Don't glorify the hostile leaders
Lao Tzu has a great categorization of leaders:
- A great leader is the one people forget exists.
- A good leader is the one people love and praise.
- A bad leader is the one people fear.
- A horrible leader is the one people hate.
The burden of guilt
We've painted such a bad picture of leadership that many young people who are about to become managers/leaders think that the ultimate form is #3. In trying to reach #3, they end up in #4.
We are guilty because such leadership has been praised by many. The glorification of hostile leadership and picturing positive impacts for it exist in many people's minds and are reflected in books and movies. An example of this is the 2014 film, Whiplash.
A nonfiction example of this phenomenon is Steve Jobs. Instead of questioning his horrible leadership, he's glorified as a great leader, and his bad behavior is justified as the quirky brilliance of a genius. By the way, calling him a genius is disrespectful to all the true geniuses in history who have made life better for all of us.
And now...
I was going to write this in mid-2024 when I felt that the next hostile leader was being glorified: Elon Musk. Fortunately, his newly emphasized political affiliation has cast such a negative shadow on him that he'll never become the next Steve Jobs in this field.
Question: Has he recently become a new person, or is it just a different representation of the same person? I think we know the answer.
My wish list
I wish we could have the following two things. They'd make the world a better place for all of us.
- If you write a book, make a movie, write an article, or give a presentation about a hostile leader, don't glorify them and don't portray them as heroes.
- If you're about to become a leader, don't be inspired by movies, shallow bestseller books, clickbait articles, and superficial, cliché presentations.
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