Genetic & Environmental Influences of Leaders

The skills, talents and qualities which are associated with successful military leadership are fairly easy to identify, their origins much less so. Education, training and experience are all indispensable in a successful military leader, yet intangible qualities appear in most instances to be traceable more to the nature, personality and temperament of successful warrior-leaders which may owe as much to birth and genetics as to upbringing. The only sensible conclusion is that nature and nurture are both important in the development of an effective military leader.

The ultimate test of success or failure in war is victory or defeat. Yet some of history's most successful commanders have experienced defeat, Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo, Erwin Rommel at El Alamein and Douglas MacArthur at Bataan. They were defeated for different reasons, usually because of circumstances wholly or partially outside their control. Napoleon once said that in picking key officers, he would rather select a lucky general than a competent one. Someth

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elland, was unparalleled as a military planner, organizer, trainer and driller of soldiers, but he lacked sufficiently aggressive drive to succeed. President Abraham Lincoln said "he has the slows" (Perret 24). Napoleon said a successful general "must be slow in deliberation and quick in execution" (Luvaas 23). Most personality traits, such as personal magnetism, are inherited rather than acquired, but they can be contrived or otherwise influenced by the environment. Adolf Hitler's speeches had a magnetic effect on most audiences; however, he also took speech lessons from an expert. Dwight Eisenhower had an infectious grin, but his mother said he also inherited a terrible temper which he kept under control only by a strong exercise in self-will. Successful commanders must always be on guard against acquiring an unmanageable ego. Fuller said that toward the end of Napoleon's active career, his previous successes had rendered him more and more dictatorial. He considered himself to be invincible and the only general in the world fit to command a great army. This led him to despise the enemy, and, . . . to believe that no obstacle was insurmountable" (454). Ruthlessness. In most modern wars, there are few
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Approximate Word count = 2199
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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