Secrets for Pirate Leadership

Pirates know they can get their treasure if they are willing to be creative with "how".

Pirates know that fear is the most deeply rooted emotion in the brain. To change our own mind, our "how" we do things, we need to face our own fears and be cognitively and spiritually courageous.

To lead others we need to acknowledge the fears of others. Pirates know that it takes a great deal of courage to face personal fears. It takes even more courage to lead people past personal fears.

This is the charge of the Pirate leader:

To help the crew face and move past their own fears.

This is so much like leading horses. Horses follow the head of the herd. If there is no head horse, the horses can become stranded.

A good pirate has to be a good head-horse.

Check out this video of four amazing women pirates who led 200 horses off an island where they were stranded. Watch closely...they only have to really lead the first two or three horses, then all the rest will follow.

Once they are moving, following a horse they trust, they are no longer afraid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRc3Ev05QiM

Manage by Pirating around

While being a Pirate can be quite enjoyable, all the freedom and adventure also comes with a bit of responsibility. A good pirate captain is only as good as her ship and crew. That means that a pirate is always responsible for growing and maintaining a motivated, committed and innovative crew.

What are the best ways to motivate a crew, any crew? With mentoring, praise, a share of the treasure, and alignment of values.

It is a Pirate captain’s main job to mentor the crew. How can someone handle the rigging or sheets without training? How can someone learn to read the wind and follow the currents without a mentor? Pirates know that it is unfair to grade someone on a task without first training them, and then training them again, and then letting them make a few mistakes, and then trusting and mentoring them.

A trusted crew will rise to the challenge of sailing the ship. A wise captain will notice and praise success. This is not about giving out T-shirts and ribbons for 15th place, or celebrating coming in last even though we tried. This is not handing out random "good job" awards. This is praise that states clearly what was done well so the crew knows what to be proud of and what to do more of. A wise pirate can say: I appreciate the way you handled the sheets in the wind; You did a great job navigating that shallow reef. Specific praise while looking the person in the eyes.

Anyone who helps find the treasure by sailing in rough seas deserves an equal cut of the treasure. Sharing is something that we should all of learned in kindergarten, and something that we need to remember to keep doing.

Share the rum and the gold.

Finally, why would someone sail on my ship if I did not value their efforts and their spirit? How could they be a good crew member if I did not acknowledge the ways that their values were also the values of the ship? Wild seas and capricious winds demand that a crew and captain can work together. A wise pirate makes sure that values are aligned and valued before the ship leaves port.

Black Pearl of Wisdom: Develop a Pirate Mind

See the world as it is.
Live in the world as it should be.
Invite others into the sea of possibility.

This is my one of favorite Pirate sayings. It describes the pirate mind, a way of living in the world. Too often we humans get stuck thinking from the old reptilian part of our brain. That is the part that responds to change by killing it, eating it, running from it, or maybe have sex with it. None of which really lead to a world of possibilities.

Well, sex has potential.

But the reptilian brain is just reacting from fear. Ask yourself, do you really want the part of you that is afraid to make your decisions, to steer your ship and choose your course? Do you want fear to dictate the treasure you seek?

A pirate mind is one that is open to changing winds, seeing the capriciousness of the world as a source of marvelous opportunities. Pirates are cognitively courageous. When faced with choosing between the lesser of two, or several, evils, a pirate will ask: “what might I invent that will give me other choices?”

So, my fine shipmate, the wind is at our backs, and the world opens before us. What can we invent in our lives that will open up a world of powerful and positive choices for us?

Why Pirates?

OK, OK, so many of you are asking "why Pirates?" as a metaphor. I know that Hollywood has made some pretty romantic images, from Errol Flynn to Johnny Depp, but those are not real. I know. What is real is that most pirates started out with letters of marque from the queen or king, giving them legal rights to protect the sea and shores of their respective Queendom. Pirates took that right and pushed the edge. They learned that a lone ship at the edges can shift the course of a large armada. They created democratic systems of leadership on the ship, as well as the first disability payment system. They learned that freedom is always better than corner office, and that pirating has more to do with psychology and relationships than it does with canons and gun powder.

Oh, don’t forget the rum.

This blog is dedicated to that ideal; freedom, fortune and glory for the fun of it.
If you like the idea of swashbuckling your way through life, sailing great ships into unknown waters just for the adventure, watching the sun set and rise over an open horizon…while drinking rum… you just might be a pirate.

I will be posting Black Pearls of wisdom that can be used in any setting to help you pirate your way through life. I know that this is not the current wisdom. According to some authors, one should be able to just dream the perfect life without leaving the comfort of your reclining couch. Maybe that is true, but I have found that no matter how hard I dream and affirm and visualize, I still need a bit of piratical smarts and a dash of grog to make it all work. Or at least to have fun.

So, first black pearl of wisdom is a short one:
Audactiy is a pirate virtue.