Preview

Authority And Leadership: General George S. Patton, Jr.

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
239 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Authority And Leadership: General George S. Patton, Jr.
Authority and leadership are distinctly different and are often confused. Generally, the authoritative position is one that is appointed. People respect that person because of their position, not always is the respect earned. Leaders earn the respect of the people that follow them.
A good leader encourages the people who work for them to think and problem solve whereas a person in a position of authority can sometimes be reluctant to the process and change. This thought process and resistance to change became glaringly evident in the events leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Many military leaders did not think that the aircraft carrier was a powerful weapon and still relied on the battleship. The Japanese proved how powerful of a weapon the carrier could be.
…show more content…
Persons in a position of authority sometimes focus on the end goal and fail to see the coordination required. At the same time, this position of authority does not allow the person to be involved with all the coordination required.
People in positions of authority need good leaders to execute the mission and the job. General George S. Patton, Jr, one of the best leaders the military has had, said it best, “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    General Patton was a formidable and strategic leader. “Patton is now considered one of the greatest military figures in history” (General Patton, n.d.). Unfortunately, his blunt and intolerant personality and his authoritarian leadership style, at one point, was the primary force in his fall from grace.…

    • 1938 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Leadership in war time is a dynamic process. No one particular commander is exposed to the same challenge and implements a textbook solution. While leadership doctrine is provided to commanders, it serves more as a guideline than anything else. This situation can be clearly seen in the leadership and management styles of General Frank Savage and Colonel Keith Davenport. Both of these individuals were faced with the challenge of leading a Bomber Group during World War II. Grossly undermanned and equipped, their directive from command was to give maximum effort and fly their assigned missions until replacement aircraft and personnel could be brought up to the front.…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Leadership is when you take a group of people or an organization and take it under your control and lead it. Leadership is when you take control. A leader is someone that tells people what to do. A leader does things to get work done. A person that is going to be a successful leader is going to be able to make decisions and not be biased. Someone who claims to be a leader does everything in his or her power to make sure that the task is done correctly and in the right way. Groups…

    • 1260 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A good leader has to listen to others view points and use it as a earning point and understand that it is okay to change their mind.…

    • 352 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to Army Doctrine Reference Manual (ADRP) 6-0, (2012) one of the three primary tasks for a commander is to inform and influence both internal and external audiences. In my experience, even the best leaders have a difficult time directly influencing a wide range of audiences. It is unrealistic to expect one person to be able to reach the…

    • 933 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ww1 Leadership Analysis

    • 3577 Words
    • 15 Pages

    I have not chosen this subject lightly. To me, leadership is the key to success in military operations, in peace and in war, as it has always been through the centuries. Yet it is a subject that doesn't get the attention it deserves today. My purpose with this letter is to stimulate some thoughts, and to put leadership in the forefront of your minds, where it belongs. I want you to read carefully and seriously what I have to say.…

    • 3577 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is an absolute must for any business or military organization to have good leadership. The leadership must have a good feel for their people and know their strengths and exploit them and find ways to improve…

    • 932 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    General Patton, also known as George Patton showed great adaptive leadership qualities during his career in the military. At an early age, Patton knew he wanted to join the military. Growing up he dreamed to become a war hero to follow his grandfather’s footsteps. He joined the Military Institution after high school only for a year then entered the Military Academy at West Point. Once he graduated he joined the U.S. Army as he has always planned.…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Military leadership isn’t simply about leading a group of individuals to accomplish the mission. On the surface it may seem this way; a barrage of loud, authoritative orders being barked out to brainwashed enlistees. This is how the preponderance of the masses that aren’t associated with the military may see us. However, it’s much, much more than that. Military leadership is about leading individuals to become something more than they ever thought they could be. To develop an individual into one of integrity and excellence. To help them reach goals they never thought possible and to consider a world beyond their own. Truly, there is no other form of leadership quite like it.…

    • 552 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A recommendation that I would apply to this leader’s leadership style is ingrained in a letter from General Patton to his son, “There are apparently two types of successful soldiers. Those who get on by being unobtrusive and those who get on by being obtrusive. I am of the latter type…rare and unpopular: but it is my method” (McKay, 2016). He is portraying here that a leader should be very well known to his followers, that the actions and response of a leader should be deliberate and with equality of any given situation. As Kouzes and Posner (2012) point out, “be personally involved and create a spirit of community…when social connections are strong and numerous, there’s more trust, reciprocity, information flow, collective action” (p. 305). In the situation of slapping the soldier I do feel that if General Patton took a more social judgement-skills approach to the soldier, and not obtrusive or as extreme obtrusive, I do feel this type of connection with his…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I believe that leadership is the backbone of military life. Leadership can be defined as influencing subordinates in all situations to achieve desired goals. My leadership philosophy is based on my experience in the Saudi Air Defense Force . The leader who can control themselves as well as the situations and events surrounding them has the ability to succeed.…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Leadership is defined as the ability to guide, direct or influence people, but it is much more than that. There are many ways to merely guide or direct. A leader is someone whose personality helps them to guide a group of people in a direction they believe is desirable. People want to follow the leader, but they are perfectly free not to. A leader guides people by the infectious nature of their vision. Leadership and authority are not the same thing. The key difference lies in the source of power. If a person has the ability lead a group to perform a certain act than that person is an authoritarian. They may also be a leader but being in charge does not make one a leader. There are many traits that must be present for a person to be a good leader and most of them require the leader to be wholly committed to his position. People can sense authenticity and want to be led by a real person. Leadership requires a reciprocal relationship and creating the relationship cannot be forged by the use of power.…

    • 2935 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hard work and discipline leads to progress, progress leads to success. Everyone deserves the opportunity to learn, grow and develop personally and professionally. This means defining goals, developing action plans, measuring progress, and holding people accountable for actions/inactions. Another principle is to create opportunity space for Soldiers to fail and learn from those failures. I firmly believe that we learn best from failures, but our culture is one that avoids it far too often, many times to the detriment of our Soldiers. Obviously there are times when failure isn’t an option, but if we want to develop leaders that have the knowledge and experience to take reasonable risks, we must allow them to fail at…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Leadership is the ability to obtain followers. Leadership is influence. You are a leader to the extent that people are following you.…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Leadership

    • 532 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Leadership is "organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal". The leader may or may not have any formal authority. Studies of leadership have produced theories involving traits,[2] situational interaction, function, behavior, power, vision and values,[3] charisma, and intelligence, among others. Somebody whom people follow: somebody who guides or directs others…

    • 532 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays