Homer told the truth about leadership. And it’s not the sanitized, glorified versions that we sometimes see on the pages of leadership books and business-school cases. It’s the real stuff of thrilling triumph and painful loss; deadline-sprints and grueling marathons; discipline and temptation; decision making under uncertainty and negotiating difficult personalities, including one’s own.

Michael Shiner, Ed.D., MBA, is a leadership scholar and educator. Psychiatrist Jonathan Shay wrote about psychological and moral injury due to leadership malpractice in his books Achilles in Vietnam and Odysseus in America. In a forthcoming book, Homer Told the Truth About Leadership, Shay and leadership scholar Michael Shiner expand on the issue of leadership malpractice. Using examples from Homer and our time, they contrast leadership malpractice with effective leadership. They zoom in on how Homer’s leaders go wrong and right in turbulent circumstances and what we might learn about becoming better leaders from their failures and successes. This talk is based on the forthcoming book.