5 Leadership Lessons from Albert Einstein

One hundred years ago today, on December 10th, 1921, Albert Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Einstein had a rare combination of intelligence, creativity, and productivity that rarely comes along. His life does offer some lessons for those of us who have to work with what we have. Here are 5 lessons for leaders today from Albert Einstein's remarkable life and career.

1 - Inspiration Comes Early - As an adult, Einstein would publish scientific papers that posed answers to fundamental questions about the natural world. His curiosity about the forces that he would later try to explain seems to have come early in life. Decades later, Einstein shared this story about a childhood experience that shaped him: "A wonder of such nature I experienced as a child of 4 or 5 years, when my father showed me a compass. That this needle behaved in such a determined way did not at all fit into the nature of events, which could find a place in the unconscious world of concepts (effect connected with direct "touch"). I can still remember—or at least believe I can remember—that this experience made a deep and lasting impression upon me. Something deeply hidden had to be behind things."?

LEADERSHIP LESSON => Expose people to science at an early age to spark creativity.

2 - Book Clubs Work - At the start of 1902, Einstein (right in photo) was a 23 year old aspiring teacher and tutor in Bern, Switzerland. He wanted intellectual stimulation beyond that so he formed a book club. A Romanian philosophy student named Maurice Solovine (center in photo) responded to the newspaper ad about the group that Einstein had posted. Einstein's neighbor, Conrad Habicht, a mathmetician, also joined (left in photo). They perhaps jokingly referred to themselves as "The Olympia Academy" and usually met in Einstein's apartment. They read a diverse set of books by authors such as Karl Pearson, Ernst Mach, Henri Poincare, John Stuart Mill, David Hume, Baruch Spinoza, and Miguel de Cervantes. The club was short-lived but the three men became lifelong friends. Einstein later said the club had an impact on his career.

LEADERSHIP LESSON => Start that book club you have always talked about. Make it one of your 2022 new year resolutions. Einstein's breakthrough year came right after he had a book club. Coincidence or causation? Who cares. It can't hurt.

3 - Ride Productivity Waves - Einstein was so productive in 1905, the year that he turned 26, that the year has been called the "Annus Mirabilis" ("amazing year") in his life. (The photo is of him in 1904.) He completed his thesis to earn his PhD in April. He would publish four groundbreaking papers through the rest of that year that would make up a big case for his Nobel Prize award 16 years later. The completion of these papers came at the same time he held down a job as an examiner with the Swiss Patent Office. While Einstein must have been working on his papers before 1905, the fact that he was able to publish four of them will working was a remarkable feat. Sometimes being over-programmed can lead to outstanding results if you can ride the wave of productivity without burning out.

LEADERSHIP LESSON => When you get on a roll, keep rolling. Use the momentum from one success to start and finish other things.

4 - Music Helps Creativity - Music was one of Einstein's favorite outlets beyond academics. Not only did it relax him, it may have also helped spark his creativity. Einstein would later say this about music: "If I was not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. ... I cannot tell if I would have done any creative work of importance in music, but I do know that I get most joy in life out of my violin." Einstein's mother had pushed him to learn music at age 5 but he did not enjoy it. It was only when he developed a love for Mozart at age 13 that he found his love for music.

LEADERSHIP LESSON => Find some other mentally stimulating outlet to both relax and tickle your brain. Using different parts of your brain can perhaps spark creativity in your main work.

5 - Analogies Simplify Complexity - One big challenge for Einstein was communicating his groundbreaking theories in a way that could be understood by common people. He expressed the challenge with a pithy quote after he had achieved worldwide fame: "Why is it nobody understands me and everybody likes me?" One tool that Einstein found helpful in explaining his work was analogies. In 1948, he described it this way: "To simplify the concept of relativity, I always use the following example: if you sit with a girl on a garden bench and the moon is shining, then for you the hour will be a minute. However, if you sit on a hot stove, the minute will be an hour."

LEADERSHIP LESSON => Analogies are like tools waiting to be used to make communications work easier.

Einstein's combination of intelligence, creativity, and productivity will be hard to replicate. But at least the rest of us mere mortals can benefit from some of these other lessons behind his success.

About the Author of this Article:?Victor Prince is the #1?executive coach ?for financial services executives. He is also an Amazon Top 20 best-selling?leadership?author ?who helps organizations build leadership, strategy, communications, and critical thinking?skills .?Follow Victor on?LinkedIN ?to access his 100+ articles on?leadership ,?strategy ,?learning & development , and more.

All facts sourced from?Wikipedia.