The eminent men and women to inspire your leadership goals.

In the autumn of 2010, shortly after his 34-year career in the military came to an abrupt end, General Stanley McChrystal set about compiling his memoirs. As he looked back, the general began to realise just how unaware he had been of the many factors contributing to the outcomes of key events in his life. Successes he had previously credited solely to himself appeared in hindsight to have been the work of myriad players.

Still, when Gen McChrystal attempted to read more on leadership, what he found fell short of his own experiences. “The study of leadership increasingly seemed to be a study of myth, with a significant gap between how we speak of it and how it is experienced.” It took writing his memoirs for these doubts to finally hit home. Could it be that he, a decorated four-star general who had risen to the very highest rank of the US Armed Forces, was unable to properly define what it means to be a leader?

What was needed, he realised, was a new lens through which to examine leadership. The result is Leaders: Myth And Reality, a series of 13 biographies structurally inspired by Plutarch’s 2,000 year-old Parallel Lives, but starring a rather more modern cast. For a book on leadership, it offers refreshingly few “tips” on how to be a better leader, relying instead on the stories themselves to reveal just how complicated a task it really is. We’ve picked out five of these stories, from five great leaders, in the hope of gleaning a little more about what it means to be a leader today.

Courage, and lots of it

Born a slave in Maryland in March 1822, Ms Tubman escaped to the free state of Philadelphia in late 1849. Almost immediately, she made plans to return south and free her family and friends. Over the next few years, she crossed the border into the slave states at least 13 times, risking her life to bring back dozens of enslaved people – and earning the nickname “Moses” in the process. “Her resolve to return South, and then do it again, and again, and again set her apart,” writes McChrystal. “This choice: to return to the land of her bondage over and over and over, is what took her from being one of brave thousands, who took their own liberty, to one of dozens, who once or twice returned south to help others, to one of one.”

Collude and collaborate

What does genius have to do with leadership? Scientists, especially those of the theoretical variety, might appear to lead lives of solitude. Not Mr Albert Einstein, though. Through lively collaboration with a network of colleagues and friends over many years, he was able to manoeuvre himself from the fringes of the scientific establishment – when he began writing papers, he was still working as a patent clerk – into the very heart of it, eventually becoming the most famous scientist in the world. This was not, as Gen McChrystal notes, a one-person job, and Mr Einstein often relied on assistance, “travelling extensively to collaborate with other colleagues” between the years of 1913 and 1915 while he was arriving at his landmark theory of General Relativity. Mr Einstein was undoubtedly one of the 20th century’s greatest minds. What made him a great leader, though, was his ability to persuade other great minds to contribute to the cause.

Be your brand

In spite of a lack of formal education (or perhaps because of it) Ms Coco Chanel showed a knack for designing the sort of clothes that women of the era were desperate to wear – clothes that valued elegance and simplicity over the overwrought corsetry that was typical of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It wasn’t just her talent as a designer that immortalised her as a fashion icon, but her willingness to create in herself the ultimate symbol of the Chanel brand. “Before me, couturiers hid away, like tailors, at the back of their shops,” she once said, “whereas I lived a modern life, I shared the habits, the tastes and the needs of those whom I dressed.” In the atelier, too, her presence was everywhere. “In other establishments,” she said, “they allow for 50 chefs and sous chefs. With me, there is only one Mademoiselle.”

Share your knowledge

Mr Leonard Bernstein was the very definition of a maestro. From his debut appearance conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall at 25, where he first displayed the expressive style with which he would later become associated, it was clear that he was equal to the task of leading an orchestra. But it was his gifts as a teacher that truly defined him as a great leader. In the 1950s, he became a household name by presenting Omnibus, a television series that gave casual viewers a new perspective on the often cloistered and esoteric world of classical music. This was followed by a series of “Young People’s Concerts”, which were designed to introduce children to the genre. As he told The New York Times: “My job is an educational mission.”

Perseverance is king

On the night of 27 January 1956, one day after being released from prison on a speeding violation, Dr Martin Luther King Jr., received a call from a man who threatened to kill him. While the threat left him shaken, it also gave him an epiphany. As McChrystal writes, “he came to see himself as having a divine purpose.” As it happened, Dr King was perfectly placed to make a difference. His skills as an orator, which he’d honed as a preacher, are already the stuff of legend. But what made him a great leader, argues McChrystal, was his unwavering conviction to the cause. Dr King would face countless personal attacks over the coming years, including a bombing of his house just three days later. They would only strengthen his resolve.

Leaders: Myth And Reality by General Stanley McChrystal is out now