Farewell Instructions in Leadership

  • Published
  • By Col. Theodore Corallo
  • 36th Contingency Response Group commander
In 1917, at the Second Training Camp, Fort Sheridan, Wyo., Maj. C. A. Bach gave farewell instructions to a graduating class of student officers. His farewell instructions were a soldier's analysis of how to be a leader. Timeless, his address to the men commissioned that day is as applicable now as it was then. Leadership matters, and how you conduct yourself as a leader matters even more.

There are several enduring and desirable leadership qualities, and they are especially well presented by a quiet and unassuming Army officer acting as an instructor at Fort Sheridan. While the address itself is written in the words of the time, the context in which they are written could easily be substituted with a modern setting. Similarly, while written for newly minted officers, the words are no less valuable for leaders at all levels in our modern Air Force. The Army of the past is no match for the professionalized noncommissioned officers of our current U.S. Air Force.

Major Bach begins his address by distinguishing military leadership from leadership in society. This provides an important contrast, and easily reminds one of our Air Force core values--integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do. Major Bach further describes the cold truth about leadership when he differentiates officers from leaders--a commission doesn't guarantee that one can lead. Similarly, a good set of farewell instructions won't do so either, but they can make you better and stronger when situationally applied.

In a short time each of you men will control the lives of a certain number of other men. You will have in your charge loyal, but untrained citizens, who look to you for instruction and guidance. Your word will be their law. Your most casual remark will be remembered. Your mannerism will be aped. Your clothing, your carriage, your vocabulary, your manner of command will be imitated. When you join your organization you will find there a willing body of men who ask from you nothing more than the qualities that will command their respect, their loyalty and their obedience. They are perfectly ready and eager to follow you so long as you can convince them that you have those qualities. When the time comes that they are satisfied you do not possess them you might as well kiss yourself goodbye. Your usefulness in that organization is at an end.


We have religious leaders, and political leaders, and society leaders. In all this leadership it is difficult, if not impossible to separate from the element of pure leadership that selfish element of personal gain or advantage to the individual, without which such leadership would lose its value. It is in the military service only, where men freely sacrifice their lives for a faith, where men are willing to suffer and die for the right or the prevention of a great wrong, that we can hope to realize leadership in its most exalted and disinterested sense. Therefore, when I say leadership, I mean military leadership.


When Major Bach finishes setting the stage for his graduating students, he then asks his officers, rhetorically, several questions about leadership. What is leadership? What must I do to become a leader? What are the attributes of leadership, and how can I develop them? Major Bach answers his own questions by explaining that leaders need to have a number of qualities, and the most important include the following: self-confidence, moral ascendancy, self-sacrifice, paternalism, fairness, initiative, dignity, and courage.

Self-confidence results, first, from exact knowledge; second, the ability to impart that knowledge. There is no substitute for accurate knowledge.

While self-confidence is the result of knowing more than your men, moral ascendancy over them is based upon your belief that you are the better man. To gain and maintain this ascendancy you must have self-control, physical vitality and endurance and moral force.

Self-sacrifice is essential to leadership. 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.

When I say that paternalism is essential to leadership, I use the term in its better sense. I do not now refer to that form of paternalism which robs men of initiative, self reliance, and self-respect. I refer to the paternalism that manifests itself in a watchful care for the comfort and welfare of those in your charge.

Fairness is another element without which leadership can neither be built up nor maintained. There must be first that fairness which treats all men justly. I do not say alike, for you cannot treat all men alike--that would be assuming that all men are cut from the same pieces that there is no such thing as individuality or a personal equation. You cannot treat all men alike; a punishment that would be dismissed by one man with a shrug of the shoulders is mental anguish for another.

Without initiative and decision no man can expect to lead. In maneuvers 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.

The element of personal dignity is important in military leadership. Be the friend of your men, but do not become their intimate. Your men should stand in awe of you--not fear. If your men presume to become familiar it is your fault,not theirs. Your actions have encouraged them to do so. And above all things, don't cheapen yourself by courting their friendship or currying their favor. They will despise you for it.

And then I would mention 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. Every time you change your orders without obvious reason you weaken your authority and impair the confidence of your men. Have the moral courage to stand by your order and see it through.


Major Bach finishes by encouraging leaders to "study men." While one may not know his enemy in war, he can know his own men. And in a modern Air Force, we should certainly know our Airmen. Study their strengths and weaknesses. "Know your men, know your business, know yourself." And while some leaders are born, and some are made, there is no perfect formula for how to be a good leader. However, how we act as leaders truly matters, and one can certainly learn from the timeless words of Major Bach that follows.

(Speech annotated below)




Leadership
Address by
Maj C. A. Bach, Giving Farewell Instructions
to the Graduating Student Officers
of the Second Training Camp at
Fort Sheridan, Wyoming, in 1917
Presented by Mr. Shipstead
27 November 1942

In a short time each of you men will control the lives of a
certain number of other men. You will have in your charge
loyal but untrained citizens, who look to you for instruction
and guidance. Your word will be their law. Your most casual
remark will be remembered. Your mannerism will be aped.
Your clothing, your carriage, your vocabulary, your manner
of command will be imitated.
When you join your organization you will find there a
willing body of men who ask from you nothing more than
the qualities that will command their respect, their loyalty,
and their obedience.
They are perfectly ready and eager to follow you so long
as you can convince them that you have those qualities.
When the time comes that they are satisfied you do not possess
them you might as well kiss yourself goodbye. Your
usefulness in that organization is at an end.
From the standpoint of society, the world may be divided
into leaders and followers. The professions have their leaders,
the financial world has its leaders. We have religious
leaders, and political leaders, and society leaders. In all this
leadership it is difficult, if not impossible to separate from
the element of pure leadership that selfish element of personal
gain or advantage to the individual, without which
such leadership would lose its value.
It is in the military service only, where men freely sacrifice
their lives for a faith, where men are willing to suffer
and die for the right or the prevention of a great wrong, that
we can hope to realize leadership in its most exalted and
disinterested sense. Therefore, when I say leadership, I mean
military leadership.
In a few days the great mass of you men will receive commissions
as officers. These commissions will not make you
leaders; they will merely make you officers. They will place
you in a position where you can become leaders if you possess
the proper attributes. But you must make good--not so
much with the men over you as with the men under you.
Men must and will follow into battle officers who are not
leaders, but the driving power behind these men is not enthusiasm
but discipline. They go with doubt and trembling, and
with an awful fear tugging at their heartstrings that prompts
the unspoken question, "What will he do next?"
Such men obey the letter of their orders but no more. Of
devotion to their commander, of exalted enthusiasm which
scorns personal risk, of their self-sacrifice to ensure his personal
safety, they know nothing. Their legs carry them forward
because their brain and their training tell them they
must go. Their spirit does not go with them.
Great results are not achieved by cold, passive, unresponsive
soldiers. They don't go very far and they stop as soon as
they can. Leadership not only demands but receives the willing,
unhesitating, unfaltering obedience and loyalty of other
men; and a devotion that will cause them, when the time
comes, to follow their uncrowned king to hell and back again
if necessary.
You will ask yourselves: "Of just what, then, does leadership
consist? What must I do to become a leader? What are
the attributes of leadership, and how can I cultivate them?"
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.
Let me discuss these with you in detail.
Self-confidence results, first, from exact knowledge; second,
the ability to impart that knowledge; and, third, the feeling
of superiority over others that naturally follows. All
these give the officer poise.
To lead, you must know--you may bluff all your men
some of the time, but you can't do it all the time. Men will
not have confidence in an officer unless he knows his business,
and he must know it from the ground up.
The officer should know more about paper work than his
first sergeant and company clerk put together; he should
know more about messing than his mess sergeant; more
about diseases of the horse than his troop farrier. He should
be at least as good a shot as any man in his company.
If the officer does not know, and demonstrates the fact that
he does not know, it is entirely human for the soldier to say to
himself, "To hell with him. He doesn't know as much about
this as I do," and calmly disregard the instructions received.
There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Become
so well informed that men will hunt you up to ask questions
that your brother officers will say to one another, "Ask
Smith--he knows."
And not only should each officer know thoroughly the
duties of his own grade, but he should study those of the two
grades next above him. A twofold benefit attaches to this. He
prepares himself for duties which may fall to his lot at any
time during battle; he further gains a broader viewpoint
which enables him to appreciate the necessity for the issuance
of orders and join more intelligently in their execution.
Not only must the officer know, but he must be able to put
what he knows into grammatical, interesting, forceful
English. He must learn to stand on his feet and speak without
embarrassment.
I am told that in British training camps student officers
are required to deliver 10-minute talks on any subject they
may choose. That is excellent practice. For to speak clearly
one must think clearly, and clear, logical thinking expresses
itself in definite, positive orders.
While self-confidence is the result of knowing more than
your men, moral ascendancy over them is based upon your
belief that you are the better man. To gain and maintain this
ascendancy you must have self-control, physical vitality and
endurance and moral force.
You must have yourself so well in hand that, even though
in battle you be scared stiff, you will never show fear. For if
you by so much as a hurried movement or a trembling of the
hand, or a change of expression, or a hasty order hastily
revoked, indicate your mental condition it will be reflected
in your men in a far greater degree.
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In garrison or camp many instances will arise to try your
temper and wreck the sweetness of your disposition. If at
such times you "fly off the handle" you have no business to
be in charge of men. For men in anger say and do things that
they almost invariably regret afterward.
An officer should never apologize to his men; also an
officer should never be guilty of an act for which his sense
of justice tells him he should apologize.
Another element in gaining moral ascendancy lies in the
possession of enough physical vitality and endurance to
withstand the hardships to which you and your men are subjected,
and a dauntless spirit that enables you not only to
accept them cheerfully but to minimize their magnitude.
Make light of your troubles, belittle your trials, and you
will help vitally to build up within your organization an
esprit whose value in time of stress cannot be measured.
Moral force is the third element in gaining moral ascendancy.
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.
A loud-mouthed, profane captain who is careless of his
personal appearance will have a loud-mouthed, profane,
dirty company. Remember what I tell you. Your company
will be the reflection of yourself. If you have a rotten company
it will be because you are a rotten captain.
Self-sacrifice is essential to leadership. 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.
You will give yourself mentally, in sympathy and
appreciation for the troubles of men in your charge. This
one's mother has died, and that one has lost all his savings in
a bank failure. They may desire help, but more than anything
else they desire sympathy.
Don't make the mistake of turning such men down with
the statement that you have troubles of your own, for every
time that you do, you knock a stone out of the foundation of
your house.
Your men are your foundation, and your house leadership
will tumble about your ears unless it rests securely upon them.
Finally, you will give of your own slender financial
resources. You will frequently spend your money to conserve
the health and well-being of your men or to assist them
when in trouble. Generally you get your money back. Very
infrequently you must charge it to profit and loss.
When I say that paternalism is essential to leadership, I
use the term in its better sense. I do not now refer to that
form of paternalism which robs men of initiative, selfreliance,
and self-respect. I refer to the paternalism that manifests
itself in a watchful care for the comfort and welfare of
those in your charge.
Soldiers are much like children. You must see that they
have shelter, food, and clothing, the best that your utmost
efforts can provide. You must be far more solicitous of their
comfort than of your own. You must see that they have food
to eat before you think of your own; that they have each as
good a bed as can be provided before you consider where
you will sleep. You must look after their health. You must
conserve their strength by not demanding needless exertion
or useless labor.
And by doing all these things you are breathing life into
what would be otherwise a mere machine. You are creating
a soul in your organization that will make the mass respond
to you as though it were one man. And that is esprit.
And when your organization has this esprit you will wake
up some morning and discover that the tables have been
turned; that instead of your constantly looking out for them
they have, without even a hint from you, taken up the task of
looking out for you. You will find that a detail is always
there to see that your tent, if you have one, is promptly
pitched; that the most and the cleanest bedding is brought to
your tent; that from some mysterious source two eggs have
been added to your supper when no one else has any; that an
extra man is helping your men give your horse a supergrooming;
that your wishes are anticipated; that every man is
Johnny-on-the-spot. And then you have arrived.
Fairness is another element without which leadership can
neither be built up nor maintained. There must be first that
fairness which treats all men justly. I do not say alike, for
you cannot treat all men alike--that would be assuming that
all men are cut from the same piece; that there is no such
thing as individuality or a personal equation.
You cannot treat all men alike; a punishment that would
be dismissed by one man with a shrug of the shoulders is
mental anguish for another. A company commander who for
a given offense has a standard punishment that applies to all
is either too indolent or too stupid to study the personality of
his men. In his case, justice is certainly blind.
Study your men as carefully as a surgeon studies a difficult
case. And when you are sure of your diagnosis apply the
remedy. And remember that you apply the remedy to effect
a cure, not merely to see the victim squirm. It may be necessary
to cut deep, but when you are satisfied as to your diagnosis
don't be divided from your purpose by any false sympathy
for the patient.
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 officer will hear
of it and shun you like a leper. In war there is glory enough for
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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 maneuvers 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
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.
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 have also the decision to order the
execution and stick to his orders.
Any reasonable order in an emergency is better than no
order. The situation is there. Meet it. It is better to do something
and do the wrong thing than to hesitate, hunt around for
the right thing to do and wind up by doing nothing at all.
And, having decided on a line of action, stick to it. Don't
vacillate. Men have no confidence in an officer who doesn't
know his own mind.
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.
You must frequently act without orders from higher
authority. Time will not permit you to wait for them. Here
again enters the importance of studying the work of officers
above you. If you have a comprehensive grasp of the entire
situation and can form an idea of the general plan of your
superiors, that and your previous emergency training will
enable you to determine that the responsibility is yours and
to issue the necessary orders without delay.
The element of personal dignity is important in military
leadership. Be the friend of your men, but do not become
their intimate. Your men should stand in awe of you--not
fear. If your men presume to become familiar it is your fault,
not theirs. Your actions have encouraged them to do so.
And above all things, 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.
And then I would mention 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.
Every time you change your orders without obvious reason
you weaken your authority and impair the confidence of
your men. Have the moral courage to stand by your order
and see it through.
Moral courage further demands that you assume the
responsibility for your own acts. If your subordinates have
loyally carried out your orders and the movement you
directed is a failure, the failure is yours, not theirs. Yours
would have been the honor had it been successful. Take the
blame if it results in disaster. Don't try to shift it to a subordinate
and make him the goat. That is a cowardly act.
Furthermore, you will need moral courage to determine the
fate of those under you. You will frequently be called upon for
recommendations for the promotion or demotion of officers
and noncommissioned officers in your immediate command.
Keep clearly in mind your personal integrity and the duty
you owe your country. Do not let yourself be deflected from a
strict sense of justice by feeling of personal friendship. If your
own brother is your second lieutenant, and you find him unfit
to hold his commission, eliminate him. If you don't, your lack
of moral courage may result in the loss of valuable lives.
If, on the other hand, you are called upon for a recommendation
concerning a man whom, for personal reasons you
thoroughly dislike, do not fail to do him full justice. Remember
that your aim is the general good, not the satisfaction of
an individual grudge.
I am taking it for granted that you have physical courage. I
need not tell you how necessary that is. Courage is more than
bravery. Bravery is fearlessness--the absence of fear. The
merest dolt may be brave, because he lacks the mentality to
appreciate his danger; he doesn't know enough to be afraid.
Courage, however, is that firmness of spirit, that moral
backbone, which, while fully appreciating the danger
involved, nevertheless goes on with the understanding.
Bravery is physical; courage is mental and moral. You may
be cold all over; your hands may tremble; your legs may
quake; your knees be ready to give way--that is fear. If,
nevertheless, you go forward; if in spite of this physical
defection you continue to lead your men against the enemy,
you have courage. The physical manifestations of fear will
pass away. You may never experience them but once. They
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are the "buck fever" of the hunter who tries to shoot his first
deer. You must not give way to them.
A number of years ago, while taking a course in demolitions,
the class of which I was a member was handling
dynamite. The instructor said regarding its manipulation: "I
must caution you gentlemen to be careful in the use of these
explosives. One man has but one accident." And so I would
caution you. If you give way to the fear that will doubtless
beset you in your first action, if you show the white feather,
if you let your men go forward while you hunt a shell crater,
you will never again have the opportunity of leading those
men.
Use judgment in calling on your men for display of physical
courage or bravery. Don't ask any man to go where you
would not go yourself. If your common sense tells you that
the place is too dangerous for you to venture into, then it is
too dangerous for him. You know his life is as valuable to
him as yours is to you.
Occasionally some of your men must be exposed to danger
which you cannot share. A message must be taken across
a fire-swept zone. You call for volunteers. If your men know
you and know that you are "right" you will never lack volunteers,
for they will know your heart is in your work, that
you are giving your country the best you have, that you
would willingly carry the message yourself if you could.
Your example and enthusiasm will have inspired them.
And, lastly, if you aspire to leadership, I would urge you
to study men.
Get under their skins and find out what is inside. Some
men are quite different from what they appear to be on the
surface. Determine the workings of their minds.
Much of Gen Robert E. Lee's success as a leader may be
ascribed to his ability as a psychologist. He knew most of his
opponents from West Point days, knew the workings of their
minds, and he believed that they would do certain things
under certain circumstances. In nearly every case he was
able to anticipate their movements and block the execution.
You do not know your opponent in this war in the same
way. But you can know your own men. You can study each to
determine wherein lies his strength and his weakness; which
man can be relied upon to the last gasp and which cannot.
Know your men, know your business, know yourself.
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