Pershing Good Commander...Bad Commander? by Paul Hayslett

So why does studying General John J. Pershing matter? Pershing not only played an important role in military history, but he played an important role in leadership history. Pershing is a great example of strong and mighty leadership. He is to this day the only General to be awarded a six-star ranking while still alive. This must mean he did something right.? General Pershing did the impossible. He led an immature army to victory in WWI, something many doubted he could do. The U.S. army 18 months before the U.S. entering WWI would have been insignificant. Not insignificant in training but insignificant in number/ stature. General Pershing during this time had to make many decisions on how to grow the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), how they were to organize supplies during the war, and when his troops would be ready for battle. General Pershing was a determined leader but not determined in a stubborn or inflexible way. He was determined to be the best and to make America proud. Many times, we may be guilty of using determined and inflexible as synonyms, but this should not be the case. As leaders we can be determined and yet flexible in our actions and or decision making while keeping our eyes on the prize of completing our objective(s). While studying General Pershing we can see that he was determined to win but flexible in how the AEF were to assist the Allies in doing so. His military career boast of valuable and important battle wins in which strategy, courage, and intellect were key to the Allies success. Most importantly General Pershing recognized some of his faults in his leadership style. He originally wanted to keep all his men together commanding them from the forefront. He after some time realized this was not going to win the war and made the cognizant decision to go with a team of teams approach. This is unbelievably valuable for us today as leaders. The requirements of leadership are ever evolving, and technology is leading that charge. It is often a better choice to use the team of teams approach. Using this approach, we can like General Pershing divide our teams and appoint various levels of leadership in whom you trust and have shared goals and or purpose. General Pershing was not without fault and we can learn from these. He was a workaholic and would spend months if not years at war without a chance to recharge. After the death of his family, he withdrew from his personal life. These are all faults in which we can fall into as leaders today. Learn from other mistakes, do not wait to make them yourselves. We can prevent this from studying historical leadership.