Leadership Mastery: Awakening the Lion Within

Awakening the Lion Within:

One of my heroes and role models, growing up and still to this day, is most definitely Alexander the Great. As an heir to an already powerful and legendary king, Alexander found himself at a young age ascending to the throne due to his father’s assassination. As a young king, he had to battle on two major fronts: one was filling his father’s shoes and proving worthy of the throne, and the other was gaining the loyalty and compliance of his generals, who were much more experienced than him in the arts of war and had fought alongside his father. Unlike some other new kings of those times, rather than executing his generals to establish control and mount a new chain of command loyal to him or submitting his opinions and visions to gain the support of his followers and prevent conflict, Alexander demonstrated his military genius and leadership skills to win their loyalty.

Alexander, who was tutored by Aristotle—the great Greek philosopher—chose to impose his own vision, aspirations, and war methods, making his generals submit to them. He saw his greatness and sought immortality, challenged the Babylonian empire, and craved its territories. He maintained his revolutionary war methods, tactics, and strategies, all while keeping his respect and humanity towards his people and followers (less towards some of his enemies). In time, as his greatness began to surface, his charisma to shine, and his leadership to be admired, all who once doubted his abilities fell in line and followed him without doubt.

Yes, it is a bit easier to wield the compliance of soldiers and generals if you are the king, if you have a good personal guard squad, that is, since the other side of this coin could, probably, be an attempt on your life. But Alexander was fearless, ignited by passion and vision, and he wielded the loyalty of his troops and generals, even when he led them into the fiercest battles, because they simply believed in him. They were not sheep; they were experienced and fearless warriors but needed to be led by a lion.

Eventually, there is almost no one who hasn’t heard of Alexander the Great. His immortal portrait, conquests, and philosophy lived on after him, igniting imagination, admiration, and mostly a profound lesson on the lengths we can go by harnessing the powers within us and achieving greatness.

“I do not fear an army of lions led by a sheep; I fear an army of sheep led by a lion” is attributed to Alexander the Great, emphasizing his philosophy of leadership and its placement. Although his armies and generals were already lions, he understood that if, as their leader, he were to be a sheep, just going with the flow, it would have never brought him the glories he acquired.

Breaking down this quote and rising above the obvious military context, “Sheep” are those who lack vision, lack a higher purpose and goals, and mostly lack a sense of direction. Imagine a herd of sheep rushing to a source of water or grass to eat; they are not coordinated, they are not organized, and each has a narrow scope of interests to look after. Sheep are not as brave as individuals and they prefer their “comfort zone” where grass and water are available, lacking any ambition to search and seek new, maybe better fields.

A “Lion”, on the other hand, is a calculated and determined being. It sets its target and goes after it regardless of the hardship and risk of running after it. It is noble, fearless, courageous and protective and strikes fear into the hearts of its opponents.

Sheep are everywhere, and lions are everywhere. One needs to attribute himself either with the former or with the latter and act upon it. An executive manager, project manager, or any entrepreneur, among others in this context, even if they have the best and most powerful teams working for them, if they submit their personal beliefs and visions to keep the team “satisfied,” then they become sheep, afraid of taking a stand or imposing their will without using a conflict that can destabilize their “comfort zone.” They lose their position as a leader while keeping their leadership title. In most cases, another leader, within the lines of their team, will rise to assume the actual leader role. This is inevitable; there is no such thing as a void. Wherever a void is created, someone (or something) will always step forward and fill that void – it is a natural law that exists in all domains of our existence.

So, what is the role of the leader, and why is it so important?

First, as the term implies, a leader leads. They organize, synchronize, and orchestrate the collective effort toward the achievement of a specific goal. This goal is the essence of the organization or the process’s existence. A leader needs to have their own vision of what this goal is and how to get there most efficiently and productively. People will always look for a leader in their course of life, be it in their work, studies, personal lives, and other domains. They may not always acknowledge this fact, and some would even resist it. However, a good leader can spot those resistances and defuse them. It is up to their leadership skills how to approach, defuse, and eventually harness the energy of resistance and transform it into propelling energy forward.

Let me give you another analogy. Imagine a flow of water coming down from the mountain into the valley. The water, as in its nature, finds the most comfortable spot to break through, resting in various paths all leading to the valley area but not to the same spot. If we were to take the initiative and channel the water by defining the course of its flow and pointing it to our spot of objective, then the water, in its all mighty mass, will flow in that aqueduct, overcoming any obstacle in its way and arriving at the spot we intended it to arrive at, nurturing our crops and helping them grow.

A leader, who knows how to synergies the inherent instincts of their subordinates and harmonize the collective movement, will, no doubt, achieve far greater things than the one that submits to the general population’s chaotic administration.

It is easier said than done, though. The act of leading is an act of charisma, empowerment to others, focus, resilience, knowledge and gaining, as much as giving, trust. It’s a balanced act that doesn’t solely rely on authority and position but mainly on personality, charisma, and composure. A leader should know how to empower their subordinates to maximize their productivity (check my article about delegation as a means of productivity), he or she should strive to educate and grow their people and encourage free speech and opinion sharing. They also need to create a common culture in which their organization operates; this organizational culture is the frame within which everyone who belongs to it navigates their activities. A leader needs to instill an environment of respect and tolerance, they need to ensure the nourishment of innovation and out-of-the-box thinking, for in those places of unrestricted thinking within a frame of context, great things are built and created. When all the above (and obviously other elements that I will be going into in my upcoming articles in the leadership series) is securely placed within, then a common goal or vision can be effectively implemented and achieved. The sheep would no longer act upon existential drives that lead nowhere or bring more of the same but rather, they would harness those drives in a well-determined, planned, and laid course of action that aims at achieving the now collective vision.

A lion leader can spot the weak links among their lines. They can foster or, in some cases, cut ties with those links in order to ensure the collective’s success. This is not aimed only toward people but also toward culture, processes, and organizational or methodical aspects. This is one of the leader’s privileges, to be able to examine the landscape from an eagle’s fly position where they must see the whole and intact picture of what it is and what it should be. The involvement, yet at the same time the ability to avoid micromanaging, is a tricky balance that a leader needs to master; these are the places where their most impactful weight comes into existence.

Most leaders – and I say ‘most’ since I have seen others – do not want to be satisfied with mere sheep under them. Yes, there will always be sheep, but the idea of reducing their dominance within our environment needs to be the end game when it comes to our leadership philosophy. We need to strive to transform most of our sheep into lions. Imagine the impact of a well-organized, motivated, and well-led herd of lions on the field of our domain, whether in business or personal domains, comparing to a herd of sheep scattering around. The process of transforming the sheep into lions is nurtured mainly by the consistency of the methods mentioned above while, at the same time, introducing the beneficial qualities that leadership can bring to the lives of those under us. It would transform their motivation and drive, ignite a self-empowerment that propels a desire for more, and it would transform their lives as much as it would benefit our vision.

Imagine a sales department manager under you who is empowered with the lion qualities, imagine how they would charge at their department demanding more and more efficiency and results. Now imagine that the salespersons themselves are transformed into lions; what an explosion of motivation, innovation, healthy competition, and self-empowerment this transformation can bring about. It would be a game-changer for us or our organization, while, of course, as leaders, we should and need to accept the sudden ambitions and professional reservations we might encounter from them, as in the end, a transformed lion would most likely affect the administrative environment, and it is up to us to harness this transformation in the right and productive direction.

So now I say: “I do not fear an army of lions led by a sheep; I fear an army of sheep led by a lion,” but, if we seek unique impact and absolute success, then – we need an army of lions, led by the biggest lion of all.

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