alexander

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Leadership Process Four: Directing Symbols 131 32: Sleeping Before the Battle at Issus Appearances can immobilize an army. Rumors can arrest bravery. Fear can halt hope. Alexander was exceptional at engineering symbols to change appearances, undo rumors, and render hope. The second of the four great battles that Alexander fought was at Issus. The two armies had passed each other and cut off each other’s communications. Darius passed to the north, intercepted some ambulances, and massacred the men. This news enraged the Greeks, needless to say. At that time, Alexander was south along the coast. Alexander’s army was outnumbered, and his generals were deeply concerned, a concern that spread to the troops. The geographical setting was the tactical solution to the concern. The exact location of the battlefield is unknown, but even today it is clear that this plain is hemmed in on the east by mountains and to the west by the Mediterranean, which greatly restricted the ability of the numerically superior Persians to deploy. Alexander slept past dawn, the symbolism of which was not lost on the troubled generals. By showing an arrogant disregard for the overwhelming size of the opposition, Alexander broadcast unequivocal disdain for the Persians, which helped quell his subordinates’ fears. During the battle, Alexander broke through the center at a critical moment, chased Darius from the field, and caused the Persian army to break, rout, and run.
132 THE WISDOM OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT Inferences and Allegations Apparently no one but Alexander realized that army size did not matter given the geographical disposition of the battlefield. By sleeping late, he promulgated disdain for his opponents, which charged his army with hope, courage, and victory. Leading Lessons Once Alexander realized that the terrain favored him, he conveyed his confidence to generals and troops alike by the simple symbolic expedient of sleeping soundly. This implies that you should think about your problems but not worry about them. This is an important distinction. Worry unproductively causes you to lose sleep. Thought enables you to solve problems. Apple Computer was an indescribably insignificant underdog in the beginning, yet the company has bedeviled IBM from its inception. The company selected a market segment that was absent IBM and consistently carved it out for Apple. When IBM finally responded, its top leaders realized that IBM culture was so pervasive, and so counter to what would be required of a desktop computer team, that IBM senior management needed to take several symbolic steps to distance the new IBM PC team from the old mainframe computer company. For example, they organizationally set up another strategic business unit. They physically located the new company unit in a very laid-back place (Boca Raton), and the PC team members abandoned the
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THE WISDOM OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
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THE WISDOM OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT E
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CONTENTS Foreword .................
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CONTENTS vii 33: Ablutions, Celebra
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FOREWORD Alexander the Great as a l
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PREFACE Leadership cannot be taught
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PREFACE xiii Sources: How Do We Kno
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PREFACE xv Alexander’s exploits a
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Books are not the w
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xix Dickerson, Andy
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RÉSUMÉ Alexander the Great SIGNIF
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Page 130: The heart of the Persian Empire—m
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Page 185 and 186: 158 BIBLIOGRAPHY Fildes, Alan, and
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Page 193 and 194: 166 INDEX integration of cultures,
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