Leadership lessons from the late Prince Philip, a King without a Crown.

 

After watching Crown, I became a huge fan of Prince Philip: regardless of the accuracy of facts and portrayal, his charisma and his strength of a character hits you to the core. His persona and enigma is to die for, and what makes it so real is that he never tried to change who he is through the journey of portraying one of the toughest roles to date.  Leadership traits and behaviors comes in many forms and twists, it is safe to say that the late Prince set an example to many modern leaders despite of being born to a completely different era.

The ‘best second in command’ any leader could have.

Something that often is being said by the leaders on top, it is very lonely at the top. The more higher you climb in the organizational hierarchy, the lonely you get with less and less colleagues to share things with. Every leader needs a No 2, to share troubles and triumphs equally with, Prince Philip treated the queen as another person, as a human being. He was her biggest cheerleader, her strength, her rock. He gave his support and his input to her, while knowing his limits but also knowing when and where she needed him to step up. He encouraged her, guided her and stood beside her through multiple prime ministers to multiple great grandchildren protecting the monarchy, legacy and protecting his queen.

He left his male ego at the door

He left his ego in the aircraft when he was asked to walk two steps behind the queen for the first time when the couple came to London after King George’s death. He was a prince in Greece, an alpha male, head strong personality who accepted the circumstances and gave prominence to the queen. When Queen Elizabeth was crowned as the queen, he had to bow down and pay homage to the queen. His purpose changed, his role was merely to support the queen. Not just once, but during several times he always put his purpose first. He knew the importance of monarchy, he gave it priority while serving the country and the queen for the longest he could.

He wasn’t scared to be bold

He dared to be bold, he was a war hero, and probably why he looked at things differently. He was probably the only one in the royal family who said what he said, and addressed it as it is. He took calculated risks, he encouraged the queen to try out new things within reason as well. He changed with times, and ensured the leadership and institution changed along with it too. He insisted that queen’s coronation should be live telecast on TV and it indeed had a record breaking viewership. Further he convinced the Royal family to do a documentary to show the human aspect of them to general public.

Strength of character undeniable

He was fiercely independent, self-sufficient and opinionated. He is known to be inquisitive and a deep thinker who is competitive. He was a rising star at Navy, who could have undoubtedly been a huge star had he continued. For a personality so strong, to follow a strict set of rules, abide by it and putting purpose first needs a huge amount of strength of character. However his independence was not something that could be kept down, he drove even at the age of 96 and did many things he wanted to do. A doer by nature all his roles and services involved supporting people to action out, experience and learn.

Driven by an unwavering level of duty and strength and dignity, he transformed his role of conventional consort to be a king, a king who didn’t need a crown to be a king.