The knight is the most exciting chess piece you take into battle. It jumps spaces rather than moving in straight lines. In the real world, this “knight” leadership can be disorienting and hard to follow.
Knights are the type of person who can see things in the future others can’t, but they’re also incredibly hard to follow because they jump around.
After encountering knights in business and in my personal life, I’ve found that they can lead to valuable insights or premature doom. I’ve played the knight from time to time. Do you know your knights?
Note the charisma and charm of the knight. He leaps into battle with a grand vision and plan. A knight moves in a direction that others can’t follow. Knights see themselves as a symbol that rallies people to work for them.
Unfortunately, it is the nature of all knights to deviate from an established plan. In chess and business, a rogue knight often leads to doom.
I’ve worked for a couple of knights. A knight doesn’t micromanage like a queen who moves in all directions as fast as she can. A knight won’t specialize with a singular focus like bishops. Knights don’t meet goals like a rook (the castles). They’re not pawns, but they’re certainly not Kings.
Knights bounce—they’re hard to follow.
At first, the knight has a vision. “We’re going to save money by creating our own office space.”
Then the knight causes confusion. “This office space will be in the middle of a mall walkway next to a cell phone case booth.”
Finally, the knight can be a nightmare. “It’s loud in this mall, so we’ll make our office walls out of fish tanks. The fish tanks will dampen the sound. In the fish tanks, we’ll create self-sustaining ecosystems to symbolize our company.”
The logo of the company was a leopard, but that’s beside the point.
If this is your first foray into the knight’s leadership tactics, I’m sure you’re confused. When you’re a seasoned veteran, you know you won’t have to work in a mall, for the knight will surely jump again. It is the certainty of the jumping that makes working under the knight so frustrating.
Over time, you can spot the pattern and learn how to work with a knight. In chess, a knight moves three total spaces but must pivot in each sequence. The knight can never travel in a straight line.
A knight on their own will roam far and fast. They will race into a corner and lose the battlefield with their lack of intentional focus.
However, the knight is the perfect companion for a king, who moves only one space at a time. The king can direct the knight where to focus its creative energy while plodding along slowly.
Chivalry is not dead. It just needs a leash.