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Leadership Notes: Valley Forge

Leadership Notes: Valley Forge

In the winter of 1777 through the spring of 1778, the Continental Army was dying. Theres to be some privation expected in soldiering, but not like this. Supply chains and quartermaster runs had all but stopped, and the ones that did show up brought the wrong supplies or it had spoiled by the time they had gotten there. Underlying all of this was a lack of promised support from local governments and towns. The very communities that General Washington and his ragtag hellions were defending refused to support them in some cases, financially or otherwise.

There was:

  • No training
  • No discipline
  • No structure
  • No morale

The Continental Army was dying, not from casualties on the battlefield (mostly), but from a more sinister and insidious enemy within: its own leaders.

After a couple of crushing defeats by the British, the Americans had all but abandoned their quest to retake Philadelphia. That winter, hunkered down in Valley Forge, a despondent General George Washington penned a letter to Benjamin Franklin in Europe:

“I need a professional army.”

To which Ben replied: “I’ve got a guy.”

Change and Leadership

Change arrived in February of 1778 in the form of a Prussian officer name Friedrich Wilhem von Steuben, an officer under Frederick the Great and had seen more than a few fights and battles. Steuben makes a stark observation of the Continental Army as he first sees the camp at Valley Forge:

“With regard to military discipline, I may safely say that no such thing existed in the Continental Army.” – Von Steuben

Steuben did not just observe an Army and the idea of a new world dying on the vine… he saw an army devoid of leadership. Despite the presence of one of our favorite leader archetypes in George Washington, the subordinate officers were wholly useless. The men had been left to their own device and treated like volunteers that “without them we will lose.” The officers were afraid to enforce discipline for fear that the men would revolt or leave altogether. They had been allowed to slip into mediocrity and soon laziness, illness, and pestilence reigned supreme. As an example, these soldiers were relieving themselves inside of the log cabins that they slept in!

When the men met von Steuben, they joked that he was the personification of the Greek god Ares, the God of War. All jokes aside, when Steuben was finished with his training, his work had transformed the rag tag volunteers into a professional fighting force. The good order and disciplined instilled those cold months in Valley Forge have reigned for the last 245 years.

To chronicle his efforts and ideas, von Steuben wrote about the day’s training in his journals and later published what is known in the modern Army as “The Blue Book,” or The Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States. This became the go to reference guide for officers in the Continental Army that governed everything from sanitation to drill.

Leadership was the hero of Valley Forge.

What Does Leadership Look Like?

Although not originally his idea, at the behest of General Washington, Steuben first gathered a group of officers and soldiers to personally train them as the “ideal company.” They were to be the model that the rest of the companies would emulate.  He set them as the standard… a sort of “this is the way” approach.

They were trained and held to his exacting standards. More importantly, the Continentals saw a leader actually leading. Steuben did not sit inside of his tent and write training documents to be handed down to his subordinates and executed. He trained them himself. If they were dirty and in the mud, so was he. If they were cold and tired, so was he. In the end, they knew what he knew about war and command, and they did it his way.

These officers and soldiers then went out to their individual units to begin replicating the Baron’s training. His teaching and training was so effective that General Washington issued an order that any and all training not overseen by Steuben was to cease. Steuben would take care of it, and if he was not available, the task then fell to one of the officers he had personally trained. It sounds a little like the ultimate field training and evaluation program doesn’t it?  

You see, the officers of the Continental Army of that time felt that it was beneath them to personally lead training and drills, so this was left to the non-commissioned officers. Let’s just say that the NCO Corp of the Continental Army in Valley Forge was not what we know it to be today.

It’s Not My Job

Next, he began inspecting things. He made his rounds around the camp at Valley Forge, walking around and digging in to the privation that had begun to strangle the life out of the Continental Army. Uniforms were on the list of things to fix, yes, but how they lived was of much higher importance.

The squalor that had been allowed to endure in the absence of engaged leadership threatened to destroy everything. Here is an interesting fact, this was the job of the Inspector General Thomas Conway. Steuben saw that the job was not being done and just did it himself, and in so doing became the de facto Inspector General. He was soon after officially awarded the position as Conway was relieved and soon resigned after receiving a less than desirable command in another part of the country.

The Problem of Leadership

Does the above story sound familiar? Replace the words “Continental Army” with the name of your fire department or EMS agency. If it bears no resemblance to your current situation, then you are one of the lucky ones. For those who see the parallels, the rest of this history lesson is for you.

How many organizations are out there, derelict, destitute, and on their way to becoming defunct. There is no shortage of headlines out there about a number of organizations closing their doors due to either poor recruitment or a lack of funding. Even the seemingly well put together, big-city professional departments are facing serious considerations of being defunded in order to make room in their governing body’s budget for something else. Something more important and worth the money than public safety… (yes, this is in fact a real thing that is happening).

All while this is going on, how many officers and leaders are saying “that’s not my job” or are otherwise blaming the problems of the department on their next higher link in the chain of command? As if blaming someone else absolves them of the responsibility of leadership. Recruiting and retention is something for the staff guys to worry about, right? It is not something that the shift leadership needs to pay attention to, is it? It absolutely is.

If funding and supplies are not the primary problem, then the daily grind becomes about dealing with inept, ineffective, and indifferent leaders. They are not being led at all. They are slowly freezing and starving to death, living their very own, modern version of Valley Forge. The leaders, who are comfortable with their status and modified list of daily duties do not feel that squeeze. They do not feel the same pressures the same way because they have insulation from those inept and ineffective leaders. It is all killing the industry.

The Real Hero of Valley Forge

The story of Valley Forge is one of leadership, and engaged leadership is the true hero of the story. After Steuben’s hard-nosed, uncompromising effort of training the Continental Army, newspaper articles began running stories about not only how much more professional the men were, but of how their morale was on the rise. They were “eager” now to face the enemy, whereas before they could have cared less to use their bayonets to cook their food rather than kill the enemy with it. It seems counterintuitive that a tough, hard-nosed approach actually INCREASED the morale, but a leader must set the tone for performance and then hold the team accountable for it. People see that there is a standard and want to rise to the occasion to meet that standard. The ones that do not or want it the easy way either leave or are managed off of the team. This is not a bad thing. If you want to protect the morale of a high performing team, make it very apparent that poor performance is not welcome and will not be allowed.

Even more interesting was the about-face of the support from the local communities. Never again did the supply runs come back empty handed, but instead bulging with fresh vegetables and fish that had been left for them by the locals. The populace was seeing the soldiers take themselves seriously and soon began to do the same. It seems easier to support people when they look and act like something worth the time and effort.

Close Out

How many of our brethren are suffering their own EMS version of Valley Forge where they are working for an inept, ineffective, or indifferent leader that has allowed their organization to lapse into destitution? The crews, waiting for the leaders to just LEAD.

You do not need to have a title in order to positively influence and impact your team. Stop waiting for the promotion lists to come out with your name on it. Stop waiting for a spot to open up. Start leading. Start setting the tone now so that when you finally get your shot to step into the leadership role that you seek, you’ve already done a majority of the foundation work you’ll need to in order to be effective.

Training is leading. Teach your teams and peers the job. Mold them into the professionals that the community expects and deserves.

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