Dick Winters' 10 Principles for Leadership Success (#303)
There were over one thousand American infantry companies (an airborne company had about 176 people assigned to it at full strength at the end of the war) that fought in the European Theater of Operations in World War II. Yet one company is more famous than all the rest: Easy Company (Easy was the phonetic letter for E), 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 101st Airborne Division. Easy Company has come to epitomize the experience of the American infantry soldier after being featured in the book by Stephen Ambrose and the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers.
Easy Company was an exceptional organization. The company fused the right combination of leadership, teams, culture, and processes, that got results on the battlefield – in Normandy, in Holland, and during the siege of Bastogne. If you want to read more on exceptional organizations, click here. But Easy Company’s path to exceptionalism on the battlefield was forged on Currahee Mountain near Camp Toccoa, Georgia. As they ran the three miles up and three miles down the mountain together, they developed their leadership, perseverance, team, and culture.
Richard “Dick” Winters was Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment’s company commander in Normandy and Operation Market Garden. He was played by Damien Lewis in the mini-series. After Band of Brothers was published, Dick gave numerous talks on leadership. Here are his ten principles for success based on his experience at Currahee Mountain, wartime leadership, and thirty years of corporate leadership (quoted from Dick Winters and Cole Kingseed’s book Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoirs of Dick Winters. You can buy it on Amazon here.)
Ten Principles for Success
1. Strive to be a leader of character, competence, and courage.
2. Lead from the front. Say “Follow me!” and then lead the way.
3. Stay in top physical shape – physical stamina is the root of mental toughness.
4. Develop your team. If you know your people, are fair in setting realistic goals and expectations, and lead by example, you will develop teamwork.
5. Delegate responsibility to your subordinates and let them do their jobs. You can’t do a good job if you don’t have a chance to use your imagination or your creativity.
6. Anticipate problems and prepare to overcome obstacles. Don’t wait until you get to the top of the ridge and then make up your mind.
7. Remain humble. Don’t worry about who receives the credit. Never let power or authority go to your head.
8. Take a moment of self-reflection. Look at yourself in the mirror every night and ask yourself if you did your best.
9. True satisfaction comes from getting the job done. The key to a successful leader is to earn respect – not because of rank or position, but because you are a leader of character.
10. Hang Tough! Never, ever, give up.
Currahee Mountain is a place where great leaders are forged. I talked about hiking Currahee Mountain and growing as a leader in post #32.
Is your organization struggling to build leaders? Are you tired of just talking about leadership techniques? Looking for something different to do as a training event for your team? TFCG offers four leadership experiences — D-Day, Market-Garden, Battle of the Bulge, and Currahee — that use leadership case studies from Dick Winters and the Band of Brothers to help build your team’s leadership, culture, decision-making, and communications. Want to know more?
SOME OF TFCG’S LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCES:
