What is the answer?

“Car’das? Your opinion?”

[Car’das] might not have had a lot of schooling before running off to space, but he’d had enough to know when a teacher was still looking for an answer he hadn’t yet gotten from anyone else.

But what was the answer? []

And then, suddenly, it struck him. [] “These aren’t the ones who did the repairs, are they?”

“Very good,” Thrawn said, smiling faintly. “No, they aren’t.”

~

“Very good,” Thrawn said approvingly. []

“Thank you,” Thalias said, feeling her cheeks warm with the compliment. “Though if it has, it’s due to your skill as a teacher.”

“I disagree,” Thrawn said. “I don’t teach, but merely guide. Each person approaches problems differently. All I do is ask the questions that set that person on their best path to the solution.”

“I see,” Thalias murmured. But only if that person was willing to put forth the effort to learn that path to logic and reason, she suspected. Too many people, possibly even the majority of them, were all too content to let others do that thinking and analysis for them.

~

Everyone from Faro on down seemed intent on working together to do their jobs and complete their assigned tasks to the best of their ability.

The reason, of course, was obvious: Thrawn.

The grand admiral was smart and subtle, but never used his brilliance to show up or humiliate anyone.

He demanded results, but never perfection, and had amazing stores of patience for those who were truly working to their fullest ability.

He cared about his people, to the point of standing up for them even against the disapproval of powerful men like Lord Vader. []

It was a pity Thrawn's style of leadership hadn't spread through the rest of the navy. Still, he was certainly having an influence on the younger officers.

~

Closely related to his polite but firm "perhaps," "opinion?" is one of the trademarks of Thrawn's mentoring style.

His goal is never showing off, belittling the opponent, "à la Sherlock," but instead using his everlasting patience to wait for the student to devise his own solution.

Sure, as Thalias points out, at least for those willing to learn.

After all, “curiosity is a choice. Some wish to have it. Others don’t.”

[SC Thrawn Funko by @cardinal.creates]