Leadership on the battlefield and beyond

Phillip Delves Broughton:

After leading his men and elephants across the Alps, the Carthaginian general Hannibal was faced with a new problem: inspiring his forces to fight the Roman army. They had rushed across the frozen mountain passes to take the enemy, still in winter quarters, by surprise. But the insane exploit had a cost: The surviving forces were bedraggled and ill-fed. Besides, nearly half the elephants had died.

Rather than launching into a motivational speech, Hannibal decided to put on a show, an ultimate fighting contest between the prisoners he had acquired in the mountains. He told these grizzled Gauls that a few would be chosen to fight each other. Whoever lost would, of course, die. But whoever won would be sent on his way, free and armed. The Gauls happily snatched up their weapons and beat the daylights out of each other.

As they watched, the Carthaginians realized that they admired equally the victors and those who died honorably. Hannibal's point was that he and his men were in the same, desperate position: Behind them were the mountains, on each side seas, and circling them the river Po. Ahead lay the Romans. It was time, he said, to "conquer or die" with honor. Eventually, most would do the latter, but only after some brutal and improbable victories.

Management experts today would probably not see a battle-to-the-death as a reasonable means of rallying the troops. But it is hard to dismiss the idea that legendary generals of the past can teach today's businessmen how to lead. There is a Fleet Street legend of a newspaper proprietor who owned what he believed to be Napoleon's testicles, pickled in a jar. Whenever he was faced with a big decision he would grip the jar, hoping to channel Boney's mojo. True or not, the story is consistent with how many of us approach the mystery of leadership.

In truth, great leaders come in many guises, with mixed qualities. There are battlefield commanders who possess courage and guile but lack the temperament to lead in peace. (Once Hannibal's battlefield days were over, he became a shiftless wanderer.) There are political campaign bosses who thrive in a tightly fought election but wither under the administrative burdens of office. There are cult leaders whose beliefs are toxic but whose force of personality can persuade their followers to heroic acts—or to murder and suicide.

... Caesar's emphasis on the ruthless elimination of enemies is not a strategy available to leaders today. But other lessons are, Mr. Yenne argues. The leader of any organization can learn from Caesar's mastery of Rome's military and civil bureaucracies and his use of oratory at crucial moments to rally his battered forces. Caesar's victories came in rapid succession, but Mr. Yenne also rightly marvels at the way Caesar waited and observed his enemies before making his lethal strikes....In "Atatürk: Lessons in Leadership From the Greatest General of the Ottoman Empire," Austin Bay notes that Atatürk's great skill was in relating each immediate dilemma to long-term potential outcomes. Rather than lunging into battle, Atatürk was a stickler for study, observation and strategy. "He fought Gallipoli's first hours with binoculars, not a sword," Mr. Bay writes, a trait that would serve him well time and again....

There is much more.

I am a military history buff, and I enjoy seeing how the "Great Captains" as Napoleon called them handled their battles.   In this piece the author looks at three of the more successful and tries to translate their gifts to the boardroom.  It is a good read.  I think I probably need to catch up with Ataturk at Gallipoli.  I have mostly read about it from the losing British side.  It was one of Churchill's biggest mistake.