Great Books Ep 115. Herodotus - The History - Book 6 (Erato). Even the Best Leadership Fails Without a Committed Team
When a team says slavery is better than hardship, the leadership either pushed them too hard or did not do enough to convince the people of the existential threat
“Our affairs hang on the razor’s edge, men of Ionia, either to be free or to be slaves; and slaves, too, who have shown themselves runaways. Now then you have to choose whether you will endure hardships, and so for the present lead a life of toil, but thereby gain ability to overcome your enemies and establish your own freedom”
~ ‘The History’ (Book 6) by Herodotus (George Rawlinson transl. GB6 - p. 187)
I started reading this chapter (Book 6) in December and only completed it in Jan. So many things (personal) happened in between that the chapter felt so long. If I think back on the events in the chapter, there are so many things to think about - not only about wars and their aftermath, but also about dreams (Hippias), double-crossing (Histiaeus), sharpness (Artaphernes), marathon run (Pheidippides), leadership failure (Dionysius), leadership success (Miltiades), hubris (Miltiades), losing a fortune by dancing (Hippoclides), etc.
The quote above is from Dionysius of Phocaea, who was the commander of the Greeks at Lade, an island near the famous city of Miletus. The fall of Miletus was a significant milestone and was really felt by the Greeks even later. The trauma was so deep that years later, when a poet staged a play titled The Capture of Miletus in Athens, the entire audience burst into tears. The playwright was fined 1,000 drachmas for this!
Since defending Miletus was so important (it was the epicenter of Ionian revolt), a large fleet of Greek sailors was at Lade, hoping to stop the Persians. Dionysius looked at his forces and saw the brutal facts: they were outnumbered, and worse, undisciplined. He gave a passionate speech about their lives being at stake and that they need to work hard to prepare to fight the formidable Persians; otherwise, they would be slaves. Everyone agreed, and Dionysius put them on a grueling training schedule. But people got tired (or burnt out) after seven days, and they refused to train further, saying that slavery was better than the hardship of training -
“even the slavery with which we are threatened, however harsh, can be no worse than our present thraldom”.
They went back to their ‘slothfulness and disorder’. Key groups in the fleet, like people from Samos and Lesbos, abandoned them and left. So when the Persians reached Lade, they easily defeated the Greek fleet. The sack of Miletus happened soon after this. The Persians breached the walls, sacked the city, and burned the Great Temple of Apollo to the ground.
If you think of it, Dionysius did everything right by the book, but failed. He correctly identified the critical issues, had the vision of how to set things right and also rallied his people behind him, yet he still did not succeed. If I compare this to the battle at Marathon, where the Greeks (Athenians) won, the big difference could be that, though Miltiades was the leader, he had other strong generals with him. Though history gives a lot of credit to charismatic leaders, in most cases, leadership succeeds because there is a set of strong leaders on whom the main leader depends. Effective leadership needs more than just inspiration; it requires sustainable processes and a leadership structure. There are many examples of a new CEO or a VP coming in, firing everyone on the executive team, and then finding that there isn’t enough grassroots-level support to carry out their initiatives. The executive team and middle management are more crucial to executing a vision than most people give credit for.
The other thing that came to mind while reading this incident was that people defect the moment they sense that they may not be on the winning side. The moment the sailors stopped training, Samians and Lesbians defected, and that caused the morale to drop even further. So, when the going gets tough and a company or team is in an existential crisis, there is no other option but to grind through it, even if failure is the most likely outcome. Otherwise, you lose people, and you fail even more miserably.
The key takeaways for me would be
Don’t rely too much on ‘the myth of the charismatic leader who is the sole savior’.
When a team says slavery is better than the “hardship” of the job, there is an ‘alignment issue’; the leader has failed in one of two ways: they either pushed beyond the breaking point, or they failed to convince the people of the existential threat.
There is a danger in ‘executive purge’ when you newly take up something. First, seek to understand and then make drastic changes.
Pay attention when people start leaving your team or org. Understand why it is happening before it gets too late and goes into a ‘defection spiral’.
Other Thoughts
People in leadership roles are generally super smart and see through things. Histiaeus orchestrated the whole Ionian revolt behind the scenes but thought no one knew. Artaphernes tells Histiaeus that he knows ‘who the stitcher of the shoe was and who the wearer was’.
The Pincer Attack - thin center, strong flanks. The Greeks won the battle of Marathon by employing a novel strategy. They had a weak center that rushed towards the Persian army and got attacked. While the Persians were winning against this center, other parts of the Greek army attacked from the sides. I was reminded of the fictional battle of the Redgrass field (Blackfyre rebellion) in The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, where Maekar is the anvil who holds the line, and Baelor is the Hammer who crushes them from behind.
The Marathon Run. Pheidippides runs all the way to Sparta to ask for their help. But the Spartans say they want to help, but a religious custom forbids them to march, and they can do it only after the full moon.
Dream misinterpretation. Hippias dreamt of lying in his mother’s arms like a baby and thought he will be able to take control of the country that he betrayed (Athens) but when he sneezes and looses a teeth he reinterprets his dream to mean that country is not his to take.
The Mad King Cleomenes. People have different theories on why he went mad. Most of them attributed it to the gods and the punishment for the atrocities he committed. But the logical Spartans conclude that it was because of alcoholism.
Bad Choices.
“‘Timo was not in fault; ’twas decreed that Miltiades should come to an unhappy end; and she was sent to lure him to his destruction.” Miltiades, the Hero of Marathon, died in disgrace and debt due to bad choices.
“What does Hippoclides care.” Hippoclides throws away marriage to a wealthy family because he loved to dance and be merry.
Inherited jobs. “Their heralds and flute-players, and likewise their cooks, take their trades by succession from their fathers.” The text goes on to mention that even if someone else had better talent, they could not get the roles because the jobs were reserved for certain families.