He reports that the Athenian statesman Pericles, the greatest leader of the greatest city in its greatest age, gave a speech that captured the spirit of enterprise and innovation that made Athens the wonder of the world. At the heart of this spirit, Pericles claimed, was the distinctive citizen ethos, the corporate culture, that governed the relations among Athenians. For we obtain our friends not by receiving benefits, but by doing them. In other words, Pericles claimed that Athens was held together by the glue of gratitude and mutual benefit, not by command as with other cities. The way to exercise leadership in this Athenian corporate culture was to provide opportunities for one's fellow citizens to display their own talents, not to reduce them to mere instruments of the leader's will.
Love is more powerful than fear.
The next time we have to choose between giving someone a command and giving someone an opportunity, we might be helped by remembering that Pericles is an alternative to Machiavelli. Visit the Wisdom Warehouse for books, tapes and other goodies.