Jan 30 2012
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“ When you are commanding, leading [soldiers] under conditions where physical exhaustion and privations must be ignored, where the lives of [soldiers] may be sacrificed, then the efficiency of your leadership will depend only to a minor degree on your tactical ability. It will primarily be determined by your character, your reputation, not so much for courage – which will be accepted as a matter of course – but by the previous reputation you have established for fairness, for that high-minded patriotic purpose, that quality of unswerving determination to carry through any military task assigned to you.
— General of the Army George C. Marshall speaking to officer candidates on the eve of World War II. (Quoted in BE-KNOW-DO, Leadership the Army Way. Adapted from the Official Army Leadership Manual: Leadership the Army Way)
