The paradigm of Columbus as a business manager

Can a charismatic leader offset the disadvantage of having a small or inefficient team?

Personally, I would never like to find myself in the position of Christopher Columbus, when he tried to gather his sailors to start his journey to America.

Viewing him as a manager of that era, who had been assigned an incredibly difficult task, one could only expect that he would be provided with the cream of sailors; only the best of the best.

Unfortunately for him, he was only given a bunch of rogues, rascals, and villains to help him discover the New World!

The fact that he finally managed to accomplish his mission with such a crew on his side proves that he was undeniably one of the most charismatic leaders of all time.

Therefore, this can be seen as a case where a hugely inefficient group of subordinates can be turned into a winning team of individuals, whose actions can be coordinated towards the achievement of a specific goal.

What makes Christopher Columbus different from other leaders, even when he is compared to modern, highly sophisticated, and educated leaders, is the fact that, under normal circumstances, leaders are provided with employees who are “normal” people; not crooks, villains, etc.

I doubt that any modern and experienced team leader would be as successful as Columbus was in eliciting discipline from his crew.

Another point of comparison between Columbus’s practices and those followed by today’s companies, in terms of staff recruitment, is the extensive use of the so-called “assessment centers” by modern companies.

Columbus would have been the happiest man in the world, if he had access to the state-of-art facilities of modern assessment centers.

Instead of that, he was given the limited option to choose the prospective members of his crew from a motley mob, the best of which were at least ex-convicts.

This is hugely different to the methods used by modern assessment centers aiming to attract, select, and hire only those candidates who possess the best and fittest qualifications, skills, and experience, as demonstrated by the assessment test results.

The courage and vision of Columbus, and how they apply to modern small business owners and high-profile business executives

One of Columbus’s greatest traits was his invincible courage. 

Of course, during that time, endless courage and patience was considered as an important virtue for anyone who wanted to achieve something in their lives.

Things moved much slower, and traveling from one continent to another took months, and even years in some cases; therefore, patience was essential. 

Also, the possession of a certain level of encyclopedic knowledge required continuous effort and study for many years, whereas today, although knowledge has multiplied, we only talk about having access to it, since it is only possible to truly acquire only a very small portion of the vast ocean of knowledge that is available nowadays.

On the other hand, Christopher Columbus was a real jack of all trades, and a master of them, at the same time, as a result of his long effort to hone his skills as a leader.

I could only compare Columbus with today’s business owners who have managed to build their business over time, with lots of effort and patience, and undoubtedly, endless courage in the face of adversity. 

It is true that, in modern management, vision has emerged as an important term that applies to running an organization successfully. 

However, although the vision of an organization may be clearly stated and defined, the same cannot be said for the courage of the executives who are responsible for managing the organization.

Unless some form of ownership is established between them and the performance of the organization, they will never be able to develop the level of vision, stamina, and persistence held by Columbus.

That is perhaps the reason why, in many cases, the owners of small businesses, though not as educated and skilled as high-profile business executives, are characterized by strong vision and courage, which can be compared to the similar traits that Columbus possessed back in that era.

Sources and further reading:

9 small business lessons from Christopher Columbus

Six project management lessons from Christopher Columbus