"Tactical Mistakes"

The title of this post is part of a quote from Everett that I particularly liked, and it pretty much sums up the leadership effectiveness of both Everett and Odysseus.  Even though they are both leaders, I didn't think they were very good leaders.  Odysseus winds up getting all of his men killed by not telling them everything they need to know, which strikes me as gross negligence, especially since he could have gotten home sooner if he had been more open with his crew when he had the bottle with the winds in it. 

To expose why I don't think Odysseus, and to a lesser extent, Everett, are good leaders, here's what I expect out of a good leader in a story.  I expect rousing speeches that make their followers follow the leader willingly even to the death.  Odysseus doesn't do that at all, though Everett does some, such as when he has to convince the rest of the Soggy Bottom Boys to help him win back his wife.  I also expect a leader to be able to trust his crew enough to take an administrative role and not just lead all of the expeditions.  I can't think of any times off the top of my head where Odysseus tells a group of his men to go do something aside from that one island with the lotus eaters.  Everett doesn't really get that opportunity because he never has more than three people working with him. 

Odysseus is more concerned with personal glory than keeping his men alive.  It kind of reminds me of a quote from Napoleon that went something along the lines of "I have thirty thousand lives to spend."  It shows a callous disregard for the lives of his troops, Odysseus also shows by keeping his crew in the dark about various very important things (Scylla, the wind thing, THE SUN GOD'S CATTLE).  This obsession with glory would make more sense for a solitary hero.  Which is pretty much what Odysseus becomes after he gets all his crew killed.  But it doesn't make for a very admirable leader.

Everett is also more focused on personal gain, though it makes more sense in the historical context.  He doesn't have any sort of pre-existing military leadership role that we expect him to fill.  I personally found the word 'outfit' telling when Pete asks "Who made you the leader of this outfit?"  Calling it an outfit really fits for the size and circumstances of the group.

As a counterexample, I thought I would mention Prophet from the Crysis series, particularly his "we were all human" speech in the third game, but then I remembered that he, like Odysseus, doesn't tell his team everything they need to know in the first game, which results in two of the five members of Raptor team being killed.  Still, the "we were all human" speech is a good example of the type of rousing speech  I was expecting from Odysseus the leader of men.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqEBZoKJlRg