An Analogy between "The Wolf and Leadership".

You may wonder what is a wolf has to do with the leadership here. When I decided to take a session on leadership, I wanted to re-deliver the core content in a different perspective. A quality of an effective leader is to empower his people through new experiences and opportunities. Here I picked this point to give a new perspective on leadership. Also, I considered this as an opportunity to connect one of my interest 'Wildlife' with the session. That’s how wolf came into the play here.

Hence I've attempted to use the analogy of wolf behaviour and attitude with leadership. Hence it is post is about Analogy of wolf attitude and leadership.

PC: Google 

In the picture, you can notice a pack of wolf trailblazing through the wild. The wolves here are strategically placed to face any confrontation or any uncertainty. It is important to understand and decode their strategy.

Here is a quick explanation of how they are placed.

The wolves in the red circle are old and sick. They set the pack running from the front. They are even ready to sacrifice their lives if they are attacked or confronted. The wolves in the yellow circle are the strongest and best in the pack.  Their job is to protect and attack from the front. The pack in the middle are the kids who are untrained and unskilled. They are protected from both the ends. The leader makes sure they are in the middle. The wolves in the green circle are strongest and best. They protect the pack from the back side.

The last one is the LEADER. He ensures that no wolf is left behind during the journey. He keeps the pack united and oversees the other wolves from the back. He is always ready to run and fight in any direction to protect the entire group. He is independent and risks himself to save the whole family of packs.

This led to discussion details on how wolves operate in group and understanding about their strategy and intelligence.  

The following terms build the analogy of wolf and leadership and breaks them into familiar terms of the modern world.

Teamwork: A famous saying goes "The strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is pack". Here we discussed how wolves collaborate with each other to do a successful hunt. Teamwork and being united during tough times ensures the survival of the team and goal, which applies to the team we work also.

Communication: Effective communication is something which most us work to improve, but here is something wolf can teach us. There is no single form of communication with wolves. They use different forms of communication such as howl, nuzzle, body language, lips, tail, eyes and even tail position. During an emergency or attack, their communication techniques allow them to constantly adjust strategy to the need of the situation. They use 'everything at their disposal' to effectively communicate during a crisis.  

Goal: They have spirited devotion towards the pack. The purpose of the existence is 'Survival of Pack'.  They are very much clear with their purpose and goal. Wolves know their individual responsibility and do not fight to take others role or responsibility. Similarly are we clear with the goal of the team?  Are we clear with the role we play inside the team?

Attitude: The attitude and survival of the wolf are based on only one question; what is the best for the pack? Researcher's call it, 'The Pack's Attitude'. Similarly, Successful leaders have the right perspective and right attitude, and always work to answer the question "what's best for the team?"

Perseverance and purpose: Wolf packs have only a one in 10 success rate when hunting,

But when a hunt fails, they get on with the next hunt - and the lessons learnt from their mistakes "become part of the wolf's collective knowledge base”. Similarly, we need to become more like the wolves, learning from our mistakes and not being downhearted about them.

Conflict resolving: If there's a conflict within the pack, they resolve it through constant and frequent communication.

Individual responsibility: Every member of the pack does not aspire to be the boss, but each wolf takes a share in the leadership responsibilities where necessary. 

Lessons from Wolves led to insights on how leadership abilities evolved right from the homo sapiens times to till now and how human adopted these leadership characters and attitude from various animals, especially from the wolf. We as individuals hope to adopt ‘Pack’s Attitude’ and also see Wolf as a classic example of ‘Collaboration and Leadership’.

So tell me, how do you see a wolf now? Has your perception changed about Wolf or any other animal for that matter? 

Reference:

Book: Wisdom of wolves by Twyman Towey.

Research paper: "The wolf pack: team dynamics for the 21st century"

Documentary: The Frozen Planet - BBC.