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A restoration workshop is preparing furniture for a library opening. The manager promised to deliver the tables on Friday, but on Thursday the finish still needs more drying time. One craftsperson suggests speeding things up; another recalls what happened the last time they rushed the same varnish. The manager wants to say that someone should have warned her earlier. She also remembers brushing aside a question about drying time at the beginning of the week.
A book about an ancient ruler is unlikely to explain how to rescue this particular order. It can, however, hold our attention on an uncomfortable question: why do people agree to follow a leader, and what happens when that leader’s confidence begins to prevent them from listening?
Examining a defect together: the manager listens to the craftspeople at their workbench. Fictional MriyaRun illustration created with AI.
What we are reading when we open the Cyropaedia
Xenophon, the Athenian writer and military commander of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE, wrote the Cyropaedia about Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire. It is a literary exploration of education and rule, including invented episodes and speeches. Its conversations belong to the work rather than to a historical transcript of Cyrus’s words.
In Chapter XIV of The Prince, Machiavelli refers to Xenophon’s Cyrus when discussing the imitation of remarkable people. A simple opposition between a benevolent Cyrus and a ruthless Machiavelli therefore diminishes both books. Military conquest, personal loyalty to a ruler, and modern contractual employment also call for different rules.
Larry Hedrick created a modern adaptation, Xenophon’s Cyrus the Great: The Arts of Leadership and War. Reading these texts alongside the work of a present-day team brings fourteen themes into view. They allow us to examine our own decisions without treating an ancient empire as a model for managing colleagues.
Fourteen themes for everyday work
1. Find out what people tried before you
Before promising the client faster drying, the manager can ask what happened during the previous attempt. Which finish was used, at what temperature, and what had to be redone? Earlier experience becomes useful when the conditions behind a decision can be reconstructed. “We have always done it this way” provides too little information.
2. Make questions possible regardless of someone’s position
An assistant notices a defect but waits for senior colleagues to finish their conversation. If the whole day passes this way, a manager’s formally open door offers little help. People need a clear way to report problems and a response without ridicule. Which question would a newcomer to your team find hardest to ask aloud?
3. Stay close to the work while leaving room for expertise
The manager comes to the workbench and asks to see where the delay occurs. She can help move furniture or speak with the library while the craftspeople work. If she takes over every correction herself, the team loses time waiting for her approval. Her presence should help the work proceed, with its extent depending on the task.
4. Notice contributions without creating a permanent contest
One craftsperson carefully restored the carving; another caught a measurement mismatch in time. Both contributions deserve specific thanks. If the same person is always held up as an example to everyone, less visible work can disappear from view. Whom do you mention when describing a shared result, and whose work falls outside that account?
5. Finish a successful piece of work before the next push
Once an order has been delivered, it is tempting to take on the next one immediately. Payment, cleaning, material records, and a conversation about rework still remain. A short review can reveal what actually worked and how much effort it cost. Planning a new goal is easier when the previous job has an honest closing account.
6. Ask what different people need
One employee currently needs a stable schedule; another wants a chance to learn a more demanding technique. The manager can clarify these needs and say directly what she can offer. The assumption that praise or a “big mission” is enough for everyone soon meets a request for overtime pay. Which agreements are still missing after these conversations?
7. Speak clearly and leave room for disagreement
“Do it as quickly as possible” means something different to each listener. Naming the deadline, quality requirements, and negotiable elements is more useful. After explaining, ask what obstacles the people doing the work can see. The length of a conversation says little by itself about a manager’s confidence, while a relevant objection may save an entire order.
8. Connect rewards to transparent conditions
An employee stays after their shift to correct a mistake, and the manager thanks them. An agreement about pay or time off belongs alongside that thanks. If rewards depend on personal devotion to the manager, disagreement becomes a financial risk. What rules govern extra pay, training opportunities, and demanding assignments in your team?
9. Explain who needs the result
The library needs the tables for its reading room, which helps people see the purpose of painstaking work. Its opening date cannot shorten the material’s drying time. A shared purpose becomes practical when the team understands users’ requirements, has resources, and can name constraints. Sometimes respecting that purpose means revisiting a promise.
10. Allow for emotions while checking the decision
The manager is angry and has already typed a sharp message to a craftsperson. Before sending it, she can put down her phone, check the order’s progress, and recall her own part in choosing the deadline. The anger may remain. A decision also needs facts, possible actions, and an assessment of consequences; demanding the complete removal of feelings adds another impossible task.
Pausing before a reply: checking the circumstances and your own part in a decision. Fictional MriyaRun illustration created with AI.
11. Keep your part of an agreement with partners
A contractor agreed to a date based on your information. If that information changes, tell them before they spend time and materials. Once a delay has happened, you can acknowledge your share of responsibility and propose a remedy. Reputation also takes shape in what you do when concealing a mistake would be more convenient.
12. Negotiate where trust is still limited
Following an earlier postponement, the library asks for additional assurance. The workshop can agree to staged delivery, photographs of completed pieces, and written confirmation of changes. Both sides need conditions they can check. Negotiation also has limits: threats, concealed changes to payment, or coercion call for protecting your interests and sometimes ending the working relationship.
13. Test a new tool on a small part of the work
A new order-management app promises easier record keeping, but moving all the data will take several days. The team can first put one order through it and compare time spent and errors made. Who will train colleagues, where will the backup be stored, and what would count as a successful trial? These details give novelty a practical meaning.
14. Maintain respect during disagreement
The assistant says the proposed deadline is unrealistic. The manager asks her to explain the calculation, although she dislikes hearing the answer. This allows them to discuss the workload without judging someone’s character. Courtesy cannot guarantee another person’s goodwill, but it allows you to state your position, boundaries, and next action clearly.
What remains when the manager is away
At the end of the Cyropaedia, the account of Cyrus gives way to a description of decline after his death. This turn complicates a convenient story about the power of an outstanding individual. For a modern team it raises another question: could the work continue if its manager became ill or took a holiday?
The workshop can check this without an elaborate theory. Who knows the order’s terms, has access to the contacts, and can approve a purchase? Where is the decision about materials recorded? Transferring knowledge and authority gradually reduces the number of situations in which everyone waits for one person.
One entry after a difficult decision
Choose a recent episode you keep returning to. What did you promise, what information did you have, and what was still unknown? Who could object, and what happened to their objection? Write down how your decision affected other people’s work and one change for the next similar situation. After the next meeting you can check whether it helped.
In the EQ journal, you can keep the details of your own reaction: what bothered you, what you wanted to say, and what you eventually said. The entry supports observation of yourself; colleagues’ motives are better clarified in conversation.
In Insight Planner, connect that change to a specific task: share access to an order, discuss a deadline, or set aside time to train a colleague. Add a responsible person and a review date. Returning to the book can then leave behind an agreement the team can actually check.
If an image is an easier starting point, use online metaphorical cards for your own associations: which scene reminds you of a conversation you are preparing for? In a group, participation should be voluntary, without pressure to disclose personal matters. Each person explains their own meaning; a card choice is no basis for conclusions about hidden motives.
Sources and further reading
Xenophon, Cyropaedia: the literary portrayal of Cyrus and the epilogue in Book VIII. Machiavelli, The Prince, Chapter XIV: the reference to Xenophon’s Cyrus. Larry Hedrick, Xenophon’s Cyrus the Great: The Arts of Leadership and War, is the modern adaptation edited and introduced by Hedrick. Macmillan: Xenophon’s Cyrus the Great.