Inspirational Leadership: Timeless Lessons for Leaders from Shakespeare's Henry V

  • 3h 52m
  • Richard Olivier
  • Nicholas Brealey Publishing
  • 2013

Henry V is Shakespeare’s greatest leader – inspired and inspiring, visionary yet pragmatic, powerful yet responsible. Of all Shakespeare’s stories, it offers us the deepest insights into the nature of inspiration. A new king unites a group of disparate and warring people around a common goal, overcoming all obstacles in his path on the way to achieving a near miraculous victory against all odds. It’s an allegory for the trials and tribulations that beset the modern business leader. In this fascinating book, acclaimed stage director and creative consultant Richard Olivier draws on his intimate knowledge of Shakespeare's play, Henry V, and its absorbing central character, to unmask the secrets of inspirational leadership and reveal the timeless lessons it hold for managers and leaders today.

About the Author

Richard Olivier is Artistic Director of Olivier Mythodrama and an Associate Fellow of Templeton College, Oxford, and Oxford Said Business School. A stage director for over 10 years, Richard works internationally as a consultant, conference speaker and workshop leader.

In this Book

  • Inspirational Leadership—Timeless Lessons for Leaders from Shakespeare’s Henry V
  • Foreword
  • Introduction
  • Prologue—A call to the imagination
  • Assessing the past
  • Vision, mission and commitment
  • Inner resources, inner traitors
  • Old friends
  • Managing the “disagreers” (and dealing with the traitors)
  • An old friend dies
  • The rival prince
  • First steps
  • Motivating the troops
  • Motivating the cowards
  • The four captains
  • Changing tactics, changing strategy
  • Meeting the princess
  • The French response
  • Facing the challenge
  • The enemy awaits
  • Visible leadership
  • The dark night of the soul
  • Hot air
  • Inspiring the troops
  • A hostage for fortune
  • Confounding the French
  • Killing the prisoners
  • The price of victory
  • Towards peace
  • Digesting symbols
  • Turning the battlefield into a garden
  • Epilogue—Looking back, looking forward
  • Bibliography
  • Permissions
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