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4 Leadership Lessons from General Patton
Wise words from one of America’s most iconic generals.
With a reputation for being a harsh but influential wartime leader, few US Army officers are more prolific than Gen. George S. Patton. Sometimes referred to as “Old Blood and Guts” for his relentless and unforgiving leadership style, Patton first made a name for himself in WWI, where he led the United States Tank Corps into battle.
Although his military career was only beginning, Patton’s intense character was on display from the start of his service. During one offensive, Patton was shot in the leg by German machine gun fire. Unphased by his combat injury, Patton sat in an artillery shell hole and commanded the assault for another hour before being evacuated. On his way to the hospital, Patton again decided that the bullet in his leg could wait, and he stopped by an army command post to submit his battle report before finally seeking medical treatment.
Although General Patton had his fair share of scandals and questionable decisions during his military service, operators can learn a lot from his direct and aggressive approach to leadership. Like the special forces operators of today, Patton preferred action over contemplation and never failed to bring the fight to the enemy. In this OA guide, we’ll highlight four prolific quotes from General Patton and explain their application to modern military leadership.
Principle 1: Executing Your Plans
“A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”
If you’re a consistent reader of our OA guides (you should be because they’re badass and free), you’ll recognize this famous quote. While Patton made mistakes like every human being, he understood this crucial fundamental of human productivity:
Every person on Earth has the same 24 hours every day. That begs the question: if everyone plays the same game, why do some people seem to achieve their every goal while others never make anything of themselves? The answer: because high-performers prefer action while low-performers prefer planning.
Modern education institutions like high schools and colleges program people to value perfection over performance. The more and longer you plan and study, the higher your grades. While this is a great strategy in school, it’s not always a viable option in warfare. In other words, a perfect plan isn’t necessarily a successful one. Why? Because planning takes time, and you don’t always have time to kill. Modern warfare is fast and brutal. If your enemies attack, organize, and maneuver faster than you, they can defeat your superiorly designed plans, training, and equipment.
The reality of warfare is that no plan will ever be perfect. There will always be something new to tweak and improve. The D-Day beach landings of Operation Overlord weren’t perfect. Could there have been a different, more efficient plan for the invasion? Could the coalition have developed a strategy that spared one more allied life? Absolutely, but the imperfect plan worked regardless because it was executed aggressively.
If you want to succeed, start taking action. That doesn’t mean that you should eliminate planning entirely. Strategy is still a crucial part of achieving your goals, but once your plan is good, execute. Don’t keep redrawing it and looking for perfection. By the time you finish optimizing it, battlefield conditions will have already changed and you’ll be right back to square one.
Principle 2: Building a Team
“If everybody's thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.”
Warzones are a tough place to live, but the worst place for a leader to be is inside an echo chamber. If you are trying to lead your team to success, surrounding yourself with people who think like you is a surefire way to fail. This rule doesn’t only apply to military leadership. Think about all the past and current empires that outlawed speaking out against the government: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, North Korea, etc. Where are they now? Either entirely collapsed, starving, or killing their own people.
Unilateral thinking is inefficient thinking. If you have ten teammates that all think the same way, your squad isn't any more productive than a singular individual. Keeping up with new situations requires exploring new mindsets. As the saying goes, “If you put the old man in a new car, you still have the old experience.”
When building your team, learn to discern between differences of purpose and differences of perspectives. Every individual in your group must have the same purpose, meaning that they all want to accomplish the same goal. But that doesn’t mean everyone should have the same opinion. Surround yourself with people who force you to put your plans under scrutiny. Productive team disagreements are an excellent way to make sure your ideas hold true under pressure.
Read our OA guide to learn the principles behind having
effective disagreements!
Click here to read The Strategies to Arguing Tactfully
Principle 3: Managing Your People
“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they
will surprise you with their ingenuity.”
Although the US military gets bigger every day, it is more efficient than ever. This begs the question, how can there be an inverse relationship between military personnel and operational efficiency? Logically, the more people you have to lead, the more difficult it should be, right?
America’s military achieves its excellent efficiency through
decentralization. Historically, militaries only had a few commanders who called all the shots. Although this granted extreme control over the army’s every move, it was incredibly inefficient. One leader simply can’t keep up with managing every individual in an army. Over time, militaries figured out that by decentralizing – splitting the military into small, independent units – they could have greater efficiency and achieve better results.
People hate being micromanaged. When you decentralize your command, you stop telling people
how
to do things. Instead, you simply tell them
what
to do and leave fulfilling the mission up to them. That way, you can focus on critical executive-level tasks while delegating the mission planning and execution to your subordinates. Do you have less control over your team? Yes, but your squad’s increased efficiency will pay dividends in the long term.
Principle 4: Leading by Example
“Do everything you ask of those you command.”
Few things breed resentment in your team more than your subordinates thinking you don’t work as hard as they do. In general, slacking from any team member damages group morale. But when it comes from the leader, it can cripple the squad in record time. If you want to avoid a mutiny, you need to understand the true purpose of a leader.
In film and media, military leaders are usually portrayed as finger-pointing, command-barking men who stand over maps and plans while their subordinates do the fighting. While this cliché works well for movies, it will kill your team leadership. If you want to lead your people to success, you need to stop pointing fingers and start carrying sandbags. In other words, leading by example is far more impactful and effective than giving orders. Even if you’re in a management position where you don’t do physical labor like your subordinates, you must demonstrate your commitment to the team’s success. This might mean getting to work earlier and finishing later than everyone else – the authority of leadership comes at a price.
Having the right leadership skills you need to succeed can make or break your chances of becoming an operator. Finding mentors to keep you accountable and help you stay on the SOF path is crucial to turning your dreams into reality. That’s why we started the Operators Association – so that ambitious aspiring operators can get the skills and guidance they need to make it into the teams. When you become a top-tier aspiring operator, you get instant access to exclusive OA member perks like accountability groups, podcasts, and a community of hundreds of future, current, and retired special forces operators who will guide you on the path. Attack your goals today.
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