Valuetainment - Episode 239 - Greatest Speech Ever on Leadership During WWI

00:00:00.000 30 seconds. One time for the underdog. One time for the underdog. Ignition sequence start.

00:00:06.960 Let me see you put them up. Reach the sky, turn the stars up above.

00:00:11.100 Cause it's one time for the underdog. One time for the underdog.

00:00:17.280 I'm Patrick Bedev, your host of Entertainment, and today I'm reading you a very famous speech

00:00:22.560 given by a leader in World War I that inspired me, and I hope it does the same thing to you as well.

00:00:27.900 There are a lot of great speeches I've heard on leadership. There's a lot of great

00:00:31.400 speeches I've read on leadership, but I've never read a talk on leadership like the one given by

00:00:37.060 Major C.A. Bach, who was an officer back in 1919, 1917 during World War I when he gave this message

00:00:45.800 to a group of new promoting officers. So imagine he's an instructor, he's at the second training

00:00:54.480 camp at Fort Sheridan, and he's given this talk, and you are an officer. A major comes up to give

00:00:59.820 this message to you on leadership. And let me tell you, the message was so profound that all the

00:01:05.860 officers kept talking about it, and they wanted the talk to reread it again, because one time wasn't

00:01:11.960 enough, to the point where the Daily Times Herald heard about it, and they went to the colonel,

00:01:17.380 colonel James R. Ryan, and they ended up getting the speech and publishing it on January 27, 1918.

00:01:25.240 So I'm going to read the whole talk to you. You may need to listen to it a couple times. It's

00:01:28.840 that powerful of a talk by Major C.A. Bach. Let's go right into it. Okay, so here's how it goes.

00:01:36.920 Try to close your eyes and visualize you are in a room. You're about to graduate to become an officer,

00:01:41.360 and a major comes up to prepare you on what it is to be a leader.

00:01:44.440 In a short time, each of you men will control the lives of a certain number of other men.

00:01:49.780 You will have in your charge loyal but untrained citizens who look to you for instruction and

00:01:54.420 guidance. Your world will be their law. Your most casual remark will be remembered. Your

00:02:00.800 mannerisms will be copied. Your clothing, your carriage, your vocabulary, your manner of command

00:02:05.380 will be imitated. When you join your organization, you will find there a willing body of men who ask

00:02:11.620 from you nothing more than the qualities that will command their respect or loyalty and their

00:02:15.500 obedience. They are perfectly ready and eager to follow you so as long as you can convince them

00:02:21.460 that you have those qualities. When the time comes that they are satisfied, you do not possess them,

00:02:27.380 you might as well kiss yourself goodbye. Your usefulness in that organization is at an end.

00:02:33.080 From the standpoint of society, the world may be divided into leaders and followers.

00:02:36.980 The professions have their leaders. The financial world has its leaders. We have religious leaders

00:02:42.840 and political leaders and society leaders. In all this leadership, it is difficult, if not impossible,

00:02:49.300 to separate from the element of pure leadership, that selfish element of personal gain or advantage

00:02:56.140 to the individual without which such leadership would lose its value. It is in the military service

00:03:02.980 only where men freely sacrifice their lives for a faith where men are willing to suffer and die 0.73

00:03:09.160 for the right or the prevention of a great wrong that we can hope to realize leadership in its most

00:03:15.380 exalted and disinterested sense. Therefore, when I say leadership, I mean military leadership.

00:03:22.120 In a few days, the great mass of you men will receive commissions as officers. These commissions will not

00:03:27.860 make you leaders. They will merely make you officers. They will place you in a position where you can

00:03:33.220 become leaders if you possess the proper attributes. But you must make good not so much with the men

00:03:38.260 over you as with the men under you. Men must and will follow you into battle officers who are not

00:03:43.920 leaders. But the driving force behind these men is not enthusiasm but discipline. They go with doubt

00:03:50.780 and trembling and with awful fear tugging at their heartstrings that prompts the unspoken question,

00:03:57.300 what will he do next? Such men obey the letter of their orders but no more. Of devotion to their

00:04:04.700 commander, of exalted enthusiasm which scorns personal risk of their self-sacrifice to ensure

00:04:10.300 his personal safety, they know nothing. Their legs carry them forward because their brain

00:04:16.620 and their training tell them they must go. Their spirit does not go with them. Great results are not

00:04:23.200 achieved by cold, passive, unresponsive soldiers. They don't go very far and they stop as soon as they

00:04:30.740 can. Leadership not only demands but receives the willing, unhesitating, unfaltering obedience

00:04:38.140 and loyal of other men and a devotion that will cause them when the time comes to follow their

00:04:44.180 uncrowned king to hell and back again if necessary. You will ask yourselves, of just what then does

00:04:51.560 leadership consist? What must I do to become a leader? What are the attributes of leadership and how can I

00:04:58.280 cultivate them? Leadership is a composite of a number of qualities. Among the most important, I would list

00:05:03.860 self-confidence, moral ascendancy, self-sacrifice, fairness, initiative, decision, dignity and courage.

00:05:11.420 Let me discuss these with you in detail. Self-confidence results, first, from exact

00:05:17.000 knowledge. Second, the ability to impart that knowledge. And third, the feeling of superiority

00:05:23.300 over others that naturally follows. All these give the officer poise. To lead, you must know you may

00:05:32.080 bluff all of your men some of the time, but you cannot do it all the time. Men will not have confidence in

00:05:37.900 an officer until he knows his business and he must know it from the ground up. The officer should know

00:05:43.780 more about their paperwork than the first sergeant and company clerk put together. He should know more

00:05:49.180 about messing than the mess sergeant, more about diseases of the horse than his troop ferry. He should

00:05:54.600 be at least good a shot as any man in his company. If the officer does not know and demonstrates the fact 0.78

00:06:01.640 that he does not know, it is entirely human for the soldier to say to himself, to hell with him. He

00:06:06.780 doesn't know as much about it as I do. And calmly disregard the instructions received. There is no

00:06:12.920 substitute for accurate knowledge. Become so well informed that men will hunt you up to ask questions

00:06:18.520 that your brother officers will say to one another, ask Smith, he knows. And not only should each officer

00:06:25.560 know thoroughly the duties of his own great, but he should study those of two greats next above him,

00:06:31.640 a twofold benefit attaches to this. He prepares himself for duties which may fall to his lot at

00:06:38.460 any time during battle. He further gains a broader viewpoint which enables him to appreciate the

00:06:44.840 necessity for the issuance of orders and join more intelligently in their execution. Not only must the

00:06:52.520 officer know, he must be able to put what he knows into grammatical, interesting, forceful English.

00:06:58.040 He must learn to stand on his feet and speak without embarrassment. I am told that in British

00:07:02.820 training camps, student officers are required to deliver 10-minute talks on any subject that they

00:07:07.160 may choose. That is excellent practice, for to speak clearly one must think clearly, and clear,

00:07:13.480 logical thinking expresses itself in its definite positive orders. While self-confidence is the result

00:07:19.880 of knowing more than your men. Moral ascendancy over them is based upon your belief that you are better

00:07:25.960 than them. To gain and maintain that ascendancy you must have self-control, physical vitality,

00:07:32.600 and endurance and moral force. You must have always so well in hand that even though in battle you be

00:07:38.680 scared stiff, you will never show fear. For if you, by so much as a hurried movement, or a trembling of

00:07:45.640 the hand, or a change of expression, or a hasty order, hastily revoked, indicate your mental condition,

00:07:52.200 it will be reflected in your men in a far greater degree. In garrison or camp, many instances will

00:07:58.280 arise to try your temper and wreck the sweetness of your disposition. If at such times you fly off the

00:08:04.760 handle, you have no business to be in charge of men. For men in anger say and do things that they almost

00:08:11.560 invariably regret afterward. An officer should never apologize to his men. Also an officer should

00:08:18.040 never be guilty of an act for which his sense of justice tells him he should apologize. Another

00:08:24.360 element in gaining moral ascendancy lies in the possession of enough physical vitality and endurance

00:08:29.080 to withstand the hardships to which you and your men are subjected, and a dauntless spirit that enables

00:08:35.400 you not only to accept them cheerfully, but to minimize their magnitude. Make light of your troubles,

00:08:41.400 belittle your trials, and you will help vitally to build up within your organization and a spirit

00:08:46.360 whose value in time of stress cannot be measured. Moral force is the third element in gaining moral

00:08:53.080 ascendancy. To exert moral force, you must live clean, you must have sufficient brain power to see the

00:08:59.400 right and will to do the right. Be an example to your men. An officer can be a power for good or power

00:09:06.120 for evil. Don't preach to them that will be worse than useless. Live the kind of life you would have 0.82

00:09:12.120 them lead, and you'll be surprised to see the number in them that will imitate you. A loud-mouthed,

00:09:18.280 profane captain who is careless of his personal appearance will have a loud-mouthed, profane, 0.94

00:09:24.120 dirty company. Remember what I tell you. Your company will be the reflection of yourself. If you 0.92

00:09:29.800 have a rotten company, it will be because you are a rotten captain. Self-sacrifice is essential to

00:09:36.280 leadership. You will give, give all the time. You will give yourself physically for the longest hours.

00:09:43.000 The hardest work and the greatest responsibility is the lot of the captain. He is the first man up in

00:09:48.360 the morning and the last man at night. He works while others sleep. You will give yourself

00:09:53.800 mentally in sympathy and appreciation for the troubles of men in your charge. This one's mother

00:09:59.240 has died, and that one has lost all his savings in a bank failure. They may desire help, but more

00:10:06.200 than anything else, they desire sympathy. Don't make the mistake of turning such men down with their

00:10:11.800 statement that you have troubles of your own. For every time you do that, you knock a stone out of the

00:10:16.680 foundation of your house. Your men are your foundation, and your house leadership will tumble

00:10:23.160 about your ears unless it rests securely upon them. Finally, you will give of your own slender

00:10:29.640 financial resources. You will frequently spend your money to convert the health and well-being of your

00:10:35.000 men or to assist them when in trouble. Generally, you get your money back. Very infrequently, you must charge

00:10:42.120 it to profit and loss. When I say that paternalism is essential to leadership, I use the term in its

00:10:48.520 better sense. I do not now refer to that form of paternalism which robs men of initiative, self-reliance,

00:10:54.520 and self-respect. I refer to the paternalism that manifests itself in a watchful care for the comfort

00:11:00.840 and welfare of those in your charge. Soldiers are much like children. You must see that they have shelter,

00:11:07.160 food, and clothing, the best that your utmost efforts can provide. You must be far more solicitous of their

00:11:13.240 comfort than your own. You must see that they have food to eat before you think of your own. That they have

00:11:18.120 each as good a bed as can be provided before you're considering where you will sleep. You must look after their

00:11:24.040 health. You must conserve their strength by not demanding needless exertion or useless labor. And by doing all these

00:11:30.360 things, you are breathing life into what would be otherwise a mere machine. You are creating a soul in your

00:11:36.040 organization that will make the mass respond to you as though it were one man. And that is a spirit.

00:11:42.680 And when your organization has that spirit, you will wake up some morning and discover that the tables

00:11:47.960 have been turned. That instead of you constantly looking out for them they have, without even a hint

00:11:53.160 from you taking up the task of looking out for you, you will find that a detail is always there to see

00:11:59.000 that your tent, if you have one, is promptly pitched. That the most and the cleanest bedding is brought to your

00:12:04.920 tent. That from some mysterious source two eggs have been added to your supper when no one else has

00:12:11.000 any. That an extra man is helping your men give your horse a super grooming. That your wishes are

00:12:17.640 anticipated. That every man is Johnny on the spot and then you have arrived. Fairness is another element

00:12:23.960 without which leadership can be neither be built up nor maintained. There must be first that fairness

00:12:30.440 which treats all men justly. I do not say alike for you cannot treat all men alike. That would be

00:12:36.680 assuming that all men are cut from the same piece. That there is no such thing as individuality or a

00:12:42.200 personal equation. You cannot treat all men alike. A punishment that would be dismissed by one man with 0.95

00:12:47.560 a shrug of the shoulders is mental anguish for another. A company commander who for a given offense

00:12:53.320 has a standard punishment that applies to all is either too indolent or too stupid to study the 1.00

00:12:59.480 personality of his men. In his case justice is certainly blind. Study your men as carefully as 0.99

00:13:06.200 a surgeon studies a difficult case. And when you are sure of your diagnosis apply the remedy. And remember

00:13:12.520 that you apply the remedy to effect a cure not merely to see the victim squirm. It may be necessary to cut

00:13:19.560 deep. But when you are satisfied as to your diagnosis don't be divided from your purpose by

00:13:25.560 any false sympathy for the patient. Hand in hand with fairness in awarding punishment walks fairness

00:13:32.120 in giving credit. Everybody hates a human hog. When one of your men has accomplished an especially 0.99

00:13:38.360 creditable piece of work see that he gets the proper reward. Turn heaven and earth upside down to get it

00:13:44.680 for him. Don't try to take it away from him and hog it for yourself. You may do this and get away with

00:13:50.040 it but you have lost respect and loyalty of your men. Sooner or later your brother officers will hear

00:13:56.440 of it and shun you like a leper. In war there is glory enough for all. Give the man under you his due. 0.97

00:14:03.720 The man who always takes and never gives is not a leader. He is a parasite. There is another kind of 1.00

00:14:09.320 fairness that which will prevent an officer from abusing the privileges of his rank. When you command

00:14:15.080 respect from soldiers be sure you treat them with equal respect. Build up their manhood and

00:14:20.440 self-respect. Don't try to pull it down. For an officer to be overbearing and insulting in the

00:14:25.400 treatment of enlisted men is the act of a coward. He ties the man of a tree with the ropes of discipline

00:14:32.200 and then strikes him in the face knowing full well that the men cannot strike back. Consideration,

00:14:37.800 courtesy and respect from officers toward enlisted men are not incompatible with discipline. They are

00:14:45.160 parts of our discipline. Without initiative and decision no man can expect to lead. In maneuvers you

00:14:51.000 will frequently see when an emergency arises certain men calmly give instant orders which later on analysis

00:14:58.680 prove to be if not exactly the right thing very nearly the right thing to have done. You will see other

00:15:04.280 men in emergency become badly rattled. Their brains refuse to work or they give a hasty order revoke it.

00:15:11.000 Give another revoke that. In short show every indication of being in a blue funk. Regarding the

00:15:17.480 first man you may say that man is a genius. He hasn't had time to reason this thing out. He acts intuitively.

00:15:25.000 Forget it. Genius is merely the capacity for taking infinite pains. The man who was ready is the man who has

00:15:31.880 prepared himself. He has studied beforehand the possible situation that might arise. He has made

00:15:37.560 tentative plans covering those situations. When he is confronted by the emergency he is ready to meet

00:15:43.400 it. He must have sufficient mental alertness to appreciate the problems that confronts him and the

00:15:49.000 power of quick reasoning to determine what changes are necessary in his already formulated plan. He must have

00:15:56.680 the decision to order the execution and stick to his orders. Any reasonable order in an emergency is

00:16:02.760 better than no order. The situation is there. Meet it. It is better to do something and do the wrong

00:16:08.680 thing than to hesitate, hunt around for the right thing to do and wind up doing nothing at all. And

00:16:15.160 having decided on a line of action stick to it. And having decided on a line of action stick to it. Don't vacillate.

00:16:23.320 Men have no confidence in an officer who doesn't know his own mind. Occasionally you will be called

00:16:27.880 upon to meet a situation which no reasonable human being could anticipate. If you have prepared

00:16:33.960 yourself to meet other emergencies which you could anticipate, the mental training you have thereby

00:16:39.400 gained will enable you to act promptly and with calmness. You must frequently act without orders

00:16:46.440 from higher authority. Time will not permit you to wait for them. Here again enters the importance of

00:16:52.040 studying the work of officers above you. If you have a comprehensive grasp of the entire situation

00:16:57.400 and can form an idea of the general plan of your superiors, that and your previous emergency

00:17:03.080 training will enable you to determine that the responsibility is yours and to issue the necessary

00:17:08.360 orders without any delay. The element of personal dignity is also important in military leadership.

00:17:14.280 Be the friend of your men, but do not become their intimate. Your men should stand in awe of you,

00:17:19.400 not in fear. If your men presume to become familiar, it is your fault, not theirs. Your actions have

00:17:25.640 encouraged them to do so. And above all things, don't cheapen yourself by courting their friendship

00:17:30.840 or currying their favor. They will despise you for it. If you are worthy of their loyalty and respect

00:17:36.680 and devotion, they will surely give all these without asking. If you are not, nothing that you can do

00:17:43.160 will win them over. And then I would mention courage. Moral courage you need as well as physical courage.

00:17:50.040 That kind of moral courage which enables you to adhere without faltering to a determined course of

00:17:56.360 action which your judgment has indicated as the one best suited to secure the desired results.

00:18:03.720 Every time you change your orders without obvious reason, you weaken your authority and impair the

00:18:09.080 confidence of your men. Have the moral courage to stand by your order and see it through. Moral courage

00:18:15.400 further demands that you assume the responsibility for your own acts. If your subordinates have loyalty

00:18:20.920 carried out your orders and the movement you directed is a failure, the failure is yours, not theirs.

00:18:26.680 Yours would have been the honor had it been successful. Take the blame if the result is a disaster.

00:18:32.280 Don't try to shift it to a subordinate and make him the GOAT. That is a cowardly act. Furthermore, 0.96

00:18:37.880 you will need moral courage to determine the fate of those under you. You will frequently be called

00:18:43.560 upon for recommendations for the promotion or demotion of officers and non-commissioned officers

00:18:49.000 in your immediate command. Keep clearly in mind your personal integrity and the duty you owe your country.

00:18:54.920 Do not let yourself be deflected from a strict sense of justice by feeling of personal friendships.

00:19:00.600 If your own brother is your second lieutenant and you can find him unfit to hold his commission,

00:19:07.000 eliminate him. If you don't, your lack of moral courage may result in the loss of valuable lives.

00:19:14.040 If, on the other hand, you are called upon for a recommendation concerning a man whom,

00:19:18.520 for personal reasons you thoroughly dislike, do not fail to do him full justice. Remember,

00:19:24.360 your aim is the general good, not the satisfaction of an individual grudge.

00:19:28.920 I am taking it for granted that you have physical courage. I need not tell you how necessary that is.

00:19:34.920 Courage is more than bravery. Bravery is fearlessness, the absence of fear.

00:19:39.320 The merest dolt may be brave because he lacks the mentality to appreciate his danger. He doesn't

00:19:46.680 know enough to be afraid. Courage, however, is that firmness of spirit, that moral backbone, which,

00:19:54.040 while fully appreciating the danger involved, nevertheless goes on with the understanding.

00:20:00.360 Bravery is physical. Courage is mental and moral. You may be cold all over. Your hands may tremble.

00:20:07.480 Your legs may quake. Your knees be ready to give away. That is fear. If, nevertheless, you go forward,

00:20:14.360 if, in spite of this physical defection, you continue to lead your men against the enemy,

00:20:19.320 you have courage. The physical manifestations of fear will pass away. You may never experience them

00:20:25.800 but once. They are the buck fever of the hunter who tries to shoot his first deer. You must not

00:20:32.840 give way to them. A number of years ago, while taking a course in demolition, the class of which

00:20:37.720 I was a member was handling dynamite. The instructor said, regarding its manipulation,

00:20:43.880 I must caution you gentlemen to be careful in the use of these explosives. One man has but one accident.

00:20:50.760 And so I would caution you, if you give way to the fear that will doubtless beset you in your first

00:20:58.040 action, if you show the white feather, if you let your men go forward while you hunt a shell crater,

00:21:05.400 you will never again have the opportunity of leading those men. Use judgment and calling on

00:21:11.480 your men for display of physical courage or bravery. Don't ask any man to go where you would not go

00:21:17.240 yourself. If your common sense tells you that the place is too dangerous for you to venture into,

00:21:22.440 then it's too dangerous for him. You know his life is as valuable to him as yours is to you.

00:21:27.640 Occasionally, some of your men must be exposed to danger, which you cannot share. A message must be

00:21:34.600 taken across a fire-swept zone. You call for volunteers. If your men know you and know that

00:21:41.080 you are right, you will never lack volunteers, for they will know your heart is in your work,

00:21:46.920 that you are giving your country the best you have, that you would willingly carry the message

00:21:51.720 yourself if you could. Your example and enthusiasm will have them inspired. And lastly, if you aspire to

00:22:00.600 leadership, I would urge you to study men. Get under their skin and find out what's on the inside.

00:22:06.760 Some men are quite different from what they appear to be on the surface. Determine the workings of

00:22:12.440 their minds. Much of General Robert E. Lee's success as a leader may be ascribed to his ability as a

00:22:19.240 psychologist. He knew most of his opponents from West Point days, knew the working of their minds, and he

00:22:26.040 believed that they would do certain things under certain circumstances. In nearly every case,

00:22:32.360 he was able to anticipate their movements and block the execution. You do not know your opponent in

00:22:38.120 this war in the same way, but you can know your own men. You can study each to determine wherein

00:22:43.960 lies his strength and his weakness, which men can be relied upon to the last gasp and which cannot.

00:22:50.200 Know your men. Know your business. Know yourself. The first time I read this speech, I had the chills

00:22:56.760 all over my body. I had to re-read it two more times for me to really internalize it because of

00:23:02.200 how much was covered in this. If you are in a business where you're leading other people,

00:23:07.000 where you have other people that they're leading, this is a recording for them to listen to, and not

00:23:12.040 just listen to, but to study. This is not a recording to just hear it one time, get off and say,

00:23:16.840 this is it. This was great. I got a few things out of it. It's to study a message that was given

00:23:21.880 to prepare leaders on how to become leaders, because at the end of the day, any business,

00:23:26.280 anything you do, anything that grows, grows because there's a leader somewhere around that

00:23:31.960 organization or society that's inspiring people to lead, that's injecting belief in other people.

00:23:39.240 So if you can study any subject, leadership would be it. Thanks everybody for listening,

00:23:43.720 and by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so. Give us

00:23:48.680 a five-star, write a review if you haven't already, and if you have any questions for me that you may

00:23:53.080 have, you can always find me on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube. Just search my name,

00:23:58.120 Patrick MidDavid, and I actually do respond back when you snap me or send me a message on Instagram.

00:24:04.120 With that being said, have a great day today. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye.

Valuetainment - January 03, 2019

Episode 239 - Greatest Speech Ever on Leadership During WWI

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