Hill Leadership Working Group: Machiavelli's The Prince

The Hill Leadership Working Group tackled Machiavelli’s The Prince yesterday. It was another great meeting. I definitely learned some things about ethical leadership, as well as the other kinds.

 

Politics was full-contact in fifteenth/sixteenth century Italy. Machiavelli’s advice reflects that reality. The following paraphrases of his advice to aspiring princes tell the story:

I won’t be re-writing the Hill Center’s mission statement based on that advice. However, the text still offered great fodder for discussion some highly applicable lessons for ethical – and effective - leadership.

 

The group took the discussion beyond those particulars, to consider some of the differences between statecraft and the more intimate work of organizational or team leadership.   While his techniques (or their more modern analogs) make sense for maintaining subdued subjects or keeping adversaries at bay, techniques such as widespread deception and practiced parsimony are unlikely to motivate a project team or an employee base.

 

We did find some directly-applicable wisdom, however. We were reminded, yet again, how important it is for leaders to be prepared, and to constantly monitor all aspects of their circumstances. Indeed, one group member pointed out that preparedness brings with it a kind of optimism, a confidence that enables us to do and be our best. While we might not agree with Machiavelli’s recommendation that leaders discourage unsolicited advice, we must agree that selecting and listening to close advisors is critically important.  His passages on miserliness – he believes that a leader should seem miserly rather than be accused of profligacy – reminded another member that limiting praise in general can enhance the impact of a few, well chosen words in the right situations.

 

Finally, we talked about human nature and the needs of people, be they subjects, team members, or employees. Machiavelli ascribed to people a fickle self-interest and a short attention span. While we are inclined to criticize his conception us unduly pessimistic, we had an interesting discussion about employees’ and job seekers’ needs and priorities. Much has been written recently about employees placing meaningful work above compensation in various job satisfaction surveys. We heard in the meeting that more recent surveys reveal a shift back toward compensation as a driving factor in job selection. This could be due to a tightening economy, or any number of factors. But, the variation reminds us that we are neither purely selfish nor purely selfish.

 

The text also reminds us how important it is to be realistic and attentive to what our specific team members need, want, and value. Machiavelli’s recommendations are aimed at control, about how to capture and preserve power. We, as leaders, seek to do more: we seek to achieve organizational goals by motivating and coordinating people. We can do so most effectively by seeking harmony between the objectives of our teams and the needs of our people.

 

Following are summary thoughts from the group:

·        The text boils down to a version of sustainability: Machiavelli’s view of sustaining power is to control outsiders and yourself.

·        How do we harness the individual needs that everyone brings to the table? Machiavelli focused on control. Achieving harmony requires less control of individuals, and more control of circumstances.

·        The book was about survival, and there is no text more valuable than The Prince for teaching survival in organizations.

·        Machiavelli also teaches us how to manipulate the here and now. We are right to question how important that is – is positioning ourselves what really matters in life?

·        We read in Machiavelli how important it is to be prepared and aware of all potential events.

·        “Smart people learn from their mistakes. Intelligent people learn from others’ mistakes. Machiavelli learned from both.”

 

We will change things up a bit for next moth. Rather than tackle another book, we are taking a break from new reading to reflect on what we have read so far. We’ll spend next meeting in a somewhat more facilitated discussion about what we’ve learned and how we have been able to apply that learning to our work lives. The assignment, then, is to think about:

·        What we have taken from these meetings

·        Instances where we have successfully applied our learning

·        Instances where those applications have been less successful, or the outcomes unpredictable

We hope to see all members of the group – and newcomers, who are always welcome – at the Hill Library on March 19, 7:30 AM.

 

Respectfully Submitted,