You’ve likely seen this before.
Leadership Lesson from a pack of wolves
The 3 in front are old and sick. They walk in front to set the pace.
The next 5 are the strongest. They protect the front side from attack.
The middle group is fully protected.
The 5 behind them are also the strongest, protecting the rear.
The sole last wof is the Leader. He insures no one is left behind. He also keeps the pack in formation and on the same path.
Being a leader is not about being in front.
It’s about taking care of your team.
About those old wolves, out front; that’s me and some of my mates.
Natural scientists would say the old wolves are put there to set the pace. Now how would animals who can’t think and only act on instinct do that?… unless their survival instincts told them that sometimes being slow and ponderous was survival-enhancing, while the younger member of the pack could be inclined to move too fast, sometimes moving the pack into a dangerous situation, which would be survival-endangering.
If the old wolves could talk, they might say, “Been there, done that.”, or perhaps “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.”
I thought of that as I watched an English police murder drama about an older detective, pushing 60, who had an unrequited love affair with a younger, 30-something detective who was murdered during a case they were working. She came back to him as a ghost, to goad him to solve the crime, while singing this verse,
“I love to love, while my baby just wants to dance”,
which fits all sorts of May-December romances.
A melancholy ending, but I’m old.
A catchy tune, you might actually like it. Disco, 1976
But it also explains the tempo set by the older wolves, shown above. They set the pace, and have years of experience, wisdom and knowledge, that no digital device can replace.
As every Marine or Infantryman can tell you, “You’ve never played the game until you’ve played for more than you can afford to lose”…and the old wolves leading the pack…have. And the leader of the pack knows. As do the body of the pack…that it is those old geezers at the front of the pack that set the pace.
They’d been here before.
In wolf lingo, the rest of the pack know, and in natural law, it is survival-enhancing
