MARSHALL'S DILEMMA

From earlier essays, the perceptive reader know that I consider George Marshall a in personal hero of mine addition to Winston Churchill and Abraham Lincoln. From a humble childhood to holding some of the highest offices in our government, Marshall exhibited a set of personal and professional qualities that are worth emulating.

Marshall faced several difficult choices in his career, but I am focusing in this essay on only one, the one that I consider pivotal to his life Unlike Churchill’s dilemma which occurred when the prime minister was 65 years of age, Marshall’s dilemma of which I will be describing occurred when he was merely 16 years old.

Our story begins in 1880 when George Marshall was born on the last day of the year. He grew up in Uniontown, near Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania. His father was a businessman, sometimes successful and sometimes not, and was a distant descendant of Chief Justice John Marshall. Marshall was closer to his mother who, like his father, had moved to Pennsylvania from Kentucky along the Ohio River.

Marshall was an indifferent student who was hardly college material. His older brother Stuart had been a cadet at Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and Marshall decided that was also the place for him, especially when he overheard Stuart tell their mother that he (George) would not be successful there.

What exactly was the magic of VMI? For southerners. VMI represented the defeated Confederacy in all its glory with special reverence for Generals Lee and Jackson. And for northerners, VMI was perhaps perceived as a poor man’s West Point and also for the virtues it sought to instill in every cadet. David Brooks describes the school in 1897 as possessing “…a moral culture that brought together several ancient traditions: a chivalric devotion to service and courtesy, a stoic commitment to emotional self-control, and a classical devotion to honor.” Alas, VMI was short in academics and Marshall as a future student did not excel academically but he mastered the discipline and loyalty of the place. Discipline and loyalty were what he needed and what drove him to success in his military and civilian professions.

When Marshall arrived at VMI in 1897 one week late due to illness he hardly had the necessary discipline, but he quickly sensed that loyalty was needed for success at VMI. Hazing was a fact of life for first year students at colleges, more so then and less so now. One night very soon after his arrival Marshall was the target specially since he was a northerner with a Yankee accent. The older cadets jammed the blunt end of a bayonet into the wooden floor and ordered Marshall to squat over the sharp blade. He could not hold that position long due to his illness and he slipped with the bayonet gashing his hindside. The older cadets rushed Marshall to the infirmary fearful that they had gone too far. Bandaged up, Marshall refused to identify the culprits and soon word-of-mouth got around at VMI that Marshall was loyal. He had earned the respect of the cadet corps.

With the foundational VMI virtues being instilled into Marshall coupled with the nascent values of loyalty and respect, he was molded into a leader. After becoming First Corporal in his second year and First Sergeant in his third year, Marshall was awarded the top cadet position in his senior- First Captain. He was beginning to learn how to lead and manage men.

After 38 years of moving up in the military ranks, George Marshall was named Army Chief of Staff, serving 1939- 1945. The day after his retirement, he was named special envoy to China, then secretary of state and later secretary of defense. Winston Churchill once called him “The greatest living American.”

I believe that Marshall owes much of his success and acclaim were due to his response to that that hazing incident when as a sly and awkward boy of 16 years of age and away from home for the first time, chose not to name his assailants who had gone too far in the plank that wounded him.

The question for us as leaders is how do we respond to those unintentional, and even intentional, slights and gossip directed at us? Of course, sexual harassment, threats of violence, and the like are not to be tolerated. However, many slights and such do not rise to that level. Your response to those may determine the course of your career. So, know your context and choose wisely.