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Odysseus: A Lousy Leader

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Odysseus: A Lousy Leader or a Terrific Leader? In the epic The Odyssey, written by Homer, Odysseus can be categorized as a bad leader because he is a bystander to preventable deaths of his crew members and exhibits poor authority amongst his group. Odysseus dismisses the possible danger of death he places his crew members in. Odysseus and his crew debate what to do with their discovering of the cyclops’s goods, “Ah, how sound that was! Yet I refused. I wished to see the cave man, what he had to offer - no pretty sight, it turned out, for my friends” (ln 153-156). Coming across the cyclops 's cave, Odysseus immediately conveys interest in exploring the abode of the one-eyed creature and waiting for him to return. Although his crew offers a
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In the Odyssey “the Sirens” by Homer, Odysseus demonstrates his leadership skills and by devising a plan to hear the Sirens song without being tricked to stay on the island because he wants to keep himself and his men safe. Odysseus says to his men, “Dear friends, more than one man or two, should know those things Circe foresaw for us and shared with me, so let me tell her forecast”(975). Instead of withholding the information from his men, Odysseus tells them their fate. This shows Odysseus, as a leader, decided to tell his men what was going on at this time because he felt he trusted his men to follow the plan and help him. At other times in the story, Odysseus withholds information from his men as another tactic to essentially help them

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However, in the Odyssey, Odysseus makes choices that both his crew and the reader find questionable. Although Odysseus has some positive attributes he is a bad leader for the following reasons he keeps secrets from his crew, he falls asleep at inappropriate times and is arrogant to a fault. Odysseus’s

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It’s a classical moral dilemma: do you lie or keep information from those you care about in order to better their lives, or do you tell them the truth, and risk ruining the relationship or potentially, some aspect of their life. This problem is portrayed in many forms of media, and it’s not always handled the same way. In The Odyssey, the protagonist, Odysseus, is forced to make this decision, with the negative outlook being the death of his crew members. As the leader, Odysseus is the one faced with making such decisions. While he initially has poor leadership skills at the beginning of his journey, Odysseus does have great potential as a leader, and as such, his leadership skills grow over the course of The Odyssey.

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Homer was an ancient Greek writer best known for his book of epic poems The Odyssey. In The Odyssey, Odysseus is the protagonist who is meant to be the hero throughout the story; however, he does not display heroic qualities through his impulsive decisions, he is full of hubris, and displays terrible leadership. Throughout the whole journey, Odysseus makes impulsive decisions by never sticking to one plan. In the beginning, Odysseus and his men are stuck in a cyclops cave.

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Everyone knows the story of what came to be The Odyssey, but most do not realize that Odysseus is not what we call today a "jock with no brains''. The way that he able to "think on his toes" is what helps him become a strong leader. In the Cyclops, Odysseus was able to use his brains and bronze to escape the beastly Cyclops. Odysseus was also stuck with a decision, weather to take the path where they would have to inner come the man sucking, ship destroyer, Charybdis or thee huge-monstrous, Scylla. Odysseus was a strong leader and did everything he could to help his crew, because of the story the Cyclops and the story of The Sirens; Scylla and Charybdis.

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In the Odyssey, Odysseus incited the story. Even though he lost his men in the end, he brought out the most important things in them: never give up. However, besides being a good leader, Odysseus made some bad choices in The Odyssey, and sometimes didn’t look like a good leader. Three areas/incidents where Odysseus was a poor leader was his extreme hubris, at the battle of Troy, and when he encounters Polyphemus. First off, Odysseus threw himself and his crew into bedlam with his hubris.

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In the novel The Odyssey, written by Homer, Odysseus is portrayed as a bad leader because of his selfish decisions and bad character. Odysseus makes a selfish decision when he leads his crew to stay in Polyphemus’s cave thinking he would offer gifts and Odysseus would “accept (his) help, or any gifts/” he had to “give” (9.726-727). This is a selfish act because he is putting his crew in danger for something that would only benefit himself. In the end, many of his people died and no one benefited. Once again, Odysseus displayed selfish acts when Circe told him “ he will be the only survivor of their long journey” (Homer 764).

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A good leader would have taken his men’s concerns into consideration. Odysseus is quick to decide that they should stay even if it meant potential danger. His quick and impractical decision eventually led to death among his men. This shows that he prioritizes himself over his men and is clearly selfish, a quality good leaders should not have. Another part of the adventure where this is portrayed is when Odysseus and his men are on Circe’s island.

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Webster Dictionary defines leadership as simply, “providing direction or guidance,” but to be a successful leader one must focus on completing a goal in a way that is beneficial for the majority, not only the one in charge. This can be achieved by utilitarianism, which is doing of what is best for the most number of people, and carrying out actions that lead to positive effects, instead of merely being done with good intentions. In The Odyssey, Odysseus is not an exemplary leader because he went against utilitarianism by not being honest with his men, letting his arrogance control his behavior, and by killing many people in his house without a fair trial. Firstly, a leader must be truthful with those he works with in order for no errors or confusion to occur as a result of information being hidden. In The Odyssey, not being truthful lead to negative consequences for everyone on Odysseus’ ship, and thus contradicted the principle of utilitarianism stating that actions must lead to positive effects.

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Odysseus, the main character in “The Odyssey,” written by Homer. Odysseus’s character was shown greatly and had many tales of adventure. Odysseus was able to return to his wife at home with the help of the big relationships he made. Leadership, wisdom, and his relationship with athena were some important characteristics Odysseus showed. One of the strong characteristics that Odysseus showed was his leadership.

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In Homer’s The Odyssey, Odysseus repeatedly shows that he is polytropos, for as Zeus says “There is no mortal half so wise”(3). Using his wits, Odysseus gets him and his men out of several sticky situations in the Odyssey, proving his leadership through his actions that save the lives of his crew member. On the other hand Odysseus’ streak of constantly outsmarting challenges, goes to his head, and unfortunately causes Odysseus to develop a hubris. His pride at times makes him arrogant, believing that he always knows best, which leads to the untimely demise of his crew. While Odysseus proves to be good leader by saving his crew from trouble with his wits, he is ultimately a bad leader because he refuses to listen to advice.

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However, examples within the literary narrative of the Odyssey leaves the discussion open with regards to his leadership. Thus, the question of leadership supersedes the topic of Arete. Was Odysseus the ideal leader or did he portray undesirable leadership tendencies? The examples that will presented will illustrate that Odysseus hubris, risk taking prowess, and at times unwillingness to follow instructions often placed his crew in danger as he journeyed Ithaca.

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Dwight Eisenhower once said, "The supreme quality of leadership is integrity." Odysseus displayed a lack of integrity and poor leadership by not fully communicating all the facts of the situation

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Ultimately Odysseus can be a good leader but behind the scenes, he's not. He may of saved his men multiple times, but also got them killed them due to his neglect. He might be intelligent but really he tolerably manipulated his crew by saying things such as “don’t you want to go back to your home again?”. In closing, throughout the whole story, Odysseus progresses himself and designates many Greek

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Throughout the story “The Odyssey” by Homer Odysseus, the main character counters countless amounts of trouble. As king and leader it is his job to keep his men save and get the job done. Odysseus does whatever it takes to keep his men unharmed, and more importantly, alive. All his crew and him dream about is getting back to their homeland, but first they have to pass the obstacles. Odysseus demonstrates good leadership qualities by doing whatever it takes to get the job done, using his advanced cunning abilities to trick his enemy, and constantly saving his crew from dangers.

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