The Director's Cut: The art of war - and ebusiness

When asked to name great leaders many of us like to include examples from the realms of conflict and war. On our lists would be Churchill, Napoleon and even Hitler. In the past, some business people may have said there is little crossover between the world of work and the world of war - they're wrong.

Characteristics of great military leaders include the ability to think and act quickly in very fast changing environments, a focus on survival at all times, and of course the ability to motivate people in highly stressful times.

This is not unlike the situation facing IT leaders today. In the business world, our experience does not extend to life or death, but increasingly the skills, strategies and actions needed in war are being identified as those required in today's fast moving, turbulent times.

With this in mind, let me take you back in history to a particular conflict, much researched and talked about for the skills of its leaders, the US Civil War. And let's focus in particular on the Southern generals.

Historians are united on one conclusion: the South, vastly outnumbered, with inferior firearms and no clear long-term goal, only lasted as long as it did as a fighting force because of the thinking, actions and inspiration of its leaders.

What lessons can IT leaders and teams learn from looking at three Southern generals, namely Lee, Longstreet and Stewart?

General Lee

General Lee was actually offered field command of the US Army by President Lincoln. In 1861, when war threatened, he turned it down in favour of commanding his beloved South. He commanded the Southern armies throughout the war, and allegedly knew the name of every officer under his command (over 400). Lee is now regarded as the most beloved war leader in American history, despite advocating secession.

General Lee taught us some valuable lessons about who we are, and who we can be:

People will follow you if they believe your heart is in what you are doing - if you do not enjoy what you are doing, you will be found out.

Belief - he instilled a deep and passionate belief in his people, at every level, from politician to infantryman.

Charisma - he had total charisma - character, personality and presence. Don't let anyone tell you these things don't matter - they do, in spades.

General Longstreet

Longstreet was Lee's most trusted soldier, his right hand man. His defensive theories were years ahead of their time. He believed in focusing on the mission, and only on the mission. If fighting could be avoided, all the better. If Longstreet had been listened to at the decisive Battle of Gettysburg, the US would now be two countries.

We can learn a great deal about crisis management from General Longstreet:

Focus on the outcome, on what you want to achieve - not on what you don't want to achieve. Be absolutely clear on this.

Within that, focus on the important issues, those that take you closer to your desired end game. Put aside the trivial. Ignore the unimportant.

Deploy people according to their strengths - be aware of your project team's natural talents and use these to the maximum if things go wrong

General Stewart

Jeb Stewart was the eyes and ears of the Southern army. His cavalry would ride for weeks on dangerous missions into enemy territory and his men would often infiltrate Union bars and camps to gain vital information on specific subjects, seeking the key information other generals needed to know, when they needed to know it. Many of the early Southern victories would have been lost without the inside knowledge of Stewart.

Stewart was an early advocate of knowledge management and competitor analysis:

Knowledge management is useless without a definition of what information we need, and it must relate to our vision, aims and agenda.

Proactive IT departments must anticipate information that is required, and provide it ahead of it being requested.

To understand our competitors truly we must put ourselves in their shoes, and see the business world as they see it. How often do you do this?

Never before have we faced so many challenges, and so much change, in scale, scope and speed. We have to think and act fast and, as such, ongoing 'crisis' management calls for leadership skills that can often be learned from military history.