5 Leadership Lessons From Xenophon’s Persian Expedition
OR what to do when stuck in hostile territory and they kill all your bosses
Note: Part 2 of my series on technology and religion will continue next week. For now, here is my book of the year and 5 things we can learn about leadership from it:
Easily the best book I’ve read all year, Xenophon's Anabasis or The March Up Country or The Persian Expedition (the book goes by several names when translated) deserves to be an HBO series.
Betrayed, defeated, and lost in hostile territory, a young man takes charge of 10,000 Hoplite warriors after all their generals are murdered, and leads them home to Greece.
Here are 5 things any leader can learn from the 30 year-old civilian-turned-general:
1. Any army or venture needs safety, then rations, then pay.
Caught in the middle of the Persian Empire on the losing side of a civil war, Ten Thousand veterans put their trust in Xenophon because he made getting as many of the soldiers home safely as he could his main priority.
While the men went as soldiers of fortune, they all knew that money was no good if they weren’t alive to spend it. So one of the first things they did was ditch their loot. As the Persian army wasn’t about to let them march home unmolested, they called it “making the enemy carry it for them” since they’d eventually win it back.
What money they kept went to food, with their first request upon coming to any town or city being that a market be set up for them to trade for rations.
It’s only when home starts to seem like a reachable destination again do the troops begin griping about missed pay and lack of treasure. Another funny thing that comes with this shift is how the head honcho also shifts in their eyes.
2. Pay little attention to praise or blame.
When things are bad, the army follows whoever takes charge. But when things get better, bad decisions get blamed on the leader.
The night their generals were murdered by the Persian King, Xenophon is unanimously picked as the new leader of the Ten Thousand on the basis that he gave a good speech and had a dream which he interpreted to mean that Zeus wanted him to do the job.
The ancient version of “make me CEO because I talk good and because God said you should.”
It turned out to be the best dumb decision the army could have made. Xenophon was so good as a general that they told him on several occasions that he was the father of the army.
That’s right, hardened veterans, some older than Xenophon by a decade or more, calling him “daddy.”
But as soon as they’re out of danger, the court martial starts. Several grunts accuse Xenophon of striking them while they were crossing the frozen wasteland and men were dropping like icicles.
Turns out, a slap in the face was the only way to get their butts out of the snow and forego the long nap. And the thanks Xenophon gets for saving their worthless frost-bitten lives? They sue him.
One fellow even had the audacity to accuse Xenophon of unjustly striking him after he was charged with staying behind to care for a sick man and the general caught him burying his patient alive.
This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t take the lead if Zeus tells you to, just don’t expect the gratitude, or condemnation, of your team to last very long.
3. Don’t enlist until you really know what the fighting’s about
The 10,000 Greeks originally thought they were fighting Persia's enemies, not helping Cyrus usurp his brother's throne.
It wasn’t until there were deep in enemy territory that the army realized they wouldn’t be putting down some local tribes, but fighting over half the Persian army to put a prince in power.
Similarly, in the opening days of the war in Ukraine, many Russian soldiers had no idea they were invading but were tricked into it thinking it was a rehearsal.
Bottom line: leaders will say almost anything to get you to sacrifice blood, sweat, and tears for them. It’s up to you to make sure you’re okay with the reasons you joined, and to get yourself out of there and home safely when things aren’t what they seem.
Sure, we all want to make history, but usually not for the wrong reasons.
Speaking of things people say that they don’t mean…
4. People will promise anything when they need you and "forget" after you deliver.
When the Thracian king Seuthes II was but a bandit leader in need of an army, he held banquets for Xenophon and offered him cities and titles.
As the king’s lands and forces grew, he stopped mentioning rewards altogether and even tried to skip out on the bill.
5. Nothing is set in steel.
Abandoned by their allies, the Greeks are stuck with neither ranged infantry nor cavalry. So Xenophon gets the heavily-armed Hoplites in his army who grew up riding horses or slinging stones to change jobs.
Had Xenophon not been so resourceful, they would have been picked off and run down by Persian cavalry before their march seriously got underway.
Above all else, this resourcefulness is what saw Xenophon, and his troops, across 3,000 miles of treacherous terrain back to Greece. It would not be their last campaign, but it was the one that left the deepest imprint in history.
If you have yet to crack open the Anabasis, I envy you. For the journey you’re about to take with the Ten Thousand is an incredible one. And there’s no better guide to lead you than the inspiring observer-turned-commander, Xenophon.
Another great history lesson; I wish my high school history teachers were as enlightening as you.