In Jay and Silent Bob Get Old 10: Mewes Shook Me All Night Long, a podcast inspired to keep his close friend and movie sidekick Jason Mewes on-the-wagon, Kevin Smith breaks from the usual comedic routine to talk about what he's learned over the years as a director and how his personal style of leadership has progressed.

I could never understand when I was younger and listening to older directors, how much control they gave up. When I was a young director, I used to force actors to do what I wanted them to do. Now that I'm older, I get it. You get more by letting go. If you put somebody in charge of their own performance, they are ultimately going to give you their best. The best thing to do to create an environment for very talented people is to let them do what they do best and take a step back and don't interfere; maybe stepping in every once in a while to help shape or tweak something. I know how to get the best out of people and what they do and that is my job. That is what I'm good at.”

As I listened to him, I was reminded of a post I recently read at The Science of Personality, where Bob Hogan reminds readers of Walter Michel's strong and weak situations: - Strong situations provide clear cues for behavior, which then suppress individual personality. - Weak situations provide ambiguous cues for behavior, which then potentiates individual personality.