The Emperor’s Handbook

The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, who reigned from 161 to 180 A.D., is considered one of the world’s foremost Stoic philosophers.

So what does he have to say about leadership? Turns out a lot – I just finished reading The Emperor’s Handbook, a compilation of his philosophical writings, which was recently listed by Harvard Business Review as one of the top 11 books every young leader should read.

Here are just a few pearls of wisdom from the emperor that we should contemplate in our daily work:

“Jettison your cargo of opinion and you are saved. Who prevents you from doing this?” Marcus Aurelius knew that we’re biased by our own experience, which forms our opinions. The dangerous part for brand builders is to allow opinion – which can devolve into pre-conceived notions, bias and even out-and-out bigotry – to shape our thinking as it is applied to what a brand is and what it could be. In other words, I take this as being mindful that what you think is just one viewpoint; try to see the challenge and opportunity from other viewpoints. You have that capability.

“What binds humankind to one another is not blood and family ties, but the community of the mind.” I thought this quote was so good, I shared it with my team the other day, all of whom work in social media. In the virtual world, kindred spirits tend to congregate, which is to really say they are a community of the mind. That means social media community managers are trying to build a sort of tribal enclave of like-minded people under the flag of that brand. It’s not just planning and posting and responding. It’s a much deeper, more noble cause

“Look always at the whole. What is it that has made this impression on your senses? Analyze it by breaking it down into cause, matter, purpose and duration.” This really speaks to disciplining yourself to look at the big picture and its component parts, as opposed to focusing on just a few (or only one) of those parts. What the emperor is suggesting, then, is the beginnings of strategic thought, and divorcing oneself from one-dimensional thinking.

“Guard against making the mistake of those who keep themselves so busy trying to gain control that they wear themselves out and lose their sense of direction, having no purpose to guide their actions or even their thoughts.” Like Harry Kraemer said in From Values to Action, everyone can choose to be a leader, no matter where they are in an organization. Through that lens, I interpret this quote as leadership is not about being control-hungry – it’s about being comfortable enough to let go of control to those you’ve mentored, with whom you’ve shared your vision. To me, the wrong way is to burn oneself out by being a micro-manager and essentially trying to turn your team into a bunch of robots that you simply program. I’ve been on the receiving end of that, and that approach is divisiveness personified.

These bullets merely scratch the surface of what can be found in The Emperor’s Handbook, and at 145 pages, it could be viewed as a fast read. But like anything philosophical, I encourage you to take your time and soak in the thinking, so you can find ways to apply it. I’ll conclude with what’s considered the emperor’s signature quote that’s appropos for any human being, no matter their endeavor:

“It’s up to you!”

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