“There are no bad soldiers, only bad generals” –- Napoleon
The book The Generals by Thomas Ricks struck such a chord with me on the topic of leadership and team building, that I feel compelled to share the key points of the book. With the global political crisis looming in September of 1939, Gen. George C. Marshall received a clear directive from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His mission was to build a world class army, and fast. He inherited a feeble ill-equipped army of 190,000 troops. Many of the officers were hold over veterans from World War I waiting to retire.
What was the first step he took knowing he had to build a giant Army 40 times its current size? He fired 600 officers, keeping only 11 of 43 generals. He created a preferred leader profile and objectively removed those leaders who were risk averse, plodding, or lacking the energy, passion and skills needed to perform at the top most level.
What was the outcome of this risky leadership move? From 1939 to 1944, the Army grew from 190,000 troops to over 8 million. It was an army that made mistakes, but learned and adapted from those mistakes at a pace that left British leaders astonished. The initial firings created opportunity, attracting the best young, flexible and eager to learn leaders who were engaged in growing their military careers. In 1941, Eisenhower was a colonel, rising to become a Three-Star General and Commander in Chief of the Allied forces in the following year; that is three promotional levels in one year.
Marshall’s secret was respecting the strategy of relieving officers as being part of the process of individual development and growth, and is essential to protecting the desired organizational culture. Accountability becomes the energy behind adaptability, when leaders delay terminations, they also diminish the rigor of the organization’s culture. The risk of getting fired is the price leaders pay for having a high level of autonomy and the freedom to be self-directed. Marshall said, “When a general complains of the morale of his troops, the time has come to look at his own.”
Does your company suffer from Institutional Mediocrity?
Fast forward to modern times, and rarely is a general relieved of duty. The few times it does happen it’s for personal foibles, not for performance in command, and it is done by civilian leaders, not within the ranks of military leadership. In the Iraq War, a private who loses his rifle receives a heavier penalty than a general with weak command who loses the battle, or even the war. Former Gen. James Mattis (now the secretary of defense) is the one of a few Army leaders to relieve a general in the past 20 years. Mattis was quoted as saying, “Even Jesus Christ had one out of 13 not make the cut.” His vision of accountability driving adaptive growth is a glimmer of light.
What is the result of this culture in our time? Brig. Gen. Mark Arnold commented that when 94% of all colonels receive a promotion in the same year, “that rings loudly of institutionalizing mediocrity.. The personnel equivalent of Gresham’s Law is that bad leaders drive out good ones. A study in 2010 by the Army Research Institute concluded “that the main reason talented people leave is not the lure of a lucrative civilian career, but because mediocre people stay in and get promoted.”
Thomas Ricks does his homework as Pulitzer Prize-winning authors should, referencing personal letters, diaries and testimonials to deliver a nuanced perspective of every general since Word War II, in a candid style. It’s a leadership themed book with much to be mined. Many stories of great generals–Bradley, Abrams, Ridgeway, DePuy–can be added to the list alongside Marshall and Eisenhower as models for us to strive towards. Reading how tactical focus not only undermines the ability to think strategically, but seems to erode desire to do so was insightful. However, by far the most shocking revelation are the seemingly endless examples of the power of personnel policy.
What does this mean to the leaders in the Building Products Industry?
For 20 years I have had the privilege of watching and working with many owners, leaders and companies across the U.S. as a national recruiter. Where we see a strong owner and a top leader, we can predict that company will gain market share. And where we’ve seen weak and incapable owners and leaders whose egos make them helpless, we know it will be easy to recruit away their best talent. In our work as recruiters, both lists are equally important.
