Leading Like Sitting Bull
As a note taker who always has a notepad or notebook with me, I am always finding notebooks or find myself studying old notes from the past. This week I came across a notepad (see picture) that referred to the book The Genius Of Sitting Bull: Thirteen Heroic Strategies For Today’s Business Leadersby Emmett Murphy and Michael Snell. These were notes from a workshop back in the ’90’s. Interestingly, I only wrote down nine of the strategies – not sure why not all 13. The lessons, however, are still very applicable today in 2017.
Having traveled to the Black Hills in South Dakota this past summer and studying and retracing the steps of such historic figures as Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and General Custer it was very cool to come across this notepad. Here are the 13 strategies:
- Commitment
- Integrity/Trust
- Empowerment – Intent based leadership
- Living among your people – working shoulder to shoulder
- Healing – be responsible for the welfare of others
- Communicate
- Strategic Vision
- Respect the competition
- Redefine the rules of battle
- Guardianship – knowing the terrain
- Right people in the right places
- Courageous – welcome crisis
- Success – measure the results
It was great to reflect back on the lessons learned from Sitting Bull, particularly after taking a journey this past summer in his homeland. Hopefully this will prompt you to reflect on the 13 heroic leadership strategies and how you are doing related to them. If you are like me there is always a lot of room for continuous improvement.
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