What you can learn from Genghis Khan
Some leadership lessons from the greatest ruler the world ever saw
Hello readers,
In today’s 6-minute info-bomb, we’ll talk about leadership lessons. But not from your average CEO who likes to wax eloquent in the media about his ‘people-centric vision’ while drawing 300x the median salary and running sweatshops in the background.
We’ll instead take guidance from a leader who truly got things right and genuinely cared for his people. Not surprisingly, this person was not the leader of an elephantine corporation, even though the scope and scale of his ambition arguably surpassed what any businessman could ever imagine.
Yes, ladies and gents, we’re going to take inspiration today from the greatest (and probably most misunderstood) ruler that the world ever saw- Genghis Khan. Or Chinggis Khan, if you’re desperate to make it sound authentic.
We often hear stories about this marauding slaughterer who enslaved, killed, and tortured people, but that seems to be a massively reductionist view. GK came out of nowhere, facing the most brutal childhoods in one of the harshest environmental conditions, and he transcended those obstacles to forge the largest kingdom in human history.
Such a scale of integration is not really possible without getting things right at the level of the individual. In studying his leadership style, we encounter some unusual and inspiring ideas. When I first read about it, I felt that these are crucial lessons all of us can learn from and implement in our own individual settings- while managing people, leading teams, and building companies. So here’s a bunch of ideas from the great ruler’s toolkit that you should consider and reflect upon:
Loyalty vs Kinship
It has been a very common practice for kings and rulers to follow a hereditary pattern of passing on power and filling up key administrative positions with members from the fam. In such kinship-based systems, the family continues to hoard power through the generations, regardless of how badly they suck at their jobs. GK took a sharp departure from this tradition and instead chose to promote people who had been loyal to him since the beginning. This may seem like an obvious thing to do today but for his times, it was a radical thought. In fact, even today, we see this form of hereditary control in most family-owned businesses so it isn’t all that ‘obvious’. Moreover, one can learn immensely from how he saw through the fragility of familial ties in order to transcend them and think of a completely new way of organization.
Common purpose
As the conquests brought in greater territories and tribes under his fold, GK realized that the only way to manage and unite a disparate group of people and prevent them from descending into infighting was to find a common purpose, a unifying idea that everyone could relate to. Without this, all individuals would continue to be loyal to their tribes and find reasons to feud endlessly. He organized his ginormous military into units- with the smallest, atomic unit being a band of 10 soldiers. He created a culture where soldiers would develop immense loyalty and camaraderie at the level of the band and become brothers for life. Solid ties of loyalty at this level would prove to be effective in countering the emergence of kinship-based conflicts and help line managers and unit leaders to maintain order while uniting everyone towards a common purpose- enabling the army to be ruthlessly disciplined and effective, despite the eye-popping scale.
Lean management
One of the reasons the Mongol war machine sent shivers down every enemy’s spine was their insane speed and ability to overwhelm cities within the blink of an eye. While traditional armies were slow because they needed supply wagons (and since a group can travel only as fast as the slowest member), the Mongol army was composed only of cavalry archers who carried dried strips of meat & curd and hence didn’t require any heavy, slow-moving supplies that’d also slow them down and drastically reduce their effectiveness. By innovating at the level of logistics and war strategy, GK was able to bring down entire empires with ruthless efficiency. It is no surprise that in the World Wars, the Germans’ Blitzkrieg strategy was inspired by his lightning-fast raids.
Retention through caring
GK would probably have the best track record in preventing attrition in his leadership. In his entire reign spanning 6 decades, not even a single general left him! That itself says something about the way he must’ve managed his people, for we all know how quick people are to escape a disgusting boss. It also helps to know that many of these generals (like Jebe and Jelme) were around since the earliest days of ascension and went to great lengths to rescue their master from the jaws of death. He took great care of the loyal ones and ensured that the riches that they received from any conquest were passed on even to the wives and children of dead soldiers! This was an act of utmost care and compassion, something we barely see even in today’s ‘civilized’ world, and it’s no wonder he was able to forge a body of extremely aligned and loyal people.
Radical open-mindedness
What was most surprising was the way people from such a diverse set of religious and spiritual practices were all so successfully integrated into the Mongol empire at a time when dogma was destroying people the world over. The fact that the Mongols are often confused to be Tatars is a testimony to this fact- the Tatars were a different people who got integrated into the empire after being conquered and many of them got the opportunity to occupy high positions in the bureaucracy- something that’s rare for the conquered to achieve (that is, if they can stay alive). Buddhists, Muslims, Daoists- all of them dotted the empire and were allowed to openly practice their faiths. The conquered were granted clemency, treated with respect and practices such as abduction and enslavement were outlawed. Perhaps most inspiring is the fact that GK subjected even his own self to the rule of law at a time when kings often considered themselves to have descended from the heavens and beyond the scope of rules and regulations.
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Besides these radical ideas, there’s a lot more to learn from this enigmatic personality- his war tactics, spiritual beliefs, progressive laws on revenue collection and taxation, and adoption of technologies like paper money, printing and compass which later spread throughout the world.
Alas, the one place where he struggled despite his organisational and strategic brilliance, was succession planning. Like most entrepreneurs who build huge businesses but are unable to set the stage up for long-lasting institutions, even the visionary Genghis Khan fell short. His empire continued to go from strength to strength, but over the years and from one Khan to another, it followed the arc of gradual dissolution- eventually reaching the ultimate fate of every major empire.
However, there’s only so much one can expect these towering figures of history to achieve. In the grand scheme of things, the imperfect succession takes nothing away from Genghis Khan’s radical ideas and staggering achievements. There’s much to learn from his early struggles and rise to power: who would’ve thought that a poor, homeless kid from the barren steppes would build a global empire of unparalled scale.
As always, we must learn what we can from history so we don’t make the same mistakes countless others have already made.
If you’re interested in learning more about the man, I’d highly recommend the book ‘Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World’ by Jack Weatherford.