When You Need A Great Leader, Look For The Best Followers

Lieutenant Colonel George Custer is a historical figure, much like Benedict Arnold, that has received quite a bit of negative analysis through the years and become the butt of jokes and scorn for his actions. Where Arnold’s name has become synonymous with traitorous behavior, Custer’s has been indelibly attached to failure and/or incompetence. 

We use the term “Custer’s last stand” to describe fights that we take on that are doomed to fail, that inevitably end in defeat. The question is, what was it that actually made Custer’s final battle at Little Bighorn River such a disaster? Is it really all Custer’s fault? Was he a terrible strategist, or an overconfident narcissist? 

When you dig deeper into his story, we not only learn more about the man himself, but also the circumstances that led to one of the most notorious massacres in United States history.

George Armstrong Custer was born in Ohio in 1839, and by the time he was seventeen years old he had been given a teaching certificate that qualified him to educate grammar school aged children of his day. There was something about that more placid, scholarly pursuit that didn’t sit well with young Custer, he must have had an adventurer’s heart, because instead of moving forward in that career he went on to enlist in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Four years later, in 1861, Custer graduated from West Point…dead last in his class.

Right after reading that statement, it would be understandable to jump to a conclusion that Custer must have been a poor soldier, in over his head with a wanting education in the fundamentals of serving in the armed forces. However, it is important to note that when the Civil War broke out later on in his graduation year, he joined the Union Army and in fairly short order proved himself to be a solid, dependable soldier. After his conduct and performance in battles at Bull Run and the Gettysburg campaign, Custer found himself promoted several times and at the time of the Civil War’s end, he had attained the rank of Major General overseeing a Calvary division.

In other words, this doesn’t seem that this was an utterly incompetent man.

Throughout the war, Custer demonstrated his willingness to never ask his men to do anything that he was unwilling to do. He rode at the front of his troop, taking the risk each time of plunging into the fray first, and there are stories that say he had eleven horses shot out from under him, and he himself was wounded at least once. According to his biography on History.com, “His dogged pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia is often partially credited for helping to end the Civil War.”

It would not appear that Custer could be dismissed as a self-serving coward.

So, what went so wrong that we now equate him with utter failure?

Let’s look further into his story.

At 25 years of age, with the Civil War behind him, Custer married Elizabeth Bacon and he soon was leading the 7th Calvary Unit in Kansas, with his new bride, fighting in the Plains Indian Wars, which really heated up by 1866.

This point in Custer’s life was dotted with reckless decisions, and ruthless battles. At one point he deserted his men, went AWOL, and left to be with his wife at Fort Riley, an action which stunned his superiors and caused him to be court-martialed, ultimately suspended without rank and pay for a year. By 1868, however, he was reinstated and led a group of cavalry men against a village of Cheyenne Indians, slaughtering every Indian warrior present, which gave him a fearsome reputation as a leader in the fight against the perceived Native American threat.

The tarnished, but apparently effective, Lieutenant Colonel was put in charge of relocating all Plains Indians to reservations by January 31st of 1876, and anyone that didn’t go peaceably was to be consider a hostile combatant.

To the shame of the nation, part of the plan to squash the rebellion of the Plains Indians, who had lived on the land that the country was trying to seize long before settlers came along, was to destroy their livelihood. A key component of this effort was to wipe out scores of wild buffalo that were roaming the plains and had represented food, clothing and supplies to the Native Americans for hundreds of years.

As American railroad workers moved West, they were encouraged to decimate herds of the animals, the government encouraged hunters to kill the creatures without oversight and even sanctioned trains to stop so passengers could massacre the buffalo purely for sport. Tribes like the Lakota and Sioux were literally watching their entire way of life come to an abrupt end, and they were determined to fight back with help from tribal leaders like Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.

By the time the battle at Little Bighorn River came along, the original plan was to confront a growing group of Plains Indians, the aforementioned Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse included, with a force consisting of Custer’s 7th Cavalry, Brigadier General Alfred Terry’s infantry and troops under the command of Colonel John Gibbon and Brigadier General George Crook. The hope was to surround the Indians with an overwhelming number of soldiers that would force their surrender and push them back onto government created reservations.

I won’t drag out the blow by blow of Custer’s defeat, there are certainly many tomes written that examine every move and countermove of the battle if you are interested in diving deeper into the factors of how things played out. Academics and military experts that are much more versed in such things have done an outstanding job, far better than I am capable of, in looking at each piece of the overall puzzle. Here’s my layman’s bullet pointed breakdown of what transpired:

·     Custer and his men were tasked with surrounding the Indian encampment, and then wait for reinforcements before taking action.

·     Instead of waiting, once he had located Sitting Bull’s camp, Custer decided a pre-emptive surprise attack was the best course of action.

·     Custer divided his men into four different groups, two attacking from the south, one staying to guard the supply route, and his own attacking from the north, in a designed pincer move.

·     The two groups from the south, led by Captain Fredrick Benteen and Major Marcus Reno, were routed by Indians that knew the terrain better and were more heavily armed than expected, they retreated back up into the hills after losing at least 30 men. They later heard the sound of gunfire as their leader, Custer, clashed with the group along the riverbank, and they did not ride back into the fight to assist.

·     Custer’s group of 210 men attacked from the north, and every single one of them perished in a one-sided skirmish, with Custer himself dying from two bullets, one near his heart and one in his head.

We could talk through a number of force multipliers that gave the victory to the Native Americans that day. They were more familiar with surrounding land, they were using Winchester repeating rifles to Custer’s Springfield single shot carbines, Custer was too impetuous in his unplanned surprise attack, the implied cowardice of Benteen and Marcus to come to his aid…all of these are legitimate possible factors. I think, however, that there was something larger at play that day that caused the single largest defeat of the U.S. Army during the entire Plains Indian Wars.

It’s all about motivation…it was about what was spurring people to take the actions they did.

In the case of Custer and his men they were fighting the Lakota and the Sioux perhaps because they were simply ordered to, maybe because they were defending what they saw as national progress in the country’s expansion out west, conceivably it was a personal vested interest or greed, they might have had designs on eventually claiming their own piece of land to possess. 

Maybe it was a combination of all of these, or other motives, for taking the fight to the indigenous tribes.

The Indians, however, were fighting for something that was far more precious, something much closer to their hearts than just their material possessions or land holdings. It’s worth noticing that no one had to order them to do it, it happened naturally when this thing was threatened with destruction. They were willing to give their last breath to defend something that could not be easily replicated, or replaced, once lost.

They were motivated to battle for the survival of their very culture.

The actions and orders of the United States Government was to demoralize their Indian enemies by wiping out the buffalo, and in so doing, destroy a culture that had existed for millennia. The thought was clearly that by disrupting the foundational supports that had sustained the Plains Indians culture for so long, the fight would be taken out of them and they would be easy to round up and either moved out of the way, or simply picked off.

Custer’s loss merely exemplified the error in this thinking, and the young nation learned a difficult but valuable lesson:

While people may compelled to act because of a need for progress, they might act in obedience of marching orders, or be driven to act through the hunger of their own self-centeredness…they will almost always be more powerfully motivated to fight with their blood, sweat and tears to defend a cherished culture that comes under attack, or is in danger of being destroyed. 

As human beings we can be moved to take action for a number of reasons:

·     Perhaps because we are obeying authority

·     Maybe we fear the consequences of inaction

·     It could be that we desire rewards

·     It might be that we are devoted to larger belief 

I would offer the view that the strength of the action, the power and consistency behind it, is proportionally much larger when it stems from devotion TO something, than when it comes from obedience, fear or desire OF something.

Most people would acknowledge that a motivated workforce is desirable. Having employees that are self-motivated, energetic, and dynamically engaged in their work, believing in both the company that they work for and the products they create is obviously a powerful and preferable scenario for the health and growth of an organization.

The question, if you own or work in any kind of business, is: How do I achieve that?

There is no single answer to that question, unfortunately, no matter what book you read or expert you listen to. It’s a complicated goal to attain and it takes the alchemy of several components. You have to hire the right people, supply them with the right tools, understand and communicate an inspiring mission, develop the right leaders, create efficient system and process and produce a good or service that is of excellent quality, just to name a few things that will get you started down the right path.

The closest thing that I can find to a lightning rod…a single element that absolutely, positively MUST be in place to build a company that can continually grow, retain and develop outstanding talent, weather all client storms, and withstand all competitor attacks it is strong, positive and inspiring culture.

A business may have great leaders, but even great leaders will make mistakes or bad calls occasionally. It may exhibit extraordinarily disciplined management, or have perfectly defined processes, but that can all seem detached and utterly clinical, devoid of the consideration that it is made up of flesh and blood human beings, if you’re not careful. It might have a plethora of sustainable competitive advantages, but there are always competitors combatting its growth, trying to develop the next big thing, better product, and faster service. 

Great leaders, excellent systems, solid tools, and even sustainable competitive advantages are all important, but the catalyst that brings it all together is an amazing culture…the way of life within a company that is established by wisely leveraging all of these things.

Devotion to a powerful culture motivates people to lay everything on the field in support of its defense and growth, and people devoted to a culture will win the most important battles.

In order to establish a powerful culture that people can devote themselves to, it requires two components”

1.)  Leadership that establishes a clear vision of what the culture is, and regularly inspires people to be a part of it.

2.)  Motivated followers that believe so deeply in it that they are willing to fight any battle to nurture it, keep it safe and watch it grow.

I focus a lot of time reading and writing on the first point, trying to understand and explain what it takes to become a transformational, inspirational leader, but what I really want to focus on, in this case, is point #2…what is a motivated follower?

Custer may not have been a complete coward, or utterly incompetent, but he was also clearly less than an inspirational leader. The message that he must have sent to his men when he deserted them, and then was brought back, couldn’t have been one of reassurance and trust. Watching him go against the recommended strategy and impulsively launch an unauthorized attack likely didn’t get his followers to see the big picture and devote themselves to his cause. This was evidenced strongly by his two commanders, Benteen and Reno, failing to even come to his rescue when they heard the echo of his doomed fight taking place.

His men, the followers, were all there because they were obeying orders they had been given, but the leadership hadn’t cast much of a vision for a positive and powerful culture.

The Indians they faced however, were quite different in both respects.

Crazy Horse was once quoted as saying:

“A very great vision is needed, and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky…We preferred our own way of living. We were not expense to the government. All we wanted was peace and to be left alone.”

Sitting Bull, before he died, said:

“Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am Sioux? Because I was born where my father lived? Because I would die for my people and my country?”

Neither of these men ordered the rest of the Sioux or Lakota tribes to come to their side, or to take up arms. Neither of these men laid out a sophisticated battle plan and recruited forces to carry it out. There was never an edict sent forth that there would be unpleasant consequences to any Plains Indian warrior that chose to not come and fight alongside of these two leaders. 

Instead, people heard of their vision, felt the impact of their cause, saw the threat to the CULTURE that they spoke of preserving and they willingly came, gathered together and followed.

And they did more than show up…they fought to the last man.

You want to know what makes a good follower?

It’s the person who is so devoted to the culture, so protective of the people around them, so energized by the big vision and passionate about their role within it that they will FIGHT TO PRESERVE AND DEFEND IT. 

Building the type of culture that people are devoted to, that motivates them, is the thing that creates great companies take the time to do. When they do, they become the ones that last through all ups and downs, past all threats and dangers, stresses and frustrations. It’s the culture of trust in leadership, belief in their caring, and confirmation of the larger impact of the work that is produced. If you can create it, it is the lightning in a bottle that sparks whenever it is needed to inspire employees, thrill clients and navigate roadmaps to meeting goals. 

But it is NOT going to come easy.

It was Aristotle that said, “He who cannot be a good follower cannot be a good leader.”

As a follower your responsibility to is fight for a culture you believe in and not because you are ordered to do so, but because you BELIEVE in it so strongly. Thankfully I don’t mean fighting for it in the sense of physical combat like the Plains Indians. When I say you have to fight to protect a fully embraced culture, I mean things like:

·     Sacrificing your own immediate gratifications and desires for the good of the entire community that lives within and supports that culture.

·     Learning to exemplify the principles and ideals that have formed that culture and listening when leadership points out times where you have failed to do so, learning from such times and getting better.

·     Rallying together, working as a team, in defense of the culture when it is under attack from outside forces. Seeing an attack on one part as an attack on all and proactively shoring up the areas that are feeling the most pressure in the moment, instead of viewing responsibilities in an egocentric fashion.

·     When called upon by leadership within a culture that is fervently believed in, a good follower will lay it all upon the field, becoming vulnerable, going the extra mile in supporting plans that are the embodiment of the cultural pillars.

·     It is also important, as a follower, to ask questions of leadership when actions taken, or orders given, appear to diametrically oppose established principles of a culture that has been passionately embraced.

These actions and attitudes, and certainly more, indicate the essence of what it means to be a good follower…what it means to fight for a precious, established culture that needs to be defended. Following them, exhibiting them, prepares one for someday moving from being a follower to growing into leadership.

Custer learned the hard way that to underestimate the power of people who felt their culture was threatened was a huge mistake. It is interesting, symbolically, that he died from gunshots in the two places that he was ultimately not able to bring together as a follower, his heart and his head. That inability to unite his mind (mentality, attitudes, senses, etc.) and his heart (will, emotions, passion, etc.) damaged his effectiveness as a leader.

As a follower he clearly didn’t give his all in learning his lessons in school, he deserted his men, there were times he disobeyed strategies and plans and others he blindly followed without questioning whether or not ideals were being exemplified. He impulsively rushed in without waiting for support from those around him, he failed to inspire people under his care and charge to rally to his cause. When he cried out for support and reinforcement…those that were supposed to follow him, who had seen him fall as a follower and subsequently as a leader…chose self-preservation over sacrifice, embraced fear over fighting.

Here are a few questions to consider as you examine your own work life:

·     If I have been asked to serve as a leader, am I helping to create, support and cast a vision for what I believe to be an inspiring vision, one that motivates my people to WANT to follow and fight for…or am I merely adept at giving orders?

·     If I am serving as a follower, am I skilled and dedicated one? Am I regularly fighting for a culture that I believe in fervently, keeping my eyes off the obstacles and opposition and staying focused on what I need to do to see this culture thrive?

·     If I am serving in both capacities current, as a leader AND a follower, am I embodying the ideals and principles that build an inspiring culture even as I hold others accountable to do so that are leading and following me?

·     Am I connected to my company culture with both my head (mentality, attitudes, senses, etc.) and my heart (will, emotions, passion, etc.)? Do I rush to the aid of those around me when I see them stumbling in the daily battle to keep our culture at the center of everything we do, or do I desert them when things get the most difficult for me personally?

Here is a simple but powerful truth: When you need a great leader you can start your search, many times, by looking for the best followers. 

Find the person that knows what it means to dedicate themselves to the fight that protects the most important things in business and life, and serves not because they are forced or ordered to, but because they are passionately connected to the purpose or cause that the culture supports. Those are the folks that are showing that they are ready to begin leading others to do the same, and they will draw unto themselves the same likeminded groups and teams of people. If you get a whole company full of those kinds of great Follower-Leaders you will be well on your way to explosive and consistent growth…and you will have an incredible time moving from success to success together.

If we DON’T spend time honing ourselves in both of these aspects of our lives, every battle we face individually and collectively can end up turning out a lot like “Custer’s Last Stand”, destined for defeat.

Take some time to think about your own efforts as both leader and follower this weekend, be honest with yourself. It’s never too late to change and shore up weaknesses in both of your roles, and it can make a world of difference in your work and home life.