Hal Moore on Leadership: Winning When Outgunned and Outmanned

by Harold G. Moore

The best leaders strive to create a “family environment” within their organization.

The first person you have to lead and discipline is yourself.

Good vs. poor choices make all

the difference in the world. Within the family and in elementary school, obedience mattered. My early school days, taught by nuns of T...

To be a leader, you must be willing to be a lifelong learner.

For a leader, “learning” does

It means gaining an understanding of how to manage people in ways that maintain their trust and loyalty while preserving their dignity. It also means learning ways to maximize a team’s strength while minimizing their weaknesses. It means

A leader should never be arrogant, spiteful, condescending, or engage in gossip. To the contrary, he should always act with humility and treat his subordinates with respect and

have a greater impact on your subordinates than you realize. Thus, choose your words carefully. Avoid sarcasm and flippancy. Do not insult or take digs at anyone’s intelligence. Remember, everyone processes information differently (and at different speeds). Don’t automatically assume that someone is stupid or indifferent because they haven’t mastered a particular task yet.

The various brands of toxic leaders include: Bully Leaders – those who inflict emotional pain, deliver threats and ultimatums, hurl insults, and invalidate the opinions of others. Narcissistic Leaders – those who are arrogant and self-congratulatory. This brand of toxic leader will often

As a leader of any stripe, you cannot simply give orders and expect your subordinates to follow them blindly. To the contrary, you must establish a clear intent (addressing the “why”) and the desired end state. It will never suffice for a leader to say “Because I said so” as a reason for performing tasks.

It also important for a leader to remember that disciplined initiative does not appear on its own. It must be cultivated within your subordinates. You, the leader, can either develop initiative by encouraging independent thought within organizational guidelines, or you can stifle initiative through micro-management and refusing to consider alternate points of view.

How is America made strong today? Through the duty of each of us to improve the lives of one another.

Leaders stay informed of current events, and they should anticipate challenges based on those events.

Super important part here being to anticipate from those events danger.

good leader never discriminates or alienates

based on race, color, or other genetic factors.

I don’t remember the circumstances, but one of the self-leadership rules I learned at West Point is: “If there’s doubt in your mind, there’s no doubt at all”.

carry yourself professionally and maintain your discipline. That is the quickest way towards recovery.

As a leader, you will inevitably have to interact with different cultures. You don’t have to understand or agree with the mentality of a particular culture. However, you will have to operate within its framework and be aware of its dynamics. This is especially true during a post-war occupation or if you are being hosted by a foreign entity.

A good leader studies the culture of any location where he is planning to go—and he ensures his subordinates are properly educated on the same.

When in charge, take charge, but treat your subordinates

with respect, dignity, and common courtesy.

In the military and in civilian life, leaders often find themselves in positions where their subordinates have more experience and technical “know-how” than they do. Thus, condescending attitudes from the leader will only poison the workforce and undermine productivity. Remember this:

A worker’s performance often reflects the attitude of his leadership.

If you want something done, ask nicely. If a subordinate forgets to perform a task, don’t take it personally; just remind them nicely. In any organization, everyone has a “to-do” list. While juggling these tasks, some things will inevitably fall through the cracks. When that happens, don’t assume that the subordinate is lazy or stupid. Simply re-engage

If a subordinate performs a task and the outcome is not what you expected, don’t attack their intelligence or their character. Politely explain the deficiencies and offer an idea for a solution. Subordinates quickly lose respect for any leader who is “all problem and no solution.”

“The leader,” said Moore, “sets the tone and attitude of his people. Therefore, it’s important to exude honesty, firm self-confidence, and unwavering commitment to be the best. Some people are born with that encoded, self-assured gene and are naturally confident in their abilities to shape the future, make the right decisions, and succeed. But it can be developed in others. The leader

creates and enforces the standards of performance, institutional integrity, character and personality of his unit, his company, his team. As Arthur Newcomb said, ‘Show me the leader and I will know h...

In business, the NCOs are the intermediate supervisors. The leader at the top should consult with and visit them frequently, on their turf, to learn more about what goes on down where the job gets done. It will help him make better decisions in future planning, and in

assuring better performance. In the Army, the saying is: “An outfit does well the things the boss checks up on.”

Wherever possible, solve problems at the lowest level.

When leaders are confronted with disciplinary problems (be it willful disobedience, negligence, or honest mistakes), they must resolve these problems at the lowest level before raising the issue to higher echelons. If the problem can be fixed—and a remedy instituted—at the lower levels, it will benefit your relationship with your subordinates, improve the health of the organization, and not divert higher-level resources away from other priorities.

Praise in public; punish in private.

At an official reception, or dinner party, the real purpose of the event is to socialize, to talk with the other guests and participants—eating and drinking is secondary.

General Officer should not and cannot be “one of the boys.” The top leader in a large

civilian organization should not either. Senior Executives should hold themselves a bit apart and aloof. They should not say much, but when they do, it should be well thought out, make good sense, and be completely clear and understandable.

One of the most important leadership principles I learned from him was: ‘Push the Power Down.’ He was dead honest, very candid, and totally self-confident. He wanted straight talk, no waffling. All told, he was a great role model for a young lieutenant, still wet behind the ears.”

Taking care of your people is not just about the obvious things—pay, working conditions, concern for their welfare and that of their families—but seeing to it they are properly trained and have the personal discipline and desire to get the job done and done well.

If you’re suddenly hit with an event which could kill you or destroy your business, stay calm and think your way out of it. Don’t panic. You can handle an immediate, time-critical, sure-death situation and survive. Stay calm and quickly determine what to do and do it.

Don’t let setbacks derail you from continuing your path.

At times, life will hit you hard and teach you lessons you have no desire to learn. When the “hits” and setbacks come, a leader simply picks himself up and keeps moving forward.

will take about three more weeks, however, until I really get to know all the various SOPs [Standard Operating Procedures], officers, etc. in the Regiment.”

This is something I should think about is the current SOPs of the place I’m in.

If given a choice between taking over a good outfit or a bad outfit, I’ll choose the bad outfit every time. They’ll have nowhere to go but up.

There are two things a leader can do: he can either contaminate his environment with his attitudes and actions, or he can inspire confidence.

Reading a passage like this Forces me to ask myself what are the things that I had done at Sephora as a leader to contaminate my environment when I think of those things I then revert back and wonder did I unintentionally pollute the waters and make it difficult for the team to succeed?

Good leaders don’t wait for official permission to try out a new idea. In any organization, if you go looking for permission, you will inevitably find the one person who thinks his job is to say “No!” It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.

Put the welfare of your troops above your own. They eat before you eat; they sleep before you sleep.

This is something to be aware of.

Commanders are not always leaders. Commanders are appointed. Leaders are unofficially “elected” by the troops in the unit. Likewise in other fields of endeavor. Every leader is put through an informal process in the first few weeks wherein his people judge him and decide whether or not he is worthy of their trust. He must earn that trust. How? A leader must prove himself by his actions, appearance, demeanor, attitude, and decisions.

Most importantly, a leader proves himself by demonstrating his concern for and relationship with the people under him. The old

A leader must ask himself two things: What I am doing that I should not be doing? And what am I not doing that I should be doing?

the companies that thrive (and survive) are the ones who adapt to changes in the marketplace and continually analyze how to improve the delivery of their products and services. This is not to say that a leader should seek change simply for the sake of change or try to find deficiencies where none exist. As the old saying goes: “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” If a system is already yielding good results, don’t feel compelled to change it unless your idea will qualitatively improve the organization’s performance.