Xenophon's Cyrus the Great: The Arts of Leadership and War

I picked this book up because I didn’t know anything about the Persians and heard this guy Cyrus founded that particular empire, so seemed like a reasonable place to start. Then on the cover I noticed that Drucker had called it the best book on leadership ever written. He would know, but how was a three thousand year old book about someone I’ve never heard of leading a people I vaguely believed to be in or around Iran be the best book on leadership ever written?

Well, it’s a straightforward retelling of how the junior partner in a defensive battle went on to grow an army that conquered and created the largest empire in the world. And he did it through thoughtful planning, relentless intelligence gathering, constant preparation, and a servant approach to leadership.

The book has two moments where it makes the leap into greatness. When Syazarees confronts the victorious Cyrus, calling out our hero for selfishly usurping his glory and failing to pay attention to his feelings. It gets real. Up to that point, Cyrus hadn’t really made a mistake and Syazarees (the nominal senior partner) seems like a bit of a dunce. And then here is this king, Syazarees, bearing heart to Cyrus - you can feel the emotion pouring off the page.

And what does Cyrus do with this failure? This man of action pauses, reflects, and acknowledges this failing. He makes amends and publicly restores Syazarees to his proper position. He realizes that, though his machinations had brought him success to date, he had made an enemy of an ally and more importantly had hurt someone who could have been a friend. And you get the sense Cyrus let his guard come down, stops thinking of his campaign to conquer Babylon, and focuses only of the man before him and more importantly that man’s feelings. It’s a remarkable few paragraphs that changes how you view Cyrus and what makes him successful and what leadership is all about, anyway. And at the end of that paragraph, it was pretty clear to me that Drucker was absolutely right.

The second moment comes as Cyrus lays dying. He reflects on his life, scattered moments and people leap to the front. He reflects on individuals and their sacrifices and what they have given to his life. He looks at his son and sees in the structure of his face the outlines of his wife’s fathers face and thinks of the role that long dead relation had in his own life. It’s a remarkable and somewhat unfiltered few pages that has a distinctly less structured feeling. But with that structure less flow, the author lets us see who this man really is, who has done so much. To what do his thoughts turn in his final moments? Battles? victories? Achievements? No, his family, those who have done him kindnesses, those who gave their lives to his cause and whether he did right by them, the peace and stability of the empire, the mourners that will come to see him once he is dead and what can be said to alleviate their anguish.

Xenophon has created in this depiction of Cyrus a kind, wise, inspirational and yet human vision of the good leader.

Five stars!