Don’t Carry the Jackasses

There is a famous war photo that nearly always draws a laugh. You’ll find it with a simple Google search. It is an image of a soldier carrying a donkey through a field. Now, most folks who see this photo assume that the soldier is carrying the donkey through a minefield because he can’t allow the donkey to run free. The animal might step on the mines and get people killed.

It turns out this photo has nothing to do with minefields. It was taken in 1958 during the Algerian War. In it, a member of the French Foreign Legion is carrying a starving donkey to the station where it will be nursed back to health.

Now I want to apply the meaning of this photo to your leadership. In fact, I want to apply both interpretations of this photo to what you do.

I’ve learned in my work with leaders that most of us are moving so fast and are willing to take on such hardship in pursuit of our goals that we rarely take stock of our opposition, rarely figure out who the jackasses are who hinder our mission. We tend to just take difficult people in stride, regard them as part of the battle for success, and never deal with them as we should.

Very often in my work with leaders, I have to force them to sit down with me and tell me about the opposition they face—in other words, what they have to push through to get things done.

Quite often, once I get these leaders quieted down and in a reflective mode, they start describing people on their own team, perhaps even people they hired and keep near. I’ll listen. I’ll reflect back to them what they are saying. Then I’ll start asking why they keep these people in their firm.

At this point, I bring up the image of the soldier carrying the donkey. Now you’ll see why both interpretations of the photo work for my purposes. The leaders I work with start just like everyone else assuming that the soldier carries the donkey so that donkey won’t get people killed in the minefield. Then I ask, “Bob, who are you carrying so they won’t damage your cause through their lack of discipline?” The truth is often liberating.

Then, I tell my leader friends what is actually being depicted in the photo. The donkey is sick and has to be carried. My question: “Who is sick on your team and so has to be carried by you and everyone else?” Again, posed in these terms, clarity comes.

It is then that I usually say the hard thing. “Bob, you can’t carry the jackasses. You either have to help them build discipline so they don’t blow everything up or you have to get them whole so they can function on their own, but you can’t carry them. You may have to let them go.”

This is hard to hear. Yet let me tell you for every leader I’ve had to say these hard things to, when they understood and acted, both they and their firm were healthier six months later. They had been carrying the jackasses, either out of fear or out of compassion. Either way, you can’t run a firm carrying those who can’t or won’t function well.

In short, make the changes on your team that you need to make. Don’t carry the jackasses. Now’s the time to make this move.