Lessons in Leadership: Insights from Red Colobus Monkeys
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For years I spent my days, from before dawn until after dusk, following a troop of endangered red colobus monkeys around a small West African forest. … While they are obviously not us, they are far more like us than many people would like to admit. Or as Darwin pronounced almost 150 years ago, “The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind.” The similarities were disturbingly obvious when it came to the uses and abuses of leadership; the distribution of power and resources; the movement of individuals seeking safety, security, better resources and perhaps just adventure; and the interactions between different social troops. As time passed, evident parallels emerged between their social, psychological and especially political journeys through the canopy with the journeys we humans make on the ground.
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When a calm, confident, socially skilled, adaptable and benevolent, yet firm, leader with an amiable sidekick ruled, internal disputes were easily and quickly settled, the troop sailed through short-lived, homegrown crises, peace was maintained and morale blossomed. A good leader was also able to mobilize collective action during territorial skirmishes, lead a troop into battle against external threats and come out victorious. In contrast, when a bully was in charge—particularly a bully with no accommodating wingman or cohesive hierarchy to give support—chaos could rule. Watching a bully take over and lead a troop was like watching a bloated, self-serving egotist create mayhem and confusion. With a leader that was often nasty, “off the rails,” full of malice and loaded with active schadenfreude, constantly indulging his dark side and unable or unwilling to curb those leanings, the troop appeared to run on fear, morale suffered, internal strife was an everyday occurrence, territorial disputes were lost, and necessary immigration slid downhill.
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While colobus bullies push their troop mates around, human bully-boy leaders persecute or undermine journalists, judges, political opponents and even allies, violate the rights of minorities, shut the door to immigrants, put in place draconian and often poorly defined rules and regulations, bury factually based studies, stridently support fake information, whip up factionalism through the use of incendiary language and hate speeches, stamp on legislative and judicial bodies, remain unable or unwilling to accept personal responsibility whilst always placing the blame on someone/something else, and refuse to acknowledge the results of an election if they lose. In any society, the bully appears to enjoy receiving false fawning from, and humiliating, his subordinates. He only cares about himself. If an institution or an individual does not agree with him, it is to be disbanded or dismissed as a “witch hunt” against him. He exists in a world of me, me, me, I, I, I, not we or our or us. Fortunately for the colobus, a change in leadership, such as the ousting or death of a bully, can bring about fairly immediate reversals of fortune. Human primate society takes a much longer time to recover from the havoc and toxic environment created by an incompetent, ruthless bully…. As Barack Obama recently said: “We're supposed to stand up to bullies. Not follow them.”
