M3a1 - an Essay of Wellington’s Leadership Traits

M3A1: An Essay of Wellington’s Leadership Traits

Great Military Leaders

Brett L. Sprenger

Excelsior College

        Arthur Wesley or Wellington as his more commonly know is championed as a calm and collected leader who had a unique and highly successful defensive tactical approach to fighting battles. He is cited for being one of the greatest war-fighters with an uncanny ability to seize opportunities and foster the element of surprise in addition to cultivating the loyalty of his troops. Of course, battles are not won by individuals, rather than armies of loyal and willing participants. Besides great battlefield expertise, how did Wellington create such loyal troops? Why were they willing to following him into battle? Loyalty simply boils down to trust and is the base ingredient for a successful mission. Without trust, great misfortunate can infect mission success.

        “Lead by example, humanize yourself with your crew and do not ask them to do something you’re not willing to do yourself” my father answered. I had asked him what makes a good leader as we were headed to the airport. He was dropping me off as I was headed to my new unit as a junior Petty Officer. One significant trait of Wellington was just that, he was known by his men to be all too familiar on the battle field; he would be in it knee deep with his troops. This is showcased by Harvey (2008) when he cited one of Wellington’s brigade-major speaking about him upon a successful battle with the Marthas of India in 1803, “The General was in the thick of the action the whole time, and had a horse killed under him. No man could have shown a better example to his troops than he did.”  Similarly, General Mattis shared a similar leadership in that he will not hesitate to be “in the thick of the action”. This trait is one that cultivates trust and therefore loyalty. This is but one factor to Wellington’s success.