I’m sitting listening to the many tributes and reactions on the sad death of the greatest boxer of all time, the man who BBC viewers voted sports personality of the 20th century, somebody who was instrumental as an activist in the US civil rights movement of the 60s, who has died at the age of 74. He exemplifies leadership and I want to remember just two lessons from him.
The first was explained in When We Were Kings, the superb 1996 documentary about the “rumble in the Jungle” – the Don King arranged fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire in 1974. In the last passage of the film, the great journalist George Plimpton is describing the intelligence and eloquence of Ali. He described Ali making a speech at a 1975 Harvard graduation ceremony which enthralled the audience. After he spoke, somebody shouted “give us one of your poems”, and Ali thought for a moment and said “Me…. We!”, which brought tumultuous applause. Plimpton goes on to say how he got this listed as the shortest poem in the English language. A poem which encapsulates in two words what the role and focus of a true leader is. That we are stronger, not from consensus but from the aggregation of our ideas and thoughts and decisions. The wisdom of crowds.
The second is the elegance of the punch that Ali never threw in that fight. He lands the winning punch, but has the humanity not to throw another. He watches Foreman go down with his fist cocked but does what most other fighters would not do. See it here:
We need leaders who think “we” rather than “me” and place themselves at the bottom of the organisation chart supporting their teams rather than pushing their heads to the top. We need leaders who think of the big picture and way beyond just winning.
Photo u – [1] Dutch National Archives, The Hague, Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANEFO), 1945-1989