Wisdom | Whenever | Where ever

BOOK
Time to Lead
Lessons for Today’s Leaders from Bold Decisions That Changed History
Jan-Benedict Steenkamp
Fast Company Press, 2020 more...

RECOMMENDATION

History’s most effective leaders leveraged one or more of seven important leadership styles, according
to marketing professor Jan-Benedict Steenkamp. In this entertaining and engaging book, he cites
exceptional leaders, from Machiavelli to Martin Luther King Jr., to explore these different corporate
leadership styles. He discusses George Washington’s rare decency in building a nation, Franklin
Roosevelt’s deceptiveness in getting Americans to do the right thing and Margaret Thatcher’s toughness.
These sketches, along with Steenkamp’s quizzes and exercises, can help you discover your most
legendary leadership style.

TAKE-AWAYS

• Good leaders adapt to changing circumstances.

• Adaptive leaders, like the ancient Frank king Clovis, modify their goals and methods.
• Persuasive leaders, like Franklin Roosevelt, change their followers, not themselves.
• Directive leaders, like Margaret Thatcher, command by setting clear goals and performance
expectations.
• Disruptive leaders, like UK admiral Jacky Fisher, see what’s coming and get there first.
• Authentic leaders, like George Washington, demonstrate integrity.
• Servant leaders, like Martin Luther King Jr., put their followers ahead of themselves.

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Wisdom | Whenever | Where ever

• Charismatic leaders, like Alexander the Great, set a compelling example and inspire with piercing
vision.

SUMMARY

Good leaders adapt to changing circumstances.

Great leaders align their behavior to fulfill their beliefs and values. They continually learn and grow, as
they inspire others to achieve a shared vision, goal or mission. They satisfy followers who demand
capable, caring leaders and they demonstrate trust in order to earn it.
History’s most effective leaders tend, like hedgehogs, to focus single-mindedly on a vision, demonstrating
tremendous resilience and perseverance. Like foxes, they understand their limits and can muster the
necessary tactics and strategies to achieve their goals. The greatest leaders are eagles who combine the
traits of hedgehogs and foxes.
Eagles adapt as needed. They don’t always tell the truth or stand firm on deeply-held values and beliefs if
those facts or ideals become obstacles to achieving their goals. While history proves that hedgehogs,
foxes and, especially, eagles can accomplish almost anything, unfortunately, many leaders are ostriches:
They don’t know where they want to go or how, and they often fail.
“Adaptive challenges force leaders to question their most deeply held beliefs when the values that made
these leaders successful in the past have become less relevant, if not an outright hindrance to
organizational success.”
Though history’s most accomplished leaders took a variety of approaches in pursuing their goals, most
shared the traits of confidence, honesty, humility and strong cognitive, social and emotional intelligence.
They tended to manifest one or more of seven important leadership styles: adaptive, persuasive,
directive, disruptive, authentic, servant and charismatic.
Adaptive leaders, like the ancient Frank king Clovis, modify their goals and methods.
Flexible leaders don’t seek to change other people’s actions or ideas. Instead, adaptive leaders adjust, as
needed, to suit their circumstances. As realists, they accept the limits of their powers and abilities. They
jettison past values when those beliefs no longer serve their goals. Though often blatantly opportunistic,
adaptive leaders maintain credibility by persuading others of their genuine change of heart.
“Smart adaptive leadership implies that you carefully analyze your situation and identify the key
issues standing between you and the goal you want to reach.”
France did not exist in the fifth century. The Franks, a group of Germanic tribes, lived in present-day
Belgium. The more powerful Visigoths to the south and Ostrogoths to the east surrounded and dominated
the Franks. The pagan Clovis became king of the Franks in 481 with the goal of conquest. He intended to
make the Franks the rulers of Gaul – present-day France.
Clovis assessed his obstacles and strengths like a fox. He realized that the powerful but pagan Visigoths
ruled a largely Catholic populace. Shrewdly, Clovis married a Catholic princess, converted to
Catholicism and made sure everyone knew it, thus, making himself the region’s only Catholic king. Clovis
justified his subsequent invasions as efforts to free oppressed Catholics from their pagan overlords. As an
eagle, Clovis succeeded. France is his legacy.
Persuasive leaders, like Franklin Roosevelt, change their followers, not themselves.

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To persuade, you must know what you want and understand your followers’ needs. You must master
communication, earn trust, mask your intentions, and link your goals to your followers’ concerns so that
they bring powerful interests to your side. Both Themistocles of Ancient Greece and Franklin Delano
Roosevelt (FDR) exhibited these skills.
Persia was the predominant power in the fifth century BC. In 480 BC, the Persian commander Xerxes
attacked Greece with 250,000 soldiers and 1,200 ships. Years before – after Greece humiliated the
Persians at Marathon – Themistocles, like a hedgehog, began devoting his energy to preparing for the
Persians’ return. Themistocles’s defensive strategy included abandoning Athens. Like a fox, he persuaded
Athenians that Athens was its people, not its buildings. The Athenians fled to the island of Salamis
and watched Athens burn as the massive Persian army and navy advanced.
Most of Greece’s commanders wanted to flee to the mainland, but Themistocles recognized that the
narrow strait of Salamis offered the Greeks their only hope for victory. He sent misinformation to Xerxes,
prompting him to attack in the strait immediately. As Themistocles predicted, the large Persian ships could
not maneuver in the strait. Xerxes lost half his fleet and retreated. His land forces had no supplies and
left. Without Themistocles, democracy and the West itself might not exist.
“Few people have more ably combined the hedgehogs sense of direction with the fox’s sensitivity to its
surroundings as Roosevelt, a true eagle.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt guided the United States during a deadly but necessary war. After World War
I, most Americans opposed involvement in the European conflict that would become World War II. Even
after Germany attacked Britain, and it responded, many Americans opposed helping Britain or fighting
against Germany.
Over the course of three years, FDR used radio chats and the clever framing of solutions to change public
opinion. Using folksy language and storytelling, he convinced Americans and Congress to loan money and
lease ships and supplies to Britain. He argued these moves would help England carry the burden of
fighting. In December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, bringing America into the war. Historians rate
FDR as the United States’ most persuasive president.
Directive leaders, like Margaret Thatcher, command by setting clear goals and performance expectations.
Leaders who set a firm course – from Hernán Cortés to Margaret Thatcher – often arise in times of crisis.
They act decisively, take the lead and inspire by example, but often stay longer at the helm than they
should.
Acting against the orders of his governor, Cortés led a small expeditionary force to Mexico in 1519. He
realized the Aztec army vastly outnumbered his men. Undaunted, the single-minded hedgehog Cortés
deliberately sank his ships, preventing retreat.
His 500 men defeated armies of 40,000. Acting like a fox, the resilient Cortés exploited his superior
weapons and tactics, and used deception and politicking with other tribes against the Aztecs. Despite his
victories for Spain, the abrasive eagle Cortés made many enemies. In 1547, he died penniless.
“Research has shown that people who have no backup plan associated with their primary goal perform
better than those who have a backup plan.”
When Margaret Thatcher became the United Kingdom’s first female prime minister in 1979, the nation
was suffering labor strikes, unemployment, financial crises and government indecisiveness. Thatcher
rescued it from near collapse.

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She knew she had to break the unions, but that goal required gradual, measured tactics and a steely
resolve her ministers lacked. Union after union fell to the Iron Lady until only the biggest and most
powerful – the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) – remained. Soon after Thatcher’s 1983 re-election,
NUM went on strike. Thatcher had prepared by stockpiling coal. Despite nearly warlike violence, she held
on, defeating NUM after almost two years of struggle. As happened to Cortés, her disdain for others led
to her ouster in 1990.
Disruptive leaders, like UK admiral Jacky Fisher, see what’s coming and get there first.
Staying the course too long – even when in a position of dominance – can prove dangerous, as Nokia,
BlackBerry, Kodak and Blockbuster discovered to their detriment. To position their nations or firms for
the future, disruptive leaders show the courage to sacrifice sacred cows.
Jacky Fisher risked the British Empire to reinvent its navy. At the turn of the 20th century, the British
Empire was at its peak. For a time, England’s naval power exceeded that of all other navies combined.
However, nearby landlocked Germany was rising, and it built a powerful navy to break potential
blockades. UK Admiral Fisher recognized the danger. Britain needed naval superiority to survive, but its
leaders were romantics, locked into old technologies and tactics.
“You should not wait until you have reached the top of your organization to develop a challenging,
analyzing and learning mind-set. The earlier you start, the better.”
Fisher reinvigorated the Mediterranean fleet, thus earning greater authority for himself. He used that
power to overhaul the navy and defend Britain. An eagle, Fisher first won the support of the navy
secretary and prime minister. He democratized the navy, making it less class-conscious and boosting
morale. Fisher conceived of a new kind of battleship: faster, nearly unsinkable and armed with
greater firepower than existing ships. He knew other nations would follow his lead and construct similar
battleships, so he moved fast to build more of the new vessels. When World War I began, the UK had 29
Dreadnought-class battleships to Germany’s 17. Britain successfully blockaded Germany for the duration
of the war.
Authentic leaders, like George Washington, demonstrate integrity.
People want authentic leaders with the integrity and selflessness of George Washington and Nelson
Mandela.
At first a loyal royalist, Washington came to despise the despotic methods of the English King. He joined
the Continental Congress in 1774, and became head of the American army to fight England in 1775.
Washington – a decent, adaptable and fox-like general – kept his rabble army together and inspired it to
defeat the world’s greatest power. He voluntarily resigned from the army after the war.
“Washington was offered absolute power and declined it, not once, but twice. This made him the greatest
character of his time.”
Given his popularity, Washington could have ruled the army – if not the country – indefinitely, but his
principles and values prevented him from becoming a tyrant. In 1797, after serving two terms as
president, he resigned again, giving up power so that democratic ideals could flourish.
Mandela fought against South African apartheid much of his life. He used both violent and non-violent
resistance. Imprisoned at 44, he spent most of the next 27 years behind bars, learning the ways, beliefs,
culture and language of his tormentors. In 1992, with South Africa near anarchy, the government invited
Mandela to negotiate majority rule. On becoming president in 1994, he inherited a nation poised for civil

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war. Using his leadership skills, charisma, willingness to be of service, integrity, empathy, ability to
communicate and grit, Mandela united the nation, earning the title, “soaring eagle.”
Servant leaders, like Martin Luther King Jr., put their followers ahead of themselves.
Florence Nightingale, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela put their lives and personal freedom on
the line.
“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in prison.” (Henry
David Thoreau)
Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to teach in the northern United States, not lead a national movement from
the Jim Crow south. But his sense of justice and service compelled his relocation from Boston,
Massachusetts to Montgomery, Alabama to fight discrimination – though the move put his life and his
family’s safety in jeopardy. He led the cause of using non-violent methods to spur changes in civil rights,
acting with selflessness, determination and commitment.
Charismatic leaders, like Alexander the Great, set a compelling example and inspire with piercing vision.
Leaders with abundant charisma earn trust, adulation and loyalty through the strength of their character,
vision, and willingness to share their followers’ pain and glory.
“Grit is the common denominator that ties together the lives of Themistocles and Thatcher, of King Clovis
and Martin Luther King.”
In the fourth century BC, Greece was weaker than empires to its east. Yet by his death at 32, Alexander
had conquered them all, from Greece to Iran to Egypt. By sheer force of ambition and willingness to lead
from the front, sharing the danger as well as the spoils, Alexander convinced the troops in his relatively
small army to spend their lives away from home, risking death. History’s greatest general, Alexander was
wise in diplomacy and administration. He improved conquered cities rather than burning them, installed
better governance, and treated conquered people with dignity and respect.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dutch-American Professor Jan-Benedict Steenkamp teaches marketing at the University of North

Carolina and runs AiMark, a global market strategy research and consulting firm.

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