Author Description

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