Leadership Lessons From Beowulf and Oedipus

Leadership can be defined as the ability of a superior to influence the behavior of a minor or group and persuade them to follow a particular course of action. A leader sets a course of action and ensures that everyone follows the action. Leading can apply to leading oneself, other individuals, groups, organizations and societies. The nature of how leading is done depends on the framework of the situation, one's point of view, and on the nature and needs of those involved. While leadership is learned, the skills and knowledge processed by the leader are influenced by their traits, such as beliefs, values, ethics, and most importantly character. Knowledge and skills directly relate to the process of leadership, while the other qualities give the leader certain characteristics that make them unique. Leaders can come from anyone in society today. They can merely come from a neighborhood kid picking up trash around the neighborhood to the hardship of being a cop on a high-speed chase. Most importantly leaders can either be well-known or barely known. They all exemplify the same characteristics. The role of leadership is greatly portrayed in all three stories of Beowulf, Oedipus the King, and Antigone.

Beowulf is a poem that was written in the Anglo-Saxon language that tells of Beowulf, a Geatish hero who fights the monster of Grendel, Grendel's mother, and even a fire-breathing dragon. Beowulf fights with determination and follows the way of his predecessors by only fighting with his bare hands. As a young man, Beowulf is a strong warrior, but as he grows up he turns into a wise and noble leader. Throughout the story, Beowulf greatly personifies lessons of leadership. From the character of Beowulf, one can learn to fight for honor ...

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...fe to kill herself as soon as she found out the news. During this entire saga, Creon was the leader off the town of Thebes because he was the closest relative to Oedipus. Creon shows the leadership lesson of not leading by fear. This can be explained as a leader should lead with the thoughts of his people and not just lead as a tyrant and have your people afraid. Throughout the story, Creon does not know the feelings of his people. No one in the town had enough guts to go and tell Creon how they felt. This caused Creon to ultimately drive his town down to shame. In society today, this is prevalent in North Korea. A tyrant that everyone is afraid of runs North Korea. Everyone that is stuck inside the borders of North Korea is too afraid to stand up and fight against the evil tyrant. The leader of North Korea would be much better off having insight from his citizens.