Stoic leadership: can it work?

Traditionally dominant leadership theories focus primarily on behaviours and traits, and not on the way leaders think. The notion of examining leadership from a different perspective, such as how leaders think and the influence this has on behaviours, is an area that is underdeveloped. The use of Stoic philosophy has been discussed in the field of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy as a way of managing problems and changing the way patients think and behave (Robertson, 2010). We propose that Stoicism, with its emphasis on self-control, rationality, and resilience, could provide a more robust theoretical underpinning to strategies for leadership development, more specifically for self-leadership. This contribution explores how Stoic philosophy and its underlying principles align with core facets of self-leadership theory (Manz, 1986, Manz & Sims, 1980) and can enhance ethical leader thinking toward behavioural change.