What Ike Taught Us About Leadership

I’ve had the good fortune of visiting the beaches of Normandy, France on two separate occasions — both commemorating the anniversary of the D-Day invasion on December 6, 1944. In 2001 I traveled alone. The trip was a birthday gift from my family. Three years later, I took my sixth-grade son with me for the 60th anniversary celebration. It was a tremendous learning experience for the two of us.

If you ever want to do a case study on leadership to enhance your leadership attributes, read about General Eisenhower and his command of the D-Day operation. Imagine assuming command of a military operation of this scale that had never been attempted before in warfare. Failure was not an option, only success. Eisenhower had command of approximately 160,000 troops from four different countries, and had as his deputies, men of sizable egos whom he had to form into a unified team of advisors.

The allied armies prevailed on D-Day thanks in large part to the leadership of General Eisenhower. What’s ironic about Eisenhower is that he never served a day in combat. He spent much of his career behind a desk or at military basis training troops: he never spent a day in the trenches. And yet despite his lack of combat experience, he excelled as a leader.

So, what made him a leader capable of guiding an allied army to victory across the terrain of western Europe? In my readings, I have found five leadership attributes that Eisenhower possessed. These are attributes found in most successful leaders — attributes that every aspiring leader in the fire service should embrace:

• Trust — Eisenhower placed great trust in his deputies. He seldom left no stone unturned when making critical decisions. He didn’t always agree with the advice, but he was always willing to seek it.
• Resolve — Eisenhower did not waiver once he made a decision; he was fully committed to its execution.
• Optimism — Eisenhower once said, “Optimism and pessimism are infectious, and they spread more rapidly from the head downward than in any other direction.” He exuded optimism whenever he met with his troops, which is why they were willing to fight for him.
• Humility — Few if any pictures exist of General Eisenhower speaking from a pedestal or wearing a uniform adorned with military ribbons and medals. In his mind, acclaim on the battlefield should always go to those who fought bravely and spilled their blood.
• Responsibility — Eisenhower drafted a message on the eve of D-Day that he was prepared to release if the allied armies could not establish a foothold on the Normandy beaches. The last line read, “If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.”

Many scholars far more knowledgeable than I have written volumes of work about Eisenhower, the simple soldier from Kansas, arguably the greatest general in American military history and our 34th president. Yet in most of the books I’ve read, Eisenhower’s greatness — at least as a military leader — can be distilled into five essential attributes: trust, resolve, optimism, humility, and responsibility. Those five attributes can govern the way we all lead as members of the fire service.