Get Stoic and Get Agile

Hang out on the porch and be stoic.

People in leadership roles like to tell stories.  A story we often tell ourselves is the tale of the coronation of a Roman emperor.  The affair has pomp and circumstance with showers of flower petals, dancing, and conspicuous displays of wealth and power.   In the middle of it all is the emperor, who takes a solemn vow to protect and grow the empire.  There is a member of the Roman senate by his side whispering into the new emperor’s ear, “All of this is fleeting.”  The moral of the story is at your most influential and successful; you have to understand the situation will be temporary.  The world around us has a propensity to humble us and does it in cruel and inventive ways.  As a leader, we need to understand that a situation is never as bad as it seems, and success is never as high as we think.  We call it having a stoic approach to leadership, and I would like to talk about it this week.

The stoics are an exciting bunch of thinkers.  The group was formed in the third century before the current era and got its name from where they practiced their craft on the painted porches on the north side of Agora in Athens.  Stoics liked to sit on the porches, drink wine and talk about philosophy, rhetoric, and politics.  In many respects, they are like us getting together with each other to talk about current events, have a few drinks, and enjoy the company of others on the front porch.  Stoics had lots of influence because they were teachers who taught the political class of Greece and over four hundred years of dominance on Greek thinking.

What sets the stoics apart from people like Socrates, Plato, and later Aristotle was a desire to avoid the ups and downs of life and live in a “rational” manner.  Stoic thought has two main ideas; live in agreement with nature and act like a rational human and not a beast.  Harmony with nature means living in balance, not eating, drinking, or consuming too much.  It appreciates a grassy hill for its natural wonder instead of for its real-estate value or the minerals it might contain.  The reason is what makes everyone human, so to be more human, we should practice more logic.  It sounds high minded and easy to say for academics with enough to eat and the ability to talk about it on some of the most charming porches in Greece.  It is hard to see how an enslaved person might embrace this attitude or someone poor or starving.

The agile world could use more stoicism.  The ability to lead large teams and get them to build software products that help the global economy purr is a rare skill.  It also requires a tremendous amount of emotional intelligence and technical expertise.  People who develop these solutions are messy and need help and support.  The emotions they feel are the emotions you feel.  It is hard to manage those feelings, and it requires energy.  If you are good at it, you will inspire others to their best efforts.  Those who are bad at it are poisonous to their organizations.  Practicing stoic thinking is not a one size solution to leadership, but it is helpful because it is never as bad as it seems and never as good as it gets.

Until next time.