Odysseus And The Art of Leadership (continued)

No successful leader makes it to the top alone. 

Some successful leaders are fortunate enough to have a patron -- a powerful person who recognizes the fledgling executive’s talents and takes it upon themselves to use their influence to their beneficiary’s advantage. 

Regardless of whether they have a patron, most top leaders have trusted advisors willing to share either specialized or general wisdom. Their recommendations can be invaluable at crucial junctures. 

Faith in a higher power provides an advantage to many top leaders. Faced with dire situations where reputation, fortune and even life hang in the balance, recourse to forces bigger and longer lasting than we are, can provide comfort, hope, and insight into how to act -- and how not to act, which is often just as important. 

Odysseus is fortunate to have all three -- patron, advisor, and godess -- in the person of Pallas Athena. She has served as Odysseus’ patron goddess since the beginning of his career. She is there, a crucial junctures, to provide insight and advice. Without her, Odysseus likely would have failed. Going into the most desperate of battles, Odysseus can comfort in knowing the goddess has his back. 

When Odysseus returns to Ithaka, he faces long odds. Among the problems he must address: 

• Uninvested capital that must be secured from thieves and other forces that might cause it to lose value (washing away with the tide, bits of it being carries away by avaricious chipmunks and gulls) in a pre-banking era. 

• Suitors planning a hostile takeover of Odysseus’ operations, his wealth, and most valued personnel. 

• Two decades of poor management, spiraling out of control during resent quarters, resulting in serious depletion of the Odyssean wine, livestock and grain reserves. 

Fortunately for Odysseus, he is able to take a meeting with Athena in his impromptu beachfront office the morning he gets back into the country. 

It is useful to pause a moment to consider the nature of the ancient Greek economy. When we think of the Greeks, we tend to think first of their military exploits: Troy, the war between Athens and Sparta, between Sparta and the Persians. Or we think of the philosophy of Socrates and Plato, or the Greeks artist achievements in architecture, theater and literature. But the Greeks, situated as they with so much coastline and islands such as Ithaka, must have also been deeply involved in trade. The strategies involved in trade are not all that different than those involved in making war. In both war and business, the successful leader gains advantage through superior strategy resulting in profit. 

Waking up in a moment of disorientation, Odysseus’ first big concern is as practical as a  merchant who discovers his erstwhile partners, the Phaiakian sailors, have taken a powder while he slept. Odysseus first order of business is to take an inventory. 

“He made a tally of his shining pile -- tripods, cauldrons, cloaks, and gold -- and found he lacked nothing at all.” 

Athena materialized out of the air, taking on the disguise of a young shepherd. After a bit of slight of hand before revealing that he was, indeed, in Ithaka, Odysseus responds with subterfuge. Lest we be too quick to condemn his falsehood, we recollect that he returns to the family firm with its future management very much in doubt. If Odysseus is not careful, he may find himself retired at the end of a sword. 

“He answered her with ready speech -- not that he told the truth, but, just as he did, held back what he knew, weighing within himself at every step what he made up to serve his turn.” 

Rather than being shocked at Odysseus’ lies, Athena is so charmed with his trickery that she caresses him and changes her shape back into that of a goddess. 

“Whoever gets around you must be sharp and guileful as a snake; even a god might bow to you in ways of dissimulation,” she congratulates. To Athena, and Odysseus, truthfulness takes a distant second in the virtue department to skillful pragmatism. “You! You chameleon!” she gushes. “Bottomless bag of tricks! Here in your own country would you not give your stratagems a rest or stop spellbinding for an instant?” 

Odysseus’ mutable cleverness raises his talents to a god-like level in Athena’s eyes. “Two of a kind, we are, contrivers, both. Of all men now alive you are the best in plots and story telling. My own fame is for wisdom among the gods -- deceptions, too.” 

Athena reiterates her patronage of Odysseus, telling the “bottomless bag of tricks” she is always with him “in times of trial, a shield ... in battle.”

Turning practical, Athena then says they can discuss strategy after they hid the Phaiakian treasure. 

At this point, Odysseus displays another trait of top leaders. A lesser man would be thrilled to be back in Ithaka with a goddess to advise and assist him. Not Odysseus. He wonders where Athena has been during his bitter wanderings after Troy. He protests that he’s not ready to believe he is really back in Ithaka, and that Athena, despite her outpouring of admiration for him, is who she really is and truly means what she says. Odysseus refuses to fall in love with the deal -- especially one that seems too good to be true. 

Odysseus’ cool, detached skepticism, and his refusal to believe too easily in a good deal, only further ingratiates him with Athena. 

“Always the same detachment! That is why I cannot fail you, even in your evil fortune, coolheaded, quick, well-spoken as you are! Would not another wandering man, in joy, make haste home to his wife and children? Not you, not yet.” 

Odysseus’ leadership talents are great enough to wow even a goddess. Do we have any doubt at this point who is going to be in the corner office when the smoke (and smoking blood) clear? 

Odysseus' 10 Leadership Principles

1. Maintain unwavering clarity of purpose.
2. Keep a cool head. 
3. Knowledge is a leader’s most important asset. Share it sparingly.
4. Don’t be afraid to show your feelings. It humanizes you. Even Greek heroes cry over fallen comrades.  
5. A good leader is able to rally the troops’ spirits with a motivational speech during times of trouble. These do-or-die moments are not occasions to be overly candid or express weakness or doubt.
6. When disaster is inevitable, get through it as quickly as possible to contain damage.  
7. Never fall in love with a deal: maintain detachment even when you’re tempted to jump with joy. 
8. Be willing to live with the consequences. Odysseus came home to Ithaka, but behind him was Troy in ruins, his companions dead, his competitors maimed. And that’s before facing down the suitors bent on hostile takeover. 
9. Keep a good inventory. 
10. Rely on trusted advisors and have faith in a higher power. 

Comments

[Dan Morgan]

I confess that your perspective on Odysseus and leadership is completely new to me and gives me even more to think about in connection to this story! That's quite exciting. But another way to look at Odysseus's reaction when he finds himself in Ithaca is that he is a returning warrior who has been a long time away and who can't take anything for granted, not even his goddess. As (almost) always, he must show a heroic amount of self-control.

A returning soldier who has seen what soldiers see can't expect open arms and easy re-assimilation. The Odyssey is one of the best and earliest works to deal with this, and not just through Odysseus. He has to re-establish himself, meet and reach an understanding with his son (basically a stranger), and reconnect with his wife. It's what veterans face when they get home, only more so. This is what makes the next 10 books of the Odyssey so interesting, especially the final scenes with Penelope (who is no pushover). The reconciliation scene coming up is particularly subtle and complex.

[Dan Morgan]

You've already mentioned other homecomings (and failures to get home), but consider Odysseus-Penelope vs. Menelaos-Helen. Those two are amusingly estranged even in their re-established domesticity.

[Dan Morgan]

By the way, Mike, reading your postings is a pleasure, especially after I've spent many hours today reading Comp. 2 summary paragraphs, many of which weren't summaries or paragraphs...

[AbecedariusRex]

I really enjoyed your rendition of Odysseus as the management leadership expert. His "downsizing" skills at the end of the epic, though, might have been a trifle brutal. I'm constructing a blog entry on this epic as a retelling of the RA story from Egypt. See here:
http://scribblebibble.blogspot.com/2011/01/menelaus-helen-in-book-4-of-odyssey.html