BY ROWENA CROSBIE, president, Tero International

Predator or prey. Hunter or hunted. Which would you rather be compared to? Check out this Tero Tips video for business lessons from the animal kingdom.

The cat is in hot pursuit of the mouse. The cat catches the mouse. Good day for the cat, bad day for the mouse. Or, the mouse out-maneuvers the cat and disappears into a small hole. Bad day for the cat, good day for the mouse.

Which are you? Cat or mouse? Hunter or hunted?

When given the choice, most of us would prefer to be likened to the ferocious feline instead of the pursued rodent.

Many metaphors from the animal kingdom are used to describe individuals, products, sports teams and organizations.

Lions, wolves, whales, bears, sharks, eagles. All are members of the predatory animal kingdom. To be feared. To be respected. To be revered. When teams and organizations choose their icons, who chooses the mouse? The skunk? The opossum?

In hopes of motivating teams, leaders often assign the customer to the role of prey and the sales professional as predator. Consider the common phrase “Eat what you kill.” Is it the inevitable fate of prey to be devoured by the predator? It’s interesting to note that nature is populated most heavily by prey animals .

In nature, as in business, having few or no predators does not guarantee long-term survival. History reports extinctions of many grand predators. Conversely, it is the prey animals, quiet in their walk, alert to all danger, that go forth and multiply in numbers that are mind-boggling.

Consider the mouse. The raccoon. The opossum. The rabbit. While we may not like to be compared with these less than supreme of beings, the lessons from them are not to be overlooked. Missing the lessons has been the downfall of more than a few teams and organizations.

What can we learn from the hunted? They travel in groups, they look out for each other and they recognize that survival of the group is more critical than any self-serving interests.

Perhaps it is time for leaders to quit trying to out-roar and out-fight the competition. Perhaps it’s time to resort to shrewd counter moves that, although not as spectacular, translate to long-term survival. Perhaps it is time to learn the strategy and tactics of the smallest among us that multiply at an astonishing rate. We say we seek a team environment, yet we strive to be likened to a predator. Perhaps it is time for a new metaphor and time to begin studying the behaviors of the hunted.

View Rowena’s bio here