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Good general, bad general, probably this is one of the most debated topic in any military-centric forum or discussion board ever raise, we commonly agree general such as George Washington, Patton, Rommel, Heinz Guderian as exceptional general, and General such as Percival who led to the fall of Singapore, Douglas Haig, who led to the debacle at Somme and Armstrong Custer, whom were blamed and died after the failure at the second bull run as bad general. But what is the line that drawn on the floor to separate a good general from a bad general?
In this article, we are trying to look at this question, and come up and a more definite line drawn between a good and a bad general, a line drawn by measuring different personality, duty and other quality that we can use to measure the quality of a general.
What is Generalship?
I am probably the last man on earth to talk about such a thing about generalship, while I did command troop in battle, but the scale is no where near a general or field marshal does at war, in fact, I see myself probably never going to got over the rank of Major. As an officer, I am not the type that read a lot of military books (I read more now after I discharged than I was in the Army, believe it or not) Nor was I that smart of a person to consider theater operation. But I do know about one thing, and that is how to separate a good general from a bad general. I guess, in a way, we all did, when you are under someone command.
To understand what generalship command, one need to understand the rank structure of the Military, in most country, a rank of all “General” is a senior staff officer, which also called “Flag Officer” which mean an officer that took care of the administrative, operational and logistic duty whom represent a flag. A flag, in military term, is like a rally point, you go where the flag go, which mean a general, or a flag officer, is someone you follow as a group.
But the duty of General is best said by someone who once said (I forgot the name, but I watch him say it on TV a long time ago, so if anyone could help me who can name this person, I am glad to know) General is like a Magician, he sold one tricks and one tricks only, and that is to tell his men to come and die with him. Although in today’s term, it more like come and dies for him, but in those days, one wrong move, and not only the troops goes, but so does the general.
While I myself cannot say for sure who is a good general, and who is a bad general, but as a junior officer, there are people under my command, and so there are people commanding me. And like everyone else in the company, there are some officer I knoww that I want to follow him no matter where he goes. The kind of officer that give you a sense of feeling that “Hey, if we died here today, it alright with that guy”, I would say I am pretty sure everyone that give me that kind of vibe is a good general, or at least a good leader. Of course, the opposite is when I feel like I am gonna move down the rank whenever I see that person.
So, my way is kind of like a intuition, and I am not going to write 3000 words on my intuition. So, I am going to start with the place where most US general comes from, the West Point.
The Quality of a General
Unlike in the good old days, Generalship and Command can be bought by aristocrat, today general, or officer gone thru a stringent selection process. The first step is to weed out those who are unfit to lead, or not a leader material, the selection process of Officer Candidate is a standard that the quality and the integrity of an officer would be uphold to a given standard.
According to West Point, the entry requirement to get into the problem are separated into 3 different categories, there are 3 attributions the West Point look at before enrolling a student. And they are Physical Attribution, Mental Attribution and Moral Attribution.
Physical Attribution
While physically fit, a general should also be active, not physically afraid of contact, Athletes with Outdoor tendency is well suited with Generalship.
Physical contact is the main theme of war, as a commander, decision level making usually involved in being physical, in other word, getting your hand dirty. As a successful commander, one needs to not be afraid to get in “hairy” situation. In other word, a good commander must not be afraid of putting themselves in a conflict situation, after all, most part of a war is killing people, and killing people is a dirty business.
Another point is the activeness, being in command, which mean to take initiative and lead troop in battle, activeness and the eagerness to engage is very important to lead troop. An active commander would transfer or dissipate that kind of energy to their troop, while officer always lead the way, it’s sometime literally mean so, so that your troop will follow, if the leader is inactive, then the troop would become complacent, it would affect result and morale.
Mental Attribution
Being a leader is not just about physically fits and active, it also put strain on your mental ability. There is an old saying “It’s easy to lead when everything is going your way, but when things started to stack up against you, it’s where real leader shrine”
Mental strength included how to perform well under pressure, it’s easy to do day to day stuff when nobody is hurrying you or nobody is shooting at you. But once you are in a bad way that would be the true moment your command or generalship is being tested, would you thrive upon pressure or would you succumbed to pressure?
Another key point for being a great leader or general is the ability to absorb responsibility, sending men into war require a level of mental toughness, it’s incredible stupid to think you will not lose any man in war, therefore a mental preparation is needed for you to absorb this. As there is another old saying “If you do not have the stomach to send someone to their death, then you should not be a commander”
Moral Attribution
To ask someone to lay down his/her life for you, you need to let the other know the clause is just, that every decision you made is up to the moral standard, a good commander will not waste human life when there are no need to, a good commander will trust that the people will act morally as much as the people under his/her command will trust that the commander will act morally.
The other moral quality is lead by example, if I tell you to do something I myself would not do, that’s would discourage the troop, always thing if you yourself do not want to be a part of an action, would you be delegated that action to other. By setting an example yourself, it inject courage into troop under your command.
Also important is the hope, while hope dominate majority of our planning and decision, the relationship between moral and hope have a ever linger effect, keeping hope alive keep moral alive, without hope, the moral aspect of a person felt apart and when there is no hope at all, that would mean the trust and bond between the subordinate and the commander fall apart, I mean, who would stay and fight if the situation is hopeless??
Beside all these, there are certain other qualities I want to put into the consideration as per my personal experience
Decisiveness
A good commander needs to make snap decision, war wait for nobody, Winning or losing a war sometime, a lot of time, boil down to can the commander take initiative and take advantage and exploit on a situation.
A good commander should be decisive, who does not appear lagging and afraid of making decision because of the commander afraid to make mistake. Contrary to public opinion, there are no “Born Leader”, in my book, every leader have to learn to make the right call, a part of this is to either make the right decision or learn from your mistake. But if a person is too hung up on making the issue of getting it wrong and hesitate to act, then there are nothing he or she can learn from.
Letting Go
It may sound weird, but some people tend to not let go, and when these people make a bad decision, they will make the bad situation worse by sticking to it, instead of admit to your mistake and move on.
Just because you stick around a bad situation will not make a bad situation better, but either because of national or personal pride, or some other reason, some people just do not like admitting defeat. But on the other aside, if you stick with a bad situation, unless some miracle happen, 9 out of 10 times you would just keep committed to a mistake, which either mean you devote more resource into an unwinnable situation, or you most likely ended with committed further mistake by covering up your original mistake, which most of the time what you need is to pull back from the situation, regroup and recommit your force.
Be Creative
While a large part of Military Life is to follow order, but the way each and every one of us interpret the order differently, a good commander would generally not bound by the wording of the order and think outside the box.
Creativity is quite important in military decision making, because repeated action would attract enemy attention, people who simply follow order to the letter without thinking about it usually susceptible to enemy ambushes, simply because things are becoming more predictable.
Great Leader made Great Troop or Great Troop made Great Leader?
This is probably one of the most asked question people would ask. Whether it was the troop that makes the leader or the leader that make the troop? The answer is not at all simple. Granted, it does not quite matter how good your leader is, if the troop is a bunch of sub-standard moron, they can’t be whip into shape regardless on how good the commander is. On the other hand, you can have the world best and the most elite troop, but if you are paired with an incompetent leader, there aren’t much you can do.
I guess in case of the leader, a good leader or a good commander embrace their troop, they let the troop get on and do what they are supposed to do, while not try to limit or restrict the men from carrying out their duty, Being a leader is not just solely lead the troop, a leader also need to support their troop, push them into the right direction. While I couldn’t (or rather, wouldn’t) say whether or not the troop would do the same, but I would not imagine it would be much of a different.
So, here is today’s article, who do you think is the history Greatest General? And who is the worse general in history? Let’s join in the discussion in this thread.
Author : Gary Locke, BA International Affair CU Boulder, MPhil Strategic Studies, Australian National University, Captain US Army, 3d Infantry Division
All Right Reserved
In this article, we are trying to look at this question, and come up and a more definite line drawn between a good and a bad general, a line drawn by measuring different personality, duty and other quality that we can use to measure the quality of a general.
What is Generalship?
I am probably the last man on earth to talk about such a thing about generalship, while I did command troop in battle, but the scale is no where near a general or field marshal does at war, in fact, I see myself probably never going to got over the rank of Major. As an officer, I am not the type that read a lot of military books (I read more now after I discharged than I was in the Army, believe it or not) Nor was I that smart of a person to consider theater operation. But I do know about one thing, and that is how to separate a good general from a bad general. I guess, in a way, we all did, when you are under someone command.
To understand what generalship command, one need to understand the rank structure of the Military, in most country, a rank of all “General” is a senior staff officer, which also called “Flag Officer” which mean an officer that took care of the administrative, operational and logistic duty whom represent a flag. A flag, in military term, is like a rally point, you go where the flag go, which mean a general, or a flag officer, is someone you follow as a group.
But the duty of General is best said by someone who once said (I forgot the name, but I watch him say it on TV a long time ago, so if anyone could help me who can name this person, I am glad to know) General is like a Magician, he sold one tricks and one tricks only, and that is to tell his men to come and die with him. Although in today’s term, it more like come and dies for him, but in those days, one wrong move, and not only the troops goes, but so does the general.
While I myself cannot say for sure who is a good general, and who is a bad general, but as a junior officer, there are people under my command, and so there are people commanding me. And like everyone else in the company, there are some officer I knoww that I want to follow him no matter where he goes. The kind of officer that give you a sense of feeling that “Hey, if we died here today, it alright with that guy”, I would say I am pretty sure everyone that give me that kind of vibe is a good general, or at least a good leader. Of course, the opposite is when I feel like I am gonna move down the rank whenever I see that person.
So, my way is kind of like a intuition, and I am not going to write 3000 words on my intuition. So, I am going to start with the place where most US general comes from, the West Point.
The Quality of a General
Unlike in the good old days, Generalship and Command can be bought by aristocrat, today general, or officer gone thru a stringent selection process. The first step is to weed out those who are unfit to lead, or not a leader material, the selection process of Officer Candidate is a standard that the quality and the integrity of an officer would be uphold to a given standard.
According to West Point, the entry requirement to get into the problem are separated into 3 different categories, there are 3 attributions the West Point look at before enrolling a student. And they are Physical Attribution, Mental Attribution and Moral Attribution.
Physical Attribution
While physically fit, a general should also be active, not physically afraid of contact, Athletes with Outdoor tendency is well suited with Generalship.
Physical contact is the main theme of war, as a commander, decision level making usually involved in being physical, in other word, getting your hand dirty. As a successful commander, one needs to not be afraid to get in “hairy” situation. In other word, a good commander must not be afraid of putting themselves in a conflict situation, after all, most part of a war is killing people, and killing people is a dirty business.
Another point is the activeness, being in command, which mean to take initiative and lead troop in battle, activeness and the eagerness to engage is very important to lead troop. An active commander would transfer or dissipate that kind of energy to their troop, while officer always lead the way, it’s sometime literally mean so, so that your troop will follow, if the leader is inactive, then the troop would become complacent, it would affect result and morale.
Mental Attribution
Being a leader is not just about physically fits and active, it also put strain on your mental ability. There is an old saying “It’s easy to lead when everything is going your way, but when things started to stack up against you, it’s where real leader shrine”
Mental strength included how to perform well under pressure, it’s easy to do day to day stuff when nobody is hurrying you or nobody is shooting at you. But once you are in a bad way that would be the true moment your command or generalship is being tested, would you thrive upon pressure or would you succumbed to pressure?
Another key point for being a great leader or general is the ability to absorb responsibility, sending men into war require a level of mental toughness, it’s incredible stupid to think you will not lose any man in war, therefore a mental preparation is needed for you to absorb this. As there is another old saying “If you do not have the stomach to send someone to their death, then you should not be a commander”
Moral Attribution
To ask someone to lay down his/her life for you, you need to let the other know the clause is just, that every decision you made is up to the moral standard, a good commander will not waste human life when there are no need to, a good commander will trust that the people will act morally as much as the people under his/her command will trust that the commander will act morally.
The other moral quality is lead by example, if I tell you to do something I myself would not do, that’s would discourage the troop, always thing if you yourself do not want to be a part of an action, would you be delegated that action to other. By setting an example yourself, it inject courage into troop under your command.
Also important is the hope, while hope dominate majority of our planning and decision, the relationship between moral and hope have a ever linger effect, keeping hope alive keep moral alive, without hope, the moral aspect of a person felt apart and when there is no hope at all, that would mean the trust and bond between the subordinate and the commander fall apart, I mean, who would stay and fight if the situation is hopeless??
Beside all these, there are certain other qualities I want to put into the consideration as per my personal experience
Decisiveness
A good commander needs to make snap decision, war wait for nobody, Winning or losing a war sometime, a lot of time, boil down to can the commander take initiative and take advantage and exploit on a situation.
A good commander should be decisive, who does not appear lagging and afraid of making decision because of the commander afraid to make mistake. Contrary to public opinion, there are no “Born Leader”, in my book, every leader have to learn to make the right call, a part of this is to either make the right decision or learn from your mistake. But if a person is too hung up on making the issue of getting it wrong and hesitate to act, then there are nothing he or she can learn from.
Letting Go
It may sound weird, but some people tend to not let go, and when these people make a bad decision, they will make the bad situation worse by sticking to it, instead of admit to your mistake and move on.
Just because you stick around a bad situation will not make a bad situation better, but either because of national or personal pride, or some other reason, some people just do not like admitting defeat. But on the other aside, if you stick with a bad situation, unless some miracle happen, 9 out of 10 times you would just keep committed to a mistake, which either mean you devote more resource into an unwinnable situation, or you most likely ended with committed further mistake by covering up your original mistake, which most of the time what you need is to pull back from the situation, regroup and recommit your force.
Be Creative
While a large part of Military Life is to follow order, but the way each and every one of us interpret the order differently, a good commander would generally not bound by the wording of the order and think outside the box.
Creativity is quite important in military decision making, because repeated action would attract enemy attention, people who simply follow order to the letter without thinking about it usually susceptible to enemy ambushes, simply because things are becoming more predictable.
Great Leader made Great Troop or Great Troop made Great Leader?
This is probably one of the most asked question people would ask. Whether it was the troop that makes the leader or the leader that make the troop? The answer is not at all simple. Granted, it does not quite matter how good your leader is, if the troop is a bunch of sub-standard moron, they can’t be whip into shape regardless on how good the commander is. On the other hand, you can have the world best and the most elite troop, but if you are paired with an incompetent leader, there aren’t much you can do.
I guess in case of the leader, a good leader or a good commander embrace their troop, they let the troop get on and do what they are supposed to do, while not try to limit or restrict the men from carrying out their duty, Being a leader is not just solely lead the troop, a leader also need to support their troop, push them into the right direction. While I couldn’t (or rather, wouldn’t) say whether or not the troop would do the same, but I would not imagine it would be much of a different.
So, here is today’s article, who do you think is the history Greatest General? And who is the worse general in history? Let’s join in the discussion in this thread.
Author : Gary Locke, BA International Affair CU Boulder, MPhil Strategic Studies, Australian National University, Captain US Army, 3d Infantry Division
All Right Reserved
