In his search to be a great leader, the young centurion sought out the Republic’s veteran warrior. Looking up from his labor, the sage spoke:
“I know not what beats beneath your tunic, but what I saw in a leader from foot soldiers to proconsul is thus:
One who makes drill bloodless combat and combat bloody drill…
One who disciplines the offense and not the offenders…
One whose heart is with the Legion and whose loyalty is to the Republic…
One who seeks the companionship of the long march and not the privilege of position…
One whose commission is assigned from above and confirmed from below…
One who knows the self and, therefore, is true to all…
One who seeks to serve and not to be served…
This is the one who leads best of all.”
Every hour be firmly resolved… to accomplish the work at hand with fitting and unaffected dignity, goodwill, freedom, justice. Banish from your thoughts all other considerations. This is possible if you perform each act as if it were your last, rejecting every frivolous distraction, every denial of the rule of reason, every pretentious gesture, vain show, and whining complaint against the decrees of fate. Do you see what little is required of a man to live a well-tempered and god-fearing life? Obey these precepts, and the gods will ask nothing more (II.5).
Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it. (II.4)
If you as a leader allow people to halfway do their jobs and don’t demand excellence as a prerequisite to keeping their job, you will create a culture of mediocrity. If you allow people to misbehave, underachieve, have a bad attitude, gossip, and generally avoid excellence, please don’t expect to attract and keep good talent. Please don’t expect to have an incredible culture.
Here’s a section from a very insightful book, which relates directly to the risk military leaders carry in being too busy to share information across echelons or worse, up and down the chain of command:
“…that’s a big reason why so many of us withhold information. It’s not that we want to keep people in the dark. It’s simply that we’re too busy. We mean well. We have good intentions. But we fail to get around to it. As a result we become bad at sharing information – whether it comes in the form of a news bulletin, or a heads-up, or instruction that teaches people how to do something that we don’t have the time to do ourselves. Over time it begins to look as if we are withholding information.
Being bad at sharing information doesn’t mean we are willfully withholding it. The two are not exactly the same. But the net result is the same in the eyes of the people around us.
How do you stop withholding information?
Simple answer: Start sharing it.”
If anything goes bad, I did it.
If anything goes semi-good, then we did it.
If anything goes real good, then you did it.
That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.
– Coach Bear Bryant
The essential tasks of the military leader, summarized by Dick Winters (2/506 Airborne Infantry Regiment, WWII):
“I may not have been the best combat commander, but I always strove to be. My men depended on me to carefully analyze every tactical situation, to maximize the resources that I had at my disposal, to think under pressure, and then to lead them by personal example.”
No strong man is without weakness (and no weak man is without strengths!); but a man of high character can be depended upon at all times.
If a follower can say of his leader, “I can depend on him, not necessarily always to be right, but to do his best and what he considers to be right. I know his word is good. I can depend upon him to be honorable in his dealings with me. I can depend on his moderation, his temperance, his fairness, his judgment. I trust him. I admire him,” that is the type of leader men have confidence in and whom men will die for.
Decisions are not easy in time of war, and the follower must believe in a decision that means life and death.
