Lessons in Leadership by John Adair

Author:John Adair
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

7

Enthusiasm

The very life-blood of our enterprise

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

WHY IS ENTHUSIASM so important in a leader? A clue lies in the original Greek word enthuousiasmos, which literally means to be possessed by a god, or – as we would say – to be inspired. Enthusiasm is contagious. Think about it. If you are not inspired yourself, how can you expect to inspire others?

To enthuse or inspire others, then, is to arouse in them an enthusiasm for the common purpose that matches your own. Admiral Lord Nelson (1758–1805) had a natural gift for this kind of leadership, a fact which became immediately apparent to those whom he met – officers and seamen alike.

Prince William, for example, who later became King William IV, remembered his first meeting with Nelson, then a twenty-three-year-old frigate captain, in this vivid picture:

I was then a Midshipman on board the Barfleur, lying in the Narrows off Staten Island, and had the watch on deck, when Captain Nelson of the Albemarle, came in his barge alongside, who appeared to be the merest boy of a captain I ever beheld; and his dress was worthy of attention. He had on a full laced uniform; his lank unpowdered hair was tied in a stiff Hessian tail, of an extraordinary length; the old fashioned flaps on his waistcoat added the general quaintness of his figure, and produced an appearance which particularly attracted my notice; for I had never seen anything like it before, nor could I imagine who he was, nor what he came about. My doubts were, however, removed when Lord Hood introduced me to him. There was something irresistibly pleasing in his address and conversation; and an enthusiasm when speaking on professional subjects, that showed he was no common being.

That enthusiasm for cause, country and profession remained with Nelson until his last moments. But it was not a shallow enthusiasm, a mere trick of personality. It came with Nelson’s other natural abilities as a leader and an immense capacity for hard work in day-to-day naval administration. As Admiral Collingwood once said of his lifelong friend, ‘Nelson possessed the zeal of an enthusiast, directed by talents which Nature had very bountifully bestowed on him, and everything seemed, as if by enchantment, to prosper under his direction. But it was the effect of system, and nice combination [a coordinated and effective sequence of actions], not of chance.’

After one successful action when Nelson was still a young captain, his commander-in-chief Admiral Lord St Vincent wrote him a letter which contains this compliment:

I never saw a man in our profession who possessed the magic art of infusing the same spirit into others which inspire their own actions. … All agree there is but one Nelson.

* * * * * * *

Good leaders are enthusiasts. They tend, therefore, to generate in others the same wholehearted commitment to the task in hand as they exhibit in their own attitude and actions. And, as Xenophon first pointed out, such leaders make a difference in any form of human enterprise, not just war on land, sea or air.

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