Discussion on:

Leadership lessons from Genghis Khan

Why not use Adolf Hitler as a source of inspiration for good leadership in IT? I'm pretty sure there are many a good lesson to be learned from him, considering the amount of work he was able to leverage from his staff.

Behead your enemies and rape their women.

Why stop at Ghengis Khan and Adolf Hitler? Joseph Stalin comes to mind as another great leader worthy of study. He led his nation to turn back the invading German army in World War Two. Although he died in 1953, before the space race got any public attention, I would bet that his leadership was instrumental in the many "firsts" that the USSR achieved - Sputnik, the first man-made satellite in space. Yuri Gregarin, the first human in space.

I'm being facetious of course. I doubt that there are any useful (positive) lessons to be learned by studying the leadership style of "Uncle Joe".

And finally, to Patrick Gray, I'd like to say - "Thanks for the thought provoking article". It is well written and actually makes a lot of sense to me. I reject the notion that we can overlook the millions of murders and rapes attributed to the Mongol invasions. But I enjoyed reading the article.

Didn't Ricardo Montalban play him in the movie?

"Star Trek-The Wrath of Khan"

Old Ghengis wasn't a big fan of "It was 'im". In fact that sort of thing made him quite cross, not even a losing at golf or laughing at his poor jokes would put him in a better mood.

Got to be better...

My son who has just spent three months in Mongolia doing parasitology research was advised to think of Ghengis as a combination of George Washington and Elvis.

One would think Genghis Khan studied Sun Tzu.

I saw a movie but forgot to the name and in there a guy tells another "listen to the woman". Later the one being told does what his woman tells him and things go horribly bad and he turns to the friend and says but you said I must listen to the woman. The friendd replies I said listen to her but i never sadi do as she says. Advise is just that Advise. Get advise and make ur own mind up. Thank you for the Ghengis teaching will take it to heart.

I vaguely remember something along the lines of: If a city resisted invasion, Ghengis Khan would have the city destroyed and all the occupants (or was it just the men?) put to death.

There is a leading manager at my place who strongly resembles Ghengis Khan. Suggest a different plan to his vision, no matter how much more sensible, and your career aspirations (and often your aspirations to continued employment) are as good as dead.

I understand the PR side why the reference to Genghis Khan was used but the reality is that history and business are not always the same. Sure one can make references to a historical figure and compare certain aspects of what is recorded in history to the modern world. Remember history is written by the winners and facts are not always a requirement to what really happened. This is even more evident in recent events. I can see how one can compare Genghis to many corporations and CEO's that decimated companies that apply slash and burn to an industry so they can sit on on their golden thrones (or golden parachutes). Good article to stimulate conversation.

Twenty five years ago, a friend had me video tape him for a presentation he was making on the Leadership secrets of Attila the Hun.

Ghengis Khan has been similarly studied by an author called John Man. And afterwards a rash of articles, not many of them referencing Man's work, come onto the scene.

It seems there is a high demand for fodder for the "leadership secrets" mill. I'm not sure we should admire everything about the man. He did attain great heights,but deployed tactics we would not use in business.

Seems like a lot more fun than haggeling about IT directions.

Its the companies that are raping and pillaging the employees

I fail to see why you'd pick a mass murder for a historical figure to demonstrate these useful skills, while many more exemplary people (e.g., Mohandas Gandhi) displayed exactly the same approach to attain their goals?

Ghandi is a only Politician not Leader, he played in British Hands and fulfill their aims and achieved goals.

The Said Person was a racialist ...

I have to agree with LuvJohar. MK ('Mahatma') Gandhi had leadership qualities (e.g. the Salt Marches) and achieved his main aim (getting the Brits out of India) but used very different methods, but then, in contrast to Genghis Khan et al, he was not interested in conquering other peoples and making empires.

And like many great/famous leaders he had his flaws.

I do agree, though, that the article is interesting. I just don't like the comparison of business with war, and the use of warlike terminology.

Another business lesson that may be learned from the Mongolian Khanate is that, while his grandson Kublai Khan expanded the Mongol empire, the successive generations of Khan males were more interested in arrogating power to themselves than preserving what their ancestors had won at great price. The empire collapsed after the third generation of Khans. Sound familiar? In Mongolia today, "business" leaders are more interested in attaining great wealth than in advancing the national interest. I watched this happen during my 13 years in Mongolia as market economics replaced command economics. A telling example: the only Maybach limo I've seen was parked in front of the Bayangol Hotel in Ulan Bator (Ulaanbaatar -- Red Hero -- in Mongolian) while in the steam tunnels below the hotel lived some of the city's 2,000 abandoned children. This is not the vision of responsible capitalism.