Shakespeare's plays illustrate different ways leaders acquire power and the lasting consequences it can have.
True leadership involves inspiring and influencing people, while effectively managing and commanding.
Shakespeare's plays highlight the negative consequences of arrogance and self-deception in leaders, emphasizing the importance of humility and self-awareness.
Deep dives
Main Ideas Overview
The podcast episode explores the dynamics of power in Shakespeare's plays and how they relate to leadership in real life. It discusses the three-part arc of power: acquiring power, exercising power, and losing power. Examples from plays like Henry IV, Macbeth, and Julius Caesar are used to highlight the different aspects of power and leadership. The episode also touches on manipulation, arrogance, and the importance of self-awareness in leadership.
Acquiring Power
Shakespeare's plays, such as Henry IV, highlight the different ways leaders can acquire power, including through inheritance, their own skill and cunning, or through seizing power. It is emphasized that leaders must continually earn their power, even if they inherit it, and that the ways in which power is acquired can have long-lasting consequences.
Exercising Power
The podcast delves into the difference between management and leadership, highlighting that true leadership involves inspiring and influencing people to do things they wouldn't otherwise do or to do them better. It is discussed that effective leaders possess the ability to manage, command, and lead, understanding how to coordinate human activity, provide clear guidance, and motivate others.
Losing Power
Shakespeare's plays present various examples of leaders losing power due to traits like arrogance, naivety, and self-deception. Characters such as Richard II, Julius Caesar, and Duncan illustrate the negative consequences of these flaws, emphasizing the importance of recognizing one's fallibility and not becoming intoxicated by power.
Walking Away from Power
The episode explores the experiences of leaders voluntarily relinquishing power, demonstrating grace, and dignity. Characters like Prospero in The Tempest and historical figures like George Washington are discussed as examples of leaders who understood the necessity of stepping down and finding a sense of contentment and wholeness in doing so.
When people think of the plays of Shakespeare, they tend to think of his comedies and tragedies that spotlight interpersonal dynamics like love and jealousy, pretense and reality. But my guest would say that many of Shakepeare's plays, especially his sometimes overlooked histories, are also unmatchable in revealing the dynamics of power.
Eliot Cohen is a military historian, political scientist, professor of international studies, and former State Department counselor, as well as the author of The Hollow Crown: Shakespeare on How Leaders Rise, Rule, and Fall. Today on the show Eliot takes us through what Shakepeare's plays can teach us about navigating the three-part arc of power: acquiring power, exercising power, and losing power. Along the way, we discuss how these lessons in leadership played out in the lives of real-life historical figures as well.