Leadership and character.
Boston Leadership Builders
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Let me tell you a story. As you listen to this story see which part, if any, hooks you.
· William Phips
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· born in Woolwich, Maine 1652; lived most of his life in Massachusetts; died in 1695.
· As a boy walked to Boston to learn the ship’s trade and to adventure on the high seas
· Heard tales of a fabulous Spanish treasure sunk off the coast of the Bahamas; did some research to assess the plausibility of the tales; convinced himself that they were plausible
· Tried for years to interest investors in fitting out an expedition to search for the treasure; he and his desire to sail for the treasure was repeatedly ridiculed by the experts
· Attempted to build his own ships but his shipyards were repeatedly destroyed by the Indians
· He did not give up his dream of sailing for the treasure.
· Finally in 1684 (at the age of 32) he found investors in England. He outfitted an expedition and sailed for the Bahamas.
· In 1687 he found the sunken ship and the treasures chests with over 300,000 sterling pounds silver! … a fabulous amount in those days.
· Most of the money went to the investors and British crown but Phips’s share still made him a very wealthy man.
· The British crown knighted him for his efforts.
· He returned to Massachusetts in 1689; was appointed Commander of a navy expedition to fight the French in Canada; In a dramatic series of military victories, he captured Port Royal, Nova Scotia for the British colonies.
· Returning to Massachusetts he was made Governor; had a role to play in the Salem Witch trials and brought them to s speedy close when his own wife was accused.
· He crossed political swords with the Governor of New York who charged him with corruption; He was summoned to England to answer the charges but died in 1695 before any trial occurred.
What part of the story of William Phips grabbed you?
Some of Phips character traits are worth mentioning as they are correlated with success across all enterprise areas:
· Ambition
· Willing to do the research
· Persistence
· Belief in a dream
· Organizational skill
· Audacity
· Skill in persuasion or rhetoric
All of these add up to ‘character’.
· Character is a reliable index to a person’s willingness and ability to lead others.
· Let me say a few words about each of the character traits displayed by old man Phips
· Ambition
Phips displayed ambition when he walked from maine to Boston when just a boy and then again when he did the research to verify the claims that treasure could be found off the cost of the Bahamas, and then again when he built a shipyard to create a ship that would ferry him to the Bahamas and then again when he attempted to ‘sell’ his idea to all kinds of ‘investors’ and so on.
A less ambitious man would have heard the tale of treasure and simply
-dismissed it as a fanciful tale
-even if true ‘he would not be so lucky as to find the treasure himself’
-even if true I could never find the treasure…I have never even set foot on a ship!
-even if true how would I find the resources needed to outfit a ship, pay a crew, manage and lead a crew, read the maps, avoid the weather in the carribean, ….surely I cannot do all this!
-I can’t even read and write…I could never find the treasure
How do you respond to tales of treasure? With ambition?
· Willing to do the research
Phips demonstrated the ability to verify the tale that a fabulous treasure was just waiting to be found. He did the research to verify the tale.
This is the character trait that kills off most aspiring leaders. They are too lazy to pursue the goal. They believe the nonsense they hear that they do not have the smarts or wits or resources to strike it rich.
Research and gaining technical know how in one’s given field of endeavor requires persistence and patience and hard daily work. But that is ALL that it requires.
· Persistence
Phips’ dominant character trait was persistence.
-Despite ridicule and refusals he never gave up on his determination to outfit a ship and sail for the treasure.
-He was not particularly smart, lucky, wealthy, skilled, good looking or likeable…
-But he was persistent
· Belief in a dream; a goal; a vision; a purpose
-Phips dream began as high seas adventure; then turned to a passion for wealth and power…these are good things!
-Purpose sustains the will against adversity.
-Belief in a dream or purpose provides the fuel for persistence; persistence is not possible without hope that the dream will be fulfilled
· Organizational skill
Phips displayed management skills, the ability to captain people and a ship in pursuit of his overall goal: to become rich.
· Audacity
-It took audacity to sail into an area of the open seas that was known for its multiple storms and shipwrecks.
-Audacity is the most important trait any person can possibly possess
-Audacity is NOT hubris; pride or egoism
-It is fearlessness and daring and the willingness to aim high and to risk substantial holdings in pursuit of very high goals
· Rhetoric
-Phips was able to verbally convince wealthy and influential people to back his naval expeditions…even an expedition in search of lost treasure!
· An essential tool for the leader is effective use of language.
· He must be a master at use of language in certain critical situations in order to effectively to convince followers (including investors), to lead people; to keep followers engaged and on-task; and turn followers into leaders themselves.
· rhetoric or the ability to speak well in public.
Here is a story of another man:
Themistocles (roughly 524-459BC): leader of Athens during the wars with Persia. Xerxes invaded Greece in the 480s
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Rose from obscure origins to become leader of Athens-defeating Artistides the Just for the leadership (483BC); Aristides was ostracized
-Forseeing the invasion of Greece by the Persians, Themistocles opposed all other politicians and persuaded his countrymen to build 200 triremes with the money (100 talents) from a newly-discovered rich vein of silver at Laureion, and to continue his work of fortifying the harbours of Piraeus
-His political and strategic masterpiece was engineering the Battle of Salamis (480BC) between the Persian and Greek Naval fleets
Themistocles had to convince all the members of the Greek alliance as well as the Athenians themselves to fight the Persians on water before fighting them on land. The Spartans wanted to return to the Peloponnese, seal off the isthmus of Corinth with a wall, and prevent the Persians from defeating them on land, but Themistocles persuaded them to remain at Salamis, arguing that a wall across the Isthmus was pointless as long as the Persian army could be transported and supplied by the Persian navy.
The Greeks had at most 380 ships while the Persians had at least 800 ships and many more men.
Afraid that he would be overruled by Eurybiades despite the Spartan's total lack of naval expertise, Themistocles sent an informer, a slave named Sicinnus, the teacher of his children, to Xerxes to make the Persian king believe that the Greeks had in fact not been able to agree on a location for battle, and would be stealthily retreating during the night. Xerxes believed Sicinnus and sent his Egyptian squadron to blockade the western outlet of the straits, which also served to block any Greek ships who might be planning to escape.
With one wily maneuver Themistocles tricked the Persian to fight on terms favorable to the greeks
AND …
Themistocles forced the Greeks against their own wishes to fight on terms favorable to them!
Themistocles wanted the naval battle to occur in the Bay of Salamis as he knew that the large vessels and large Persian fleet could not could not maneuver effectively in the gulf.
At least 200 Persian ships were sunk
The victory of the Greeks marked the turning point in the Persian Wars and the heavy defeat of Persia. Without his navy, Xerxes was unable to supply his huge army from resource-poor Greece so he withdrew to the Hellespont. Here, he proposed to march his army back over the bridge of ships he had created, before the Greeks arrived to destroy it (although the Greeks had already decided not to do this). Xerxes returned to Persia, leaving Mardonius and a large force to hold the conquered areas of Greece.
The Greeks won the battle…a battle that historians agree was decisive in stopping the Persian invasions of the West
It is fair to say that Themistocles was able to manipulate two huge armies into a battle that saved the west.
Character traits displayed by Themistocles
-ambition; in his youth he claimed he could not sleep for years because he was so envious of Miltiades when Militades was covered in glory after the victory at the battle of Marathon; He decided he would surpass Militiades’ accomplishments
-audacity; It required audacity to brave accusations of treason (when T sent his slave to Xerxes) as well as to engage in political battles right on the battlefield…with allies who were too ignorant to know what was best for them
-rhetoric; Themistocles may be supreme in use of this skill as he used it to advantage of Athens in convincing the Athenians to build ships instead of enriching themselves when they came into a windfall profit with the discovery of the silver mines
-belief in a vision; purpose; Themistocles’ political goal was to ensure the safety and prosperity of Athens; He could see more clearly than any of his comrades threats that would be facing Athens
-willing to do the research or to acquire the skills necessary to attain the goal; Themistocles spent years acquiring knowledge of Persian military tactics and capabilities as he knew he would one day face them
-persistence
-organizational and political skill
Two styles of leadership:
· a prestige oriented style where the leader attains his leadership position via a sterling reputation for high moral character, high intelligence and high accomplishment.
· a dominance-oriented strategy where the leader attains his leadership position via an ability to politically manipulate and dominate his opponents and to use force when necessary to do so.
· Many individuals attempt to alternate between the two styles but this is a difficult balancing act to say the least.
· The best leaders, like Phips and Themistocles, combine the two styles as needed
Ethological Differences between dominance and prestige organized social hierarchies.
Dominance Hierarchy / Prestige HierarchyOrders / Some non-human primates (excluding perhaps Bonobos) / Humans
Hierarchy and order established by force? / yes / Only in special situations like war and police actions
Low status individual approaches high status individual without cost? / no / yes
Low status individual stares at high status individual without cost? / no / yes
Social mobility established via attack: low status individual attack high status individuals? / yes / no
Low status individual fears high status individual? / yes / Maybe (when high status individuals control resources of low status individual
High status individual can violently attack low status individual? / yes / no
Social emulation: High status individual is imitated by low status individuals? / no / yes
High status individual ‘swaggers’? / Yes, indiscriminantly / Selectively
High status individual receives gifts /service from low status individuals? / yes / yes
Social relations? / Transitive and asymmetric / Reciprocal altrusim
· Both styles of leadership find their evolutionary roots in the need to develop cooperative enterprises by developing systems of trust between individuals with differing genetic interests as well as by punishing free-riders or individuals who seek to benefit from cooperative enterprises without contributing any of the work required to succeed in these cooperative enterprises.