Alex Coburn explains why elephants make great leaders.
There’s a moment when you lock eyes with an elephant. Something ancient in you connects with something ancient in them. These animals have been walking the land far longer than we have. And they know a thing or two about leadership.
I spend much of my time in Northern California as an archaeologist, but my heart is in South Africa, guiding safaris through landscapes where humans and elephants have moved side by side for millennia. Once, that was true here, too. Columbian mammoths roamed the Bay Area long before bridges and freeways. The connection between people and elephants isn’t just African; it’s written into the land beneath our feet.
Leadership isn’t about titles or ambition. It’s about survival. And elephants? They’ve been getting it right for millions of years. Take the matriarch. She doesn’t rule by force. She leads with experience, wisdom and the quiet certainty that the herd trusts her to find the way. Good leaders don’t micromanage. They move forward, and others follow.
Elephants have exceptional memory. They remember water in a drought, migration paths, friends and enemies. Leadership is the same. You learn from mistakes, hold onto hard-earned lessons and never forget the people who stood by you, or the ones who didn’t.