Xenophon's Anabasis: Lessons in Leadership - Fresh Perspective on Military Leadership By Reevaluating Classic Literature, Adventure and Survival Expedition of Disparate Greek Mercenaries

This excellent report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. The purpose of this study is, paradoxically, to provide a fresh perspective on leadership, particularly military leadership, by returning to a piece of classic literature. It is not about defining leadership, or presenting an argument in defense of one leadership theory or another. It is about analyzing, from the classical historian's as well as the professional soldier's perspective, one of the greatest examples of leadership in written history - Xenophon's Anabasis. This study will extract, from Xenophon's work, a wide range of the characteristics and principles of leadership, as well as discuss concrete examples of their use. Some of the principles and characteristics presented will no doubt be familiar, such as leading by example, building morale, and instilling discipline. Others, such as consensus decision making, piety, and brutality, might be viewed as more controversial. All the principles, however, from balancing contradictions to gathering information, share one significant and inescapable truth - one man, using the principles laid out in the pages that follow, facing inhospitable terrain and weather, supply and food shortages, internal dissent, and external hostility, successfully led ten thousand disparate Greek mercenaries on one of the greatest adventures and survival expeditions in written history.

This compilation includes a reproduction of the 2019 Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community.

I. Introduction * A. On Leadership * B. The Perennial Problem Of Leadership * C. Revisiting A Classic * II. Xenophon And The March Of The Ten Thousand * A. Anabasis * B. Katabasis * C. Parabasis * III. Modeling Behavior * A. Leading From The Front * B. Shared Suffering * C. The Encomium Of Cyrus The Younger * IV. Discipline * A. Unity Of Effort * B. Loyalty And Trust * C. Reward And Punishment * V. Decision Making * A. Gathering Information * B. Participatory Approval * C. Command Decisions * VI. Morale * A. Instilling Confidence * B. Care Of One's Followers * C. The Importance Of Competition * VII. Adaptability * A. Anticipating Threats * B. Innovation And Creativity * C. Learning From Mistakes * VIII. The Ethics Of Xenophon * A. Unspoken Obligations - The Social Contract * B. Utilitarianism * C. Piety And Traditional Values * IX. Balancing Contradictions * A. Empowerment And Micro-Management * B. Command And Friendship * C. Humanity And Brutality * X. Conclusion

Leadership is the subject of constant debate and study. In just one year, over twelve hundred books with the word 'leadership' in the title were published. As a society, our fascination with the concept of leadership is indicative of its importance, as well as indicative of our inability to grasp exactly what it is and how to execute it. There are no checklists or easy solutions. Understanding the concept that leadership requires willing individual followers is the first step. A leader must be able to satisfy the expectations of each follower, while at the same time fulfilling the needs of the group as a whole. In an attempt to define leadership and create leaders, theories have spanned the gamut, from trait to behavioral, transactional to transformational, procedural to relational, and participative to situational. Peter Drucker, however, may have put it best when he wrote, "Leadership is the lifting of a man's vision to higher sights, the raising of a man's performance to a higher standard, the building of a man's personality beyond its normal limitations." Leadership is the ability to mobilize a following towards a common goal. Leadership transforms potential energy into kinetic energy. It creates the deliverable.