Three taps of the gavel, and the room went silent. The audience is yours now, all ears are tuned to you. You worked hard to get to this meeting, to land this position for your community or organization. You’re just where you wanted to be.
So now read “Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings” by Jared Diamond and see if your leadership will matter.
What if? Chances are, you’ve played that game now and then. What would have happened, for instance, if Adolf Hitler hadn’t been born? Would six million Jews have died in a Holocaust? What if Dolly Parton hadn’t been born, or Donald Trump?
Do leaders matter?
There will likely never be an answer to that, Diamond says. We can’t go back and re-create history with a different ending, but we can speculate. Meaningful experimentation is immoral and unethical, he says, but there’s a scientific way to look at possible alternatives to history, and to think about what if? It lies in asking not about the person, but about the circumstances that surround them.
Diamond introduces what he calls “the Hamlet test.” If William Shakespeare had died of smallpox at a young age, would Hamlet (or any of his works) have been created by another equally talented Shakespearean contemporary?
Diamond argues to the negative. Shakespeare’s work needed Shakespeare’s hand. He was a “uniquely talented” individual, as are many leaders. But not all.
On the political spectrum, Diamond says, Seretse Khama of Botswana was a man in the right place at the right time with the right skills and background to lead his country from poverty to prosperity. Also in the political category, Diamond writes about a woman who was not a politician, but she affected them.
He says that just two of today’s business leaders pass the Hamlet test, but neither is as well-known as Zuckerburg, Jobs, or Gates. To quantify sports leaders, he says, is tricky because sports is a business built on percentages.
And as for religious leaders, Diamond’s conclusions may surprise you …
So you think you’re making a difference by taking charge of things at work or in your community. You’re ready to be in command, to make change. Yeah, so also get ready to have your mind blown.
In “Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings,” the author lays out theories to deny or confirm the influence of several individuals, and there’s argument to be had everywhere. Read it, and you’ll almost wish you could verbally debate its pages, sharing ideas and shouting your opinions. But you’ll also find a sneaky benefit to this book: it’ll teach you how to spot a bona fide leader in real time, so you know to whom to hitch your wagon.
That’s helpful now, both in politics and in life, in general.
Readers who’ve been daunted by Diamond’s other books will see that this is more accessible, easier to enjoy, more pleasurable, almost fun. If you’re looking for something enlightening to chew on, find “Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings.” To spot a leader, tap into it.
Terri Schlichenmeyer’s reviews of business books are read in more than 260 publications in the U.S. and Canada.