Leadership lessons from Leonardo da Vinci

In 1482, Leonardo da Vinci sent a job application letter to Ludovico Sforza, the archduke of Milan. Knowing his future employer was enmeshed in frequent military battles, the letter described Leonardo’s prowess at designing war machines, diverting rivers, building bridges, and designing weapons. He concluded his resume with the greatest understatement in art history: “I can also do … painting.” Indeed.

A pioneer in disciplines including fluid dynamics, optics, cartography, engineering, aviation, and anatomy, it was Leonardo’s ability to bring his science to art—and his art to science—that distinguished him in such a range of fields.

Leadership in these complex times similarly requires an adept mix of art and science—gut instinct balanced with data-driven decision-making, creativity coupled with systems thinking. And we can look to the works—and workstyle—of this Renaissance master to glean insights on how to deftly blend art and science in our own leadership.

What a viewer sees in the Ginevra depends on the lens they bring to the painting. An artist may notice techniques perfected by Leonardo to depict depth, such as chiaroscuro (the use of shadows based on how light falls on images) and sfumato (smokiness rather than hard lines on the subject’s jaw). A symbolist might recognize how Leonardo was communicating the subject’s character: The church steeple represented piety and the juniper branch was a sign of virtue in Italian culture. A Latin scholar might notice not just symbolism but also playful humor, the Latin word for juniper (ginepra) being a play on the subject’s name. And a forensic investigator may be intrigued to find Leonardo’s fingerprint embedded behind Ginevra’s right shoulder.

Stepping into someone else’s experience opens our own eyes as leaders to a richer depth of insights. Each year on Founder’s Day, the McDonald’s corporate office empties and its senior leaders work at the grills, front counters, fry stations, and drive-through windows of hundreds of their restaurants around the world—giving them a chance to see the experience from customers’ and store associates’ vantage points.

Similarly, experiencing diverse strengths, skill sets, and viewpoints can help illuminate new ideas. The Santa Fe Institute, a research center focused on the study of complex systems, brings together business, scientific, educational, and other leaders, connecting multiple lived experiences and mindsets to “understand and unify the underlying, shared patterns in complex physical, biological, social, cultural, technological” systems in pursuit of a common goal.

Source: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/leadership/leadership-lessons-from-leonardo.html