561: The Art Of Command. Action, Initiative, and Judgement.

Jocko Willink (0:00)

This is Jocko Podcast No. 561 with Echo Charles and me, Jocko Willink. Good evening, Echo.

Echo Charles (0:04)

Good evening.

Jocko Willink (0:04)

So General Melvin Zais was born May of 1916 in Fall River, Massachusetts, graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1937 He spent some time in the Reserves after doing the ROTC program, got his commission, and then he was brought into active duty. Guess what? World War II. WWII immediately volunteered for a Parachute Trooper Unit assigned to the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment. Also spent time at the 517th Parachute Infantry Regiment. As we know, very fond of the of the Parachute Infantry Regiments. Of course, he fought in Italy, Southern France, Battle of Bulge, and then the Korean War. He served as a Military Advisor to a Turkish Brigade. And then in Vietnam, he was a Commanding General of the 101st. Also the Commanding General of the 24th Corps in Vietnam. So this guy had a bunch of very high-ranking military leadership positions, but started off on the front in a bunch of time in combat. He eventually was promoted to the 4-star General, appointed to the Commander, Allied Land Forces, Southeastern Europe, which is... There's no war going on at the time, so it's a cool position, but it's not, you know, a combat scenario. He's the recipient of four Army Distinguished Service Medals, two Silver Stars, three Legions of Merit, two Distinguished Flying Crosses, Bronze Star and Purple Heart. So he saw a lot, he learned a lot, and he passed some of these lessons on about a year after he retired. He retired in 1976 and 1977 He made a speech, and I think it's something that we can all learn a little from. So let's get into the speech. The speech is called Leadership and the Art of Command. Once again, by General Marvin Zais, United States Army. Here we go. March 1977 I have devoted two-thirds of my life to the study of leadership and the art of command either by observation, experience or reading. I have, as a consequence, developed some thoughts, some prejudices and a variety of interesting quotes and an absolute conviction that leadership defies definition. Interesting.

One can define what is wanted, but exactly how to do it and what characteristics are essential is the $64 question. Now, this is 1977 Maybe he did mean $64 million question, but he says $64 question. Some people are born leaders. Others are developed leaders and a few are nothing until pressures are imposed on them, which bring forth amazing demonstrations of leadership. So some people are born into it. Some people developed into it. Some people just get put in the moment and they rise to the occasion. However, the most disappointing are those who seem to have all the accepted qualifications until the pressure comes and then they fold.

This is a that's such a good tie into the the military incompetence. You know, these people that have they look squared away and they kind of act squared away, especially when nothing bad is happening. When the pressure comes, they just freak out. I've seen that quite a few times in my life. There is a cult of leadership study which is thriving today because its growth is fertilized by government research dollars. These are the behavioral scientists who would tabulate traits, mannerisms, characteristics, habits, morals, physical attributes and lifestyles. They convert these data from which from their witches brew to bars, graphs, curves, models and matrices in the most scientific manner and then peddle their conclusions to the government, the business world and to each other.

It is like so many of my golfing friends who are suffering from paralysis of analysis. The pitfalls or potential pitfalls associated with this scientific and ordered approach are captured well in this excerpt from Edmund Fuller's review of James McGregor Burns' recent book, Leadership. So a guy named James McGregor Burns wrote a book called Leadership. And here's a review of it. And it's a pretty harsh review. So he says this reviewer says, Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomenon on earth. So says Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning historian, biographer James McGregor Burns at the outset of a large, ambitious work, Leadership. It is commonly remarked these days as an expression of frustration that the world is critically short of leadership, the views of its present leaders to this contrary, notwithstanding.

Thus, this formidable work seemed timely and I approached it with great expectations. So this guy wrote in this review, he's like, hey man, we need leadership. We got some dearth of leadership in the world. This guy, this historian and biographer, award-winning Pulitzer Prize-winning, wrote this book. So he's ready for this. He's ready to hear what this guy has to say. In the upshot, I am sorely disappointed. Having mulled over many things that Professor Burns puts before us, interesting as some are, I do not feel I have emerged with sufficient illumination, but have come out through the same door by which I entered. So I didn't get anywhere. Professor Burns has demonstrated in several books that he can write excellent English. He has elected not to do so here.