Martin Luther King Jr. a famous civil rights leader who pushed for the equality of races, has said that “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”. The importance of leadership from this is that a good leader is not determined by when he is comfortable, but in the decisions he makes when everybody is relying on him. An effective leader doesn’t have to be a perfect person, he just has to make his people trust him and do whatever he can in his power to help his followers. A good leader cares about his followers , makes decisions that are to the benefit of his followers, and is trusted by his followers.
Odysseus is a famous literary leader who is the main character of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. In Homer’s Odyssey he is the King of Ithaca, a greek city state. He is also a famous warrior who is a hero in the Trojan War. He is married and has a son on Ithaca. He loves his family and home very much. He is
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Odysseus does not display this trait when after his heroic escape from the cyclops Polyphemus his men are on the water, a distance away from the island, Odysseus exclaims, “Cyclops, if ever mortal man inquire how you were put to shame and blinded, tell him Odysseus, raider of cities, took your eye: Laertes’ son, whose home’s on Ithaca!”. By showing has pride at having beaten the cyclops, Odysseus demonstrates the quality of horrible decision making. After he tells the Cyclops who he is, where he is from, and who his father is, the cyclops prays to his dad Poseidon, the god of the sea. Poseidon is the one who punishes Odysseus for this, making the journey back to Ithaca dangerous for him and his crew. Odysseus fails horribly at this quality of leadership because the decision he makes with the Cyclops is one of pride, not one of concern for the well-being of his