St Aebbe the Younger – Leading by a Nose

Exploring the lives of the saints we encounter those that achieved their rank through individual contribution, sometimes as team players and a few because of their leadership skills. Aebbe the Younger would belong to the last group. She is often overshadowed by Aebbe the Older, who received more press coverage over the centuries. For that reason I felt it was important to share her story.

The two women are confused not simply because they have the same name; they also had the same job at the same place of work (what were the odds?). Both were Abbess of Coldingham Priory in Northumbria. Both came to sainthood based, in part, on their leadership skills. But they were leaders facing vastly different business environments.

Aebbe the Older (known as Tabbs to her friends) began her career as Abbess during time of expansion. She actually initiated the convent division, adding on to the existing monastery and doubling the Priory’s capacity. She was well capitalized, and had excellent marketing directed by the biggest influencer of the day, the Venerable Bede. Hers were the complications of rapid growth. Her struggles centered on gaining efficiencies and managing staff to key performance indicators. She was rewarded for her hard work with a sainthood and the feast day of 25 August. Tabbs did get her nose a little out of joint because her feast day did not come with a patronage package.

As to Aebbe the Younger, her skills came into play under dissimilar conditions. During her tenure, the Priory faced the consequences of downsizing. The monastery had burned down, which negatively impacted cashflow. Only the convent division remained. Despite these difficulties Aebbe put her nose to the grindstone and maintained high quality standards. It was under these circumstances Aebbe faced a new challenge from outside the marketplace, namely the arrival of the Vikings.

I don’t want to be prejudicial when describing the Viking consortium. There has been frequent stereotyping of their business model as acquisitional via hostile takeover (aka raping and pillaging). These brand touchpoints caused some damage to their organizational reputation. Agricultural expansion was always their main objective. Of course, some occurrences of raping and pillaging did happen. As with all businesses, opportunities for short-term returns should not necessarily be forfeited because they are outside the overarching mission of the enterprise.

This was the reality Aebbe had to confront: a smaller business footprint, limited access to capital and resources, and now a prime target for acquisition. The majority of senior managers would have relinquished all tangible assets and relocated the workforce to a place of safety (run away). Aebbe viewed that approach as a failure. Crises are the catalysts for leaders to show their true strength, and this is the moment when Aebbe transformed into the leader to meet the moment.

For us to assess Aebbe’s performance it might be wise to start with enumerating the traits of a great leader. For this task I consulted Google. The top resulted indicated there were twenty such traits, which I deemed excessive. I decided to keep scrolling. Further down I found a list from Harvard Business School had only six. In the interest of brevity I accepted their findings. These six traits of a leader are as follows: ability to influence others, transparency – “to a point” (their words not mine), encouragement of risk-taking and innovation, integrity and accountability, decisiveness, and resilience. Using this framework we can better judge the performance of Aebbe in her role as executive.

As stated earlier, her operation had contracted and was now limited exclusively to the convent. She was confronted with severe budgetary constraints, and the Vikings were exploring agricultural opportunities in the area. This situation called for decisive action. Aebbe focused on the charter of her organization. The key pillar of success was chastity. Despite the fact that previous administrations had allowed some flexibility on this goal, chastity over time had become the sole performance metric.

Aebbe knew she had to be both decisive and persuasive. She called a staff meeting. Being as transparent as possible she explained the situation that confronted them. Vikings soon would be attempting an aggressive market penetration. For the establishment to survive they needed to create a “poison pill” to make them less desirable as a target. Aebbe had a bold idea of how to accomplish this, but it required tremendous sacrifice and determination from each and every employee.

The solution was for each team member to cut off her nose. Yes, this is the exact event that inspired the phrase “cut off your nose to spite your face.” By cutting off their noses they would dilute the value of the organization and make an adversarial takeover far less likely. No documentation survives that shows the point-by-point arguments she employed, but it is clear she was extremely convincing. Beyond successfully pitching the idea she showed her integrity and accountability. Without any hesitation, she led by example and sliced off her own nose (and upper lip as a bonus). Inspired by their chief the entire staff followed suit.

When the Vikings arrived to take water and soil samples they found all the nuns without noses. Their first reaction was “Ewwww!” The Vikings regrouped and contemplated their options. After reviewing the cost-benefit analysis, it was determined to move forward with the appropriation. They returned to the priory, locked all the staff inside and burned the entire building down to the ground. Aebbe and all her direct reports perished.

You may be thinking that the entire staff dying in a massive conflagration is a business outcome not normally ascribed to good leadership. The home office held a different view. Aebbe stayed true to the primary objective, remaining chaste (the sole success criteria). In this she exhibited every trait of good leadership. She obviously was persuasive (what would you need to hear to induce you to chop off your own nose?), transparent “to a point” (running away was not presented as an alternative). She was decisive, not once wavering from the nose idea (such as revisiting the running away idea). She showed the integrity and accountability of rolling up her sleeves and cutting her own nose off, not delegating it to just the underlings to be proboscis-less. Plus the entire idea of cutting off your very own nose was certainly an innovative solution. (St. Oda later cut off her nose and St. Margaret threatened but Aebbe was the first.) Finally, what demonstrates resilience more than remaining at your post even when folks show up with torches? As an added bonus she inspired an idiom that is still used today.

All in all headquarters gave Aebbe high marks for her performance. She not only became a saint but got the feast day of 2 April and a patronage perk. Aebbe was awarded patronage of the nose. I am not sure under what circumstances you would seek help with nose-related issues from someone who willingly divested herself of her own. (You might want to try St. Blaise first). Be that as it may, I am certain Aebbe the Youngers’ patronage got up Tabb’s nose.