Why Odysseus is a Good Leader

Odysseus is an effective leader by the way he positively motivates, delegates, and innovates his men but struggles a little bit on communication.

Odysseus demonstrates effective delegation in the task he gives to his men. When Odysseus and his men come across an island and decided to set sail there and explore this new land. “Then I sent out two picked men and a runner/ to learn what race of men that land sustained”. This demonstrates Odysseus effective leadership skills by not let one man do it by himself. Instead Odysseus has each of the men have separate job so they can all stay safe and also explore this new uncharted land.

Odysseus demonstrates effective leadership through his innovation of resources. Odysseus and his men were warned about the struggles they were about to go through all had to do was pass the obstacles that lay ahead. “I carved/ a massive cake of beeswax into bits/ and rolled them in my hands until they softened”. This shows great leadership and innovation because one obstacle they had to get through was Sirens. To get past them they had to cover their ears in order to not go crazy. Odysseus gave each of the men beeswax so they would be safe from the Sirens.

Odysseus demonstrates ineffective leadership skills by the way he poorly communicates to others. When Odysseus receives two bags from Aeolus he fails to inform his men on what is in the bag. “Odysseus is sleeping, the men open the bag, thinking it contains gold and silver. The bad winds thus escape and blow the ships back”. This shows poor communication of Odysseus part by if he told them what was in the bag they might have been able to go home early. Even though it set him and his men back a couple of days they still get through it persevere through their long journey.

Odysseus demonstrates the ability to be an effective leader by the way he motivates his men. When Odysseus men are scared to go into a new land he starts talking to them and says, “Friends,/ have we never been in danger before this?”. Odysseus is showing great motivation here because he knows his men are the best. They just don’t know how strong they are so he tells them they are strong and they have been through worse so they can push through it again and go home afterwards.

This is why I think a Odysseus is an effective leader by the way he motivates, delegates, and innovates him men.