Would you want to be led by a Stoic?
How do Stoic principles influence the way we lead others?
These are a couple of the questions discussed in my recent conversation with
(author of How to Think Like a Roman Emperor). One of the most well-known principles in Stoicism is the dichotomy of control. In the opening passage of the Enchiridion, Epictetus explains,Some things are up to us, while others are not. Up to us are our faculties of judgment, motivation, desire, and aversion—in short, everything that is our own doing. Not up to us are our body and property, our reputations, and our official positions—in short, everything that is not our own doing. Moreover, the things up to us are naturally free, unimpeded, and unconstrained, while the things not up to us are powerless, servile, impeded, and not our own.
But how should we define (or think about) leadership?
Does focusing on what is up to us align with leading others?
Many leadership experts stress the importance of influencing others to lead effectively. For example, the writer John C. Maxwell defines leadership as “influence, influence, and influence.”
In my conversation with Donald Robertson, I asked how we should think about the dichotomy of control and leadership influence. Here’s a short clip from the conversation on How to Lead — Like a Stoic:
Another critical aspect discussed in the conversation is how we think about virtue and vice. As Donald explained, the Stoics followed Socrates in the idea that virtue was knowledge and vice—ignorance. When people do right, it stems from virtue, and when they go wrong from ignorance and false beliefs.
“No one knowingly does evil.” — Socrates
In our last meetup for Reading & the Good Life, we discussed this well-known passage from Meditations, “At the start of the day, tell yourself: I shall meet people who are officious, ungrateful, abusive, treacherous, malicious, and selfish. In every case, they’ve got like this because of their ignorance of good and bad.”
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