Today's middle managers and plant supervisors work hard for their companies and have had to prove their worth and toughness many times to get where they are. The vision of the grizzled, crew-cut crew boss is someone who, you can imagine ruled the neighborhood as a kid and kept all the other kids in line. If you look around at the CEO's and leaders of business and industry, these seem to be the studious types who applied themselves to the task of learning how to best get along with others and to take advantage of opportunities to advance up the corporate ladder. Each type of leader plays to their strength and each would be ineffective without the other. The leaders of the companies need the leaders of the staff or crew to make the companies work and vice versa. I wonder about these supervisors and team leaders and how they differ from the rulers and conquerers in the ancient world. Leaders are very different today than just a few short centuries ago....In the famous poem by Shelley, Ozymandias is the fictitious monomaniacal ruler who built his famous city and statues glorifying himself before devastation and tragedy erased all of his achievements from human memory.
I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read, Which yet survive stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; .And on the pedestal these words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my works. Ye Mighty, and despair!' Ozymandias
What must this powerful ruler have been like as a boy growing up on the high plateaus of Asia? I imagine that young Ozymandias (his friends probably called him 'Ozzy') had a 'discipline problem' and probably did not do so well in school. He was probably a frustrated student in class although he could make small weapons in 'Shop'. Ozymandias probably grew up in a vast metropolis like the ancient city of Balkh, which has all but vanished from the deserts of what we now know as Afghanistan. Lets say he did grow up in Balkh, he must certainly have witnessed violence and death and gained an appreciation for the spoils that come from weilding great power. Like the statue in the poem, little was left of this ruined civilization after it was conquered by Ghengis Khan and others. A typical Saturday night in Balkh would have offered many opportunities for mischief for a young lad out looking for trouble and a chance to prove himself to the other kids in his neighborhood.
In farming towns all over the US the sport of 'cow tipping' is considered a trial of strength and a rite of passage with just a bit of danger thrown in (after all it is a cow). Going up to a drowsy, unsuspecting Jersey at night and pushing the top heavy animal on it's side in the mud is probably lots of fun to a small town teen with little else to do. An ancient desert kid might have practiced 'camel tipping' (goat tipping is for babies) and then had aspirations of world conquest and glory from there as he grew older. The self confidence one gains from trials of strength can open many doors to a young fellow who is trying to better himself. The camel tippers in the ancient world probably grew to become the best conquerers even though they may have lacked such things as; good judgement, social responsibility and global vision. These old guys sure could show how strong they were!
The CEO's of business and the leaders of our multi national corporations are no longer the aspiring, sword weilding pillagers and looters that they once were centuries ago. While 'pillaging and looting' are relative terms (and are often accomplished electronically) my point is that the neighborhood bully who ruled the other kids through fear and intimidation probably will not make it to the top of the excecutive food chain by using the same tactics. As in the example of Ozymandias, the face of leadership is changing and the new wave of commanders have to be skilled communicators and negotiators and not just good 'cow tippers' who can bully their peers. Without competent, forward thinking innovators who can work and be productive in a democratic environment we too will go the way of Balkh and Ozymandias and our life's work will be reduced to a footnote on a scrap of rock.
Ancient History Lesson
"Balkh was old long before Alexander’s raid, and its history of 2500 years records more than a score of conquerors. The Arabs, impressed by Balkh’s wealth and antiquity, called it Umm-al-belad, the mother of cities. When the Silk Road was the chief artery of commerce between East and West, Balkh was second to none. But then came Ghengis Khan, and wreaked upon it the utter devastation that has made the Mongols’ name a byword for barbarism. Balkh never fully recovered, and eventually faded into a village; the seat of government shifted to scruffy but vigorous Mazar-e-Sharif. Catastrophe struck in 1220, when Ghengis Khan chose to make an example of Balkh, perhaps as punishment for an uprising. One hundred thousand Mongol horsemen embarked on an orgy of slaughter and destruction that left nothing standing; a few weeks later they returned to pick off the survivors of the carnage." Quoted from Frank Harold
Posts
