Xenophon's Cyrus the Great: The Arts of Leadership and War

I'm often asked to recommend my top leadership or management book. So, almost on autopilot, I hit play and blather the following:"It's impossible to pick one leadership book. Everyone's at different levels of experience and need. That's why you need 20 management buckets--and dozens of niche leadership books. Blah...blah...blah."Then (gulp) this past January I read and reviewed  The Practical Drucker: Applying the Wisdom of the World's Greatest Management Thinker , by William A. Cohen. Here is Peter Drucker's response to that question: "the first systematic book on leadership--the Kyropaidaia by Xenophon, himself no mean leader of men--is still the best book on the subject."Kyropaidaia (or Cyropaedia) was also known as Cyrus the Great (c. 580 - 529 B.C.). Cyrus founded the Persian Empire in the sixth century B.C. by uniting the Medes and the Persians, the two original Iranian tribes. His empire "extended from India to the Mediterranean Sea and was the most powerful state in the world until its conquest two centuries later by Alexander the Great."What did Drucker see in this remarkable figure? "The great Persian's astonishing military successes and mild rule provided just the kind of raw material that Xenophon needed to fashion his portrait of a human paragon."Fortunately, Larry Hedrick, a former air force officer and military historian, has edited Xenophon's work (c. 431 - 355 B.C.) and crafted a stunning, page-turner leadership treatise.Five chapters in the Old Testament, Ezra 1-5, salute the generosity of Cyrus the Great for liberating the Jews from Babylon and for his generous gifts for the temple in Jerusalem. According to Hedrick, the Iranians regard Cyrus as "The Father," the Babylonians as "the Liberator," the Greeks as "The Law-Giver," and the Jews as "The Anointed of the Lord" (see Isaiah 45).So why did Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, call Xenophon's book (written 100 years after Cyrus died) "the best book on leadership?"Start with more than 140 you-gotta-read-these subtitles (inserted into Xenophon's new abridged edition by Hedrick):* Inspire Your People with an Enticing Vision of a New Order* Know When to Keep Your Own Counsel* Err on the Side of Self-Reliance* Obedience Should Not Be the Result of Compulsion* Imagining Disaster May Save You from Tragedy* Exude Confidence, Not Anxiety* Recognize the Inevitability of ConflictAnd those are just samples from the first 33 pages. Cyrus the Great was a life-long learner--with unusual wisdom. "Let us remember our forefathers," he preached to his warriors, "but let us no longer exaggerate their virtues."And this from Cyrus' father: "If you wish to be thought a good estate manager, or a good horseman, or a good physician, or a good flute player without really being one, just imagine all the tricks you have to invest just to keep up appearances. You might succeed at first, but in the end you're going to be exposed as an imposter."Delivered like the off-camera color commentaries popular on TV sitcoms today, Cyrus' frank assessment of both allies and enemies is instructive--this one on Syazarees, his uncle: "He seemed only half awake to the extraordinary responsibilities of his office, and he exuded far more anxiety than confidence."So Xenophon (channeled in modern leadership/management lingo by Hedrick) paints a leadership masterpiece with both subtle tones and bold smash-face war scenes. Whew! (Not what I was expecting!)Most of my reading colleagues tilt towards the skinny management books, not 295-page tomes. But this is neither.This is readable. This is exciting. Leadership, coaching, mentoring, innovation, psychology, motivation, crisis management, social styles, cultural hiccups. Plus: stunning acts of kindness. And generosity--AMAZING generosity. The case studies in generosity (on and off the battlefield) will shock you. Wow. Here's Cyrus on his favorite subject:"Allow me to pause and emphasize this general rule: Success always calls for greater generosity--though most people, lost in the darkness of their own egos, treat it as an occasion for greater greed."There's wisdom and insight on almost every page. More subtitles:* Brevity Is the Soul of Command* Address Different Audiences with Different Emphases* Minimize Distinctions of Rank* Create a Psychological Advantage by Seizing the Initiative* Nip Ill-Advised Plans in the Bud* Counter Demoralizing Words with Reasoned Argument* Understand the Motivations of Your Followers* Overconfidence Has Been the Undoing of Many* Defeat the Foeman Known as Envy* Convince Your People of the Benefits of Change* Blessed Are Those Who Take the InitiativeThere. These teasers should be enough for you to hit "purchase" at Amazon. But really--if Peter Drucker said it's "still the best book on leadership," what more do you need?

As the editor of "Xenophon’s Cyrus the Great," I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you a little more about my version of this remarkable ancient classic. The foremost management guru of recent times, Peter F. Drucker, read my manuscript before it was published, and he wrote this endorsement for use on its dust jacket: “’Xenophon’s Cyrus,’ the first book on the subject, is still the best book on leadership."Here’s a touch of background: Cyrus, the founder of the Persian empire, was an enlightened monarch who flourished 2,500 years ago. A century later, Xenophon of Athens so admired Cyrus’ methods that he preserved them in history’s first full-fledged treatment of wise and heroic leadership.This book presents its leadership lessons in the context of an epic story--the story of a vast power struggle. In narrating the events of Cyrus’ life, Xenophon shows you, the reader, how to conduct meetings, become an expert negotiator, deal efficiently with allies, communicate by appealing to the self-interest of your followers, encourage the highest standards of performance, insure that your organization has the benefit of specialists, and prove that your words will be backed by your deeds.In recounting the achievements of Cyrus the Great, Xenophon wanted above all to provide lessons in ethical leadership, for he was convinced that honest, moral leaders succeed far more often than corrupt and evasive types. The result was a captivating leadership classic with unique qualities--a classic that’s distinguished both by its suspenseful story line and the priceless advice that it offers to today’s business professionals and leaders in all walks of life.I’ve been very gratified by the welcome that my book has continued to receive not only on Amazon.com but also abroad. Not so surprisingly, it has proved to be an especially enduring bestseller in today’s Persia, i.e., Iran. Originally, its first Persian language (Farsi) edition was kept off the marketplace in Tehran, so in Farsi it first saw the light of day in Los Angeles, the location of the US’s largest population of Iranian exiles, where its publisher was Ketab.Then my first Farsi translator, the widely praised Iranian dissident Kourosh Zaim, managed to convince the censors of the Islamic Republic of Iran (the IRI) to allow his translation to be published in Tehran, and following this victory my version of “Xenophon’s Cyrus” enjoyed remarkable success among Iranians from all over that country.Here’s a little irony: I am in the unique position of authoring an Iranian bestseller-in-translation but never having been paid a penny for it. Do I find this troubling? No, and I’ll tell you why. My friend Kourosh (which is the modern-day Farsi equivalent of “Cyrus’) asked me to follow his lead in donating the royalties due me from his translation to an organization that had been set up in Tehran with the goal of preserving the tomb of Cyrus the Great, which is a roughly pyramidal structure in southern Iran close to the city of Shiraz.At the time that “Xenophon’s Cyrus” was published in Iran, there was a push on by the Islamic government to build a reservoir near Cyrus’s tomb that would eventually fill up and conceal the entire structure under many feet of water. Why would the ayatollahs want to destroy such a precious site? Because Cyrus lived a thousand years before the Prophet Muhammad, and had therefore, by some of their lights, been burning in hell ever since his death.According to these same religious authorities, the Iranian people need stern guidance because they have never really completed their conversion from “paganism” to Islam, and sinking Cyrus’s tomb was considered a plan that would help them realize what is truly valuable in their heritage and what is not. Thankfully, Iran’s millions of lovers of Cyrus the Great joined together to keep this cultural disaster from happening, and the government of the IRI eventually backed away from their destructive plan.As far as I know, these turbaned meanies have never interfered with sales of “Xenophon’s Cyrus’ once it became available to the Iranian public, and my book has apparently has been published in a new and expanded edition to which my friend Kourosh added pages upon pages of enlightening footnotes.Since the United States and the IRI have no copyright treaty, my book is fair game for any publisher in Iran, and it has been brought out in other translations besides Kourosh’s. One of them is called the Farsi equivalent of “Cyrus Management,” which strikes me as a good title, though I was never consulted in the matter. For all I know, my book has found other forms in today’s Iran. Maybe it’s even become a graphic novel; of course I believe that it would make a good one. ;-)One reason why my take on Xenophon has been so popular in Cyrus’s homeland is that business science in the wake of the Islamic revolution of 1979 was woefully neglected. There is no doubt that there has been an anti-business bias in Islamic Iran, for the simple reason that business and religion tend to make poor bedfellows; in our spiritual tradition, we have Jesus saying that “you can’t serve God and Mammon.”In recent decades, however, the government of the IRI has had to acknowledge that you can’t turn your back on business and secure the loyalty of the people, who will show far less interest in faith if they identify it with poverty. Thus, “Xenophon’s Cyrus” helped to fill a gap in the general business and leadership education of the Iranian people, since a book on leadership and war is perfectly relevant to the specialized kind of peaceful “warfare” that we know as business competition.I suppose that, in some small way, I’ve helped raise the Iranian standard of living, because “Xenophon’s Cyrus’ really is a very useful book when adapted to a managerial frame of mind. No, don’t thank me, Iran. It was my friend Kourosh’s idea to introduce my book to the Iranian people, and I resisted until he assured me that I’d profit from the process. As it happened, I wouldn’t have profited (at least not to date) even if I had refused to donate my royalties to saving Cyrus’s tomb, since the trade embargo in Iran is still in force in spite of the nuclear deal, which means that no money can yet pass between an Iranian and an American.Well, we don’t live by bread alone, and fortunately there were other translations that helped me out financially, particularly one into South Korean, where my book was published in a beautifully decorated, high-quality edition (and now a second edition) that’s a pleasing esthetic object even though I don’t understand a single character of the language.So this is a very abridged version of the story of the Great King Cyrus, from antiquity right down to the present day. If you happen to read my own take on Xenophon, I anticipate that you’ll find it not only entertaining but instructive. Who knows? Maybe in years to come you’ll return to it a few times to refresh your mind with its useful suggestions for building your own empire. However, whatever, you have my best wishes!

I became interested in Cyrus the Great after reading my daughter her history lesson from Susan Wise Bauer's "Story of the World, book 1". In Bauer's version Cyrus's grandfather was told his grandson would grow up to take the throne from him, so he sent him off to be killed as an infant. Instead he was raised in the country by a shepherd who had a barren wife. He converted to Judiasim at an early age and his future was shaped by his belief in one God.In this version (and I don't know who is to blame - Xenophon or Hendrick) he often refers to the lessons he learned from his father, the King, and his youth hunting with the "peers" - i.e. people of the highest social class. Which is it? Raised by a shepherd as a commoner or in a life of privelege? Because it makes a huge difference on the rest of the story. He was a hero of the common man, saving peasants from becoming involved in the battles, etc. This book puts a very elitist spin on the entire story - he does these things because he is the best of the best and has such great virtue that he learned from his father the king.Other than that, and the fact the vocabulary seems suited to a Junior High reader rather than an adult, it is a pretty good book. I usually don't like reading war strategy type things but it had me hooked. I think it is definately a much better choice for High School/college than Machiavelli's "The Prince" which is somehow supposed to be styled after this.

Larry Hedrick does a phenomenal job of making you feel like Cyrus himself is speaking to you. I also enjoy the fact that the book is written by Xenophon, who lived closed to that time period. The lessons are very simple and easy to understand too.

Great read, inspiring, not too hard to understand, condition was good, and I believe it came fast. What is really odd though is the author says the name of Cyrus's wife is Amatia but when I googled, it says Cassandane. I was sad when I finished the book, I wanted to read more. Cyrus I think was a great man.

This is one of those books that presents material in such a way that it seems obvious after reading, yet this only alludes to the great story-telling of the author. Once I started reading this I found it difficult to put back down. A fascinating insight into leadership, which steers clear of other recommended titles in this genre, such as Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and presents a leader with a high degree of emotional intelligence. Well done.

This is an excellent story about leadership and how to be a great and successful leader, whilst lifting others up with you. No wonder it has stood the test of time

As someone who loves Scripture, I have admired Cyrus and his benevolence. While I do not know how accurate Xenophon's account is, the ideas that reflect his Athenian background and his education under Socrates are timeless. It is inspiring to see how virtue and decency never lose the ring of truth across time and cultures.

It's such an insightful book. Proves how to be humble and powerful at the same time. Great book to read.