Leadership may be defined as the ability of developing a vision and focusing one’s energy towards attainment of the vision. It also includes influencing other people to the vision. This requires the leader to be intelligent and convincing so that he can effectively persuade his followers to the intended vision. The leader must command respect of the people he leads and also respect them in equal measure.
There are people who are born leaders but not everybody is destined to be a follower. Leadership is a trait that can be learned with age and experience. Leadership is associated with different qualities including communication and interpersonal skills, problem solving skills, analytical skills and creativity. These traits will help the leader courageously face and surmount any challenges that he or she could experience.
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"Is Odysseus a Good Leader".
One instance of leadership is his wishes to go home. He sets his sights on Ithaca and focuses his energies on going home. He is not distracted by anything and he even rejects marriage in order to achieve his goal. His leadership can be seen in his persistence and desire and determination to reach home irrespective of the challenges that he would face (Nelson, 2008). A leader should be focused as Odysseus was focused in this scene.
The other instance of Odysseus’ leadership can be seen when he escapes from the Polyphemus’s cave. Such an escape was not easy based on the circumstances. This escape shows how Odysseus is strategic and analytic in his approach to leadership. This allowed him to record victory against the giant. The strategic approach makes him surmount the challenge that was ahead of him. Odysseus did not resign to fate but was courageous in this challenge (Nelson, 2008). This shows the manner in which he owned the vision and worked his way to achieving it.
- Nelson, M. (2008). Odysseus and Aeneas: A classical perspective on leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 19(4), 469-477. doi: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2008.05.010
