Decentralized command: Gettysburg

In today’s episode of Leadership Lessons in History, we’re going to talk about decentralized command. This is a concept that is really hard for people, that don’t have actual military experience, to understand because oftentimes we think of military leadership as simply just ordering people to do things, robots carrying out those orders without any ability to question those orders. The reality is, the best, most effective units in the military, just like the best teams out there, employ decentralized command. What decentralized command means is that everybody leads. Everybody leads. Everybody understands the overall goal, and the purpose, and the end state that we’re trying to achieve. They’re able to step up and lead, and overcome obstacles, and make decisions, and make things happen to move the team forward in a positive direction toward that overarching goal. That’s the power of decentralized command. One great example of that is the Battle of Gettysburg.