Messianic Leadership

Abstract

Joan the Maid, known in our time as Joan of Arc, led a French army to victory by inspiring them to work together for the goal of freedom for France. She was brilliantly successful at the start. But Joan was limited by her ignorance and lack of education—an innocent, totally unprepared for the politics of the situation in which she had thrust herself. Her kind of messianic leadership would not survive school learning, and it cannot function well for long in the real world. We can learn both positive and negative lessons from her story. The positive lesson arises from the galvanic effect that her message had on a dispirited army; her vision brought it together and made it a powerful fighting force. She was able to do this without any military or civilian authority. The negative lesson comes from her failure to understand the diplomatic reality on which true victory would depend. Looking at her failure, we can sketch out the education that a more successful leader would need.