Fortune favours the brave – even in leadership
Hannibal, the legendary Carthaginian military General and Statesman, is often regarded as one of the greatest military tacticians in history. In 218 BC, in what was considered the feat of a super natural hero – a god, not a human, by the people of the time and is today considered one of the most celebrated achievements of any military force in ancient warfare, he led his Carthaginian army on elephant back over the Alps and into Italy to take war directly to the dreaded Roman army and defeated them.
Modern day leadership, military and otherwise, is pitted with somewhat similar acts of bashful daring so much so that it gives rise to the question of whether bravery and courage are a prerequisite for a truly great leadership.
Suffice to say, both are the centerpiece of leadership for, at one time in every leader’s career, they will have to stand up and make decisions that will risk failure or success in equal measure. In today’s VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world, leaders will not always have the luxury of the time required to gather all the facts so as to make informed decisions and will many times have to take risks that embolden fresh thinking and draw on the full breadth of talent, ingenuity, and know-how.
Developing business strategy in these VUCA times can be a daunting task. The current global pandemic has taught the business world just how vulnerable it is to the elements, and of the need to make quick and agile decisions. Strategy development can no longer be a long drawn out affair of endless research and market testing. Business leaders who have the courage to break this conundrum will win the day. Those kind of leaders have shown that, by shortening strategy periods and building robust actions based on the little information available while accepting that some of those actions could lead them to the proverbial gates of business ‘hell’, but going ahead and executing them as best they can anyway, they are able to cushion the shocks of uncertainty and ambiguity. On the contrary, leaders who might opt, under challenging situations, to ‘wait out the tide’, might experience some deceptive comfort in the short-term but must be aware of the long-term ramifications of ignoring to address the most pertinent issues at the opportune moment.
It is said that Hannibal’s daring attack on the Roman’s was prompted by their threat against Carthage (current day Tunisia which had annexed parts of Spain). He was caught between a rock and hard place in that he knew that the Romans planned a two-pronged attack, a Roman army was being sent towards Spain and another was poised to invade Carthage. He understood that if he stayed in Spain and waited for the Romans to invade he had no chance of winning. By staying in Spain he would leave Carthage exposed, so he shifted the paradigm of the war to ensure that the war would not be fought on Rome’s terms. A big, high stakes, gamble that paid off. Had Hannibal opted for the comfortable option of surrender we would not know about him today. I also suspect that history would have been rather unkind to him had this gamble not paid off, and that is what bravery in leadership is about.
In a sense, bravery is about leading from the inside out, an authentic and emotionally attuned engagement with self, and courageously letting the outside in. It’s all about harnessing energy of change to stimulate creativity and work collaboratively with others.
As leader, you should therefore, be brave and of good courage, letting people see who you are, what you really stand for and what you really feel. You should embrace the discomfort, trust yourself and refuse to let fear call the shots.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was right: “(A leader) should be a positive life force, bashing down whole fields of negativity, working the environs around you with beams of light, joy and hope around the darkness.”
Mark Ocitti is the Managing Director of Serengeti Breweries Limited
