Undaunted Courage

The first thing I would like to comment on is the nature of the team as I see it and why I think the dual-command structure worked. My general hypothesis is twofold: first, the dual command structure worked because Captains Lewis and Clark (Lieutenant !?) were especially "comfortable in their own skin", as I like to say. By this I simply mean that they were self assured leaders who were keenly aware of their own strengths and weaknesses. The next obvious leadership step, albeit a much more difficult one, is to use this honest assessment of yourself to build a team around you that fills your leadership gaps and complements the strengths intrinsic to each person. This is a challenging task, and one that requires a great deal of security about one's self. For example, I recognized early in my leadership career that there were fellow officers who were, for whatever reason, insecure about their ability to command. This invariably led to a brash, autocratic style of leadership which, ironically, severely impeded their ability to lead. It was then that I developed one of my favorite phrases: you cannot demand respect; you have to command respect. Clearly Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were both leaders that easily commanded respect through their actions.

The second reason that I think the dual command structure worked was simply out of sheer necessity. The task at hand had a very challenging and complex leadership component solely in getting the entire team from the Ohio to the Pacific and back. On top of this, the discovery portion of the mission (e.g. botanical cataloging, etc.) was equally demanding, certainly of full time job in and of itself. The requirements were simply too much for one leader to effectively accomplish single-handedly. Lewis realized, however, that he could not solely focus on the discovery portion of the mission and leave the troop leading to a junior officer - both of their leadership "leverage" would be compromised, especially given the stalwart nature of their enlisted men.

In summary, I think that the nature of the relationships in the Corps of Discovery team was unique because of two circumstances: the comfortable self-awareness and maturity