“I am Odysseus son of Laertes,
known before all men for the study of crafty designs,
and my fame goes up to the heavens.” –The Odyssey
“Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
… Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world …”
(from Tennyson’s Ulysses)
Bizprov recently presented a leadership workshop using the tool of improvisation to sharpen skills of seeing, hearing, and responding in the moment. In these workshops, we drew on some ancient truths and heroic virtues, using models from mythology to connect with essential attributes of leadership. These stories also provided larger-than-life examples of the importance of uniting around a common purpose.
Business theorist Mary Parker Follett believed that a modern leader is required to have a thorough knowledge of the job, the ability to grasp the total situation, and the power to make disparate forces serve a common purpose. Leaders should have a vision of the future and followers keep a leader in control of the situation by informing her of the situation as it changes, on the ground, in the moment. It is essentially improvisational give-and-take.
Business leaders must be learners and guides, invoking their own personal virtues and knowledge as well as those of their people in order to recognize and articulate that common purpose, a vision that is subscribed to emotionally, psychologically and actively by the entire unified team in order for the business to move forward. Leaders must develop a common purpose as a rallying point for the team in order to ultimately grow the business. It’s something possible, achievable through dedication, faith, leadership and collaboration. This is true of all leaders, modern and mythological.
In the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, Jason and his team of superheroes face the Clashing Rocks, huge rocks in the sea that crash together at regular interval and then separate again to trap and crush ships. To get past the rocks without sinking, they had to combine the special powers of those on the boat. They followed the seer prophecy of the blind Phineas, who told them of the gods’ advice to release a dove and see if it could fly past the rocks without being crushed in between. They caught a live dove through the hunting skills of Atalanta, and let it fly between the great rocks. The sharp-eyed mapmaker Zetes was able to use his incredible eyesight to see the dove’s fate. The dove survived, and the Argonauts set about to sail through the Clashing Rocks as they parted. To do this, they had to row at superhuman speed. Luckily the mighty Hercules was on board. They all banded together, and with a little push from Athena as well, the Argo safely sailed into the Black Sea. The Rocks never clashed again. The Argonauts under Jason’s leadership pursued a common purpose and utilized their combined group power.
Big Moments of leadership and decision-making bring together knowledge and personal virtues to create buy-in and inspiration on everyone’s part. Leadership is a collaborative practice, finds common purpose which inspires action. It involves the ever-present improvisational ability to see, hear, reflect and adapt to the situation. Let’s call this process of grasping the Big Moments and Common Purpose the “4 G’s”: gleaning, grounding context, galvanizing and guiding:
- Gleaning information (knowing the self and learning about and from others)
- Grounding the situation, articulating the context AT A CRITICAL JUNCTURE
- Galvanizing the team in A MOMENT OF TRUTH; modeling and inspiring action
- Guiding them onward as they take on more leadership themselves.
So what do we already know about ourselves and our leadership qualities? What qualities are essential? What can we learn from myth about inspiring common purpose? How do the 4 G’s and improvisation provide new ways of being a passionate, visionary leader of leaders? The myth models such as the Jason story as well as speeches and turning points in the Iliad and Odyssey provide us with vivid examples of collaborative leadership qualities and rich, evocative imagery. For instance, in one of his moments of truth, Trojan hero Prince Hector articulates the critical juncture, employs the 4 G’s, and identifies common purpose: to rally the men of Troy to defeat the Greeks. As a leader, he is modeling honor, bravery, focus, patriotism.
“Come, now for attack! We’ll set all this to rights, someday, if Zeus will ever let us raise the wine bowl of freedom high in our halls, high to the gods of cloud and sky who live forever–once we drive these Greeks geared for battle out of Troy! …Aren’t you sick of being caged inside those walls?”
There is no established pathway or map for these heroic men and women. That’s the point, and it’s the essential nature of the adventure and the challenge—in myth and in business—finding the way through, drawing on personal virtues and group power focused on a compelling common purpose.
Leaders in ancient myth and modern business contextualize the critical juncture to inspire other perhaps newly promoted leaders to emotionally buy-in, and step up. This recent workshop’s participants vividly experienced moments of truth and leadership in a critical juncture, going home with a clear sense of how to get focused in the moment, model and apply these 4 G leadership practices, and articulate a common purpose for their people at work.
