Amazon happens to be one of the leading and most successful organizations of the present times. Its founder and head Jeff Bezos has, time and again been feted as one of the top disruptors of traditional industry. Yet behind this veneer, Bezos has this tendency to behave like an Alpha Male. This elicits super-aggressive behaviour and a constant adherence to numbers. Amazon may have created value for customers, but talent management of its employees, is not amongst Jeff Bezos’ strength areas. A Darwinian culture of perform-or-perish constantly hangs by at Amazon. This behaviour to dominate all and not allow room for soft talk, reeks of behaviour of human’s ape cousins- Silverback Gorillas. Yet humans are closer to Bonobos than to Gorillas, sharing 98.7% DNA with the former. Bonobos are matrilineal and tend to problems using a “tend-and-befriend” attitude. Interestingly, while there are dominant women in businesses, their behaviour rarely tends to be so hyper-aggressive. It has been observed that the contrary “fight-or-flight” culture of alpha males can somehow be tamed through cohesive management training and executive coaching sessions. This lessens the abrasive behaviour by polishing the rough edges.

Source:https://knowledge.insead.edu/blog/insead-blog/are-you-an-alpha-male-leader-4571

Uploaded Dare:18 November 2017