As a management consultant and trainer most of my time is spent talking about, studying and training on the subject of leadership. There are as many theories as there are authors, each has their own take on the subject and each one has certain overlaps with the other theories. Most say the same things with unique semantics.
Since my first love is ancient history I wanted to see if there are certain themes which have continued over the millennia and are still passing the test of time. And where better to start this search than ancient Egypt – the cradle of civilization, whose leaders managed to turn a group of small nomadic communities into the most powerful empire of the ancient world. To study the leadership of the Pharaohs is not a simple matter of reading books on them, as they are spread over a period of almost 3000 years and over 30 dynasties. Some of them we know about at length, the others are just names discovered through various sources. Therefore in order to study the leadership principles of the Pharaohs I had to study the evidence of their power and the recurring themes of their art and architecture. Some of the most prominent themes and their modern day parallels are as follows:
1 – Leaders are Divine
Divinity of the Pharaoh was the fabric which wove the Egyptian Empire. The origins of this concept are rooted in the story of Osiris, Isis and Seth, a story which closely resembles the later Judaic, Christian and Islamic story of Cain and Able. Osiris, the firstborn of Geb (Earth) and Nut (Sky) was said to have inherited the kingdom and took Isis as his wife. Seth who was Osiris’ brother and symbolic of violence and chaos murdered Osiris. The forlorn Isis managed to find his body and with the power of her love managed to resurrect him and conceive their child Horus. To cut a long story short, in the end Horus defeated Seth and took his place on the throne of Egypt.
It is this story that drove the Pharaonic culture. Horus became symbolic of the Pharoah i.e. the living Pharaoh was Horus incarnate. It was believed that once the Pharaoh died i.e. ceased to be Horus he will be resurrected and would live with Osiris and Isis in the heavens.
Interestingly Syrius the star associated with Isis has a heliacal rising of 70 days i.e. each year it disappears under the horizon for 70 days and then appears in the night sky once again. This heliacal rising of Syrius corresponded with the inundation of the Nile hence bringing fertility and life to the land. This 70 day period did not go unnoticed by the Egyptians as the mummification process took exactly 70 days. The idea was that just as Isis dies and comes back to ensure the fertility of the land, the Pharaoh will also rise from the dead in 70 days and look after his subjects and the land from the heavens. If this cycle of resurrection was not followed there would be drought, famine and chaos in Egypt.
Hence the divinity of the Pharaoh meant that he was a force which brought order and prevented chaos. Like Horus the living Pharaoh defeated the forces of chaos and maintained calm in the land and his divine duty continued after his death.
What Divinity means to the modern leader
The divinity of leadership still continues, not the trappings of divinity but the responsibility of divinity. A good leader must ensure that his/her team is aligned and focused even in the worst crises. It is the leader who must remain calm and inspire his/her people to overcome the challenge. It is the leader who people still turn to in troubling times for answers and assurances. Each time a change occurs the forces of chaos are not far behind, the bigger the change the more pronounced the chaos may be. To manage change successfully is to keep chaos at bay. To lead the team to a higher level of performance by providing, stability, direction, motivation and inspiration is the primary responsibility of the modern day leader, just as it was for the Pharaoh.
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