JS Tip 524: Engaging Leadership

Most of us know of Spartacus only from the 1960 movie or the 2010 HBO series. 

But Spartacus was a real person. A historic person. A Roman gladiator who led a slave revolt against Imperial Rome from 73 to 71 BC: “The Third Servile War.”

The writer Howard Fast wrote a fictional account, Spartacus, in 1951. The 1960 movie and the 2010 HBO series find their origins in Fast’s novel.

In that novel, on the day of the last battle, when the slaves are surrounded and outnumbered, they bring Spartacus a Roman horse to ride into battle. Spartacus rejects the gift and says—

Did you want me to fight on a horse? Let the Romans have the horses. I fight on foot, alongside of my brothers. 

If we win this battle today, we’ll have horses in plenty, and we will harness them to ploughs, not to chariots. And if we lose—well, we won’t need horses if we lose. (Crown Publishers, 1951, 289-290) 

The Leadership Lesson

Notice the mention of the spatial relationship: “on foot, alongside of my brothers.” Alongside. Not higher. Alongside. 

The elevation, isolation, sequestration, of leaders hinders leadership. It separates leaders from led. It cuts off the flow of ideas from one to another. It creates a “We are us, and they are them” relationship. Distant.

Good leaders—great leaders—engage with those they serve. They spend time with them, they eat with them, they learn of them, they learn with them. This creates the bonds of trust and respect. Both ways.

So engage.