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Concluding Thoughts About Leadership 147
time: our clothing, our haircut, our cars, our office, our
desk, but most commonly and importantly, our words. External
symbols can help strengthen our words. Together
they can change our organizations, our industry, the supply
chain, the customer, or even the economy.
Symbols are interesting also because they can be used in
the other three leadership processes. For example, Alexander
used the symbolism of pouring water to reframe the
situation of his army dying of dehydration in the desert. He
married the former king’s oldest daughter to form an alliance.
He rode a huge black horse and wore an ostentatious
helmet and plume so his troops could see him leading from
the front, which established one part of his identity. In general,
you must pay attention to the symbolic fallout of existing
symbols and then learn to anticipate how to use them
for effect.
At the conclusion of World War II, General Douglas
MacArthur was to receive the unconditional surrender of
senior Japanese military and political leaders. His overriding
problem was how to guarantee that the war was really
over, that renegade Japanese elements would not continue
guerrilla warfare on the four main islands of Japan.
The Japanese considered Americans to be little more
than barbarians. They held almost all foreigners in contempt.
Such an attitude would not make administering
postwar Japan easy. MacArthur had to figure out how to
transform this disdain into respect. (Incidentally, historians
after the conclusion of the war discovered that most Japanese
leaders felt that Americans did not understand the Jap-