—-
Hades was not the god of the dead.
That is a popular misconception.
He was the god of the underworld.
When the three primary Greek gods, of the 12 major Greek gods, got together to divide up the world they drew sticks.
Land already belonged to Gaia.
Zeus won first and claimed the skies.
Poseidon then took the seas.
And Hades was left with the underworld, the caves, the forgotten places and all the minerals that came from the earth.
And while the dead did go to the underworld that was simply a portion of everything Hades ruled.
The true god of death in Greek mythology was Thanatos.
He was the son of Nyx, the night, and Erebos, the Darkness.
His twin brother was Hypnos, sleep.
In Greek mythology Thanatos was considered negative but Hades was not.
Hades was simply the ruler of all that was in the underworld.
—–
Ok.
While I could write about Hades has received a bad rap over time … I will instead discuss Hades as a business guy … and as a business leader.
Whoa.
Hades as a leader?
Yup.
Hades is a lot like being a business leader.
As a leader … you can manage a large part of the world … offer up wonderful gifts to the rest of the world <minerals & such which let the world be a better place> … and yet … you also have to manage not only some demi-Gods <with minds, and opinions, of their own> … but you are responsible for everything that happens in your realm <business>.
In fact.
I have a horrible truth I need to share with all those business leaders who are adding ‘environmentally friendly’ and ‘socially responsible’ aspects to their business.
While you hope everyone take note of your new ethically, high values, behavior … the truth is that everyone will instead pay attention to the one department, output, process, thing which represents Hades’ version of “the place the dead go.’
That’s the way it works.
Anyway.
Back to leading a business and Hades.
First.
Let me begin with managing demi-gods.
Let’s call them ‘upper middle management’ in today’s lingo.
I do not care how good a leader you are … how good your organization is … or how great your culture is … you will have senior middle management who <all or some combination thereof of the following>:
—
Believe you are not making all right decisions
–
–
Believe they could be making better decisions
–
–
Believe they are undervalued and should be leading something more
–
–
Believe their department/group is the most important group in the organization
–
–
Believe they should be managing their own empire <and will manage their responsibility that way>
==
=
That is what business leadership is.
You will be stuck leading ‘demi-gods’ … some of which want to be Hades <i.e., THE god in charge>.
You may be the ruler of the entire underworld but you got a bunch of other people ruling their own little worlds within yours.
By the way.
This is bad … and good.
You like ambitious people.
You like people pushing the envelope.
You like people challenging conventional <your> wisdom.
That’s the good.
The bad?
Some of them don’t play nice.
And, in particular, the one who you stick with the ‘place where the dead go’ department is just not going to be your best team player.
That person tends to be one of two types:
—
=
Ambitious short termer:
Accepting that role simply to make a point and earn some stars and then move on. You have to pay really close attention to them because they have a tendency to offer up some extreme short term tactic/idea to generate some extreme positive result to point to … all of which, and none of which, is sustainable. And all of which most likely makes you worse off in that department later.
–
—
The turtle:
Hard shell, slow to change or methodical in process and always willing to tuck their head in under their shell from other organizational words, ideas and sharing.
—
Let’s just say that part of being a leader is managing demi-gods.
I don’t care how healthy your culture is or even how proud you are of your organizational values and ‘team spirit’ … if your organization has any size or scale … you will have to deal with a demi god or two <or three>.
Next.
Second.
Managing an overall positive company with overall positive output … and yet having responsibility for one component which has a negative perception.
Here is the deal.
All companies have a ‘death’ department.
I do not care who you are and what you do or make … one component … if brought to the public eye … looks bad.
Okay.
Maybe not as bad as Death … but it just looks bad.
Part of being a leader is making sure you don’t get defined by it.
Oh.
Also.
Part of being a leader is making sure you don’t try to hide it.
I am not suggesting you embrace it publicly but trying to hide it is a fool’s errand.
Third.
This is just an overall … “hey, I am Hades, not a particularly bad guy, but I am managing a realm for God’s sake” thought.
<pun intended>
Business has seemed inordinately interested over the past 10 years or so with ‘ethics in the workplace’ and psychological studies on employee motivation support tied to ethical behavior.
Of course.
Running parallel to all the supporting ‘expert’ literature and speaking about all this ‘ethics in business’ is the inordinate number of buzzwords attached to ‘building an ethical business’ <which, interestingly, actually evokes the opposite of the intended effect>.
Look.
I absolutely believe principle-based management is simply good, relatively commonsense, effective management.
In addition.
When in doubt … principles <values, ethics, etc> certainly have the ability to transform dysfunctional organizations into viable organizations.
However.
This kind of management decision is not made in a void.
Hades <leaders in general> has a difficult challenge because of … well … organizational dynamics.
Simplistically … organizational dynamics means each of us is a part that forms the whole and therefore each of us affects and influences one another through our behaviors and actions.
Management purposefully places universal principles with the intent to create a relationship of cause and desired effect/behavior-attitude <albeit cause can have multiple effects and an effect can have multiple causes … of which can make a leader tear their hair out> and alignment around principles with the intent to create some version of organizational health.
Unfortunately … the internal business principles get tugged at by the outside world.
And in today’s world?
Business is clearly shifting out of a time of excess <excess profit, growth, salaries, bonuses, etc.>.
Not too long ago government officials, chief executive officers, entrepreneurs and other well-positioned people all managed to take advantage of a significant global economic growth period.
Unfortunately.
While taking advantage of this economic opportunity they also created a new set of business rules by which to play.
Yet.
These newly created demigods <or business role models> are now seemingly being transformed overnight into unethical bastards <and bitches> through some crisis or another.
This all creates a tug-of-war in business organizations today.
Look.
Businesses live in an increasingly competitive environment all the time striving to retain viability.
And viability ultimately is grounded, and therefore – focused, on dollars and cents.
Oddly <just to throw some ‘hope’ into this somewhat dire discussion>.
Webster’s Dictionary actually suggests viability is defined as the ability “to take root and grow” or “workable and likely to survive or to have real meaning.”
Once again.
I say this to point out the tug-of-war.
The realm, the business, often falls to the simplest viability survival mode …. monetary gain at any cost.
This fosters an unhealthy work environment.
Inevitably … the tug of war revolves around how to create a responsive, positive working environment <have a ‘real meaning’>, staffed with competent, dedicated employees in a money-driven society.
Please know I am not suggesting that profit-driven entities and healthy work environments are mutually exclusive.
However.
Here is what I do know.
The shift in attitudes, the decline in personal accountability, bottom-line management practices, rapid technological advances, and the resulting expectation of immediate gratification by the employees … AND people the company serve … has created a tension in the workplace that takes on a variety of manifestations.
I say all this to point out managing a realm is not easy.
There are always several influencers in an organization who have varying degrees of power over different departments of the overall management.
And, in many cases, Hades <a leader> is not really directly engaged in managing the affairs of the tangible world <but always directly engaged in the intangible – mind – world>.
The realm has demi-gods to do that ‘managing the affairs of the tangible world.’
Uh oh.
Their management filters down through the structures in individualistic behavior & attitudes … as well as their interpretation of the guiding principles <and their varying degree to which they want to invest in the principles>.
Now.
You always hope that your senior management, the demigods, are all devotees of not only the main God … but also of the principles <of which I would argue is a balance>.
The trouble is that in many ways these demigods are just like us schmucks in that we ain’t Hades whether we aspire to be or not … and yet we have in our heads some ‘god-like management’ aspirations.
That is bad.
We are most typically ordinary people who, one would hope, as a result of their performance and devotion to the higher purpose … and practice of attitude & behaviors … have been elevated to the higher positions of power and responsibility.
The demigods are most likely <or at least supposed to be> the successful workers in the company who have been promoted to high management positions.
In reality there is no difference between the managers in the company and the ordinary workers. It is just that the managers, as a result of their efforts and principles arise.
Oh.
If this were only true.
Organizational dynamics are neither static nor are they cause & effect linear. And I say this because not all of the ‘examples of the best’ rise into thses positions.
And I also believe we mis-define values and principles as being one and the same in this whole discussion.
=
Principles are not values.
There is no ethical dilemma resulting from “conflicting” value systems if ethical management is principle-based.
The difficulty of practicing principle-based ethics is the lack of identification that occurs as certain unethical behaviors become mainstream practices and personal values take precedence over values with universal applicability.
The tendency is for individuals to identify unethical practices only when it affects them personally.
=
(Bellamy, 1994)
—
Regardless.
I think Hades got a shitty deal. He was probably a good guy. A pretty decent leader. With one crappy department and a pretty crappy department head.
And that is haunting his legacy even today <several millennia later>.
I wrote his for a couple of reasons.
First.
To achieve a healthy, working environment, requires a commitment on the part of all employees, management, the demi Gods and staff alike.
Done.
Period.
Pretty simple <and REALLY hard>.
Second.
I imagine Hades didn’t worry about his legacy.
Shit.
He had an entire realm to run. And he most likely felt he did a pretty good job and managed his demi-Gods relatively well.
I think the great leaders are that way. They really don’t worry about their legacy.
They can’t.
They are focused on doing what they believe is right and doing it well.
They realize people do not judge fairly <most outside criteria is wrong, misguided or doesn’t have all the information>.
They realize that people don’t judge well <they focus on the wrong things>.
They realize … well … their public legacy doesn’t even come close to what their personal legacy is.
Hades probably died with a relatively clean conscious <okay … not really clear if the god of the underworld actually ever dies … and if so … where does he go?>.
Anyway.
When Hades ‘moved on’ he most likely went knowing he could have done better on some things … but did well on some things.
I also tend to believe that all of us would do well to ‘move on’ thinking just that.
Leading a business effectively and leaving a great legacy can often be two very different things. And I imagine my point is that if you want to lead, and lead well, the lat thing you should be thinking about is what people think about you and what your legacy will be.
Lead in the present … ‘move on’ with a clear conscience … and accept you will be judged harshly by the outside world.