I’m endlessly fascinated by leadership
Leadership – the enactment of specific behaviours designed to influence others – comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. There is no one size fits all – to be effective, leadership behaviours need to be congruent with the specific needs of the context. Medical leadership and public health leadership is my area of specific expertise and I coach doctors in leadership roles and health leaders to become increasingly skilled in order to improve population health outcomes.
When I first studied psychology as an intercalated degree in 1992-3, I took a module on ‘social biology’, now called ‘evolutionary psychology’. As well as reading all Richard Dawkins’ contemporaneous texts (The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, The Extended Phenotype), we studied everything from the Orb-weaver spider (which spins a perfect, species-specific web every time from birth unless it is given LSD), to attachment in birds, altruistic behaviours in mammals, and also differences in how humans feed their offspring differently depending on gender.
‘Chimp Empire’ on Netflix
My psychology degree was soooo interesting! And I still think about the learning from that module pretty much every day. So, imagine my joy to discover a 4-part series on Netflix about chimpanzees in their natural habitat, directed by James Reed (who also directed the Oscar-winning lockdown classic ‘My Octopus Friend’).
Chimp Empire is marketed as a documentary: ‘A vast community of chimpanzees thrives in a forest in Uganda, navigating complex social politics, family dynamics and dangerous territory disputes.’
I was instantly hooked and laughed and cried along with the chimps over the course of the year as they were filmed in their natural habitat. The stakes were- and are – very high: the chimp community had split and two rivals groups were competing for the same territory – an essential commodity for the survival of the group.
You see the chimp leader, Jackson, leading from the front into battles, playing the long game (reconciling), and also taking time out to recover his strength. Jackson rose to the very top of the biggest chimp group ever known – and then led them for 6 years.
In direct contrast, ‘Succession’
Succession is marketed as ‘a critically-acclaimed TV series that dives into the intricate world of wealth, power and family dynamics…We follow the Roy family as the power struggle intensifies, alliances are created and broken, and the characters’ true motivations are revealed.’ It’s won over 100 awards and was written by Jesse Armstrong (The Thick of It).
I bought the boxset of the first series of Succession to watch over the winter (and recently finished watching the fourth series – purely for work-related purposes of course 😉).
It was not easy watching by any means, however I did also laugh and cry at Succession right up until the end (even though my husband refused to watch it with me due to his disdain for the characters).
The two programmes are both fundamentally about leadership – and when it is constructive versus destructive.
Here is my take on ‘Chimp Empire’ vs ‘Succession’
The head of the chimp group/ patriarch of the family & business is an ‘alpha male’: Jackson (chimp), Logan Roy (fictitious character).
Two lower ranking male chimps try to challenge Jackson from time to time, as do two of Logan’s sons (Abrams/ Kendal Roy; Wilson/ Roman Roy).
The female chimp (Joya) has to leave the group to make her own life (Shiv Roy).
There is a major battle for control (the Westerners vs the Central Group in Chimp Empire; the Norwegians vs the Roys in Succession).
Finally, there are two other characters who are very similar. Christine the chimp who is getting on with her life is like Jerry the lawyer; and Gus, the chimp who is excluded from the group and has to inveigle his way back in, is very similar to Greg (Logan’s nephew).
The main differences are in the lack of ‘ego’ in Jackson’s leadership: it’s altruism in service of the survival of the group. The chimps who vie for the alpha male role are doing so for the good of the group – the right leader at the top is a matter of life-and-death survival for every member. Their behaviours are appropriate in the context in which they are displayed.
In contrast, the scheming and coercive control behaviours used by Logan and his offspring in service of their own egos, and / or for the good of their corporate empire is generally very destructive to everyone around them including the people demonstrating these behaviours. Humans have a wonderful capacity for empathy and altruism, as displayed by the chimps, but these are not skills which the Roy family have learned. They use language of blame and shame, and are ruthless in their pursuit of their own agendas. While the chimps are also ruthless in their pursuit of their own agendas, it is in service of survival for the whole group so is appropriate in the context of their lives.
The human Roy family could choose to behave in different ways – but each family member would need to want to engage in learning a different set of leadership skills. They are all stuck in the adolescent stage of human development ‘self-sovereign’, and thanks to neuroplasticity they are capable of moving to one of the three other more advanced stages of development. Through schema based coaching combined with third wave cognitive behavioural approaches they could learn to self-regulate their behaviours, by developing their meta-cognition, gaining insight into other people’s minds, and learning to use non violent methods of communicating.
Vertical Development & Metacognition
Vertical development – how we grow bigger as humans through growing our capacity for empathy, perspective taking and ability to lead in complexity – requires the deep reflection skill of metacognition.
I love to use evidence-based coaching psychology interventions with my clients to enable their metacognition, and growth and development as leaders. The episode of Succession with the external coach /family therapist made me very glad I work with medical and public health leaders and our mutually congruent goals and values around improving population health!!
Dr Fiona Day is the world’s only Leadership Coach with advanced coaching psychology, medical and public health qualifications (MBChB, FFPH, BPS Chartered Psychologist in Coaching Psychology, EMCC Master Practitioner Coach & Mentor) and is in a unique position to help you and your teams to flourish. Fiona specialises in coaching medical and public health leaders, is a coach Supervisor, and an EQA Foundation Award Holder. Get 3 hours of FREE CPD with Fiona’s Health Career Success Programme here. Book a free confidential 30 minute Consultation with Fiona here.
