Ike and Team Building (#250)
This year, I am doing a series on leaders and leadership in the European Theater of Operations (ETO) in World War II. This is fourth in the series. Visit TFCG’s blog page to see them all.
General Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower was one of the great people of the 20th century. Born in Texas in 1890 to pacifist parents and raised in Kansas, he attended West Point where he played football. As an infantry officer in the Army, Ike, as he was known to his friends, was an excellent planner and staff officer, serving under Generals John J. Pershing, Fox Conner, and Douglas MacArthur. After Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall called him to Washington where he developed the war plans for the United States Army in World War II. He did such a good job as a planner he was selected to command the Allied Forces during the amphibious assault in North Africa in November 1942, the amphibious assault of Sicily on July 9, 1943, and the amphibious assault of the Italian mainland on September 3, 1943. Due to his experience conducting joint operations, his ability to maintain the Allied coalition, his team building skills, and his relationship with both President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, he was selected as the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces to lead the Overlord Operation on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
After the war, he retired from the Army and became President of Columbia University. Recalled to active duty, he assumed command over the new NATO forces being assembled in 1951. At the age of 62, he decided to pursue a political career. In 1952, he ran for and was elected as the 34th President of the United States. His campaign slogan was “I Like Ike.” During his eight years in office, he pursued a centrist approach while maintaining a balanced budget. Amongst his administrations’ many accomplishments include ending the Korean War, starting the Interstate Highway System, supporting the desegregation of schools, passing civil rights legislation, and formalizing the National Security Council.
Ike and Building a Team
When General Eisenhower was selected as the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces (AEF) and the commander of all US forces in the European Theater of Operations in December 1943, his first priority was building an allied team of leaders in the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) that could work together and synchronize the cross-channel amphibious and airborne assault.
When Lord Louis Mountbatten was named Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia Command in 1943 Ike wrote him a note about team building based on his experience building the Allied staffs for the invasion of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy. Ike told Mountbatten:
To form your staff, start from the bottom up. Make sure that in every section and in every subsection are officers of both nationalities and never permit any problem to be approached in your staff on the basis of national interest. An objective solution must be sought.... The thing you must strive for is the utmost in mutual respect and confidence among the group of seniors making up the allied command. All of us are human and we like to be favorably noticed by those above us and even by the public. An Allied Commander-in-Chief, among all others practicing the art of war, must more sternly than any other individual repress such notions. He must be self-effacing, quick to give credit, ready to meet the other fellow more than half way, must seek and absorb advice and must learn to decentralize.
Ike picked a staff of both American and British officers — he tried to create a team that possessed the utmost in mutual respect and confidence in each other:
Deputy Supreme Commander, AEF — Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, Royal Air Force
Chief of Staff, AEF — Lieutenant General Walter “Bedell” Smith, US Army
Commander, 21st Army Group and Allied Ground Forces — Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, British Army
Commander, 1st Army (Utah and Omaha Beaches) — Lieutenant General Omar Bradley, US Army
Commander, 2nd Army Group (Gold, Sword, and Juno Beaches) — Lieutenant General Miles Dempsey, British Army
Commander, Allied Naval Forces — Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, Royal Navy
Commander, Allied Expeditionary Air Forces — Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, Royal Air Force
Chief of Overlord Logistics and Deputy Commander of US Forces in the ETO — Lieutenant General John C.H. Lee, US Army
Application
Daniel Goleman is an author and science journalist who has written extensively about the brain and behavior. After surveying 3,000 executives, he found that there are six leadership styles that leaders use. These leadership styles aren’t personality traits, rather they are leadership tools. Think of them as tools in your leadership toolbox. The six leadership styles are authoritative, coaching, affiliate, democratic, pacesetting, and commanding. There is a whole article on the six leadership styles here.
General Eisenhower, as Supreme Commander, AEF mainly used a democratic leadership style. A democratic leadership style builds consensus through participation. This style works best to create consensus or get input and is embodied by the phrase “what do you think?” It helps create a positive climate.
At 4:00 AM on June 5th, 1944, Eisenhower met with his key commanders in a drafty library of an English mansion as wind and rain poured down outside. Ike started the meeting. Captain Stagg, the chief meteorologist, repeated his forecast: the break in the weather should hold. Eisenhower turned to each of his principal subordinates for their final say on launching the invasion the next day — Tuesday, June 6, 1944. Field Marshall Montgomery, who would lead the assault forces, said “Go.” Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, the naval commander in chief, said “Go.” Air Chief Marshal Sir Leigh-Mallory, the air commander, said “Go.” Eisenhower stood up and began walking back and forth on the library’s blue rug, pondering the most important decision of his life and the fate of millions. It was now up to him. Only he could make the decision. He kept pacing, hands clasped behind his back, chin on his chest. And then he stopped. The tension left his face. He looked up at his commanders and said “Well, let’s go.” Ike had gotten the buy-in of his key commanders — the invasion was put into motion with those simple words.
Conclusion
Other Eisenhower Posts that I have done are:
Ike’s 8 Characteristics of Leadership
Interested in having a Leadership Experience that uses history and its leadership examples, like General Eisenhower, to enhance your team’s leadership today? TFCG offers the D-Day, Market-Garden, and Battle of the Bulge Leadership Experiences in Europe and the Eisenhowe, War in the Pacific, and Pearl Harbor Leadership Experiences in the United States. Send me an email and we can start the discussion today about building better leaders in your organization using a historic Leadership Experience. Or click on the picture of the Leadership Experience to learn more:
In the meantime, go on the offensive and build your team like Eisenhower.
