Leadership Blueprint
"Take the blueprint of leadership that history has given us to be
better leaders in our own time.
I have always been one who is fascinated by differing cultures. In the summer before I began my freshman year at the University of Cincinnati, I took a trip to Ireland by myself. My idea was that I was going to take an “adventure” and learn more about myself along the way. I did not anticipate the culture to be different, just the accents. To my surprise, the two things I learned was that every country, town, or group of individuals have very different cultures and that I was passionate about learning and analyzing these cultures and how they differed from my own. While in Ireland, I had the fortune of meeting many Irish citizens, city folk and farmers, and others from Germany, Brazil, France, and Italy, to whom I stay in contact with today. This trip sparked my interest in global studies and since then I have visited Canada, Peru, and Brazil.
Another one of my passions is “continuous improvement” and I try to implement this through my studies and experiential experiences. A common form of this is constantly developing and evolving my leadership style. This past Spring, I took a management class out of the Lindner College of Business that focused on organizational leadership styles. This class allowed me to expand my knowledge on how influences impact those around them, both positively and negatively. I found this topic to be riveting and looked for examples in my past and those whom I deem mentors to begin to form a list of best practices and situational resolutions. This soon formed into a conscious way of thought, always looking for new ideas, perspectives, and styles of leadership in hopes to become the best servant leader I can be to my peers.
While focusing on more current leadership styles in class and on my own, I began to realize that these principals and theories must have derived from past experiences, ones that I was not aware of. While I had taken history classes in high school, it was not a subject that I ever was invested in. However, the idea of expanding my leadership knowledge further by learning from leaders from the past made sense, so I began to think of ways to do so. Also, by using the knowledge I had learned from management class, I knew I could share what I had learned with others in a relevant manner.
While focusing on more current leadership styles in class and on my own, I began to realize that these principals and theories must have derived from past experiences, ones that I was not aware of. While I had taken history classes in high school, it was not a subject that I ever was invested in. However, the idea of expanding my leadership knowledge further by learning from leaders from the past made sense, so I began to think of ways to do so. Also, by using the knowledge I had learned from management class, I knew I could share what I had learned with others in a relevant manner.
When I think of countries that have achieved great feats and helped shaped organizational culture, I immediately thought of Italy. Italy, like the United States, has a large range of differing cultures in cities hours apart from one another. Due to the amount of historical Italian leaders and the ability to easily experience a range of cultures in one trip, I decided this country would be best to conduct my research. By learning about the past leadership styles prior to visiting, I can able to apply what I have learned and see how the culture has shaped and how these leaders influence lead Italy to what it is today.
"Lead with POWER, not force."
Lessons Learned from Leaders
I believe that history is extremely valuable to leadership development. From this project alone, I was able to reflect and implement the following lessons to my own leadership style. I was able to share these at the Honors Expo and my Lindner Honors-PLUS class.
- Have grit - the essential resolve to see something through once one's mind has been set upon an action or an outcome.
This philosophy focuses on accountability - not only to a group or team, but to one's own goals and ambitions as well. It is important to set personal goals and treat them with the same respect and diligence that external goals require.
- Be a polymath - show interest in everything.
A good leader cares about what they are involved in, but a great leader cares and is curious about things outside their direct responsibilities. This creates an environment for better collaboration and allows the team to make a greater impact on their customers, organization, and mission overall.
- Co-opt power - power is centered around the individual, but through alliances, the power of others can be co-opted.
It is important to realize one's strengths and weaknesses and seek out other experts to account for these shortfalls. By owning up to one's scope of expertise, they can create a strong team that they can rely on and produce greater results.
- Defy assumptions - stand out from the rest and challenge the norm.
In order to make their mark, leaders need to make an impression on the group they are serving. Impressions are not made by fulfilling the expectations the group has for them, but defying them and going above and beyond in their role. In order to do so, one must be creative, believe in themselves, and make a difference.
- Have grit - the essential resolve to see something through once one's mind has been set upon an action or an outcome.
This philosophy focuses on accountability - not only to a group or team, but to one's own goals and ambitions as well. It is important to set personal goals and treat them with the same respect and diligence that external goals require.
- Be a polymath - show interest in everything.
A good leader cares about what they are involved in, but a great leader cares and is curious about things outside their direct responsibilities. This creates an environment for better collaboration and allows the team to make a greater impact on their customers, organization, and mission overall.
- Co-opt power - power is centered around the individual, but through alliances, the power of others can be co-opted.
It is important to realize one's strengths and weaknesses and seek out other experts to account for these shortfalls. By owning up to one's scope of expertise, they can create a strong team that they can rely on and produce greater results.
- Defy assumptions - stand out from the rest and challenge the norm.
In order to make their mark, leaders need to make an impression on the group they are serving. Impressions are not made by fulfilling the expectations the group has for them, but defying them and going above and beyond in their role. In order to do so, one must be creative, believe in themselves, and make a difference.
"In some ways, you could say that Julius
Caesar invented modern leadership."
Little Moments Cause Great Impact
Out of the resources I studied in preparation for my trip to Italy, The Leadership Genius of Julius Caesar was the most impactful. Author Phillip Barlag related every story back to a lesson and applied it back to a modern day situation, with a focus on business. I often find myself noticing that the more serious a situation becomes or the need for leader to step up occurs, the less words I often use. I find that if a lecture is cut down into a phrase or a concept, the greater weight it will hold. I pride myself on my ability to craft an message that causes reflection and understanding organically.
The passage below was the best explanation of the great impact that little moments can spark.
The passage below was the best explanation of the great impact that little moments can spark.
"It was 47 BC. Julius Caesar stood before his army, the most powerful that Rome had ever assembled. For fifteen years they had marched through Europe, fighting Germans, Gauls, and even other reneged Roman armies. They had crossed the English Channel to become the first Romans to encounter the mystical and terrifying inland to the north. They had followed their commander to the ends of the earth, defeated every enemy, and stared down death. Now they were back on the Italian peninsula and in open revolt.
The time had come to call due all of Caesar’s promises: back pay, land to farm, an end to endless campaigning, and no more fighting other Romans. They were the incentives he had used to keep his army motivated. But conquest after conquest came and went, and they were always just one more victory away. Enough was enough.
At first the army simply refused to march on. They inaction turned to discontent, and resentment boiled over into fury. The deadliest army in the world cut itself loose from its moorings, angry an leaderless, and whipped itself into a frenzy. Thousands of soldiers form the most elite fighting unit in the world history rose up. Instead of fighting foreign enemies, the army ravaged its own. They began turning against the citizens they were sworn to protect and against their commander.
It didn’t happen all at once; the mood of the army had grown sour steadily over some time. During most of this insurgency, Caesar wasn’t with his men, however. He was in Egypt floating down the Nile on a pleasure cruise with the changing queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. While taking his ill-timed vacation, Caesar had turned over command of his army camped in Italy to his lieutenant, Marc Antony, who lacked Caesar’s charism and leadership skill. It did not take Mar Antony long to lose control, and with Caesar in Egypt, Antony failed to stem the tide of sinking morale.
Once Caesar learned of the critical situation back home, he wasted no time returning to Italy to confront his troops. Without pausing to gather bodyguards or take any precautions for his personal safety, he marched straight to the front of his troops and quietly and confidently took the podium. If he was anxious as he faced his army, he didn’t show it. Standing before thousands of trained killers who in the last days and weeks and savaged the surrounding area, he remained calm and stone-silent. He stood at the head of his army until all of his troops feel into quiet respect for their commanding officer. Before he had even spoken a word, he had leveled the playing field.
Caesar utter one simple word. Then he fell silent, letting his single utterance permeate the air. At first the soldiers were confused. Was he only going to say just one word to address their grievances? And then the weight of the word sank in.
“Citizens.”
Caesar didn’t use force, brining in other troops to suppress the revolt. He didn’t threaten violence or use intimidation to take back control. No, Caesar used his power to intrinsically motivate his army. He tapped into the collective psyche of his army and found a way to remind them that they wanted to stay in his good graces. He didn’t tell them to stop their revolt; he gave them the necessary information to allow them to choose for themselves, a much more sustainable and authentic decision.
With that one word, the revolt was over. But what was so magical about it? How could any leader have so much authority, so much gravitas, that he could break the murderous resolve of a treasonous army with such little effort?
We will explore the extent of Caesar’s leadership power in a moment, but this little footnote from more than two thousand years ago points to something often missed in looking back in history. We neglect – to our detriment – the leadership lessons that history affords us. Caesar was a transformative figure in history. He was, and still is, truly largely that life. But lost in the fantastic stories of the extraordinary man Is the very real, relevant set of lessons that he offers leader today. With Caesar, we find many layers of relevance and insight. His subtle and brilliant leadership mastery still matters now, to anyone seeking to lead an organization, a team, or a change management agenda.
Back to Caesar’s deafening single word. It was disarmingly simple. It took a moment for gravity of this word to sink in, and its impact cannot be understood without some brief context.
Caesar was a member of the Julii family, one of Rome’s most ancient and revered linages, which traced its ancestry all the way to the goddess Venus herself. To be a Julii was to have been literally descended from the gods. As head-scratching as that may seem to us today, Caesar’s troops believed it, and whether Caesar believed it or not, he sure went out of his way to remind people of his divine origins.
But despite his godly linage, Caesar had long projected an impact to his troops as a common man. He marched beside them. He ate with them in the mess hall and shared many of their hardships. The contrast between how he acted and how he would have been expected to act was not lost on his troops; they loved him for it. To signify the close bond, Caesar called his men comrades – a much more powerful term than citizens. Outside of the army camps, class and family linage mattered, but when they were responsible for each other’s lives, Caesar – unique among the leaders of his time – and his soldiers were equals. His choice of the word comrade was deliberate. It engendered loyalty.
When confronted with the rebellion of the army, Caesar’s use of the word citizens told his men that they were no longer his army. Caesar was saying, “You’re not my soldiers anymore. You don’t belong in my army. I don’t need you. You are average Roman citizens.” When the troops came to realize what he had said, they were devastated. Gone was the bond forged over fifteen years of fighting together. Gone was their shared destiny. And – perhaps most important – gone was their equality. With one word, Caesar had asserted his social, polecat, and moral authority. He had evoked the Roman class system and reminded them of the contrast between himself and them.
For the men of Caesar’s army, the weight of this authority coming down on them at once was crushing. It broke their resolve. The army began to cry out, begging for forgiveness. They couldn’t bear the through of losing their special status as comrades with Caesar, descendant of the exalted goddess Venus.
When his men cried out, Caesar ratcheted up the pressure. They could have all their banal demands. He would get a new army – one that he would anoint with his linage. He would finish the civil wars and bring peace to Rome, and that army was the one that would be steeped in glory, honor, wealth, and prestige.
The revolt crumbled into dust; it was dead, done in by the power of one word. The army begged to be forging and returned to their privileged status. They begged to be punished and to get back to work.
At first, Caesar pretended to be indifferent to their cries. Eventually he “allowed” himself to be persuaded. One more campaign together, he vowed, and then they would have all that they and been promised and more: land, money, and glory – and, most important, they could retire as his veterans, his favorites, his comrades. And so promised, so done. Shortly after, they sailed for North Africa and crushed the last significant opposition in the civil war. Caesar was now the undisputed and sole ruler of Rome."
Passage from The Leadership Genius of Julius Caesar: Modern Lessons from the Man Who Built an Empire by Phillip Barlag
The time had come to call due all of Caesar’s promises: back pay, land to farm, an end to endless campaigning, and no more fighting other Romans. They were the incentives he had used to keep his army motivated. But conquest after conquest came and went, and they were always just one more victory away. Enough was enough.
At first the army simply refused to march on. They inaction turned to discontent, and resentment boiled over into fury. The deadliest army in the world cut itself loose from its moorings, angry an leaderless, and whipped itself into a frenzy. Thousands of soldiers form the most elite fighting unit in the world history rose up. Instead of fighting foreign enemies, the army ravaged its own. They began turning against the citizens they were sworn to protect and against their commander.
It didn’t happen all at once; the mood of the army had grown sour steadily over some time. During most of this insurgency, Caesar wasn’t with his men, however. He was in Egypt floating down the Nile on a pleasure cruise with the changing queen of Egypt, Cleopatra. While taking his ill-timed vacation, Caesar had turned over command of his army camped in Italy to his lieutenant, Marc Antony, who lacked Caesar’s charism and leadership skill. It did not take Mar Antony long to lose control, and with Caesar in Egypt, Antony failed to stem the tide of sinking morale.
Once Caesar learned of the critical situation back home, he wasted no time returning to Italy to confront his troops. Without pausing to gather bodyguards or take any precautions for his personal safety, he marched straight to the front of his troops and quietly and confidently took the podium. If he was anxious as he faced his army, he didn’t show it. Standing before thousands of trained killers who in the last days and weeks and savaged the surrounding area, he remained calm and stone-silent. He stood at the head of his army until all of his troops feel into quiet respect for their commanding officer. Before he had even spoken a word, he had leveled the playing field.
Caesar utter one simple word. Then he fell silent, letting his single utterance permeate the air. At first the soldiers were confused. Was he only going to say just one word to address their grievances? And then the weight of the word sank in.
“Citizens.”
Caesar didn’t use force, brining in other troops to suppress the revolt. He didn’t threaten violence or use intimidation to take back control. No, Caesar used his power to intrinsically motivate his army. He tapped into the collective psyche of his army and found a way to remind them that they wanted to stay in his good graces. He didn’t tell them to stop their revolt; he gave them the necessary information to allow them to choose for themselves, a much more sustainable and authentic decision.
With that one word, the revolt was over. But what was so magical about it? How could any leader have so much authority, so much gravitas, that he could break the murderous resolve of a treasonous army with such little effort?
We will explore the extent of Caesar’s leadership power in a moment, but this little footnote from more than two thousand years ago points to something often missed in looking back in history. We neglect – to our detriment – the leadership lessons that history affords us. Caesar was a transformative figure in history. He was, and still is, truly largely that life. But lost in the fantastic stories of the extraordinary man Is the very real, relevant set of lessons that he offers leader today. With Caesar, we find many layers of relevance and insight. His subtle and brilliant leadership mastery still matters now, to anyone seeking to lead an organization, a team, or a change management agenda.
Back to Caesar’s deafening single word. It was disarmingly simple. It took a moment for gravity of this word to sink in, and its impact cannot be understood without some brief context.
Caesar was a member of the Julii family, one of Rome’s most ancient and revered linages, which traced its ancestry all the way to the goddess Venus herself. To be a Julii was to have been literally descended from the gods. As head-scratching as that may seem to us today, Caesar’s troops believed it, and whether Caesar believed it or not, he sure went out of his way to remind people of his divine origins.
But despite his godly linage, Caesar had long projected an impact to his troops as a common man. He marched beside them. He ate with them in the mess hall and shared many of their hardships. The contrast between how he acted and how he would have been expected to act was not lost on his troops; they loved him for it. To signify the close bond, Caesar called his men comrades – a much more powerful term than citizens. Outside of the army camps, class and family linage mattered, but when they were responsible for each other’s lives, Caesar – unique among the leaders of his time – and his soldiers were equals. His choice of the word comrade was deliberate. It engendered loyalty.
When confronted with the rebellion of the army, Caesar’s use of the word citizens told his men that they were no longer his army. Caesar was saying, “You’re not my soldiers anymore. You don’t belong in my army. I don’t need you. You are average Roman citizens.” When the troops came to realize what he had said, they were devastated. Gone was the bond forged over fifteen years of fighting together. Gone was their shared destiny. And – perhaps most important – gone was their equality. With one word, Caesar had asserted his social, polecat, and moral authority. He had evoked the Roman class system and reminded them of the contrast between himself and them.
For the men of Caesar’s army, the weight of this authority coming down on them at once was crushing. It broke their resolve. The army began to cry out, begging for forgiveness. They couldn’t bear the through of losing their special status as comrades with Caesar, descendant of the exalted goddess Venus.
When his men cried out, Caesar ratcheted up the pressure. They could have all their banal demands. He would get a new army – one that he would anoint with his linage. He would finish the civil wars and bring peace to Rome, and that army was the one that would be steeped in glory, honor, wealth, and prestige.
The revolt crumbled into dust; it was dead, done in by the power of one word. The army begged to be forging and returned to their privileged status. They begged to be punished and to get back to work.
At first, Caesar pretended to be indifferent to their cries. Eventually he “allowed” himself to be persuaded. One more campaign together, he vowed, and then they would have all that they and been promised and more: land, money, and glory – and, most important, they could retire as his veterans, his favorites, his comrades. And so promised, so done. Shortly after, they sailed for North Africa and crushed the last significant opposition in the civil war. Caesar was now the undisputed and sole ruler of Rome."
Passage from The Leadership Genius of Julius Caesar: Modern Lessons from the Man Who Built an Empire by Phillip Barlag