Quote of Admiral Raymond Spruance in 1948 at the Naval War College
My belief is Admiral Spruance as a leader is overlooked in history.
“During the war, I was always impressed with the necessity of keeping an open mind and of being receptive to the ideas of others. We study military history for the lessons it has to teach us but we must not expect necessarily to obtain from history the correct answers to all future problems. Situations rarely repeat themselves and preconceived solutions which result in fitting the situation to the solution and not the solution to the situation are apt to be dangerous or costly.
No one of us can be highly competent in all fields. It behooves us to recognize this fact and to take advantage of the superior knowledge and capabilities of others in their respective fields. Don’t insist upon on making a lot of the decisions yourself which your subordinates can make better than you.
The larger the organization over which you are placed the less proportionally becomes the share which your own output as an individual can contribute to it and the more important becomes your power to guide and to direct, to encourage and to use the ideas of your subordinates.
There are some persons who seem to feel that to recognize and use the ideas of others is an admission of their own inferiority. Persons of this mentality do not fit very well far up in an organization. In using the ideas of others, a generous recognition of their origin is always in order. The navy has a saying that to have loyalty up, there must be loyalty down.
A selfish, self-centered individual who uses his subordinates for his own personal advancement and fails to appreciate their contributions and to look out for their interests is not apt to have a very high degree of loyalty among his subordinates.
We can either drive men through fear of punishment, as we see being done in large portions of the world today. Or else we can lead them by obtaining their friendship and loyalty and encouraging them to exercise their individual initiative. Punishment for recalcitrant individuals is required occasionally but with intelligent people the other way is much the best.”
Admiral Raymond Spruance – 1948