Humanized Accountability: Petrarch and Machiavelli's Happy Medium?

I found it interesting what Spencer M had to say about Machiavelli's leadership style. As we learned in class, Petrarch and Machiavelli didn't see eye to eye. I found it interesting that Petrarch advocated for the continuity between the Classical culture and Christianity. Another source I found explains that Petrarch believed an effective leader should be loving and merciful the way a father is to his children. If a leader takes the time to gain the trust and love of his or her people, it will be much easier for them to be loyal to you. I understand that Machiavelli found fear and power more effective tools, but I think too much fear can cause frustration and/or rebellion in the masses. (King Louis XIV was neither caring nor loving and look where that got him...just saying.)

Today while I was editing a blog post for my boss, I realized it was Petrarch vs. Machiavelli all over again. In his post my boss shared a story of how he motivated his employees to perform better when he was a housekeeping manager at a hotel. He said at first he tried to be loving and motivate them. He attended his employees' children's baptisms and brought donuts to the office on Fridays. He motivated them so effectively he said they could have won the world cup. But despite those efforts, their review scores didn't change.

So then he went all Machiavelli on them and tried to be harsh and angry and make them understand how upset he was. He even wore all black to work for a few days. That didn't work either. And then, he found a balance. He decided to bring each employee in one by one and review their personal scores with them. This personal accountability humanized the process so that he didn't seem like an evil person, but was able to instill a more personal type of fear for each employee. Knowing that the boss was measuring their personal scores held employees accountable and made them compete against themselves.

I would have never thought that Machiavelli's and Petrarch's leadership styles would reflect in a blogpost written for LinkedIn, but it made me realize that there is always something we can learn from many opinions of philosophy. Either way, I prefer the more humanist approach, siding with Petrarch. Compromise for the win.