I by IMD Book Club
Emotional intelligence
Leadership lessons from Julius Caesar: The brilliance and the blind spots
IMD's Susan Goldsworthy was joined by Paul Vanderbroeck, whose unique book, Lead Like Julius Caesar: Timeless Leadership Lessons from History's Most Influential Leader, dissects the leadership style and career of the Roman...
IMDâs Susan Goldsworthy was joined by Paul Vanderbroeck, whose unique book Lead Like Julius Caesar: Timeless Leadership Lessons from Historyâs Most Influential Leader dissects the leadership style and career of the Roman emperor and offers a historical perspective to the challenges faced by todayâs business leaders.
Itâs not about seeing Julius Caesar as a role model, but as an example of a very successful but imperfect leader.Paul Vanderbroeck
What makes a leader truly influential across the millennia? For Paul Vanderbroeck, the answer lies not in perfection, but in understanding the interplay between remarkable achievement and human vulnerability. âItâs not about seeing Julius Caesar as a role model, but as an example of a very successful but imperfect leader.â
A jack of all trades, master of all
Caesarâs influence rests on breadth combined with excellence. âIf you look back in history and rank the most successful leaders, Caesar will always end up in the top five â with his unique capabilities and experience as a statesman, a general, politician, change agent, or even as an author.â
This accumulation of achievement created an enduring legacy; Caesar remains the only leader whose name became synonymous with the highest authority â Kaiser in German, Tsar in Russian, and the modern American âczar,â appointed to deliver special government projects.
Lessons from Caesar will help executives think about the conundrum: Iâm good, but how can I get better? Help me learn and grow.
Bridging past and present
Vanderbroeck applies three leadership frameworks to Caesarâs story ââŻtheories he has used throughout his work as an HR executive and coach, and covers behaviors, personality, motivation, and leadership within a career structure.
- TheâŻGlobal Executive Leadership Mirror (GELM)âŻis a 360-degree instrument that measures a leaderâs capability across 12 critical leadership dimensions, such as visioning, empowering, and energizing, in a global context. This assessment focuses on a leaderâs behaviors and competencies to deepen self-understanding and facilitate development.
- TheâŻIndividual Directions Inventory (IDI)âŻis a psychometric tool that explores an individualâs underlying motivations and emotional drivers. It identifies the areas from which a person gains the most emotional satisfaction, helping to explain their preferred actions and focus.
- TheâŻLeadership Pipeline ModelâŻis a framework that views leadership development as a continuum of progressive stages (or passages) within an organization. It emphasizes that as leaders advance, they must change their skills, time application, and work values to meet the demands of the new level, ensuring a steady flow of capable leaders throughout the organization.
This analytical approach revealed surprising insights. The IDI framework suggested Caesar as a leader driven by excellence and recognition who wanted not just good results, but acknowledgment for them. âHe never stopped. He went on and on and on, and thatâs also part of his success, but also, in a certain way, part of his failure.â
More surprisingly, this drive appeared rooted not in personal ambition alone, but in fulfilling expectations of his family and the Roman Republic. His mother, Aurelia, steered Caesar toward restoring the familyâs status. Yet Caesarâs relentless focus on achievement caused him to forget âthat perhaps itâs not only about his own achievement, but about the achievement of the organization which we need to bring along,â Vanderbroeck notes ââŻa blind spot familiar to many modern executives.
The power of narrative
Caesar mastered a skill many contemporary leaders struggle with: storytelling. His commentaries on the Gallic Wars represent a type of embedded journalism with Caesar writing about himself in the third person, creating an honest narrative that built his brand through sharing and valuing othersâ contributions and discussing vulnerabilities alongside successes.
The fatal flaw
Caesarâs biggest weakness was his inability to sense what was happening beneath the surface in larger groups. This blind spot appeared repeatedly â in Gaul, during the civil war, and finally in the Senate. âHe thought he had pacified the situation, and then, boom â there was a big revolt. Each time he barely escaped, until that last time, when he was not able to.â
The failure wasnât just individual â it was systemic.
Caesar was âlow on receiving,â Vanderbroeck notes, meaning he didnât make it easy for people to give him feedback. When you have a very self-assured leader in a position of power, people below often assume the boss doesnât need their input. The solution? âAs a leader, then and now, you really need to go out there and proactively draw all that information which otherwise youâre missing.â
Thatcher and Caesar: The parallels of power
When discussing betrayal, Vanderbroeck draws a striking parallel to the fate of Margaret Thatcher, UK Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990. âWhat happened to Caesar at the end is also a Thatcher scenario,â he observes. âIn Caesarâs day, people were literally stabbed in the back; nowadays we stab people in the back metaphorically â thatâs what we call civilization.â Both leaders fell victim to the same dynamic: they didnât invite feedback, and those around them assumed they didnât need it.
The human question
Given the opportunity to ask Caesar one question, Vanderbroeck wouldnât inquire about military strategy. Instead, heâd ask: âWhat makes you laugh?â
âThatâs an aspect of Caesar which we havenât any information about,â he explains. âWhere was the lightness in his life, and the joy and the playfulness?â
Itâs a question Vanderbroeck asks modern executives as well. âIn my coaching, I increasingly come across the issue of stress levels, and Iâve seen it increase over the years. As part of building resilience, you should discuss where the joy in the executiveâs life is as a whole. This is a helpful conversation.â
Caesar as a mirror
The bookâs deeper purpose crystallizes around Goldsworthyâs insight: âItâs not just about him. Itâs about us. Itâs about what it is to be human.â
While ostensibly about Julius Caesar, the work explores what it means to lead and remain human amid relentless demands for performance. For contemporary business leaders, the value lies in recognizing patterns that persist: the drive for recognition, the challenge of receiving honest feedback, and the tension between personal ambition and organizational goals.
The critical lesson centers on feedback and emotional intelligence. âFeedback is important for any type of competency development, particularly in areas of weakness,â Vanderbroeck emphasizes. âIt helps ensure that they donât become barriers to your success.â
For those starting careers, Caesarâs example emphasizes operational experience and early risk-taking, where mistakes are rarely career-ending. For senior executives, the lesson is sobering: proactively seek the honest feedback that naturally becomes harder to obtain as you rise.
Asked where we would find Caesar today, Vanderbroeck envisions him in a high-tech firm. âHe was really motivated by change, and by innovation and technology. Running a bureaucracy would have frustrated and bored him.â
Caesarâs story becomes a mirror â reflecting not what leaders should be, but what they might discover about themselves. His struggles with feedback, blind spots around group dynamics, and relentless work ethic driven by external validation arenât merely historical curiosities. They echo through boardrooms today.
As Vanderbroeck concludes: âItâs that growth mindset. Lessons from Caesar will help executives think about the conundrum: Iâm good, but how can I get better? Help me learn and grow.â
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