The Stoic Executive: Why Ancient Wisdom Still Rules Modern Leadership

Forbes

2 days ago

Anna Jankowska, Executive VP of Global Partnerships at RTB House and Adlook, leads the way in building high-impact business partnerships.
From time to time, my colleagues like to share the views of their favorite business and management gurus, and they recently asked me my opinion on authors writing about leadership. I mentioned some experts I thought highly of, but when it came to leadership philosophy, I could not hide my admiration for the Stoics, thinkers writing two thousand years ago.
The reflections of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus, a slave-turned-philosopher, among others, are still famous for their insights on living life well, but what can they tell us about business? Turns out, quite a lot.
In this article, I'd like to share with you my thoughts on how the core principles of Stoicism have direct, daily applications to management and leadership. I'll demonstrate how self-control is essential to effective business, how reason enables clear thinking and how embracing the four pillars of ancient virtue fosters team loyalty and supports informed decision making.
An Operating System For Uncertain Times
In business, the practice of Stoicism works as a framework for resilient, values-driven leadership more than as a personal philosophy. Let's start with control. One of my favourite leisure time activities is extreme sports, and to enjoy these, you need, among many things, self-discipline and the mastery of fear.
These qualities have a direct application in business because, as the Stoics observed, the only thing we can control with absolute certainty is ourselves. The control we have over our teams, clients or competitors is uncertain, but our minute-to-minute choices and the assumptions we base them on are ours and ours alone. That clarity is powerful. It's freeing. And it's where outstanding leadership begins.
The Four Virtues In Business And Work
For the Stoics, there were four cardinal virtues that arose from self-control: courage, wisdom, temperance and justice. In business today, a sense of justice can help us take a stand; wisdom will guide us on when to act, and courage enables us to do so without fear. Temperance empowers self-discipline and lightens the burden of work.
Let's unpack these and see how they play out on a day-to-day basis.
Wisdom at work isn't about accumulated knowledge or advanced degrees but about discerning—using big-picture thinking—what matters from what merely seems urgent.
Some people call this the helicopter view—stepping back far enough to see beyond the crisis, noise or email chatter. While others chase the latest management fad, the Stoic executive builds understanding through reflection, enriched by experience, with one question in mind: "Is this the best use of my energy?"
Not long ago, a colleague told me that they thought I had a courageous management style. It was a generous thing to say, but it caught me off guard and set me thinking. Management style is an extension of one's personality, developed through experience and habit. Executive responsibility gives it shape and forms it into a distinctive style.
The Stoics were often very senior leaders with high public profiles, and they realized that with power came responsibility. In business, the more senior you are, the greater your responsibility to make decisions that stem from mature reflection and to execute them without fear, fully aware of the risks.
For many, a precious virtue is spontaneity and a free-spirited embrace of impulsive, instinct-led choices. The accumulation of as much as possible is another popular goal—of fame, attention and, of course, money. Many businesses reflect these values, prioritizing maximum growth, recognition and market share as ultimate prizes.
In this environment, temperance, restraint and modesty seem revolutionary, even subversive. However, in business leadership, temperance is the exercise of emotional discipline—choosing not to vent when frustrated, using measured words instead of intemperate ones, timing actions carefully and resisting the impulse to rush in. True strength, I've found, lies in delaying gratification, refusing to indulge emotion and not giving way to knee-jerk responses. The Stoic business leader knows that a cool head, unexciting as it looks, always delivers a better return.
The fourth pillar of Stoic virtue, justice, can be the hardest to practice in a workplace where competitive egos, ambition and drive can distract from the quieter but no less essential values in a successful business: fairness, transparency and compassion.
Stoic leaders, such as Marcus Aurelius and the great Roman orator Cicero, were intensely preoccupied with justice and the language used to administer it. But language can very often be subjective; words are shaped by culture, history and even trauma. And these can be intensely individual. Ask 10 people to define "respect," and you'll hear 10 versions. The same applies to terms like "loyalty," "feedback" and "teamwork."
When discussing justice in the workplace, judgments must stem from a shared understanding of what words mean in different cultures, times and contexts. The just Stoic leader knows that every act of justice begins with an act of communication—honest and sometimes difficult, of course. And it is critical that this communication is reciprocal. By prioritizing mutual understanding through dialogue, clarity emerges, and that enables good decisions that everyone can buy into.
Ultimately, what we do matters less than how we do it. Stoicism has taught me that to deliver good leadership and innovative business, character and the ancient virtues give business leaders the ultimate competitive advantage. And that's as true now as it was two thousand years ago.
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