As senior recruiters we are constantly studying the idea of "leadership".
We need to understand it before we can reliably see it and identifying it is a large
part of our job. We spend a lot of our time judging who really has it vs. "fractionals"
or outright posers (resumes being one of the greatest outlets of fictional prose
known to man…). But that's just the beginning. What's frustrating is that a good
"leader" can still lead a company to destruction, especially if the board
isn't strong. So, in our playbook, it goes beyond who can "lead", you
have to know to where that person will tend to lead a company (or military force
in that context). So it's complicated. Our company term "corpcraft" only
begins to describe it.
However, you have to start somewhere and the past is always useful.
Any serious student of leadership will tell you one of history's greatest leaders
was Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. Even George Washington, clearly a great leader,
partially modeled himself after Cincinnatus.
Here is the short
and valuable story of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus.
In 458 BC Rome was in danger of falling to the Aequi and Voslcians,
two nearby tribes. Roman law at the time had a provision to basically draft a "dictator"
in times of great peril. Rome was then a republic and had no emperor. The dictator
was given absolute power for a period of 6 months. Of course, during this time the
potential for the dictator to abuse his power was on everybody's mind.
Due to the imminent threat to Rome the Senate knew they needed
a real leader. The group (think Board of Directors) looked around itself and, not
seeing the required talent, decided to draft Cincinnatus, a former Senate member
who had resigned in disgrace over something his son had done (evidently children
could be a problem even then…). This is key:
The members of the Senate knew that under similar circumstances none of them would
have stepped down. They knew they needed somebody of strong character.
The delegation found Cincinnatus at his farm. Note: The farm
was the smallest size plot that would allow for Roman citizenship. Cincinnatus was
literally behind a plow working the field when they arrived. The delegation handed
him some papers and saluted him as dictator. Cincinnatus donned a toga and they
all went back to Rome. Pretty straightforward.
In a short time Cincinnatus had taken over command of the army,
then marched out to meet and quickly defeat the Aequi and Voslcians. He returned
to Rome a hero.
But what did he do then? Rather than hang around and abuse his
unlimited power he resigned and went back to plow his fields and tend to his family.
The whole thing took 15 days. Wow.
It's easy to see why history points to Cincinnatus as a great
leader. He was a leader in the purist sense. He did what was asked; lead Rome to
a solution without regard for personal gain. And then, his job done, he simply went
home.
Similarly, history sometimes refers to George Washington as "the
American Cincinnatus". Washington too did great things then went back to his
farm. He just coolly delivered what he was asked to do. That’s a great trait for
great CEOs.
Think about it…
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And yes, the city of Cincinnati was named after Lucius Quinctius
Cincinnatus.
