This is a guest post by my dear friend Linda Jane McLean. Enjoy!
THE POSTCARD
“I write my memoirs and remember the night in Feb. 45, when after a night skirmish, I was digging in when Hugh came to my position saying: ‘The Colonel has lost the battalion and wanted someone to go and look.’ I was frozen with fear; to go out in the dark woodlands seemed a certain equation to be shot at by both sides, as I put it. He was sensitive to my abject fear and said: “Jim White will do it.”
How did he know?
Lt. White was carried in later after stepping on a schu mine. No one said anything, but I was rather shamed.
A fine man.”
What is it about this piece that inspires you and helps sustain you as a leader?
These words seem few and inadequate to encapsulate what I understand about leadership, and which affect my practice to this day. I had only known the story from Hugh’s perspective, so this was an interesting insight.
As a Major, Hugh had just returned from 7 days R&R in February 1945, to discover that his entire Company had been decimated. Of the three platoons who had joked with him just a few days before, a mere handful had survived the battle in the Reichswald. His loss was agony: from El Alamein to the D-Day landings and across Europe, he had marched, fought, lived and laughed with these men. Now, the war was nearing its end. Reinforcements had been sent; the task of rapidly identifying strengths and weaknesses stared back at him in the influx of new and unknown faces.
Which of his new recruits could be tasked with going into the woods at night to look for a battalion, with whom radio contact had been lost? He decided to ask his newly arrived Lieutenant – a Platoon Commander, to ascertain their position.
Excellent enemy snipers at very close range made everybody nervous and trigger-happy. Tension and vulnerability were all around and it was his Lieutenant’s first battle. He was astonished that Hugh had the courage to loom out of the night to ask him the question – he could have been shot by his own side.
Hugh, meanwhile, gauged the Platoon Commander’s reaction carefully, and noted the open terror, knowing that fear was the most destructive of enemies. He understood the pointlessness of issuing an order in these circumstances: he must identify another soldier. Years in the theatre of war taught him:
1. Patience – boys become men: but not all arrive at the front line as men.
2. Tolerance – everyone has weaknesses, but most learn: some the hard way.
3. Watchfulness – prior to the critical situation, note reactions.
4. Examine all possibilities, and refuse to be daunted.
5. Value your troops, and they will value you.
6. Courage. like fear, can be infectious. If you want courageous followers, you must set the standard.
© Linda Jane McLean
Linda worked in Renal Medicine and Intensive Care, before studying Orthopaedics and becoming a Ward Sister.
She became interested in empowerment while working with a severely disabled gentleman who displayed extraordinary courage and tenacity.
She studied Clinical Leadership at Glasgow University, and was a Consultant to Strathclyde Police.
Linda’s LINKEDIN PROFILE; her blog can be found HERE
