On a recent Emirates flight to the US, I watched a documentary called The Elephant Queen. It follows Athena, a 50-year-old elephant matriarch, as she leads her herd across the African savannah in search of water. Their usual watering hole has dried up from a devastating drought. The journey is long and dangerous. Some of the herd don’t survive. But Athena, with her wisdom and quiet authority, keeps them moving forward.

Somewhere over the Atlantic, I found myself reflecting on this: Athena isn’t the strongest or the fastest. She doesn’t command with force. But every member of the herd looks to her for guidance—not because she demands loyalty, but because she’s earned it. Watching her guide the herd with patience, wisdom, and care, I started to wonder:

What kind of leadership endures?

In nature—and in business—does survival favor the loudest, boldest, most dominant leader? Or is long-term endurance about something quieter—a leadership rooted in empathy, resilience, and trust?

The alpha playbook

In the startup world, we celebrate the ‘alpha’ founder. Bold, assertive, unrelenting. The one who doesn’t take no for an answer. This kind of leader often excels in early-stage chaos—when the market is unformed, the team is small, and sheer force of will can mean the difference between shipping and stalling.

But there’s a cost to leading like this for too long. Alpha cultures tend to cultivate internal competition. People compete for the founder’s attention. Teams compete for resources. Meetings become battlegrounds of persuasion. And when the real fight is out there—in the market, with competitors—all this inward hustle energy becomes a distraction. 

In alpha-led environments, performance can spike in the short term. But trust suffers. Alignment drifts. Burnout creeps in. And culture becomes brittle.

When being an alpha comes at a cost

This pattern isn’t unique to business—it shows up in the wild too.

In lion prides, the alpha male’s role is largely about maintaining dominance and passing on his genes. But his reign is typically short, often just two or three years. He spends more time fighting off rivals than protecting the pride, and when he’s overthrown, the consequences can be brutal, especially for the cubs.

In chimpanzee societies, where leadership also tends to be alpha and male-dominated, researchers have found something fascinating: More aggressive alpha males tend to have shorter reigns, while those who groom, share food, and build alliances maintain power longer and more peacefully.

Even in species where strength determines status, cooperation often proves to be the more enduring strategy.

Nature has another model

Leadership in nature isn’t about dominance—it’s about wisdom, cooperation, and survival. In The Elephant Queen, Athena leads through experience, remembering past droughts and guiding her herd to safety. 

Similarly, bonobos thrive in matriarchal societies based on social harmony and resource-sharing, reducing conflict and fostering stability. Strong female alliances enable them to maintain influence over physically stronger males, fostering peaceful dynamics and preventing sexual coercion. In contrast, chimpanzees operate under male-dominated hierarchies marked by aggression, territorial patrols, and frequent intergroup conflict. 

We see this play out in the oceans too. Orca pods rely on their matriarchs to guide them through hunting grounds and lean seasons, drawing on decades of accumulated ecological knowledge. 

Across species, from elephants to bonobos to orcas, leadership based on trust, experience, and collective well-being proves more effective than dominance. This emphasizes the power of wisdom over force in sustaining groups long-term.

It’s not about who is leading, but how they lead.

Organizations that endure

We see echoes of this in companies too.

The early stage might require some brute force. But enduring companies, those that thrive across market cycles and business transitions, are often shaped by a different kind of leader. The kind who listen more than they talk; who build systems, not just sprints; who foster trust, not fear; who choose to play the long game.

Think Satya Nadella’s transformation of Microsoft or Tim Cook’s stewardship of Apple. These aren’t alpha-style dominators; they are thoughtful stewards who prioritize continuity over chaos. Under their leadership, these companies have become stronger than ever.

It’s tempting to mistake quiet for soft. But this kind of leadership is anything but passive. It takes strength to stay calm in chaos, choose empathy over ego, and make decisions that benefit many over few.

It’s not either/or

To be clear, this isn’t an argument against bold or decisive leadership. Neither does it imply it’s a binary between being an alpha and being kind. Many great companies were forged in chaos by founders who led with intense conviction and a relentless will to win—and that energy is often essential at the beginning. 

But what we’re exploring here is what it takes to endure. The kind of leadership that scales with the organization, builds culture, and survives beyond a single personality.

But over time, it’s the wisdom, empathy, and collective strength that make organizations resilient.

Kindness is not a weakness

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post titled Nice Folks Don’t Finish Last; They Finish with Lasting Relationships. It was about how kindness in leadership is not a liability but a long-term asset. That idea continues to feel relevant.

Because being kind doesn’t mean avoiding hard calls; it means making those calls with care. It means understanding that fear is a short-term motivator while trust compounds over time. It means choosing to build a culture where people thrive rather than merely survive.

In the animal kingdom, kindness looks like protecting the herd through wisdom and experience. In companies, it translates into creating safety, and offering clarity and meaning during times of change.

Two leaders: two outcomes

Imagine two companies: Company A is led by an alpha. Visionary. Intense. Results-driven. The team is sharp—but on edge. People burn out. Politics creep in. The mission blurs. The company moves fast, but it also breaks from within.

Company B is steadier. The founder listens more than they talk. People know where they stand. There’s clarity, but also compassion. The culture feels less like a sprint and more like a journey—one that people want to be part of.

Both might raise capital or hit product-market fit early on. But one will still be thriving decades later—because its foundation wasn’t built on dominance but on durability. Why? Because while the fittest may survive short-term battles, the kindest forge the foundations of lasting institutions.

The leadership we need

Every founder needs some fire; moments will arise when decisiveness matters and urgency is everything. But the goal isn’t just to win this quarter. It’s to build something that endures beyond you.

That’s what Athena does in The Elephant Queen. And that’s what the best leaders in business do, too. They don’t just dominate the herd. They care for it. Guide it. Protect it.

Because they know:
The fittest may survive.
But the kindest?

They endure.

Recommended Reads

Two articles I found interesting: 

• I was a bit scared to read this article titled The Invisible Addiction: Is It Time to Give Up Caffeine? considering my love for the drink. In this, Michael Pollan discusses how routine caffeine consumption has become so normalized that we often overlook its impact, effectively making a caffeinated state our baseline consciousness. He also highlights the challenges of quitting caffeine, including withdrawal symptoms like headaches and fatigue, which underscore our dependence on this stimulant.
  
• Bartosz Ciechanowski’s Moon offers an in-depth exploration of the Moon’s characteristics and its relationship with Earth. It features interactive visualizations for concepts such as the Moon’s orbit, phases, and gravitational effects as well as phenomena like ocean tides and eclipses. It’s a fun one to play around and learn more about the brightest thing we see in our night sky!
  
• Here is a Google Talks lecture I enjoyed watching. Hat tip to one of my readers, Tarun Kumar Mallappa, for recommending this to me knowing that I may like it. 

If you have time for longer reads:

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
by Haruki Murakami 

This was a gift from a coworker and while I am not much of a runner, I was keen to read this. Initially, this was a pretty ordinary read; nothing major stood out. It’s a memoir of a novelist (Murakami) who has been running for over two decades. But the subtlety of the messaging and the writing style makes this very relatable. Anything of significance is achieved with some talent, deep focus, and discipline and that’s what comes out from Murakami’s account of his runs.

Behold the Leviathan  by Saurabh Mukherjea
and Nandita Rajhansa

Even if you live and grow with the Indian economy, it is often a pleasant surprise when you see the data over a long period of time. This book offers a balanced view of India’s achievements and challenges while making economic insights accessible. Exploring the various dimensions of change in the Indian economy, it’s the result of thoughtful research and interviews with over 50 of India’s leading minds in business, policymaking, media, and academia. 

Do write in at gv@peakxv.com if my interests intersect with yours! Click here to read more articles on Peak XV’s blog. For more editions of Connecting the Dots, click here. I’m also on LinkedIn and Twitter.