Leadership In The Odyssey

Follow the leader, a.k.a. do what the first person does and don’t do it wrong or you are out. This becomes burnt into children’s minds as what they think leadership is and has become what many people think it must be. Contrarily, a flourishing leader is one who listens. Who takes all member’s ideas into consideration, makes sure all are heard, and keeps a group in order while still taking into account what the group wants. Yet there are also bad leaders on the spectrum. These poor leaders could abuse their powers, no matter how little control they actually have. After the project’s completion, groups with these adamant, sometimes control freak leaders will likely find their ideas to be less developed than that of a group with a more attentive

Odysseus, the main character, is a great example of a leader, even if the word would not have been around at the time to describe him. On one venture, Odysseus and his crew ended up trapped in a cyclops’ cave. Formerly having eaten several of Odysseus’s men, the Cyclops planned on finishing the rest of them, and saving Odysseus for last. The remaining crew plan on impaling the Cyclops’ eye, and beforehand had sharpened a tree to a point, where Odysseus narrates, “Now, by the gods, I drove my big hand spike deep in the embers, charring it again, and cheered my men on with battle talk to keep their courage up: no quitting now. ... I drew it from the coals and my four fellows gave me a hand, lugging it near the Cyclops…”(364-376) This has several great examples of Odysseus being a stimulating leader. He gives his men ‘battle talk’ to keep them going when things might get rough and also lends a hand in the act of readying the point and stabbing the Cyclops, Polyphemus. In the act of both rallying his men and being an equal hand to his colleagues, Odysseus shows important aspects of good leadership. Likewise, Odysseus knows, and respects the need for his men where many other self proclaimed leaders would like to save all the glory for themselves and do all their group

She rants, “The isolation centers you have promised must be established NOW. And other countries must not let a few states carry the load. Complacency is a worse enemy than the virus”(MSF 1). Not slow in making a point, Liu immediately pushes for what the organization strives to accomplish and shows the quality of hustling a group along so that they can get things done. By eliminating waiting and having everyone else stand by as an option, she offers the quality of urgence; essential in leaders that would like to get anything done. Liu also shows skillful work at being their leader when she says “Complacency is a worse enemy than the virus” because of its wittiness in purpose. She is picking at the groups who could be building hospitals—rather than standing around—but also rallying her group and encouraging them that the virus is containable, no matter how stark the situation may