A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

A MODEL ORGANIZATION ■ 177
marshal’s baton.” In the military, this practice is an absolute necessity
because on the battlefield, officers and non-commissioned officers must
sometimes be replaced immediately, <strong>with</strong>out warning or additional training.
This means that everyone has to be prepared at all times to assume
higher responsibilities.
This practice places a significant emphasis on merit. Napoleon drew
many of his top generals and marshals not from the wealthiest classes of
French society, for most of these had fled France or been executed during
the French revolution, but rather from battle-proved soldiers elevated
through the ranks. Even the British, notorious for the Crown selling officer
commissions to the upper classes of English society during this period,
commissioned a percentage of their officers from the ranks during the
Napoleonic Wars, <strong>with</strong>out their having to buy their commissions. The
only requirement was that those commissioned in this way be capable of
reading and writing.
One of the most famous and successful Confederate generals during the
American Civil War was Lieutenant General Nathan Bedford Forrest. He
enlisted in the Confederate Army as a private in 1861. Within two years he
had been promoted to the rank of brigadier general and given the command
of a brigade. Many historians consider him the war’s most capable cavalry
general. Although I am aware of young men <strong>with</strong>out degrees being hired by
major corporations and rising over the years to positions high in management,
I am unaware of any that accomplished this <strong>with</strong>in two years.
Peter liked all aspects of military training: that it was continuous, that
the training was hard and serious, and that the training assumed that anyone
could reach higher levels of responsibilities.
This practice goes on even today. Most officers in the U.S. armed forces
are graduates of college ROTC, the service academies (West Point, Annapolis,
and Colorado Springs), or else they are given direct commissions due
to their specialties (e.g., they are doctors, dentists, lawyers, or chaplains).
But a significant number are graduates of officer training programs
designed to commission qualified soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines
from the ranks, and some still receive battlefield commissions on the spot
in combat when the need is pressing and immediate.
The concept of every soldier having a marshal’s baton in his knapsack
means that from the first day, the most junior soldier must be trained for
increasingly higher levels of leadership. In contrast, it is rare that even new
hires that are college graduates are prepared for higher responsibilities in