Originals!

Leadership in Literature

Have you ever thought about using the story, Snow White, as a lesson in leadership? No? I’m not talking about Disney’s version, but the original story collected by the Grimm brothers, during the 19th century. It’s actually a rather disturbing story. That makes it useful, as it was meant to be. It is not only a cautionary tale, but one that deep dives into archetypes, the shadows, and leaders. It is chapter 4 in my book, Leadership in Literature.

What is Leadership in Literature? A workbook. It is meant to assist those who want to be leaders, and to understand what leadership is, and is not. Since it is a workbook it is not another “self-help” book filled with someone’s life experiences and their anecdotes or stories to illustrate the points. What too many readers of those types of books do, when they are finished with it, if they finish it, is to put it down and then go on with their lives. Whether or not they incorporate the ideas into their actual practices is anyone’s guess. I don’t see it happening, though I am certain some individuals make the changes necessary to reach a goal, or complete a mission. 

I use the term mission, because making big changes is a mission, not a goal. Goals are set along the road to fulfillment of the mission. And the missions are a part of one’s purpose in life. We need those goals to keep us going towards the life we desire. Without the goals, we stagnate. For example, this book is a mission because it is my purpose to transmit ancient knowledge and wisdom to a next generation. I have set a long term goal of when it will be ready for publication. Every week, the goal is to draft a chapter. 

Leadership in Literature uses the wisdom of the ancients, and the wisdom of fabulous writers, and excellent filmmakers, to point out what excellent, and not-so-excellent leadership is. The stories used in this book cover several civilizations, many centuries, and have many plots, but their themes are the same: leaders, or, heroes, and what makes them tick. And what is noticeable in all these stories is that the habits of good leaders, and failed leaders, have not changed. Even though you think, as you read, or watch a movie, that you are being entertained, you are also receiving wisdom. After all, the word “entertain” means to capture our attention. We can be entertained by pleasure or by terror. To teach leadership with a captivating tale, is to capture your attention. Nothing beats a good story, right?

I chose to make Leadership in Literature a workbook so, at the very least, one is guided into thinking about the knowledge that story offers. To fully participate in the learning the reader must become a student, and complete the exercises by keeping a journal. In that journal, the student then answers the questions, whilst adding their own thoughts. 

The stories in the book are all “originals” preserved by such collectors of stories, as the Brothers Grimm, Joseph Jacobs, Ovid, William Shakespeare, and originators like Patrick O’Brian, Peter Weir, John Collee, Walter Bernstein and Peter George. None of the stories have suffered the “Disney” treatment, that is, made romantic and cute. What Disney has done to too many of the classics is to destroy their original intent. The Disney effect is to render them useless as the cautionary tales they are meant to be. And, given us false pictures of what a prince is, or how a mother, a bio mother, can kill her own child. Disney thinks step-mothers are horrible, and has probably, damaged more relationships, between a second wife and a child, than Satan himself. 

I use originals. When you choose to do some work on brushing up your leadership skills, you will read the stories, as written, and many times, they will unsettle you. But that is the purpose of leaders; to keep us in an ordered environment, or lead us out of the chaos we create for ourselves. Though, at times, it will be nature that gives us a good lickin’, humanity, in any crisis, needs a good commander. 

And what of those who are led? It doesn’t help us if we all have unrealistic expectations about leaders, as in thinking that all princes will charge into the midst of the storm for us. Nah. When you learn the stories outside of Disney, you will learn that a born prince is not necessarily a born leader. In fact, some of these guys are downright awful. But then, some will rise to the occasion. Those who follow also need leadership training because it may be them who find themselves in the position wherein there is no one else. Plus, followers need to understand leadership so that they can make a judgement call on who who to follow and who to stay away from.

The stories in this series, inform us, that outside of a natural disaster, life goes humming along until someone, or some group, either breaks the rules, or does something stupid. Usually, the stupid thing they do is to break a rules. The rules of life, from hunter-gatherer to civilized people, are they same: no stealing, lying, or offensively hurting or killing another human being. Those three are the basics. Organized societies will form a sort of defense force to keep rule breakers from getting away with stuff. This ranges from catching a thief, to stopping marauders from coming into your territory, and stealing from, or hurting, the people. We can see these leaders in action in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Romeo and Juliet, Failsafe, and Master and Commander. 

During the good times, excellent leadership keeps us focused on the work at hand. Mostly this is local leadership, like municipal, and the boss at work. When these leaders fail, you have chaos. The prince in Romeo and Juliet has a chaotic situation in Verona because he cannot bring those two families to heel and stop their violence. When we study Shakespeare’s play, we will look at the results of local or municipal violence that is not dealt with. Yes, it is a look at failure. 

Reading this original by Shakespeare gives us a good look at, and the chance to examine, a failure of leadership on the many levels. The reworking of this story in order to emphasis other aspects, miss the point. West Side Story becomes a story about culture clash when this is not a story about differences, but the sameness of the families. A more, more modern story would be the Hatfields and the McCoys, who were, as Shakespeare stated, “Two households, both alike in dignity…” that bare an old grudge against each other. For it to be about cultures removes the importance of the leadership aspect. 

Leadership is leadership. No judgement calls can be based on languages or religions or the music someone listens to. It’s about the big picture. The good ole stories present the big picture. No need to change the plot or the theme. Especially the theme. Sure, stories can be placed in the current environment, because the rules of excellent leadership are both timeless, and universal. And, their ain’t nothin’ like knowing the original story

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