Wolf Pack Leadership: Insights for Effectively Leading a Team


By now, most people who are involved in leadership and have a Linked In profile have seen the over-circulated picture of a wolf pack walking through the snowy wilderness with an arrow pointing to the leader of the line of wolves saying, “old and sick.” 

Members of a wolf pack

It’s an interesting image, but the reality is that the photographer, Chadden Hunter, who was producer of Frozen Planet and Plant Earth 2, said that the Alpha female led that particular group, most likely to help the rest of the pack conserve energy.

With all of this said, I have a friend living in Alaska, who occasionally sees wolves in the wild and is fascinated by their group behavior.  So are there lessons to be learned by understanding the group dynamics of a wolf pack in relation to their leader?

After looking into how a pack interacts, I don’t doubt it for a second.

What lessons can human leaders take from how a wolf pack interacts?

  • Communication
  • Preparation
  • Collaboration
  • Capitalizing on strengths
  • Empowerment
  • Resilience
  • Team building

Before getting into each of these, let’s look at some specific dynamics within a wolf pack. 

Leadership Lessons from Wolf Pack Order

Wolf packs have a specific order which is respected among all of those in the pack.  There is a pair of leaders who are the head of the pack, one male and one female.  They are the Alphas.  They typically are the only pair who produce offspring, unless the pack has grown and brought in wolves from other packs.  In this case, there may be a couple of couples who bear offspring. 

They have a pair of Betas that are next in command.  Their role is to follow the Alphas’ lead, and to step in when they’re not there.  Then there are others in the group who fill definitive roles such as the general and warriors, the guards, and the healers. 

The Alpha isn’t necessarily the strongest, as the one who is strongest would likely be one of the key hunters; however, the Alpha is strong, quick and has the attitude to assume the lead role.  When the leadership role is challenged by another, some say it’s more about attitude than in actual ability to dominate the other.  There is actually little intra-pack hostility, as they are truly an extended family and they look after each other.  Where there would be hostility is against other packs invading a territory. 

Some sources say roles, such as which wolf leads the group during travel, is passed around – a sharing of responsibility.

Summary:  There is one main leader (with a female counterpart) leading the pack.  This leader makes decisions and takes action to benefit the whole pack.  The Alphas assume the guiding role, but let others perform duties for the pack that align with their strengths.  The oldest wolves have a place in that the rest of the pack learns from their experience; there is demonstrated respect for their elders. The sick or weak are cared for by other member of the pack.  Roles within the pack are sometimes shared, giving others the opportunity to help share the responsibility making the entire group better.

Leadership Lessons from Wolf Pack Communication

Communication is particularly important to a pack of wolves, and there are several ways that they do this with either members of their own pack or with other animals. 

Howling

They howl as a way of expressing individual dispositions.  They also use to it to broadcast to the others in the pack where they are; it’s their localized GPS! 

Wolves howling

As a group, they use howling for a number of things.  According to our research, they how in concert.  Truly.  They actually harmonize in their own way! 

They use group howling as a way to sending a warning to encroaching packs, announcing a hunt, or possibly mourning the loss of a member of the pack.

Non-Verbal Communication

Body language of the wolves could be demonstrated through use of their tales, their faces (including mouth, eyes, and ears), and their overall body positioning. 

They also use scent to communicate, and while this isn’t relevant on the context of human leadership, it’s interesting to note that they use scent to mark where they’ve been, the Alpha marks to set boundaries for the pack, and find a possible meal through their prey’s scent, among other things.

Summary: Communication is particularly important to a wolf pack.  They communicate frequently as individuals, as well as a cohesive group with a unified message.  While they may not communicate with each other as much when they hunt (we’ll get into that in a bit), they use different forms of communication based on the circumstances, with all of their communication serving a purpose. 

Since they are very aware of each of the other wolves in their pack, And a lot of their communication is for the betterment of the group.

Leadership Lessons from a Wolf Pack Hunt

When they hunt, wolves sometimes they might go after small prey individually, but small prey isn’t their meal of choice.  They prefer larger animals, and in order to be successful, they typically will hunt them in groups. 

Preparation

They may stalk a herd of caribou for days looking for signs of a weak member or one that can be overtaken.  They’re somewhat calculating in that they may choose to forgo a smaller, seemingly weaker member of the herd they’re stalking if they see a larger member of the herd show signs of weakness. 

They choose their terrain, somehow knowing when the terrain is least beneficial to their prey and most advantageous to their pack.  For example, they may choose a wide-open area where the snow is thick and topped with a crust so that their prey may have more difficulty moving quickly.

They usually start their moves on the hunt as the sun starts going down, which helps them stay out of view from their prey.

Collaboration

While their main tools are a strong bite and speed, they work in a collaborative way so that the sum of its parts becomes their biggest advantage.  Some assess, some attack, some distract, each playing a part.

As study published by Science Direct looked at computational simulations of wolf hunts and determined that wolves generally do two simples things in hunts: 1) They move forward until they each are close to the prey but far enough to stay safe, and 2) know where other wolves are and move away from them. (2) They act in concert in the hunt.

Even though the entire pack moves together when they’re initially stalking their prey, they may not all participate in the actual hunt.  Those still have a role.  Some may stay back to conserve energy, possibly being in more of a point position for the next hunt.

Lastly, wolves are social creatures.  They are born into a pack, are cared for by members of the pack, and stay in the pack unless they are ousted or decide to leave.  But even when wolves do leave their pack, they are likely to find a mate and start their own pack, having a new family, with a new social order and others on which to rely.

Capitalizing on Strengths within the Group

Each has a role; faster, more agile wolves may corral the herd and cause distraction, while stronger wolves may go in for the kill.  Younger, less-experienced members may have less significant roles while watching and learning. 

The Leader Empowers the Team

The Alpha male may often decide which animal to pursue, but may not be the leader when it comes to the actual kill. The stronger males may take on that role. Additionally, the leader may decide to cut the pack’s losses if their hunt isn’t going well.

How do the other’s know when it’s time to quit?  The leader isn’t aggressive or loud about the decision.  The pack watches and takes subtle cues from the Alpha to know next steps. 

Resilience

We just mentioned that the Alpha leads the pack in continuing to hunt, or when to draw back.  It’s as if the Alpha makes this decision after “assessing” the group’s performance, the prey’s situation, and the possibility for a win.  Are we talking about a furry quadruped here? Yes, and what’s more is that a decision to retreat may mean it’s days before the next potential meal, but may be made to protect the pack from injuries and loss of life and/or territory, when it may be days before the next potential meal.

After an unsuccessful hunt, they go at it again, after finding a possible target and scouting the situation.

(Resilience is a key function of leadership. How do you develop resiliency? How do you develop your team’s resiliency? Changing the way you and your team thinks — using specific tools to reposition the mindset — can make all the difference.)

Boost resilience training for the individual and company

Teambuilding

After a hunt, if there are new pups in the pack, those that went on the hunt and have already eaten come back to share their food with babies. 

Did you know? They actually discourage negative behavior!

Interestingly, when pups whine for food, those sharing may growl or leave in a way of stopping that unacceptable behavior.

Summary:  The hunt is a project demonstrating unification for a common goal.  They prepare a group, strategizing the best movements, changing course when necessary.  The leader has his role, but empowers others with particular strengths to use them.  They collaborate to reach their goal, and when successful, celebrate as a team, including all.

What is a Wolf Pack Mentality?

Wolves look after other members of their pack. They even have members whose role is “healer” when other members are sick or hurt. They realize that their group is stronger when it operates as a unit.

They’re extremely loyal to their pack. On the occasion that a wolf leaves their pack (this is called a “lone wolf”), this individual wolf may seek out a mate from another pack in order to begin their own pack. When this happens, the same kind of structure develops.

Each member is fiercely loyal to this pack with the leader ensuring the well-being of all of its members.

Conclusion:

At first glance, looking at a wolf pack’s leadership for lessons in our own business or personal leadership may seem cliche, yet they have a system which works for them. They take cues from their leader who guides them with the best interest of the pack in mind. The wolf pack leader motivates their team.

Together, they communicate, prepare, collaborate, take advantage of individual strengths within their pack, regroup when things don’t go their way, and instinctively know that the team is much more powerful as a group working together than as individuals. They do all of this naturally.

The leader isn’t always the strongest. They often aren’t. They’re not necessarily the loudest, but somehow they manage to inspire the members of their group to do what they need to for their survival.

So there are lessons that can be learned from a wolf pack, but lessons only make a difference when they’re acknowledged, we adopt new behaviors and practice until they become habit… and then it happens naturally.

Additional source:

https://wolf.org/wolf-info/basic-wolf-info/

Karen Scholz

Karen has spent years in working in various leadership and training roles within both the public and government sectors. To read more, visit this author's bio page by clicking on the picture.

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