Not your father’s leadership talk. In fact, not even your grandfather’s. This is your great-grandfather’s leadership talk — and it may be the best one ever given.
A couple of years ago, I stumbled upon what I believe to be the most relevant, hard-hitting leadership talk of all time. It wasn’t on YouTube. It wasn’t a TED talk. It was delivered in 1917, to Army officer candidates preparing to ship out for World War I. I found it buried in Napoleon Hill’s 1925 manuscript The Law of Success.
In an age of LinkedIn platitudes and buzzword-heavy seminars, this century-old address cuts through with brutal clarity. It’s the talk that new managers desperately need. It’s the talk their bosses should have heard before promoting them. And it’s the talk we ought to be instilling in our kids when we try to explain what leadership really means.
The occasion was grim. The young officers at Fort Sheridan, Wyoming were about to leave for Europe, to lead American troops into trench warfare, disease, bombardment, and cold. Their farewell address was delivered by Major Christian Albert Bach, who laid out the essence of leadership:
“Leadership is a composite of a number of qualities. Among the most important I would list self-confidence, moral ascendency, self-sacrifice, paternalism, fairness, initiative, decision, dignity, courage.”
With apologies to Bach, here are his qualities in bullet form, in his own words:
- Self-Confidence – “Poise results from knowledge of how to accomplish a task, the ability to teach that knowledge to others and the self-satisfaction that naturally follows.”
- Moral Ascendency – “You must have self-control, physical vitality and endurance and moral force… To exert moral force you must live clean, you must have sufficient brain power to see the right and the will to do right. Be an example to your men. An officer can be a power for good or a power for evil. Don’t preach to them—that will be worse than useless. Live the kind of life you would have them lead, and you will be surprised to see the number that will imitate you.”
- Self-Sacrifice – “You will give, give all the time. You will give yourself physically, for the longest hours, the hardest work and the greatest responsibility is the lot of the captain. He is the first man up in the morning and the last man in at night. He works while others sleep.”
- Paternalism – “Watchful care for the comfort and welfare of those in your charge.”
- Fairness – “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.”
- Decision – “The man who was ready is the man who has prepared himself. He has studied beforehand the possible situation that might arise, he has made tentative plans covering such situations. When he is confronted by the emergency he is ready to meet it… Occasionally you will be called upon to meet a situation which no reasonable human being could anticipate. If you have prepared yourself to meet other emergencies which you could anticipate, the mental training you have thereby gained will enable you to act promptly and with calmness.”
- Dignity – “Don’t cheapen yourself by courting their friendship or currying their favor. They will despise you for it. If you are worthy of their loyalty and respect and devotion they will surely give all these without asking. If you are not, nothing that you can do will win them.”
- Courage – “Moral courage you need as well as physical courage—that kind of moral courage which enables you to adhere without faltering to a determined course of action which your judgment has indicated as the one best suited to secure the desired results.”
These are the qualities that we still yearn for in today’s managers. Assembly line workers, technicians, and service staff don’t want to be “managed.” They want to be led by people who embody self-confidence, fairness, dignity, and courage.
Once a budding leader has mastered these qualities, only then should they begin to exert their “vision” on others.
A century later, the trenches have changed. They’re factory floors, classrooms, office suites, hospitals. But the call of Major Bach still echoes: we don’t need louder voices, we need steadier hands.
So if you want to read one of the finest talks on leadership ever given, go Google it, or grab a copy of Napoleon Hill’s The Law of Success. It will be worth your time.