Socien's Blog

The first thing a successful leader does is give his followers a vision and a mission. It must be Alexander the Great who preached the great times coming after they fought and won a war against their troubles, the Persians,  to his Macedonian army. The followers, the Macedonian army, must have thought that taking down the Persian army which outnumbered them significantly would translate to a glorious retirement, gratuity and wealth. This did not happen.

The mission evolved. Alexander now wanted to conquer all of the world, imagining the whole world from its Ancient understanding. The disgruntled Macedonian stock of his army still stayed with him to his last days on the battlefield despite threats to quit following their king. How to maintain and make your leadership a legacy when the initial mission, a sense of purpose, you gave to your loyal followers changes?

The process of the mission evolving may involve the intensification of failures and work which threatens the integrity of a team that is not used to them. Steve Jobs, to deliver the world’s first iPhone, intensified the work of the team under him. This leaves us with the question: What it takes to lead the team in such tough times?

Avoiding total failure

Finally, the iPhone was delivered. It had already taken down competitors like Nokia when Jobs died of a cancer that had been troubling him since 2005 in 2011. Similarly, Alexander the Great never walked out of the scene with a defeat, as he and his army pierced past the boundaries of the Persian ruins. He is the most notable undefeated general known to have existed.

You have to fail. You have to learn from failure. Admitting total failure is not what a good leader should do. You have to find a way and lead your team to a breakthrough.

Lead from the front.

As Dani Penã, one of the most successful Latin American entrepreneurs had to put it, “If you leave it all to the engineers no car will ever make it out of the assembly line.” You know the specifications of the final product you would want to come up with. Take the lead!

Leading from the front gets you all the relevant intel you could use to formulate strategy. Alexander would allow “circumstances to dictate actions rather than staying with a fixed plan” and one post questions if it’s this is a good idea thanks to his presence. Some tactics can only work for hours. You will never know them when you are absent from the battle front.

When leading your pack from the from you easily:

• Persuade those under your leadership to keep up the work pointing to the signs of victory.
• Bring victory. Victory alone provides a ripe platform to preach the changes in your mission.
• See it when loyalties change and be ready to field anyone loyal to the spot.

Lead like a wise man

Alexander belongs to the Socratic philosophical lineage. It is Socrates who mentored Plato. Out of Plato came Aristotle and of the latter came Alexander the Great. In a conversation with Euthphro, we learn that Socrates was the kind of teacher who would rather lead than teach, suggest than advise. This leadership style found its way to Alexander who would rather crown as satraps those among the Persian empire he defeated, punished the resistance heavily and preserved their religion and culture than colonise them entirely. Modern leaders should preserve a secular environment at workplaces because once you challenge the beliefs of your subjects you make it harder for you to lead them.

Wise is not a man who instills the fact that he is wise upon those who follows him. He would rather guide them to the truth than compel them to it. Guiding and leading the led are qualities of a true mentor and leader. It involves listening more than saying a lot. Out of listening you will get a lot of information on which to build your verdict and decision.

See into the future like a wiseman

The future is as ever unpredictable. But while it is so, it offers a share of its clues to wise leaders who listen when it whispers. It whispers, among many things, through your subjects and through lessons you have accumulated from your past and theirs. It whispers to you its answers when you invite a view of an outside into your organisation.

As a leader, a bigger part of your job is to decipher the whisper from the future. According to the former CEO of General Electric, Jack Welch, “A leader’s job is to look into the future and see the organization not as it is, but as it can become.” Change is a new system. It demands people to know something new and rewrite what they used to know in their minds so that they can see the benefits.

Alexander failed to see that his strength depended on him staying alive. Believing he was the son of a god, Zeus, he thought he was invincible. He died at 33 after succumbing to a fever, an excessive alcoholic. Had he lived past this stage more battle injuries could have killed him earlier still.

Let’s say you are the CEO of Nokia in 2007, you are leading a company with up to 60% market share in the mobile market. Do you think you can do better than the CEOs at Nokia who led the company’s mobile division to its demise?

The moment you believe that you are invincible or you are leading an invincible organisation, you make it harder for you to hear the whispers from the future. Where change is necessary you do a little to go for it.