What does blowing up digital aliens have to do with employee management?

A lot, actually, says a study reported in this month’s Harvard Business Review. The authors claim that successful players of online video games need many of the same skills as successful business leaders.

Sound crazy? Here are some of the similarities they point out:

• Quick decisions — Leaders and gamers both need to think on their feet.
• Risk and reward — Some amount of risk is necessary to win, but unnecessary risk only leads to bad news.
• Revolving leadership — In most new video games, participants play in teams, and different players need to step up to the plate at different times.

Does this mean companies should start asking about gaming experience when they interview? Personally, we’d still prefer candidates with actual leadership experience in real life.

But the study does point out some interesting possibilities for employee training. For example, 135 team leaders at IBM were asked to play an online role playing game. Afterward, almost half said the game helped improve their real-world leadership skills.

Tags: leadership, Training, video games