“Lead me, follow me or get out of my way.” (George S. Patton)

There appears to be some level of disagreement as to the origin of this quote but I like Patton’s version the best and given his personality it seems quite possible that he used the quote this way. As I sit here today pondering my own take on this classic declaration of intent, I think Patton expressed something that is even more important today than it was in WWII. Every one of us alive today must decide where we fit in this paradigm of responsibility and very few people ever give this process any thought at all. Therein lies the problem for society – we all seem to be in the way.

When I was a boy, I had great role models. My mom and dad were great parents and I was surrounded by an extended family of aunts, uncles and grandparents who expected great things from me. They taught me the basic steps of learning to lead by first teaching me how to follow. Leadership skills come from understanding the needs of those who are following. Clear direction, coaching, accountability and gratitude are the hallmarks of great leaders and those skills come from being a good follower first. General Patton was a great leader because he understood what his men wanted from him and how to get the most out of them in every battle. He led from the front of the line not the back.

That seems to be the key difference between managers and leaders, in my opinion. Managers are more often in the office making decisions than out on the line leading their team. People know the difference. That’s why there are so few great leaders alive today, because business schools teach management principles not leadership skills. I don’t believe you can teach leadership from a book, it has to be learned in the real world. I know that’s where I learned it. I watched my grandfather take the lead every time I was with him. He recognized the problem, came up with a solution and went to work fixing the problem. All I had to do was help by doing whatever he asked and sometimes he expected a lot from a skinny kid with few skills. And the single most important thing he always did was thank me when we finished. I can’t tell you how great I felt when he smiled at me and said “Good job Guy.”

I would love to hear from my readers about the last time they had that kind of interaction with their manager. I’m assuming that few, if any, of my readers actually work for great leaders because it has been years since I met one. The world we live in today is so homogenized and generic that it isn’t conducive to breeding leaders. Business school management has reduced problem solving skills to a set of balance sheet numbers that are so important that skills like critical thinking aren’t even part of the curriculum. I see this every day in the way Corporate America runs the show. If they can eliminate payroll with another process, they will do it every time because people are their biggest expense. Good leadership is very, very difficult and it’s much harder to quantify with a number. It’s much easier to hire business school graduates and just tell them to look at the balance sheet. They don’t get to ask questions, they don’t get to fail and try again, they don’t get to think critically and they never get to develop leadership skills that could actually pay off in the future.

I learned the most about leadership from my failures not my successes. I learned to review myself first before I ever chewed out an employee. If I hadn’t done everything in my power to make that person successful, then I was just as much to blame as they were and therefore I had to change myself first, then I could reasonably expect them to improve their performance. It took me years of critical thinking to make this realization but once I did, everything got better for all of us. That’s the most important part of leadership – honesty. Being truthful with yourself is the only way you can expect others to be truthful as well. Numbers may not lie but people do, frequently.

So, given that we live in a world where great leaders are few and far between, what can we do to change the world in a way that might benefit all of us? First, let’s be honest with each other. None of us is perfect. We all have prejudices. We all have blind spots caused by our own ignorance. We all need to change our behavior. We all need to expect more from ourselves first before we expect more from others. We all need to admit that we need each other. Most of all we need to be forgiven. I believe forgiveness is the single most important part of leadership. We’re going to fail. It happens every day and everywhere. Forgiveness is the only cure for failure. Carrying around the weight caused by failure is a guarantee that it will continue to happen. Forgiveness lifts that burden and enables us to look for solutions. Let’s start with honesty, accept our failings as inevitable, move past the grief, learn to forgive without exception and then find a better way for all of us to succeed as a whole society.

That’s the role great leaders play in the real world. They find a better way. Let’s start instilling that belief system in our children right now. All of us are good at something. Let’s figure out what it is that we love doing and do well and then take the lead in that area of life. If others have different skills, then let them lead and be a good follower. I’m certain General Patton was a great military commander but I’m equally certain he would have failed at customer service where I work now. I don’t want to go to war but I’m glad he did.

Life shouldn’t be a game that is only played to decide who wins and who loses. We all lose in the end. That outcome is absolutely certain. Knowing that is the final outcome should free us up to be better at living. We only get so many days to make a difference for the world in general. How we live out those days is totally up to us to decide and make it happen. I, for one, would rather die trying to make the world better for everybody than give up the fight. I have good leadership skills in certain areas of life and I feel obliged to make the most of them. I’m not good at other things and I will gladly follow someone who is more qualified than I, as long as they’re honest about the goal and the process for getting there.

I think it’s the last part of the quote that needs to be given equal importance. We have to be willing to get out of the way when necessary. All of this constant debate about every last word is a huge waste of time and does nothing to move us forward as a society. We must not confuse action with progress. It’s easy to look busy without ever making a difference. Great leaders know how to keep things moving in the direction of the goal and they don’t waste time on things that don’t contribute to achieving the goal. The best leaders know how to remove all the obstacles that stand in the way of progress and we should all strive to get out of their way whenever possible.

©Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com, 2024. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Guy R. Horst and grhgraph.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.