How Effective Is Magellan Doomed To Failure?

People are not all seeing. That is just a fact. No one can look at someone and judge them objectively. When anyone has an impression of anyone else, it is biased, imperfect, judgemental, and overall inaccurate. For that reason, people, especially leaders, must present themselves as best as possible to avoid leaving a bad impression. No matter how talented or “good” one is, their impression is the only thing that matters to a casual observer. For example, the story of Magellan. Magellan was the captain of an expedition to the spice islands. To get past America, he would go south then west across the Atlantic, find a strait to Asia, gather spices, then continue to Spain. Yes, he was attempting to sail across the world. He was an excellent navigator,

Because people are not all seeing, and cannot judge anyone objectively, a leader needs to present himself. Leaders are associated with speeches because that is how leaders can prove themselves to their people. No matter how good a leader is, without leaving a good impression, they are not a good leader in the eyes of the people being led. That is the key to why Magellan was doomed to failure. Magellan showed little understanding of his crewmembers and how each would react to the actions and decisions Magellan made. Two mutinies occurred on the ship. To the first one, Magellan showed mercy. To the second one, which occurred due to people believing that Magellan was “taking [the whole crew] to destruction,” Magellan had the two captains that were the mutiny’s perpetrators killed in horrific ways. The fact that the mutiny was caused due to people believing that Magellan would kill and destroy the whole crew, and was accompanied by Magellan killing and destroying the perpetrators in horrific ways shows that Magellan deeply misunderstood how the crew would react to such violence. While the crewmembers were starving and eating sawdust, Magellan ate delicacies. The fact that Magellan didn’t know that the delicacies prevented scurvy, and thought that the delicacies wouldn’t help does not change anything — Magellan presented himself as a selfish ruler. The fact that Magellan, after the crew of the ship suffered for three months, decided to put the expedition in even more danger by trying to Christianize people in the Philippines shows a deep misunderstanding of how the crew would react. And the unease of the crewmembers spelled Magellan’s death. Few helped Magellan fend off the attack. His lack of leadership skills in such a situation proves that Magellan lacked the necessary skills for being a