Comparing Leadership In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Machiavelli’s The Prince

John Maxwell once said, “People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.” A leader must have a solid foundation as a human being before he can try to pursue the public about his visions. He will be examined from every angle about his leadership traits, style, characteristic, and so forth. All of these areas of leadership comes together in what we know as integrity. Integrity is doing what is right morally; it requires honesty, making the “right” decisions for the community, taking the blame, and being selfless. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and Machiavelli’s The Prince, there are various examples as to what is the difference between a good and a bad leader, including initiative, accountability, generosity, and the leader’s values.

A leader must learn to take the initiatives for many of his projects. In Julius Caesar, Cassius tries to convince Brutus of joining the conspirators against Caesar. Cassius says that sometime men are responsible for their own fate and should not blame it on an outside force (Shakespeare I-ii 147-150). Thus, if they blamed the situation on God, it will not do them any good because they did not even try to take actions to change their fates. In this example, Cassius demonstrates that a leader should take initiative and responsibility; a good leader should be fearless and try to do something for the greater good. Machiavelli agreed because he mentioned that the Romans would try to fix a problem before it actually developed, knowing that a problem only got bigger if it was not fixed right away (11). Being proactive, rather than reactive, will help the leader be one step ahead of the game. However, the initiative should always be for the greater good than to benefit the leade...

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... learned. Nevertheless, a leader can always learn to be better. In the two books, Julius Caesar and The Prince, it showed many things regarding how a leader should be and act, and there are many things that an individual can learn from these two books. A few examples of leadership that can be learned from the two books are generosity, taking initiative, accountability, and personal values. All of these traits begin by the individual realizing who he is and where he stands to becoming a leader. Like Jack Welch said, “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”

Works Cited

Machiavelli, Niccolò. The Prince. Trans. Harvey C. Mansfield. Chicago, 1998.

Shakespeare, William. “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.” Elements of Literature: Kylene Beers. Austin: Holt, 2009. 842-963. Print.