Machiavelli

Born on May 3, 1469, in Florence, Italy, Niccolò Machiavelli was a diplomat for 14 years in Italy's Florentine Republic during the Medici family's exile. When the Medici family came back to power in 1512, Machiavelli was dismissed and briefly imprisoned. Machiavelli as an individual has been described as aloof, as standing to one side of life ‘with a sarcastic expression continually playing around his mouth and winking from his eyes’. This report is based on Machiavelli’s most famous work, The Prince, which was written in 1513-14. While The Prince was not the foremost book of this kind, it was the first to propose a government that dominates with no respect for religious belief or morality. Machiavelli did not particularly pay heed to religious law in the manner he lived his life, but he likewise did not particularly care for the Catholic Church of the time because of the lack of ethics demonstrated by the Pope's and other supposedly "religious men's" actions at the time. The Prince, a handbook for politicians on the employment of ruthless, self-serving cunning, inspiring the term "Machiavellian" and establishing Machiavelli as the "father of modern political theory."(History.com)
There are many types of leaderships that after being present over the centuries. Leadership styles have developed over time, with a prominent shift from the autocratic and directive leadership in the twentieth century to a more participative and democratic style of the younger generation. These changes in leadership styles can be ascribed to a combination of events including a switch in people’s attitudes as well as advances in technology. In fact, choosing the right way, at the proper time in the right place is a key element of leader effectiveness. That’s not what most people do. They will normally have one style applied in all positions. It’s like having only one case or one dress, something you wear everywhere. On the path, all of us would agree that having only one set of clothes is ridiculous. But then, so is holding only one leadership style.
So when it comes to choosing with type of leadership is more compelling – Machiavelli’s or earlier writer, I choose to go with Machiaveli’s. Machiavelli talked about the concept of honors and rewards as well as cherishing talents and powers. These agreements are important to being a sound leader. ( "The Prince," Ch 21) Machiavelli shows the importance that a leader should recognize and reward people for a job that is being done nicely. As good a leader also has to possess the power to animate and move others. Some companies have an employee recognition program which these programs can reward gifts or recognizing them as an employee of the month. As a consequence, this type of recognition can boost moral and efficiency in any operating environment. Whereas earlier writers leaderships fit into a genre, started some 500 years before Machiavelli's life, visited the "Mirror of Princes" genre. The Mirror of Princes genre was a literary genre offering a model for the ideal prince to come after; especially popular in the late mediaeval and Renaissance periods. Earlier volumes in this genre focused on Christianity and instructed rulers to adhere to the laws of Christianity and to aid their subjects do the like. Monarchs of that time generally adhered to that and few were autocrats.
Machiavelli was different from the earlier writers in that The Prince was one of a long course of advice books for rulers, a genre called the “mirror-for-princes.” They framed their instruction—which included eloquence, history, geography, music, and dance—according to principles of Christian chastity. Machiavelli stripped the language of ideals of the genre, omitted the ornamental qualities of personal style and gloss, and described examples from history. He dropped a line that anyone who ignores reality in order to subsist upwards to an ideal will discover that he has been instructed how to ruin himself.
The defining concept of the Renaissance was humanism, a literary movement that started in Italy during the fourteenth century. Humanism was a distinct movement because it developed from the mediaeval custom of having pious religious motivation for making art or works of literature. Humanist writers were concerned with worldly or secular subjects rather than strictly religious topics. Such emphasis on secularism was the outcome of a more materialistic view of the universe. Unlike the Medieval Era, Renaissance people were concerned with money and the enjoyment of life and all its worldly pleasures. Humanist writers glorified the individual and believed that man was the matter of all affairs and had unlimited potential. In the Prince, Machiavelli showed that people, and not necessarily supernatural forces, are responsible for their activities. The Renaissance in general exhibited this type of humanism, breaking off from the Catholic Church and its strong dogma. Instead of believing that God was responsible for everything, humanists believed that man, with all his defects and virtues, had a huge hand in controlling his fate. Management and the economy have preoccupied the minds of leaders from the beginning of time. Since all governments are either republics or principalities, Machiavelli noted, their people will be accustomed either to managing their own affairs or to take over the leadership of a prince. I feel as though that Machiavelli’s style of leadership would be a proper way to be followed by todays leaders. “He should proceed in a temperate manner, which prudence and humanity, so that over confidence does not make him careless, or excessive suspicions make him intolerable.” (Thompson 285) Machiavelli's insistence on the practicality of his political advice is most evident in his consideration of the personality, character, and conduct of the successful ruler. No matter what idealistic notions are taken as principles of private morality, he reasoned, there is no guarantee that other people will watch them, and that puts the honorable or virtuous individuals at a distinct disadvantage in the actual universe. In order to achieve success in public life, the ruler must know precisely when and how to do what no good person would ever do. Since the modern nation is overly complex to be done by any single human organism, the effective ruler will naturally need to have advisors who assist in administration. Selecting the right people for these jobs and utilizing their services appropriately, Machiavelli supposed, is among the practical skills most clearly connected with sound leaders. A just ruler will invariably choose competent companions who offer good advice in answer to specific questions and pack out the job of the province without regard for their individual interests; such people so deserve the rewards of honor, riches, and power that unshakably secure their devotion to the leader. Ineffective leaders, on the other hand, surround themselves with flatterers whose unwillingness to offer competent advice is a sign of their princes' inadequacy. All of this talk about skillful leadership would be pointless, of course, if human beings do not in fact have control over their own activities, but must constantly be at the mercy of blind luck or chance. In the end, Machiavelli argued that even if sheer luck determines the larger part of our destiny, we can still take full responsibility for whatever remains. Recognizing the possibilities for failure, the good ruler does better to act boldly than to attempt to work out every possible contingency. (The Prince.) “ It is not necessary, then, for a prince to have the best qualities mentioned above, but it is necessary to seem to have them.” (Thompson 287)

References:

Thompson, Karl F. Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation. Vol. 2. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1988. Print.

Wilcox, Donald J. In Search of God and Self: Renaissance and Reformation Thought. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1975. Print.

Rice, Eugene F., Jr. & Anthony Grafton, The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559, Second Ed., 1994

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/machiavelli-prince.asp

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/niccolo-machiavelli-born

http://www.online-literature.com/machiavelli/the

http://www.historytoday.com/vincent-barnett/niccolo-machiavelli-%E2%80%93-cunning-critic-political-reason