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The Wolf Pack

The Wolf Pack That Won't Go Away

There is a good chance that you've seen this picture before in your LinkedIn feed. It is generally coupled with a leadership parable -- something about the first three old wolves pacing the pack and an alpha male leading from the rear. Like so many things shared on social media, it's total bullshit and it's not true. Although that shouldn't come as much of a surprise, it's interesting that we often fall into whimsical clickbait traps like this, even in professional forums like LinkedIn. 

It says something about our tendency to brush off complicated questions about leadership and instead accept convenient shortcuts, usually without merit. 

I specifically remember the first lecture in my MBA program's (mandatory) Managing and Leading Organizations class. The professor started the lecture bluntly, stating that she knew very well that most people in the class would view the coursework and Organizational Behavior material as soft, particularly when compared to more "important" classes like Finance, Strategy and Marketing. And she was almost cryptic with her next comment: people who believe this are gravely mistaken. 

Her point was a good one: like anything in business, you are always better off employing a framework, a model or any other available tool when facing a challenge. Don't just wing it! The same students (now business leaders) who skipped that class would go completely ballistic if you were to present a spreadsheet with broken cell references or a formal strategy recommendation based on a hoax. Yet here we are, forwarding pictures of wolves with some text offering a non-sensical approach to leadership. 

As leaders of companies and organizations, this problem remains ours to own. We don't have much time, so we skip a formal process toward leadership (explaining why we are going to lead a certain way and showing exactly how it is designed to work and will be measured) and instead offer up abbreviated, age-old examples of what we think is generally accepted for leaders. But errors here are just as impactful as ones in our spreadsheets and they can absolutely crush the productivity of a team or company. 

Those wolves in the photo? If you clicked through the link above, you learned that it was likely a female leading the pack (based on her strength and commitment to saving others in the pack precious energy) and that the an "alpha" wolf may in fact be more likely to be on the wolf-equivalent of maternity/paternity leave than being the prominent storyline in a photo like this. That's a bit more complicated than the fake version, and it doesn't fit quite as well into a neat, forward-able post. Kind of like leadership. Click Here for more Info., Click Here, Click Here, Click Here, Click Here or Click Here   I can continue creating links all day but as you can see it's all over the internet.

Entering a new phase of life. Not one I like or even saw coming after battles of the past that seem so much larger. In 2003 I broke my foot and they found the reason I was walking with it was because of rapidly progressing profound neuropathic damage.

It quickly moved up to my knees and elbows. Wife pushing me a wheelchair. Neurologist giving me 6 months max. But God stopped the progression and I learned to walk again and eventually without even a cane.

But damage to the feet mean cutting and therapy and the doc and pt guy said I'm simply walking too much. And with my wife only have 20% lungs, she cannot walk much. So. I'm officially classified as handicapped.

Memorial Day

2016