Timeless Leadership Lessons From a Young George Washington
This article is by Mitchell B. Reiss, the 27th president of Washington College, in Chestertown,
Maryland.
Surrender, humiliation, and poor management are not what come to mind at this time of year when
we salute the memory of George Washington. We honor instead the Father of his Country, the leader
of the Continental Army, the modern Cincinnatus who surrendered his sword and general’s
commission at Annapolis after independence, and the first President of the United States, elected
unanimously.
But the young Washington, often overlooked, made many missteps and bad calls, as at Fort Necessity
in 1754, where poor planning and misjudgment resulted in appalling casualties, humiliating defeat by
the French, and the seizure and publication of his personal diary. Indeed, the inexperienced
commander could be impetuous, highly emotional, and even reckless at times.
How did that young man with ambitious dreams become one of our country’s greatest political and
military leaders, the gold standard by which we judge our leaders today? What can we learn from
Washington’s unlikely and awe-inspiring ascent from military failure to statesman and founding icon?
To help us answer these questions, Washington College, which General Washington and his officers
helped create in 1782 as the new nation’s first college, asked five eminent historians to discuss
Washington’s virtues and explain what made him a giant among his contemporaries, the greatest
leader of his day, respected and admired around the world.
What emerged is a complex portrait of leadership, revealing some of the many elements that formed
Washington’s character and his deliberate effort to be a new type of leader for a newly democratic
society. He displayed an amalgam of virtues, some rooted in his eighteenth-century society and
others that are timeless.
“Physical courage under fire,” writes Stephen Brumwell, author of George Washington: Gentleman
Warrior, was central to the honor code of Washington’s day. Yet even by that standard Washington
was exemplary. He did not just lead his men into battle, his calming presence rallied his men to
victory in the battle of Princeton in January 1777 and at Monmouth the following year. His suffering
with his troops during the winter of hardship at Valley Forge is famous; less well known is that he
never took leave during the entire war.
Whether in battle or in office, Washington had a highly developed sense of honor and what
constituted honorable behavior. According to Professor Richard Beeman, Washington was
“motivated in his public life by civic virtue. . . . His ability to subordinate his personal interests to the
public good in all public behavior and demeanor served as examples for others to follow.” For
example, Washington refused to accept any pay for his service as either commander-in-chief during
the Revolutionary War or later as president, despite the financial hardship this caused him. Pulitzer
Prize-winning historian Gordon S. Wood insists, “Above all, he was wary of being perceived as having
a private interest or stake in something. . . . He had a strong moral sense of how he should behave.”
Washington also learned from his mistakes and surrounded himself with talent. Author Richard
Brookhiser reminds us that Washington “drew upon others who were in some sense smarter than he
was, but he himself knew what to do and where he wanted to go.” It took remarkable self-confidence
to hire Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay as his first cabinet officers. They were
men of “true ability, all much smarter than he was,” says best-selling historian Joseph Ellis. A lesser
man would have feared being overshadowed or diminished by these ambitious rivals. Not
Washington, who wrote that “much abler heads than my own” were needed to achieve the larger
mission of uniting the still fractious states and forging one country from many contentious
individuals.
Washington prepared himself intensively for leadership by emulating successful people he
encountered and by following a volume of 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour, which he
meticulously copied as a kind of how-to manual for self-made success. Maintaining a fastidious
appearance, refraining from public displays of emotion, and generally keeping quiet in good
company, he became the George Washington we recognize today, the iconic man Brookhiser dubs
our “founding CEO.”
What leadership lessons can Washington teach us? How do ideas of leadership today compare with
those of the self-educated and self-made Washington?
We spoke to three more experts about those questions. The leadership characteristics most needed
today, according to Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, are “a steadiness in
purpose, personal courage, and unstinting allegiance to the common good—the public interest.”
Rebecca Rimel, president and chief executive of the Pew Charitable Trusts, agrees that “leadership is
not about self, but about stewardship: the care and cultivation of resources not your own.” However,
she cautions that leadership is more challenging today than before because of the “rapid pace of
change. Effective leaders must be able to embrace uncertainty, and be both flexible and comfortable
with the challenges and opportunities that come with it.” Dr. Ralph Snyderman, dhancellor emeritus
at Duke University, says that “heroic leadership is harder today,” because one answers to more
stakeholders than before and must demonstrate greater transparency and accountability and less
deference to specialized expertise.
All these people believe that leadership can be learned but society needs to do a better job of
providing more opportunities for young people and role models for them to emulate. And they
believe that effective leadership must be guided by a strong moral compass and unshakeable ethics.
Washington certainly would have agreed.
On this President’s Day, we would do well to honor not only George Washington’s singular
accomplishments but the emerging leader who grew into the Father of his Country, who developed
discipline, cultivated courage, and learned from his early experiences. The leadership lessons of the
young George Washington are more than relevant today. They speak directly to a new generation of
young people who aspire to lead our communities and our country.