‘How can one person lead one hundred?’ That was among the questions offered in my university entrance exams in 1981 and, though I can’t now recall whether I tried to answer it, the question has fascinated me ever since. So when I was given the splendid opportunity of delivering nine Lehrman Institute lectures on military history at the New York Historical Society three years ago, I used them to try an answer, at least in terms of war leadership.
What became apparent was what a total waste of time and effort most of the modern ‘leadership skills’ industry is whenever it applies the lessons of war leadership to anything else — and especially to business. You know the kind of thing: ‘Attila the Hun’s Top Ten Business Leadership Tips’, ‘What Operation Overlord Can Teach You About Running Your Company’ and so on. Leadership books, the motivational-speeches circuit, business videos and online courses are a multibillion-dollar industry, but they tend to impart next to nothing of genuine value when using war leadership as their template.
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