The Eagle, the Crow, and the Turkey

This post as nothing to do with a fable or with Thanksgiving; it is actually about leadership.  As many regular readers know I am an avid podcast listener and, from time to time, I do recommend good ones.  This time I will recommend you do not subscribe to the “Think like a Leader” podcast. 

Actually this podcast didn’t start that bad; I listened to the first 12 episodes and, while it had a rocky start, some episodes were interesting.  In particular episodes 8 to 10 could be of great interest for anyone thinking about the technical aspects of creating a podcast. 

However, episodes 11 and 12 did this podcast in for me; somehow the presenter and his guest decided to classify people into three groups: the eagles, the crows, and the turkeys.  By their tone eagles are leaders and the turkeys are the followers.  I was left to guess that crows are junior leaders.  This leads me to think that they perceive leaders as better, as or more important than others team members.  I disagree completely with this point of view; let's not confuse an individual's role with his value to the team.

Also in these two episodes they discuss Adolf Hitler’s leadership capabilities.  Adolph Hitler as a leader; really?  Although one cannot ignore the fact that Hitler had charisma, one cannot use the word leadership in association with his methods.  Confusing a dictator’s use of fear as a way to control its people with motivational methods of a leader is a serious mistake especially for someone looking at fostering good leadership practices.  If you confuse this easily a dictator or a tyrant for a leader you need to retire from the leadership training business.  The sooner, the better.

For obvious reasons, I will not provide a link to this podcast.

What do you think?  As always comments are welcome.

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Comments

[Shim Marom]

Well said and well done!

[Rob van Hell]

Well, that's just bizarre. Let me guess, episode 13 covers the importance of self-reliance using Pol Pot as a case study.

[Patrick Richard]

Rob,

The content of episode 13 shall remain a mystery to me...