The Good and The Bad of Machiavellian Leadership

On a day like today, in 1469, Machiavelli was born in Florence. He was a politician and writer, and his best known work is The Prince. We’ve all heard the expression “Machiavellian” as denoting something bad. And this idea comes from the foundations of the book The Prince in which Machiavelli, teaches political leaders of the time how to keep power by any means, including immoral decisions, dishonesty, killing, etc.

There is a lot of debate about whether Machiavelli was really teaching how to do evil in the world to remain in power, or instead representing the worst of the political caste of the time. However, 503 years after he wrote The Prince, it seems that many of the political and corporate leaders of our time still behave, at least in principle, in similar evil ways as some of the ones described by Machiavelli.

Of course, the ways to exert power today from a position of authority differ drastically from some of the evil strategies laid out in The Prince. But, don’t get me wrong, not all is bad! Even Baruch Spinoza, Diderot and Rousseau thought that there were positive things to learn from Machiavelli. And, it is true that there some other strategies that still remain relevant, useful and timeless, as they help develop strategic and critical thinking.

We are living in exceptional times. Today, it is more important than ever to work together with others, empower them, delegate authority, have integrity and character as the compass, and develop those around us in order to ensure long-term sustainability and relevance of our organizations. To do so, we must be careful in the way we use our leadership positions.  

There's good and bad of Machiavellian leadership. This means that leaders of our times need to transcend the evil practices and strategies described by Machiavelli, while keeping in mind the ones that truly develop critical and strategic thinking. Leaders need to make sure they find and practice better and more effective ways to ensure that the organizations that they are leading survive and thrive in the long term, and not to keep power for themselves.

This is a selection of a few quotes from The Prince. For some of them I offer I refutation, and for some others a confirmation.

Confirmations…

• “The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves”: this is call to develop critical and strategic leadership thinking. From this standpoint, two ideas are fundamental for leaders. One, to understand the circumstances and the environment, and to translate that understanding into useful information for the organization and its people. Second, to ability to frame and conceptualize the information and turn it into organizational advantages.
• “There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you”: seeing the positive side of this quote, leaders need to create an environment of real lasting trust. They must be able to coach their people not by telling them what to do, but by asking them questions that allow them to see their own truth by themselves. And at the same time, leaders must be open to be coached by others. They must set the foundations to allow others to tell them what they think.
• “A man who is used to acting in one way never changes; he must come to ruin when the times, in changing, no longer are in harmony with his ways”: this is a basic call for curiosity, creativity and innovation. Even Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Inc., said that curiosity is the most important trait of the CEOs of the future. Machiavelli’s quote is an invitation to be in constant learning mode, being curious and finding opportunities to change and innovate. What a leader does today, will not be relevant tomorrow. The principles might remain valid, but the strategies and actions must change. It is either changing, or losing relevance and dying.
• “It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things”: once again, Machiavelli talking about change and innovation. Initiating “a new order of things” require collective buy-in. In order to ensure the best outcomes, it is always favorable to involve people since the very beginning of the change process. Not doing so will prevent the organization and its leaders from fully engaging people at all levels.

Refutations…

• “He who builds on the people, builds on the mud”: building organizations on people is not flimsy, it is rather sustainable. Some people will always be disconnected and disengaged from a particular organization. However, it they are given the opportunity to discover, develop and unleash their potential, they will give their full capacities and energy to the organization. The problem comes when an organization tries to build on people, only by using them, yet disregarding their ideas and punishing their efforts.
• “Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved...love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails”: people who fear a leader work because of the obligation to do so, and will remain disengaged and leave at the slightest opportunity that comes across. It was probably true in a long gone past that there weren’t enough opportunities for people to leave an organization and a leader. A leader must build his relationship with the people upon mutual respect, more than any other thing. It is not fear or love. It is respect.
• “The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present”: two of the most important behaviors, qualities, traits, characteristics and, ultimately, lifestyle habits that leaders need are character and integrity. One of the foundations of these character and integrity is keeping promises. Every time that a leader breaks his or her word, a little piece of the trust that people have put in them fades away. Once trust is gone, there is nothing left for a leader to positively influence people, except from authority, but not from real leadership.

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Visit my blog: www.innovationdev.org

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About the Author: Enrique Rubio is an Electronic Engineer and a Fulbright scholar with an Executive Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Syracuse University. Enrique is passionate about leadership, business and social entrepreneurship, curiosity, creativity and innovation. He is a blogger and podcaster, and also a competitive ultrarunner. Visit the blog: Innovation for Development and Podcast. Click here to follow Enrique on Twitter. 

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