed. Spider-Man utilises humour to help him get through difficult situations, and this is a lesson that anybody can learn from.

 
“It is a leap of faith”

When an agitated Miles Morales asks Peter Parker as to when will he know that he is ready to be Spiderman? The older and wiser Parker replies that he won’t and it's just a leap of faith.

Many times, we as managers would face challenges that are beyond our control or much above our current skill set and in times like those, we would be required to take our leap of faith. We may end up failing spectacularly in the process, or we may succeed. In either scenario we grow into a better version of ourselves but we can’t know the outcome if we are not ready to take the leap.

“Be Flexible”

While for the majority of his history, Spiderman has been a solo hero and prefers to work alone he has time and again proved that he can lead and step up whenever required. As managers, bringing in these flexibilities in one’s management style and being flexible with the roles assigned would go a long way in shaping careers.

“Anyone can wear the mask”

The legendary Stan Lee has said time and again that the best thing he found about spiderman was that his costume covers his entire body and which means that he can belong to any race, religion or gender and everyone can relate to him. 

The key takeaway that can be taken from this is that one must not underestimate others, for every person can teach something important to us and the next person can very well take up your position and do equally well. So as leaders and managers it becomes important to treat everyone with respect, be humble, keep learning and always be ready to help the next person.

“There will be bad days”

Spiderman is perhaps one of the most tragic heroes out there and has been down and out in numerous instances. A popular terminology used for this is the “Parker Luck” where he just believes that it's in his destiny to have bad days.

Even we as managers might face our version of “Parker Luck” where nothing seems to be going right for us and in times like those it becomes crucial to keep moving forward and never give up because that’s what heroes do.

“With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”

The one line that defines the whole character is this. The night his uncle gets shot; he realizes that he could have saved him if only he had taken his responsibility seriously.

In the real world too, we are given our fair share of chances where we can get back at people, take the easy way out or just walk away from all the things that bother us but that won’t make things better, instead of owning up and taking responsibility would go a long way into shaping the kind of leaders and managers we would become.

As we grow older and get busier, there do come days when we suffer from a serious lack of motivation and in times like these, we can always visit our childhood superheroes to get back that lost zeal. As this year comes to a close, let us approach the next year with new strength, renewed motivation and stronger affirmations.

“Do what is right, not what is easy nor what is popular.”

~ Roy T. Bennet