Marathon. Hastings. Agincourt. Waterloo. Gettysburg. Stalingrad. Odds are you’ve heard of some of these battles. However, there was a little-known battle during the Napoleonic Wars that had a huge effect on how modern warfare is conducted. And, interestingly, it was the losing side that led the revolution.
In 1806, Napoleon obliterated the Prussian Army at the Battle of Jena-Auersted. A young Prussian officer named Carl von Clausewitz was one of the 25,000 prisoners captured that day. In the decades following the battle he and other Prussians studied Napoleon to see if they could discern—and replicate—what made him so successful on the battlefield.
They discovered one of Napoleon’s core innovations was how he managed his battles. Instead of the traditional “commander in control,” he encouraged his subordinate leaders to take initiative during engagements within the boundaries of his intent and purpose. Empowered to make decisions on their own, his commanders operated at such a rapid tempo it left his enemies off balance and disoriented.
Clausewitz concluded this flexibility within a framework was the best way to deal with the “fog of war” that armies face on the battlefield. Over the the last two centuries it has become foundational to Western military doctrine and is useful for any organization attempting to operate in a complex, rapidly-changing environment.
There is one critical component that holds the whole approach together. In order to successfully achieve distributed leadership and decentralized execution, you need one thing above all: Trust.
To move quickly through ambiguity, leaders must have relational and functional trust in their junior leaders. They have to believe in their loyalty, skills, and judgment to make timely and wise decisions on their own.
Likewise, junior leaders must have relational and function trust in their leaders, in their peers, and in themselves. When wise trust is infused throughout an organization, it facilitates rapid communication, disciplined initiative, and nimble execution.
So if your family, team, or community is having trouble navigating the fog of the everyday, Clausewitz has some advice: Let go of control and cultivate people you can trust.
Reflection Question: How can you empower a junior leader today?
