THE SOLDIERS, THE CORPORAL AND A STRANGER — A LEADERSHIP STORY

One rainy day during the American Revolutionary War, George Washington rode up to a group of soldiers attempting to raise a wooden beam to a high position. The corporal in charge was shouting encouragement, but the soldiers couldn’t get the beam in position. After watching their lack of success, Washington asked the corporal why he didn’t join in and help, to which the corporal replied, “don’t you realize that I am the corporal?” Very politely, General Washington replied, ”I beg your pardon, Mr. Corporal, I did”.

Washington dismounted his horse and went to work with the soldiers to get the oak beam in position. As they finished, General Washington has wiped perspiration from his face, and said: “If you should need help again, call on Washington, your commander-in-chief, and I will come.”

Source: https://sites.psu.edu

Lessons from this story:

• You don’t engage your staff by just giving orders, you do it by getting amongst them.
• Many times I have seen managers act like bosses while thinking they are acting like leaders. In the need to reach their goals many managers focused just on the bottom line and did not interact with their teams. It’s about building trust and sometimes when your team is stuck solving a problem they need their managers…