The Dallas Morning News is publishing a multipart series on important issues for voters to consider as they choose a president this year. This is the third installment of our What’s at Stake series, and it focuses on presidential leadership. Find the full series here.
In times of crisis the nation’s capacity to produce leaders of integrity has always been assumed. They rise up from among us when the nation needs them the most. This presumption, however, is being challenged as multiple emergencies, including the cornovavirus, hypervolatile stock markets and collapsing trade relationships lay bare the affliction that has been with us for some time: We have leadership deficits that extend across many sectors. This exacerbates the divisions in our country, which are punctuated by fear, distrust and loss of confidence.
What kind of new leaders will be needed if they are to rebuild a shaken nation? They will need “selfless dedication,” “fortitude” and genuine modesty, said Dwight Eisenhower in a 1965 Reader’s Digest article in which he outlined leadership attributes necessary during tumultuous times. And at the heart of it all is how leaders treat other people and mobilize them with hope and a sense of purpose.
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“My own conviction is that every leader should have enough humility to accept, publicly, the responsibility for the mistakes of the subordinates he himself has selected and, likewise, to give them credit, publicly, for their triumphs,” he wrote. “I am aware that some popular theories of leadership hold that the top man must always keep his ‘image’ bright and shining. I believe, however, that in the long run fairness and honesty, and a generous attitude toward subordinates and associates, pay off.”
The investment in such crucial relationships was one of the most important elements underlying Ike’s wartime and presidential leadership. People trusted him. This was reinforced because his word had value, his actions had substance, and these were things that could be depended upon.
It takes countless small steps to establish trusted relationships. And during the war, Eisenhower built bonds with the troops under his command, which he retained and expanded, across all spectrums of the political system, during his presidency. He averaged a 68% approval rating during his eight years in office. How did he do it?
During the war, Eisenhower put accountability first, even when he had no control over some of the biggest factors associated with any decision. In the case of D-Day, the uncontrollable factor was the weather. He embraced ownership of his actions and words, and he refused to blame his subordinates for his own decisions.
In fact just before the launch of D-Day, British Air Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory urged, in the strongest of terms, that Eisenhower cancel the airborne drop in the American sector, as German forces were moving into the area. Eisenhower decided after reflection that those forces had to be deployed, as they were critical for success. But, before making the decision, he asked his subordinate to put his recommendation in writing. This way Leigh-Mallory’s reputation would be “protected” should the potential disaster unfold, as others would blame Leigh-Mallory as airborne commander for the ill-fated decision.
In the case of the troops, Eisenhower did not rely on simply telling those under his command that he cared about their welfare. He showed them. Across wide debarkation zones, Eisenhower visited innumerable units to look his men “in the eye,” in some cases just minutes before they stormed the beaches to their life-or-death fates. He met them with confidence and courage.
During the war, Eisenhower also managed a diverse and fractious alliance, and he welcomed and gained enormous benefit from being surrounded by strong characters who challenged his assumptions and brought fresh insights from the field. If Eisenhower found occasional frustration from such an approach to decision-making, he kept it to himself. Team building is only effective if the leader stays calm and projects optimism. He valued this wartime staff system so much that he replicated it during his two-term presidency, when he sought national unity through moderate policies that composed the differences among his politically diverse Cabinet and advisers.
Eisenhower also valued and relied on expertise, acutely conscious of what he did not know. In the mid-1950s, for instance, he empowered scientists to develop the top-secret U-2 aircraft that could detect the buildup of Soviet forces and avert a surprise attack. The scientists had unprecedented access directly to him, thus bypassing a bureaucracy that often stymied expert opinion. In that context the Advanced Research Project Agency was founded, later known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which would revolutionize America’s advanced technology sector. Eisenhower could play the short game, but he always kept the long game firmly in his sights.
Eisenhower believed in doing his homework and in working through plans, even if they became redundant once the action started. The process demanded rigorous thinking, by focusing minds on the challenge of assessing every potential black swan and devising a contingency for it.
The New York Times columnist Arthur Krock once asked President Lyndon Johnson what he thought of Eisenhower. Though members of different political parties, Johnson observed that Ike had a “sharp” mind and would always say: “Have you taken steps against these contingencies and plugged these holes?” Johnson noted: “They were always acute points overlooked by most whiz kids.”
Finally, Eisenhower put aside his own reputation for the sake of the mission. Countless times during the war and the presidency he was faced with making decisions that had the potential to be career-ending calls, which he took irrespective of the political consequences. As Eisenhower wrote to one of his colleagues during the war: “A man has to forget himself and his personal fortunes.”
The military and later the American public had an instinctive trust in him that was based on nearly 50 years of small tests. It was a relationship he had earned through a drive to do his duty and a determination to put others first.
Today, many worry that we have a government that is working at cross-purposes and that our private sector is motivated primarily by profits, and now by survival. But a renewal is coming and its success will be characterized by the nature of it. What we need is a character-driven renaissance that factors in the needs of the entire workforce and the American people as a whole. We need leaders who can build trust in a dangerous and volatile time.
Susan Eisenhower is the author of How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower’s Biggest Decisions, published this month about her grandfather. She wrote this column for The Dallas Morning News.
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Susan Eisenhower: My grandfather led by building trust among troops and, later, the public - The Dallas Morning News
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