Leadership and the Core Values: What Would You Do?

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Thomas Davison
  • 436th Civil Engineer Squadron commander
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. --  The war is going very badly for your side and your 1600-person unit has lost hundreds to combat, sickness and battle wounds during the past two years. Caught up in a war that was predicted to be over in a matter of weeks, you just took charge of your unit last week during a time when things seemed dismal indeed. The other side has been running off a string of impressive victories since the war began, and had just invaded your homeland determined to capture your country's capital. Their intent is clear: gain international recognition of their shadow government and force your side to accept a losing peace by recognizing their wish for independence. While they have been virtually unstoppable, all your unit's deaths and casualties will have been in vain if the other side manages to achieve their aims. Things don't seem like they could get any worse.

Four days into your tenure of leadership, however, things do get worse - 120 mutineers are assigned to your unit, along with explicit directions from your commanding general to make them do duty or shoot them down if they refuse. What they did was disgraceful: throw down their weapons and refuse to fight because of some squabble over enlistment contracts. They turn out to be from your home state, and you learn that they had signed 3-year enlistments while others in their now-disbanded unit had signed 2-year deals. The 2-year soldiers were just recently discharged and sent home with honor, while the 3-year troops claim fraudulent recruitment by being led to believe they had 2-year deals also. You consider your options: force them to perform duty under guard, start executing them until they shape up and fight, or release them anyway since dealing with them will be more trouble than it's worth.

Your first option, forcing the miscreants to take up their arms, is definitely worth considering although it carries a significant burden because you aren't manned to supervise them. If these folks are blatantly refusing to carry arms, they will not be loyal and probably will only join the battle if you dedicate some of your all-too-precious manpower to force them at gunpoint to fight the enemy. Your second option, to start executing them until they toe the line, seems to be a worse choice than the first. Although this time-honored style of leadership dates back to George Washington himself, you would end up killing your fellow statesmen and you still wouldn't gain their true loyalty in this time when you need it the most. Your third option, to release them from duty anyway, seems to present the best business case but seems so wrong in the context of your current situation. You don't want these disgraceful mutineers affecting your unit, but releasing them would validate their misconduct and be contrary to the direct order from your commanding general.

The bottom line is that you now have a leadership challenge in front of you, and it's one of those tough ones without a clearly correct answer. In situations like this, your values of Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence in All We Do can help you make the best choice under the circumstances.

This exact leadership scenario fell into the lap of Union Col. Joshua Chamberlain, the commander of the 20th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, in the weeks just prior to the Battle of Gettysburg in the Civil War. He acted with integrity by informing the mutineers that, while they were accountable to the contracts they signed, he had no intention of executing them because he didn't feel that was the right thing to do. He preached service before self by explaining how their country and fellow soldiers needed them in such a dark hour. His focus on excellence in all things done paid off in the weeks that followed, when the 20th Maine achieved battlefield immortality for its legendary exploits at Gettysburg.

The Battle of Gettysburg showed us the outcome of Colonel Chamberlain's mastery of Integrity, Service and Excellence. The 20th Maine was assigned to hold the left end of the Union battle line at Gettysburg, on vital high ground known as Little Round Top. The Confederates repeatedly attacked this position, hoping to knock the Union forces off the hill and bring their artillery up to decimate the entire Union line stretched out across a ridgeline below them. The successive attacks killed or wounded scores of Chamberlain's men and depleted their ammunition, and it was only a last-stand bayonet charge by the few remaining men of the 20th Maine that prevented Confederate troops from taking the hill.

Historians credit Chamberlain's ability to successfully integrate the 120 mutineers as key to the defense of Little Round Top, which in turn was critical to the Union Army's successful defense against Confederate Gen. George Pickett's charge up Cemetery Ridge the following day. Repulsing Pickett's Charge ensured Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was beaten decisively for the first time in the war, and extinguished any real hope the Confederacy had for an overall military victory in the conflict. The loss of hope for military victory also cost the Confederate government any hope for a diplomatic victory, as the European powers subsequently lost their desire to grant the Confederate States formal recognition as a separate nation. The eventual Union victory in the war enabled the United States to stay united, allowing us to become the powerful nation that helped win two World Wars and the Cold War.

In summary, Colonel Chamberlain's mastery of the core values in such a minor situation as dealing with mutineers ultimately led to the peace and freedom we enjoy today. We would do well to likewise master the core values because, as surely as Colonel Chamberlain couldn't have known the outcome of his approach to his mutineer problem, we can't know how our actions today will impact the generations 100 years from now.