The Sanford Berenberg Experience: Message of the Day - Stonewall's failings are lessons for us

Good Morning,

One of my recent reads was a biography of General Thomas J. Jackson, better known as ‘Stonewall’ by Byron Farwell (http://www.amazon.com/Stonewall-Biography-General-Thomas-Jackson/dp/0393310868). Throughout the book you could see Jackson’s genius, strong personality and his ability to formulate solid plans in seemingly chaotic environments and lead large units which made him as successful and famous as he was.

A man so smart, educated and skilled as General Jackson is often going to have skills and abilities that other folks like you and me will have a hard time replicating. Genius is hard to reproduce. Weaknesses, or challenges are a bit more easy to replicate, or better avoid.

As such its within Jackson’s weak suits that we find some interesting failings which then translate into lessons for us on what not to do.

1. Jackson had a tendency not to communicate to his leadership team. He would not share his plans, even the destinations of where he was marching his army was a complete mystery to everyone, even to those who directly reported to him. This sometimes caused issues when opportunities were lost due to unclear direction, and at the Battle of Chancellorsville, where Jackson was shot, his back up leadership were unaware of his full plans and had to make due, costing time and two different leaders to get it done.

Whether this was due to a lack of trust, or fear of failure, or whatever, this lack of communication limited the ability of Jackson’s Army to more fully operate efficiently due to not knowing the goals or destinations. In our society with the speed of change and the overload of information, secrecy can be much more devastating.

2. Jackson held grudges. He brought up more charges on his subordinates and other officers than pretty much any other Officer in the Confederate State. He at one point had his second in command under house arrest for failure to fulfill an order, only to have him report back to duty because no other subordinate General could carry out the currently needed military operation.

While leaders should be critical of those who work for them (in the sense that they want them to do the best, and debug any issues), going for a constant stream of reprimands and punishments is not going to build an organization of trust. Doubtless there were many who felt Jackson to be the best General in the Confederacy, and there were others who had to work with him, knowing that they were about to be court-marshaled for what may have been minor issues (some had their charges dropped after Jackson’s death, as no one else could find supportive evidence worthy of a trial). I don’t know about you, but I don’t tend to give it my best when my boss or upper management are holding corrective action or worse over my head as a method of organizational control.

We need to be up front with those we work with, and also fair. When we instill a culture of trust and mutual support, we can build a far better organization than one run by strict discipline. Reference Captain D. Michael Abrashoff’s book ‘It’s Your ship’ for an excellent example of open, supportive leadership building a culture of trust and high performance.

In all, General Stonewall Jackson was an amazing man with genius for his business. He fell at this high point and many still conjecture what would have happened at Gettysburg had Stonewall been there.

In all of that wisdom and skill, we can find many lessons from his failings, as these traits are more common to others. These become a roadmap to help us not make the same mistakes, and ultimately improve our game.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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