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Exponential Executive Extraordinare: George C. Marshall

I am in Leesburg, Virginia today to give a keynote presentation at the annual Marshall Legact Trust Luncheon at the George C. Marshall International Center. The topic, perhaps not surprisingly, is on the leadership lessons of General George C. Marshall—the subject of my 2005 book ”Soldier, Statesman, Peacemaker: Leadership Lessons from George C. Marshall.”

There are any number of leadership skills that I could highlight from Marshall’s extraordinary career as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army during World War II or his time as Secretary of State (during which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on implementing “The Marshall Plan"), but I instead want to focus on his unique ability to identify and cultivate future leaders.

It is not widely known today but both Dwight D. Eisenhower and Omar Bradley owe their careers—and their subsequent fame—to George Marshall. For it was he who saw their talent early on and then had the courage to promote both officers ahead of 350 more senior military officers at the beginning of the Second World War.

What George Marshall understood is that his legacy would largely be formed by how those under him performed. As a result, he took great pains to select only the best officers. And once he had done so, he entrusted them with extraordinary responsibilities (as in Eisenhower’s case selecting him to lead the D-Day invasion) and backed them up with his undying support.

In total, George Marshall is estimated to have personally trained and promoted over 200 general officers who performed admirably during the Second World War. As a result of this legacy of selecting stellar subordinates, Marshall was able to exponentially expand his influence and, of course, help America win the war. It is a lesson worth keeping in mind for any leader looking to lead his or her organization into the Expoential Economy.

Jack Uldrich is a writer, public speaker and host of jumpthecurve.net. He is the author of seven books, including Jump the Curve, The Next Big Thing is Really Small: How Nanotechnology Will Change the Future of Your Business, and Soldier, Statesman, Peacemaker: leadership lessons fo George C. Marshall. He speaks frequently on future trends, innovation, change management, nanotechnology, robotics, RFID technology and executive leadership to a wide variety of businesses and associations.

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