What is a leader? How do you define the qualities that make up the concept of Leadership? These questions were recently posed to me when my editor came in looking for a new product line for the company’s Personal Development catalog. We were talking about it while eating a General Tsao’s chicken dish, ironically. I remember noticing at the time that even the food we order leans toward the Leadership attraction. is irresistible
We settled on a set of topics for me to cover on my next show, and I set out to write and record audio that defines the qualities leaders share. However, no one could have predicted what happened next, and it had a huge impact on my thoughts on leadership in action.
Not long after I started writing this program, a little albino mouse showed up unexpectedly on my front lawn, looking as bright as a golf ball on the green under a full moon. A friend caught it and gave it to me, believing that he was doing me and the mouse a favor, thwarting the prospects of night for cats and owls.
Lido Mouse was made into a pet and I was (falsely) led to believe that she would die without company. One mouse became two… and inevitably 14. Since baby mice are often the victims of cruelty or arbitrarily turned into snake food, I have chosen to keep them and put up with terrible inconveniences that you can only imagine if you have mice of pet. However, there is a purity to his demeanor that translates directly to our Leadership theme.
When a child (or a mouse) is born, the offspring is nothing less than a tyrant. He demands all of his parents’ time, attention, energy, and resources. Vicariously exhausted, I watched Tawny, the mother mouse, become almost transparent as a river of food for her 12 babies. They ruled it. He’d never considered mice had eyebrows before, and hers were constantly furrowed. Over time, she led the babies to become self-sufficient creatures that fend for themselves and interact with each other according to a code. No, I’m not kidding. Even mice have rules.
this is utopia
The girls live together in a spacious cage. They are calm and docile, and have no leader. They live as a single cooperative colony, sleeping together, eating together, sharing, playing, getting along and rarely having crossword puzzles with each other. This is Utopia. It’s strange, and frankly I’m amazed.
I can’t help but wonder what would happen if everyone in the world embraced these self-leadership qualities. What could we accomplish as a single colony of cooperative and loving beings, caring for each other and living in harmony? A voice in my head says, “Keep dreaming, kid.”
chaos defined
Then there are the male mice, who have quickly shown that they are territorial, competitive, aggressive, and even pack predators. I came to the conclusion that the males are not mice but tiny rats. I’ve mended torn ears, mended bloody tails, and given more timeouts than a professional referee in a boxing arena. I’ve separated kids time and time again, changed their housing, experimented with different pairing combinations, used various training methods (they’re smart little guys), and ultimately implemented isolation and prison-style disciplinary tactics. His actions are the stuff of nightmares. After tremendous effort, trial and error, we now have peace.
So what is a leader?
A leader is one who assumes the role of guiding others, takes responsibility for their progress and well-being, pushing or pulling, for better or worse. This is very clear with these mice of mine. In each colony, what drives all their hostile behavior is a male’s need to assert himself as leader. Where this paradigm has failed, a petty tyrant has persecuted his brethren and his blood has been spilled in copious amounts, shocking even the fiercest among them. Where Leadership has succeeded, a mouse has simply stepped into the role with confidence, defended it against all pretenders, and risen to a place of authority. He is dominant and others look to him for guidance and support. He is fair and impartial, and his subjects follow him wholeheartedly.
Leadership qualities surround us all and reside within each of us. They are as basic as our fundamental nature. We see this everywhere, even in this microcosm of house mice in my house. Whether you’re a man or a mouse, you’re already a leader, even if you haven’t had a chance to prove it. From here on out the question is, what kind of Leader will you be?
