Christopher Columbus: Leader or Deceiver?

Christopher Columbus was truly not a great leader. His accomplishments may have given him a great reputation, but all in all, his leadership skills blemished. People think of him as a great leader because of all he did, but there is a difference between method and product.

Christopher Columbus made a deal with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to travel to the Indies, islands in the southwest where spices grew. With a little bit of persuasion and compromise, the king and queen aided Columbus with his journey. They supplied crewmen, food, ships and other necessities. They asked for the people he met there to be converted to Christianity and the king and queen also wanted a slice of the rich Asian spices. They did not receive it.

When Columbus was back, he was denied all help from the king and queen. This was obviously karma, because as a leader, Columbus did not live up to his word of the king and queen’s demands. Even though the king and queen heavily aided Columbus with the journey to the Indies, Columbus did not repay them back. This is a poor sense of leadership, not being honest and living up to your end of the deal.

 This journey consisted of many objectives, but Columbus truthfully didn’t meet any of them. He only THOUGHT he did. When he arrived to his perception of the “Indies”, he added the Taino people there to his crew. He named this newly discovered land San Salvador. He needed the Taino people to be his guides. Even though it is good to use your resources and recruit people to your group, Columbus did not know the geographical locations of the other lands and islands full of riches, such as Espanola (Hispaniola). This showed another sign of poor leadership. No fluent knowledge in what you are doing.

At his time at the new lands, Columbus was naming them under the authority of the king and queen. As he spent his time on the various islands, he found many riches. He was convinced this newly discovered land was Asia (Not knowing this for fact), and reported back to Spain, leaving 39 of his men behind. This shows that Columbus didn’t treat his team as a whole. He was more centered on himself, not his crew as a whole.

When Columbus arrived 10 months later, all of his crewmembers were dead. They deceived the natives of the land by stealing their belongings. Columbus did not have stable control of his crew and left them behind, leaving them dead!

From these Facts to Inferences, you see that Columbus was not a great leader. He was highly task-centered and not team-affiliated. He didn’t even complete his task! Again, he only THOUGHT he was in Asia. He lacked teamwork, knowledge, honesty and living up to his end of the agreement. This is why after his voyages he was denied any help. In my opinion, Columbus did not fulfill his duties in being an effective leader, even though he changed the world’s perception of the Earth.