The WAY to WOW Shows
General Patton on Humility?
February 21, 2023
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[0:04] foreign hello welcome to the most recent edition of the way to wow shows this is the way to wow business lessons from the military this is our first episode of of this new show uh something new I'm gonna try and and my computer is going wacky um and it's it's an idea that I came up with

[0:39] um after uh seeing what a friend of mine Bill gross is doing so he's uh he started a new show called business lessons from the Bible and uh as you might imagine we're talking about the most popular book in history and there's lots of life lessons in in the Bible including lessons for people in business and I thought it was such a terrific idea and I couldn't steal the idea from him directly um you might say well wait a minute how come a rabbi isn't doing that well because like you know it's Thou shalt

[1:15] not steal right um but but I thought you know in the military there's so many lessons about things like leadership motivation planning execution uh strategy operations tactics all of these facets that can be applied to our business lives whether we have our own business or whether we're in working in in another business uh so in in this has kind of been My Philosophy for a long time and that is the American people you are fellow

[1:50] citizens uh spend a tremendous amount of money training people in the military helping the military paying for the military to develop its its doctrine that that it uses to pursue its missions and there should be some follow-on benefit for you and so this is one way of of by sort of giving back to you people are are very nice to say so often these days thank you for your service to people in the military and I return thank you for your support so this is

[2:25] one way for me to thank all of you for your support of the military it makes a tremendous amount of difference as I've remarked to many people many of my military colleagues we I was very fortunate we were very fortunate to serve during a time when the military was held in very high esteem generally speaking by our fellow Americans and and that has not always been the case when I was a child the military was frankly held in much lower esteem during the Vietnam era Etc so I think it's incumbent upon us to not only express

[3:02] our gratitude to our fellow citizens but maybe if possible make some kind of tangible offer to to them as as so many of our fellow citizens do what they can to help us transition to civilian life so make it make it a a two-way stream so today I I'm gonna just talk about in general what we're going to be doing on this show first of all it'll it'll be uh every week at on Tuesday today right 10 30 Pacific time that's 1 30 Eastern Time

[3:40] that's correct yeah and then an hour in for the scent for uh 11 it'll be 11 30 Mountain Zone uh 12 30 p.m central zone right so across across the United States anyway and what Hawaii would be two hours earlier so I guess Hawaii would be 8 30 a.m and Alaska would be either 8 30 or 9 30 a.m and then so on across uh you know the world if you're watching from outside the United States uh and again it it'll be every every Tuesday for 30 minutes so um whereas the way to wow show people making money is is an hour long I'm

[4:16] gonna hold this to 30 minutes long many of the shows will be me talking about various uh military Concepts that can be applied to our business and professional lives um although I think I will experiment with some guest speakers as well um there's quite a number of uh leadership of people from the military who uh work in the leadership development realm I think we you'd benefit from that I was also thinking right before the show perhaps I'll get someone on uh who was in recruiting as you might imagine the military is in a

[4:52] constant state of recruiting and it during Times Like These when the the civilian job market is very tight unemployment is very low it's very the military finds it much harder to recruit good people and and and these days not just because of the economy but more so than ever I was I was just reading a statistic of the prime age for recruiting for the military of 17 to 23 or 24 only 23 of Americans are eligible to join the

[5:27] military um because uh there are many unfortunately who are who don't meet the physical fitness standards or who have some kind of criminal or drug use background all of these make them ineligible to join the military um as well these days it's very very unusual for someone without at least a high school diploma to be able to be recruited into the military so um whereas you know half a century or more ago judges would sentence criminals

[6:03] to either you can either join the military or go to jail right and and that was how people sometimes join the military that that really doesn't happen these days anymore so um the military interestingly enough as a whole is more Highly Educated than um than than the civilian population um as a whole I'm repeating that phrase um which is not what people expect they it for most of its uh history uh people in the military were less educated at

[6:40] least less formally educated than than the civilian population that is no longer the case nor has it been for gosh at least since um when I joined the Navy uh back in the mid 2000s I don't know when that shift took place candidly but uh but it is it is the case today so um you know I I I think only well not only I think roughly 95 or 96 of Americans have graduated from high school whereas 99.9 or something like that of people in the military have graduated from high

[7:16] school and and while the numbers are not nearly as high for college graduates nonetheless the percentage of college graduates in the military is also higher than the civilian population as a whole so I think the military has a lot to offer in terms of uh advice and or information that can be useful to people running businesses or people who are in leadership or even Rank and file positions within within the civilian business world so I'm going to be looking to several

[7:52] sources for business lessons from the military one of them is from what what are might be called sort of great books so probably the best known book um of military lessons that get applied to business is called The Art of War by Sun Tzu so this is a book that was written gosh I don't remember exactly when a couple thousand years ago I believe I don't remember the exact date of uh of publication or I mean of When It Was

[8:29] Written but but in any event this is uh on most military um reading lists uh especially for people in positions of leadership and there are numerous numerous lessons that can be taken from The Art of War that can be applied to the business world now I should say that um I don't view business as War okay um war is is it is a unique uh you know

[9:04] I think it's fair to say a reasonable say a unique um Endeavor um in in human life um obviously the stakes are very high um for people for combatants it's potentially existential and people get killed people get wounded as we're seeing in uh in in Ukraine right now and and have seen in in any War so I don't look at business in that context um nonetheless although the stakes in business may not

[9:39] be as high in war many of the ideas that apply to war fighting and and the running of a military organization do apply and so I I won't be starting with the art of work but this this is one sort of category if you will of um sort of military sources from which we can gain business lessons another and I didn't I didn't bring an example of it but another is historical historical uh

[10:14] military figures so I happen to be a a lay scholar if you will of the life of General George Patton and I think that Patton's life and and his his rise through the military um has a lot of lessons for us as as we contemplate what can we learn from from the military that we can apply to the business world and I'm going to share one of the lessons from Patton's life that I I find very Illuminating about

[10:51] him and it also belies the sort of cult stereotype that's been developed about him I think a lot of which comes from the 1970 movie Patton um where George C Scott plays the famous General when the movie has a number of inaccuracies although I think in general uh well first of all it's it's a it's a wonderful movie to watch and and you do get a flavor of who patent was although uh George C Scott's voice is a much

[11:26] lower um um um Range than Patton had it had a tenor voice from the reading that I've done um but when when Patton was in his first uh military job after graduating from the military academy in a newly minted second Lieutenant he was somewhere in kind of the western United States I I want to say Kansas but I could be wrong about the location it doesn't matter for for the story uh he was among his other duties assigned to making sure that the

[12:02] Stables where the horses were kept were that the Stables were kept up and the horses were maintained properly now when Patton was a second Lieutenant there was still horse cavalry in the United States uh military so you know we're talking in the 19 teens I think or maybe very early 20s uh let me think about this for a second no it would be 19 teens early 19 teens as a matter of fact um so uh one particular morning uh Patton went to inspect the stables and he was not at all pleased at their state

[12:39] of cleanliness and and how the horses were taken care of and he told the men that were assigned to that Duty in no uncertain terms he expected that to be cleaned up you know top to bottom and span the whole thing and and and they better you know get to it kind of thing and then he went off to take care of whatever other duties he had and he returned later that day in the afternoon and was very displeased at the lack of progress in getting the Stables cleaned up and he called them in

[13:16] together and just read them the riot act really laying it on thick and one of this is not a lesson I would necessarily have you take from Patton but but one of Patton's philosophies was if you lay it on thickly with a lot of profanity that really gets people moving and that's what he was doing that day you know I don't know if he was using the f word or whatever he was using um and he said now get to it you know that kind of thing and one of the men rather than literally sort of jumping to it with alacrity he just kind of you know slowly walked off toward

[13:53] whatever he was going to do and and patton was so angry he said I told you to move damn you and the guy moved right and and afterwards Patton went to his office and he he he felt very bad and he couldn't figure out why uh he felt he was perfectly justified in chewing the men out they they had been given an order to clean up the stables and hadn't done it and they'd been given Apple time to do it and he realized that

[14:29] what he had said to that man when he said you know damn you was was completely out of line and so he immediately went back to the stables and he called the men back together and he's and he said you know earlier when I was talking to you I was very angry and I do think I was justified because I had told you to get the Stables cleaned up and you hadn't but I said damn this man here and I should not have done that that was wrong and I apologize to you and I will

[15:05] endeavor never to do it again now for any of you have seen the eponymous film on Patton or have read about him and and him and about how arrogant he was that may seem completely out of character I disagree I think that was completely in character Patton was on a lifelong search to become the best possible officer that he could be army officer that he could be and one of the things

[15:40] he realized was if he made a mistake or he treated a soldier improperly that was counter to who he was and what he wanted to become and so it was incumbent on him to apologize for having done so and so he did that level of humility in a leader is crucial absolutely crucial and the the reality was and although like there's no

[16:16] indication he did it for this reason because he did that and he was willing without being told to do so to apologize to that Soldier the man just loved him and they could never do enough for him that in my mind is is true leadership and by the way I was I would imagine especially during the that time oh you know over a hundred years ago officers would say you know damn you to

[16:53] soldiers all the time I think the soldiers were probably pretty used to that from their perspective I could imagine they didn't really think it was that big a deal the patent did think it was a big deal and a big deal mean that it was wrong it was flat out wrong for him to do that and as far as we know while he he would chew out soldiers when they were not performing right including generals that were under his command in World War II he never he never did that again he was in fact a deeply religious man a man who

[17:31] believed deeply in God and he he had a sense of who he was that he did his best to Aspire to and I think that's an important lesson for all of us in business in life in general of course but in business in particular a lot of times in business we can get into a situation where we're tempted to do something that really isn't Who We Are and sometimes we may even do that thing

[18:08] on reflection we need to correct whatever it is we've done and contrary to how it feels inside which is we're we're lowering how people see us you know we're lowering their opinion of us by apologizing typically not typically by apologizing we're actually strengthen the relationship and the loyalty to people that report to us

[18:43] I learned that lesson myself when I was a newly minted Lieutenant JG chaplain in my first Duty station when I was with the Marine Corps in in um Okinawa and and I was really pushing one of my staff very hard to um to take a leadership program that the Marine Corps offered he would have been the the first um sailor in his rating to be able to go through a Marine Corps leadership training program

[19:18] and and I I thought you know gosh who wouldn't want to do this because because I would want to do it if I could have right and and of course that's how I was seeing it and and then and the Sailor you know he he never he was kind of lukewarm about it he didn't want to say no I'm not going to do it but but he was he was he I I could tell he was an enthusiasm I just thought well he doesn't really understand he doesn't really get it and I'm like you know you're gonna you're gonna do great and all this stuff finally he came to me and he said you know he said I just I I'm I'm so nervous about this I can't even sleep

[19:54] and I said oh don't worry once you get into it's going to be fine and then I started thinking about it and I talked to my my Superior if you will the the uh he was the uh the the base chaplain the man that I worked for basically and I and I you know told him what was going on and to his credit he did not tell me what to do but he said you have to make the decision this is this is what leadership is really about

[20:30] and I thought about it and for a long long time and the next day I was still thinking about it and I said you know what I'm not doing this for the right reason I'm not I'm doing this because I think it's you know it's cool but if if this if the Sailor is is this concerned about not succeeding then he's I'm setting him up for failure is really what I concluded and so I went and you know kind of hunted him down I couldn't find him in the office it turned out he was over in the Smoke pit

[21:05] and and I talked and I said you know what I've made a mistake I've been pushing you to do something because I think it's a great thing and I have not been listening to you and your concerns and so if this is something you do not want to do then I support you're not doing it and I mean you could virtually see the anxiety released from him when I said that and I thought gosh you know this this

[21:41] sailor is he's never going to trust me again and he's going to think I'm wishy-washy and all the terrible things we think about when we have to you know humble ourselves really and quite to the contrary he was so enormously loyal because I was willing to admit to him that I had done something wrong I I apologize to him I I it the Loyalty skyrocketed skyrocketed as as a result and that also among the other Sailors with whom I hadn't had that kind of

[22:17] interaction they saw that I was willing really to listen to one of their peers and take action based on what he said and it made those relationships stronger as well it was it was very much an object lesson for me and again I think that in this in this respect It's Not Unusual in in the business world for us to have a someone Junior to us and we really think hey there's this great opportunity and and when we really push them and push them and and maybe they're not ready for it or maybe they've got things going on in their lives that that we don't know

[22:53] about where the idea of what we're pushing them to do just doesn't fit with their plan at that time and we have to be willing to take a step back do our best to see their situation through their eyes not our eyes and perhaps come to the conclusion I was wrong and I'm sorry for putting you under that kind of pressure and for trying to impose my will on you I shouldn't have done that

[23:28] and I'm going to do my best not to repeat this this mistake right and then by the way those are the three parts of an apology number one to explain what it is we did wrong second to acknowledge that it was wrong and apologize and third to affirm to the person we will do our best not to repeat that mistake that's a sincere apology okay it is not a sincere apology say I'm

[24:04] sorry you felt overwhelmed by what I was doing that's not an apology at all that's putting the blame on that person that's not an apology I'm not saying I was right and you're deficient right so and these These are in this case this was a lesson that I learned from reading about the life of of George Patton okay now you may find it a little bit weird because George Patton was known to be an anti-semite and why would a Jewish guy um you know admire somebody who was anti-semitic um look you know candidly a lot of

[24:41] people of George Patton's class were anti-semitic in that at that time I I will say that when he got to the in when he when his army overtook one of the death camps and he saw what had gone on there he got physically sick by how Jews in those camps were treated and he took immediate steps to alleviate their misery so whatever he may have thought about Jews and he didn't act in an anti-semitic way he acted to take

[25:18] care of his fellow human beings so uh listen I'm not condoning thinking anti-semitic thoughts on the other hand I'm not going to discard somebody for being a product of his time especially with his actions were completely you know laudatory frankly when when push really came to shove so so that's that's the lesson I have for you today I actually didn't plan on doing that but I thought it's a nice way a nice thing to share with you the third Source real quickly as we wrap up the show here and this is where we're going to be going for the next few weeks

[25:53] is looking at different military doctrines so this is a um a book called War fighting this is part of Marine Corps Doctrine okay and you can see expeditionary Warfare school um this was a distance education program I took um this is you know going back a a few years um and some of the concepts that you'll find in Marine Corps War fighting Doctrine are things like friction and uncertainty fluidity disorder complexity so in in

[26:30] the Marine Corps of course we're applying those Concepts to the battlefield in the business world and we're we're applying them to the business environment and I think many of these com many of these Concepts including the ones that I mentioned will help us better understand the environment in which we're operating and give us ideas on how to approach it and navigate it more successfully and so over the next you know many weeks and months we're gonna we're going to

[27:05] explore various of these Concepts and and see how can we apply them to improve our Business and Professional success so that's really what this show is about again it's the way to wow business lessons from the military now my experience is in the Navy and the Marine Corps I have had some exposure to the Air Force and the Army um I don't know if I'm going to climb into their doctrines or not but maybe I'll have a guest on who can talk to Army and or Air Force doctrine that

[27:40] might be interesting for us to do and and as just as just as with people making money I'm I'm absolutely open to hearing your ideas your thoughts about what you'd like to see so if there's some aspect of military Doctrine military leadership that you've been curious about by all means let me know or if you are a student of a particular military individual and you've you think that they have lessons from their life and career that can be applied to the Business and Professional world and you'd like to talk about that by all

[28:16] means let me know just like in my other show look in the show notes you'll have my email address you'll also be able to connect on social media you can always post on social media a thought or an idea or a question happy to answer them and together we will learn as many Business and Professional lessons as we can from how the military runs its operations how it plans its strategies how it executes its tactics so thank you so much for joining me today again we're

[28:52] here every Tuesday 10 30 a.m Pacific Time 1 30 p.m Eastern Time an hour in central Central and mountain time and and all the various other time zones throughout the world and I look forward to being with you now twice a week tomorrow uh is the way to wow show people making money and that's at um 12 30 Pacific time and 3 30 Eastern time again an hour in 1 30 and 2 30 in the various uh interior time zones

[29:28] please join us join me every Wednesday to talk about um various ideas to advance your professional success in terms of um uh all of a sudden I'm at a loss for words oh my gosh um various so we we've talked about um things like the three things you should do every day to power your success we've talked about how to deal with business uh with the meetings to discuss a job how to start a business entities for starting a business ways

[30:04] businesses get funded all kinds of those um more sort of uh logistical Concepts to professional and business success and and also I've had many guests talk about uh their their Career Success and and will continue to do so so do join me tomorrow at 12 30 for our hour together people making money and next week Tuesday at 10 30 p.m at 10 30 sorry a.m Pacific time for business lessons from the military and as always in tribute Marie darling you are still

[30:41] my bell and my inspiration you all have a wonderful rest of the day