Abstract
Catherine the Great—renowned for making Russia a world power in the late eighteenth century—is universally recognized for her legacy of territorial expansion, autocratic rule, and unconventional romance. However, this powerful czarina’s leadership style and strategic genius were much more nuanced than this list, on its own, might suggest. She was a masterful and empathetic manager of talented people, a pioneer in using systems of merit-based performance rather than arbitrary patronage, and a skilled builder of internal and external networks—just to mention a few of her impressive managerial attributes.
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- 1.
Dixon, Catherine 2009, 283; Rounding 428.
- 2.
Rounding 48.
- 3.
Dixon, Catherine 2009, 134.
- 4.
Dixon, Catherine 2009, 204.
- 5.
Smith 144 (Catherine to Potemkin 20/07/1783), 145 (Catherine to Potemkin 26/07/1783), 150 (Catherine to Potemkin 13/08/1783).
- 6.
Dixon, Catherine 2009, 186.
- 7.
Smith 205 (Catherine to Potemkin 02/10/1787).
- 8.
Smith 213 (Catherine to Potemkin 23/11/1787) and 215 (Potemkin to Catherine 25/12/1787) and 334 (Catherine to Potemkin 30/12/1787).
- 9.
Dixon, Catherine 2009, 134; Rounding 177–178.
- 10.
Smith 41 (Catherine to Potemkin 29/07/1774), 48 (Catherine to Potemkin December 1774), 58 (Catherine to Potemkin March 1775), 110 (Catherine to Potemkin 23/05/1780).
- 11.
Dixon, Catherine 2001, 143.
- 12.
Dixon, Catherine 2001, 143.
- 13.
Rounding 199.
- 14.
Smith 10 (Catherine to Potemkin 21/02/1774).
- 15.
For example Smith 255 (Potemkin to Catherine 18/07/1788) and 382 (Potemkin to Catherine 29/04/1791); Dixon Catherine 2009.
- 16.
Smith 371.
- 17.
Smith xxxii and 6 and 10 (Catherine to Potemkin 21/02/1774).
- 18.
See Wortman 7: The literary and dramatic presentations of the monarch where mythic in two senses of the word: they imitated or made reference to heroic and legendary archetypes, and they provided an animating political myth of rule.
- 19.
Rounding 429.
- 20.
Smith 251 (Catherine to Potemkin 26/06/1788) and 254 (Catherine to Potemkin 17/07/1788).
- 21.
Smith 382 (Potemkin to Catherine 29/04/1791).
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Vanderbroeck, P. (2014). Catherine the Great: Leading Strategic Growth. In: Leadership Strategies for Women. Management for Professionals. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39623-6_5
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