Tyrants at the Gate

In business, in politics — they can be found everywhere

The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David, 1805-07 (Wikipedia - public domain)

“A king rules over willing subjects, a tyrant over unwilling.” — George Buchanan, 1579

I’ve been thinking a lot about authoritarians lately.

Maybe you have, too.

Call them autocrats, despots, strongmen, bullies, dictators, oppressors, tyrants — the names may differ, but their behaviors are the same.

I know you didn’t sign up for this newsletter for political commentary. Anyway, this is less political commentary than it is leadership commentary.

Observations about certain tendencies of human nature that have played out over the centuries and across the continents, time and again.

There are forces afoot that affect all facets of our lives, from human rights to business regulations — forces that are bound up in a kind of dyspeptic and despotic leadership that increasingly pervades our existing systems.

And our job here is to draw lessons from them.

There are tyrants from the long past, like Julius Caesar an…