Hang Tough — A Reflection on Leading Oneself
“Before one can manage, lead, and inspire others, one must labor internally, and learn to effectively hone and utilize the abilities within oneself. ”
Recently, I had an awe-inspiring and humbling visit to Normandy, France, where, with the guidance of a fantastic tour guide, relived the first several hours of D-Day, that Day of Days — June 6th, 1944, when the Allies landed on the shores of France in an effort to retake much of Europe from the Nazi regime during World War II. Walking around the various beachheads that the Allies invaded on that day, as well as the towns inland where the US paratroopers landed early in the morning before the beachhead landings, I was struck by the sheer scale of Operation Overlord, as it was called, and the amount of industrial, economic, and human might that the undertaking demanded. An undertaking, I will add, whose central force was comprised of young men ranging from 16 years old and older. Young men who ended up giving their lives for a cause that spanned the world over, and assuredly saved countless lives.
The part of the tour that will stick with me most, however, was visiting Brecourt Manor, a small farm outside the town of St. Mere-e-Glise in the French countryside, where a contingent of soldiers from Easy Company, a company from the 2nd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, whose fame will be forever cemented in Stephen Ambrose’s book Band of Brothers, as well as the accompanying HBO miniseries, assaulted and disabled the majority of a battery of German 88mm guns that was shelling the US soldiers landing on Utah beach five miles away.
The field at Brecourt Manor where the assault of the German 88mm guns took place.
Easy Company, led directly for a period by Major Richard “Dick” Winters, a man of Mennonite stock who hailed from the small town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was twenty-six years old when he parachuted into France on the morning of D-Day and led the assault on the battery of German guns, initially going out on his own to scout and gain reconnaissance of the German positions, before successfully organizing and deploying his soldiers to disable the entrenchments.
Major Winters led Easy Company in many of the major operations of the WWII European Theater, including Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge. Tom Hanks, who executive produced the Band of Brothers miniseries alongside Steven Spielberg, had this to say about Winters, who he spent much time with while the show was in production:
That visage, that look could pierce a tank. He was a complicated, magnificent human being.
Major Richard Winters (as a Captain).
As of late, Major Winters has become a personal hero of mine. He exemplified many of the traits that makeup a leader — equanimity, clear thought, and decisive action under immense pressure, unflinching courage to lead from the front, and the uncanny ability to inspire the young men he lead through some of the war’s most brutal battles. He accomplished all of this in his mid to late twenties, and proceeded to live in relative anonymity in the Pennsylvania countryside until the early 1990’s, when he was approached by Stephen Ambrose to serve as the main source of information for the Band of Brothers novel.
Talk about humble.
Since visiting some of the sites that Major Winters and the brave men of Easy Company fought through on the European campaign, I have been doing a lot of soul-searching, and asking myself how I can be a leader in both my personal and professional life. After much reflection, I have realized that before one can manage, lead, and inspire others, one must labor internally, and learn to effectively hone and utilize the abilities within oneself. What is the use of a leader who is unsure of themselves and their capabilities? In life, and especially in combat, this is a deficiency that can lead to negative outcomes.
The toughest part?
There’s no blueprint for defining and sharpening these skills that will work for everyone.
These are hurdles that a person must overcome in their own way and in their own time. Major Winters said something to a similar effect, when speaking about the mental battle of making a parachute jump into enemy territory:
How do you prepare yourself, mentally? Each man must do that himself. Each man must prepare himself mentally to make that jump.
Thankfully, many of us are spared the horrors of combat and war, but it does not mean that we can’t learn from others who have experienced it. Through my experience on that D-Day tour, and my readings of Dick Winter’s memoir, I have ascertained that one must learn what it takes to lead themselves when motivation and inspiration is low, and how to remain steadfast during the difficult moments of life, whether that’s a grueling workout, a difficult conversation with a partner, a low period in a personal business, or any number of challenging moments that many of us are faced with. Once this ability is well-practiced, I believe one’s growth factor becomes exponential, and one’s mental, physical, and emotional limits fall farther out of reach.
With that, I leave you with these five tenants that I have taken away from my experience. They have helped me, and I hope they can illuminate your life as well.
- Build sustainable habits that inject energy, not hemorrhage it.
- Control your mind. Reflect on your mental habits and pitfalls through journaling, meditation, or any number of introspective exercises.
- Study. Aim to not make decisions based out of fear or anxiety, but out of logic and hypothesis.
- Train. Fall in love with the work you must do, and learn to embrace its intricacies, no matter how painful or monotonous.
- Persevere. As has been said and will be said until time immemorial, life is a marathon, not a race, so learn how to work within yourself to achieve your goals and push towards the life you want to live.
In closing, I’ll end this post with the words of Major Winters, and how he signed off on every single one of his letters:
Hang tough.
