Everyone likes the idea of a role model for leadership. Here is the candidate of the day for that honor: Odysseus. There are thousands of books on How to be a Leader. Thousands. Yet, one of the best of them is also one of the oldest books in the world: Homer, The Odyssey. (As always—if you don’t read Greek, get a good translation. Life is too short to read bad translations. I highly recommend Fagles.) As a leadership text, Homer makes a fantastic starting … [Read more...] about Odysseus: Natural Born Leader
Leadership
Leadership in a Democracy
Why is is so hard to get a Great leader in a Democracy?The answer may lie in the First History of Leadership, the origin not only of something recognizable as a history book, but the first historical textbook on leadership: Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War. A note on editions: if you want to read this book, there is no contest about which version to read. The Landmark Thucydides, edited by Robert Strassler, is really the only choice. An amazingly edited volume. … [Read more...] about Leadership in a Democracy
Meditations on Leadership
Why do you want to be leader? Is there any reason to desire to lead? Marcus Aurelius would like to have a word with you. You want fame? People who are excited by posthumous fame forget that the people who remember them will soon die too. And those after them in turn. Until their memory, passed from one to another like a candle flame, gutters and goes out. But suppose that those who remembered you were immortal and your memory undying. What good would it do to you? And I don't just … [Read more...] about Meditations on Leadership
Leadership in The Republic
As a manual on leadership, Plato’s The Republic is a very useful thought experiment. But, it is a useful guide to leadership? First off, The Republic a mammothly sprawling book. It is a conversation which wanders all over the place, constantly circling back to the general theme. But even there, it isn’t entirely clear what the general theme actually is. Justice? Good Government? Education? Moral Character? In previous readings, I had read the book as an … [Read more...] about Leadership in The Republic
How to get More People to Read Your Blog
If someone you knew was reading a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie, would you commend them or get worried? Even more troubling: if a college professor assigned the book to a class of undergraduates and they take took the book to heart, would said professor have been doing a noble or vile act? When I was putting together my course “Leadership and the Liberal Arts,” I Googled things along the lines of “Great Books on Leadership” and browsed through the many … [Read more...] about How to get More People to Read Your Blog