The Book of Exodus

"I wanted to throw this in because I think a lot of leadership books believe the problems that leaders are dealing with are all new, and have never been dealt with before. But in an example that almost seems trite, because it is such a part of our cultural knowledge, if you read the book of Exodus from the point of view of leadership theory there were the same leadership lessons 3,000 years ago that people talk about today. For example, the leadership style of Moses in this book broadly has the combination of humility and will discussed by Jim Collins. He needed a great deal of convincing that he was the one who should be leading his people, but once he became that person he had the iron will to be the leader they needed. The story can be read as a company that had a slave mentality, and what Moses did was the biggest organisation turnaround in world history. There was a group of a million or so people, who had for generations seen themselves as slaves and a lower form of life within the mighty Egyptian nation, and through a very strong values-based leadership, Moses turned them into a proud people who went on to build a nation and influence western culture today. What is the 10 commandments but a series of values that could be used as a leadership tool to unite a people? There are also great examples of how he used modern management techniques, which consultants charge a lot of money to teach today. One of the things he did very powerfully was to appoint a strong senior leadership team to make up for his personal deficiencies. He understood quite clearly that there is no such thing as a perfect leader who can do everything well. For example, because he wasn’t a confident public speaker, he brought in Aaron to be his spokesperson. He brought in Jethro as an organisational consultant, to determine how to structure reporting lines during the journey in the wilderness. And he had Joshua as his military leader. It is clear that he had lots of gaps in his leadership ability, but what he was good at was finding the right people to fill in those gaps. What he had was a very strong vision of where they needed to get to, and he was the custodian of strong values. He was also excellent at managing upwards – he had good relations with the chairman upstairs! That’s very important for any successful CEO. As a leader you shouldn’t do everything yourself. A combination of humility and will is very important. You need strong personal values, a strong vision, and a belief that you will achieve even the most unlikely goals."