Choose your Leadership Metaphor (Part 1)

Leadership gurus have advocated the use of stories, metaphors, analogies and lessons to develop their people. To this end, I’d like to address some of these devices and how to be more discerning when applying them. Some may not go down well with your audience, if overdone.

On War

War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Not exactly, although the song with infectious tune does suggest the insanity of escalated conflict. Too often, we may read and hear of lessons drawn from military warfare and how these can be extracted and reconstructed into our business or corporate leadership strategies. Even the word strategy draws upon historical references like:

Apply battle-proven leadership to achieving victory; establishing objectives; getting the facts; coordinating your activities; daring to advance; concentrating on one’s forces; leaders and followers; conserving resources; the person in charge; targeted planning; fields of commerce and business.

Sun Tzu’s Art of War, and The 36 Strategies may still be relevant, yet it is focused on values that are self-preserving and border on paranoia (specific to that period in history). Even the world of marketing shifts adroitly from polished phraseology like battle of the minds, positioning, strategies, tactics, battlefield, entrenched in tradition; cutting losses.

On Sports

Leadership Lessons from Triathlons focuses on the terminology, trials and tribulations experienced from sports and sporting activities. Weekend athletes, competitive athletes and their spectators can share in the ‘thrill of victory, and agony of defeat’. Myriad values are engaged in sports, including endurance, tenacity, persistence, perseverance, patience, determination, courage and passion. In sports, we release blood, sweat and tears. There is drama in athletic competition, so that we root for the champion or the underdog. Sports express the Olympics motto of ‘altius, fortius and citius’ (higher, stronger and swifter). The endurance athlete (triathlete, marathoner, ultra-marathoner, X-Terra) can draw upon many valuable lessons from their training, racing and supporting and apply these to their leadership practices.

Tomorrow, we will explore the metaphors of Family and Film.