Initiative And Leadership
Hand in hand with fairness in awarding punishment walks fairness in
giving credit. Everybody hates a human hog. When one of your men
has accomplished an especially creditable piece of work see that he
gets the proper reward. Turn heaven and earth upside down to get it
for him. Don't try to take it away from him and hog it for yourself.
You may do this and get away with it, but you have lost the respect
and loyalty of your men.
Sooner or later your brother officers will hear of it and shun you like a leper. In war there is glory enough for all. Give the man under you his due. The man who always takes and never gives is not a leader. He is a parasite.
There is another kind of fairness - that which will prevent an officer from abusing the privileges of his rank. When you exact respect from soldiers be sure you treat them with equal respect. Build up their manhood and self-respect. Don't try to pull it down.
For an officer to be overbearing and insulting in the treatment of enlisted men is the act of a coward. He ties the man to a tree with the ropes of discipline and then strikes him in the face knowing full well that the man cannot strike back. Consideration, courtesy and respect from officers toward enlisted men are not incompatible with discipline. They are parts of our discipline.
Without initiative and decision no man can expect to lead. In manoeuvres you will frequently see, when an emergency arises, certain men calmly give instant orders which later, on analysis, prove to be, if not exactly the right thing, very nearly the right thing to have done. You will see other men in emergency become badly rattled; their brains refuse to work, or they give a hasty order, revoke it; give another, revoke that; in short, show every indication of being in a blue funk.
Regarding the first man you may say: "That man is a
genius. He hasn't had time to reason this thing out. He acts intuitively."
Forget it! Genius is merely the capacity for taking infinite pains. The man
who was ready is the man who has prepared himself. He has studied beforehand
the possible situations that might arise; he has made tentative plans
covering such situations. When he is confronted by the emergency he is ready
to meet it.
He must have sufficient mental alertness to appreciate the problem that confronts him and the power of quick reasoning to determine what changes are necessary in his already formulated plan. He must also have the decision to order the execution and stick to his orders. Any reasonable order in an emergency is better than no order.