Oes gafr eto? Oes heb ei godro,
Ar’y creigiau geirwon
mae’r hen afr yn crwydro
- Welsh Folk Song
One of the downsides of this year is that I seem to be spending a lot of time sat in ghastly air conditioned boxes tacked on to stadiums and hotels listening to various management consultants telling me about models of leadership or culture that seem to have been thought up on the back of a napkin after a jolly good night on the sauce. It looks like everyone has a model, has then written the book about the model, and then someone else reads the book and turns it into death by powerpoint.
Yesterday, when being faced with the prospect of spending a morning likening corporate culture to various ancient Greek gods (carefully leaving out the bits about bonking their sisters, uncles, swans, badgers and anything else with a pulse), I started searching wikipedia for interesting facts about goats for each god because dear me, I needed something to do.
“For sheep are stupid, and have to be driven.
But goats are intelligent, and need to be led.”
- Terry Pratchett, Small Gods
This took one of those turns that things do around me (I’m sorry, I try to stop it but it just happens) and led to the development of a new model for leadership, which I hereby name the ‘goat model’.
You can have it for free, but please remember when you use it in your seminars that you saw it here first. Of course, once I have written the book, you will need to become a fully licensed ‘goat method’ practitioner and I will be charging you £2000 annually for the pleasure and a piece of paper with a picture of a goat on it.
The Goat Model of Leadership
1. Be curious. Taste everything to find out more about it.
Contrary to myth, goats don’t actually eat everything. What they do is a bit more interesting; they browse things by tasting them. In doing this they learn more about the thing and can then make an informed decision as to whether it’s worth digesting.
Leaders should browse as widely as they need. They should be curious about their team and their interests and skills, and should be allowed to ask questions that let them understand the system they are working in and the people that they are working with. By tasting everything, they understand more about what is going on and how they can influence, use or change it as they need.
2. Be aware of your surroundings. Escape the pen if you need to.
Goats are spectacular escape artists and will try to get out of any pen that you put them in. Whilst a lot of people call this contrariness, there’s a bit of evidence that goats are rather intelligent and have excellent long term task recall. I think they just do it for fun.
In being leaders, you need to have the situational assessment skills of the goat. Know the weak points in the fence, the bar that can be lifted from the right point. Who can do this thing for you when you need it done? Where is the danger, and what can you do about it before it happens? Most importantly: what can you learn from this thing that has just happened, and what do you do if it happens again?
Also remember that leaders, like anyone else, can get stuck in a rut. That’s the time to try and escape the pen and sample the world beyond.
3. Use your herd.
Herd behaviour in goats is pretty cool. They have a looser flock structure than sheep, with individuals roaming further and taking more risk, but if a threat is identified, the ranks are closed. Kids are looked after by the herd, every goat knows who every other goat is and how they relate to each other, and problems are sorted out quickly and with a minimum of head-butting. Off of their home turf, the herd will tend to close its ranks a bit, and graze closer.
“Goats did have names for themselves, she well knew: there was ‘goat who is my kid,’ ‘goat who is my mother,’ ‘goat who is herd leader,’ and half a dozen other names not least of which was ‘goat who is this goat.”
- Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites
A leader should know their herd and what they are all capable of. Know how they interact, be prepared to disrupt any butting of heads or jostling for position and know which goats need to be assigned to which tasks for the best chances of success. Let the herd support and develop those who need it. Do not try and drive them; lead them where you want them to go. Recognise when threat is causing ranks to close. Find out what it is and address it.
4. Don’t be afraid to climb the tree to get the fruits.
I love the photos of goats in trees, calmly snacking on olives or argan fruits whilst raising a cloven hoof to those of us with opposable thumbs.
Whilst taking an individual risk might seem daft, especially if you’re not feeling equipped to do it, the goats recognise that certain rewards are worth climbing… and potentially taking a fall for. Leaders should be prepared to do the same.
Photographs by Sara Long, featuring Rosie the Pygmy Goat who was resident at Secret World Wildlife Centre in Dorset when I attended a photography day there in 2016. She was exceptionally naughty, loved humans and trying to eat daffodils. They do great work, please support them.
Find me on twitter @saral0ng