Plutarch's Lives: Leadership Lessons for Modern Managers

Who was Plutarch, and what are the Parallel Lives?

Plutarch was born about 46 CE in Chaeronea, in central Greece, and died some time after 119 CE. He spent most of his life in Chaeronea and at nearby Delphi, where he served as a priest of Apollo. His Parallel Lives pair a famous Greek with a famous Roman, such as Pericles with Fabius Maximus or Alexander with Julius Caesar, to study their characters side by side.

Two cautions matter before you use him as a leadership source. First, Plutarch was a moralist, not a modern historian. He wrote centuries after many of the events he describes, from sources of uneven quality, and some figures, such as the Spartan lawgiver Lycurgus, may be partly legendary. Second, his subjects were elite men in slave-owning, war-making societies, and women's leadership is largely absent from the Lives. Read the stories for the dilemmas and the choices, and reject the conquests.

Why do small acts reveal character better than big achievements?

Plutarch built his method on one observation. In the opening of his Life of Alexander, in the public-domain translation known as Dryden's, revised by Arthur Hugh Clough, he says: "sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their characters and inclinations, than the most famous sieges, the greatest armaments, or the bloodiest battles whatsoever"

For a modern manager, this is a very practical idea. Big moments are rare and can be staged. Small acts, such as who gets the credit, how you reply to an angry email late at night, whether you keep a small promise exactly, happen every day. Teams read them closely. A simple daily habit follows: each morning, choose one small, visible act that shows who you want to be; each evening, check whether you did it; once a week, look for the pattern.

• Name who did the work, in front of their manager.
• Reply to provocation tomorrow, with facts.
• Declare an interest before a decision.
• Share hardship: decline a comfort the team does not get.
• Own a small mistake before anyone discovers it.

What does Fabius teach about patience under criticism?

Quintus Fabius Maximus was made dictator of Rome in 217 BCE after heavy defeats by Hannibal, and is remembered by the nickname Cunctator, the Delayer. He refused to fight Hannibal's stronger army on open ground and wore it down instead, while his own officers mocked him. When friends urged him to fight to silence the talk, Plutarch gives his answer: "I should be more fainthearted than they make me, if, through fear of idle reproaches, I should abandon my own convictions."

Plutarch also shows the limit. Late in life, Fabius opposed young Scipio's plan to carry the war to Africa, and Plutarch says rivalry made the opposition personal. The leadership lesson is that patience is a strategy only when you can say what it is waiting for and what would change your mind. Write both down before you need them, set review dates, and state your critics' best case fairly.

How can rivals serve the same goal?

Themistocles and Aristides, two Athenian leaders of the fifth century BCE, were rivals from boyhood. Themistocles was brilliant and ambitious; Aristides was called the Just. Aristides was ostracised, sent into exile by popular vote, in 482 BCE and recalled before the battle of Salamis in 480 BCE. As Plutarch tells it, Aristides went to Themistocles at night before the battle and proposed that they set aside their quarrel and compete only in saving Greece.

Later, when Themistocles proposed a secret plan to burn the allied Greek fleet so that Athens would dominate, Aristides reported to the assembly: "nothing was more advantageous than what Themistocles designed, and nothing more unjust" The Athenians dropped the plan. Two practical habits follow: agree the shared goal with a rival before arguing about roles, and ask of every clever plan both 'does it work?' and 'is it fair?', out loud.

What can leaders learn from Pericles and the Funeral Oration?

Pericles led Athens for decades and died in 429 BCE. The historian Thucydides describes his gift for reading a crowd, in Richard Crawley's 1874 translation: "Whenever he saw them unseasonably and insolently elated, he would with a word reduce them to alarm; on the other hand, if they fell victims to a panic, he could at once restore them to confidence." For a modern manager this means cooling a team that is overconfident after a win, with facts about real risks, and steadying a team that is anxious, with real strengths and a clear next step.

Thucydides also records Pericles' Funeral Oration, a speech about who Athens was at its best: open debate before action, advancement by ability rather than class. Thucydides warns that he wrote speeches as the occasion seemed to demand, and the speech asks survivors to be ready to die for the city and tells widows their glory lies in being little talked of. Borrow its structure for a purpose talk at work (who we are at our best, what we value, the honest cost, one clear ask) and leave out the war and the exclusions.

What is the Melian dialogue, and why does it matter at work?

In 416 BCE Athens demanded the surrender of the small island of Melos. Thucydides presents the talks as a dialogue in which the Athenian envoys dismiss fairness entirely: "right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must" Melos refused, and Athens killed its men and enslaved its women and children.

The dialogue is a warning, not a manual. Its arguments still appear in procurement meetings, restructurings and negotiations with smaller parties: everyone does it, they have no real alternative, fairness is for equals. A simple test helps. Before using power over a weaker party, ask whether you would call the decision fair if you were them, whether you would be comfortable if it were published in full, and whether a version exists that meets your need with less harm. Then record what the test changed. Contract and employment rules differ by country, so involve your legal team.

What do Solon, Timoleon and Cato teach about reform, power and integrity?

Solon, the Athenian lawgiver (about 630 to about 560 BCE), was trusted by rich and poor alike and cancelled the debts that had enslaved many Athenians, but he did not redistribute land. Both sides were angry. Asked later whether he had given Athens the best laws, he replied, as Plutarch tells it: "The best they could receive." Fair reform at work often looks like this: the best change people can actually accept, explained honestly, pleasing no side fully at first. Solon's story has two more lessons. Friends who knew his plans early borrowed money and bought land, and he cleared himself only at his own cost, so keep sensitive plans tight. And once his laws were passed he left Athens for ten years so they could stand without him.

Timoleon of Corinth landed in Sicily in 344 BCE, freed Syracuse from its tyrants, and then invited the citizens to help demolish the tyrants' fortress, building courts of justice in its place. Later he retired to private life and advised only on hard cases. The modern parallel is any authority taken in a crisis: set its end date when you take it, and hand it back in public.

Cato the Younger (95 to 46 BCE) shows integrity and its cost. He studied the treasury's laws before taking office so its clerks could not run him, and he stopped improper write-offs even when friends asked. But Plutarch also records that his strange manners diminished the office he honoured, and Cicero complained that he behaved as if he lived in an ideal state. Keep the standard; change the manner that stops the standard from winning.

How do you turn Plutarch's Lives into case studies for a team?

Plutarch explained why he kept writing lives: "the virtues of these great men serving me as a sort of looking-glass, in which I may see how to adjust and adorn my own life" A team case discussion uses the same mirror. The key is a fixed shape that moves from facts to a commitment, so the conversation does not drift into polite opinions about ancient history.

How can you start this week?

Start small. Tomorrow morning, choose one small act that shows who you want to be and do it before noon. This week, read one case with your team using the 30-minute shape above. At the end of the month, ask whose life you have been living: whose strengths, and whose failure modes.

If you want a measured starting point, AssessAll's Strategic Thinking & Business Judgment assessment can help you compare before and after. To turn the habits into a plan built on experience rather than courses alone, Jobulary's explanation of the 70-20-10 model is a practical next step. And if you want the whole system ready to use, Plutarch's Lives: A Leadership Case Library from Bodhih Training includes the e-book, 32 cases, a case tracker, fillable forms, a 52-card deck and a 12-week programme.