Read bothA Message to Garciaby Elbert Hubbard and "Leadership Lessons fromA Message to Garcia" by James Van Eerden. Discuss a "take-away" from either document, or a combined "take-away" from both documents. minimum 200 words

Leadership Lessons from A Message to Garcia The art of learning by Capt James R.R. Van Eerden

Elbert Hubbard's short story, entitled A Message to Garcia, has enjoyed widespread acclaim within military and business circles for many years. The story takes place during the Spanish-American War and chronicles the noteworthy actions of a young officer named Lieu- tenant Rowan. During the climax of the War, President William McKinley sends Rowan on a mission deep into the Cuban jungle to "carry a message to [General] Garcia," the leader of the insurgent forces. After receiving these pithy instructions from President McKinley, Rowan immediately acts to carry out the mission without hesita- tion. The author praises Rowan's actions and suggests that he should "be cast in deathless bronze" with a "statue placed in every college in the land." Most readers focus on the qualities of initiative, fidelity, and responsibility that are hallmarks of dependable sub- ordinates; however, this story contains lessons for leaders as well. In particu- lar, the author's interpretation of the story reinforces three misconceptions about leadership: first, that leaders can "get by" with poorly crafted guidance; second, that leaders should discourage critical thinking and creativity; and third, that leaders should expect per- fection in pursuit of the mission. During training at Officer Candi- dates School, instructors are keen to emphasize the preferred paradigm for tasking subordinates, which is com- monly referred to as the "5 W's" (ie, who, what, where, when, and why?). Ev- ery task given by a leader should include these components. The most important element of a task is the "why" portion because it encapsulates the intent of the leader. MCDP 1: Warfighting, summa- rizes the importance of communicat- ing clear intent: "While a situation may change, making the task obsolete, the intent is more lasting and continues to guide our actions." Ultimately, it is in- cumbent upon good leaders to provide thorough guidance when issuing their task and purpose statement. President McKinley's directive to "carry a mes- sage to Garcia" is woefully inadequate in meeting this standard. A Message to Garcia also dismisses the value of critical thinking. At one point, Hubbard shares an anecdote about an office clerk who is given a broad assign- ment from his manager to "make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Corregio." The clerk responds by asking, "Where is the Encyclopedia?" "What do you want to know for?" and "Is there any hurry?" Hubbard labels these questions as "idiotic" and states the clerk's actions represent "moral stu- pidity." Rather than castigate question- ing minds, good leaders will celebrate creative thinking and encourage subor- dinates to ask relevant questions when appropriate. Finally, Hubbard's leadership model is flawed because it expects perfection from subordinates. In the preface to his article, Hubbard says that initia- tive is defined as "doing the right thing without being told." Doing the right thing might not always be feasible for an individual executing a mission with limited resources and knowledge about the situation. Leaders who up- hold a zero-defect standard of success undermine the creative judgment of their subordinates by instilling fear of failure. Effective leaders recognize that initiative requires human judgment, and human judgment is almost never per- fect. Nonetheless, as GEN George S. Patton noted, "A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." In each of the examples cited above, Lieutenant Rowan did not complete the mission because of good leadership, but rather in spite of poor leadership. A Message to Garcia offers a poignant reminder to avoid common leadership pitfalls and to constantly seek self-im- provement while serving and leading the Marines entrusted to our care.

A Message to Garcia Elbert Hubbard 1899 In all this Cuban business there is one man stands out on the horizon of my memory like Mars at perihelion. When war broke out between Spain and the United States, it was very necessary to com- municate quickly with the leader of the Insurgents. Garcia was somewhere in the mountain fastnesses of Cuba - no one knew where. No mail or telegraph could reach him. The President must secure his co-operation, and quickly. What to do! Someone said to the President, "There's a fellow by the name of Rowan will find Garcia for you, if anybody can." Rowan was sent for and given a letter to be delivered to Garcia. How "the fellow by name of Rowan" took the letter, sealed it up in an oil-skin pouch, strapped it over his heart, in four days landed by night off the coast of Cuba from an open boat, disappeared into the jungle, and in three weeks came out on the other side of the island, having traversed a hostile country on foot, and having delivered his letter to Garcia, are things I have no special desire now to tell in detail. The point I wish to make is this: McKinley gave Rowan a letter to be delivered to Garcia; Rowan took the letter and did not ask, "Where is he at?" By the Eternal! There is a man whose form should be cast in deathless bronze and the statue placed in every college in the land. It is not book-learning young men need, nor instruction about this or that, but a stiffening of the vertebrae which will cause them to be loyal to a trust, to act promptly, concentrate their energies; do the thing - "carry a message to Garcia!" General Garcia is dead now, but there are other Garcias. No man, who has endeavored to carry out an enterprise where many hands were needed, but has been well-nigh appalled at times by the imbecility of the average man - the inability or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it. Slipshod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indifference, and half-hearted work seem the rule; and no man succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in His goodness performs a miracle, and sends him an Angel of Light for an assistant. You, reader, put this matter to a test: You are sitting now in your officesix clerks are within your call. Summon any one and make this request: "Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memorandum for me concerning the life of Corregio." Will the clerk quietly say, "Yes, sir," and go do the task? On your life, he will not. He will look at you out of a fishy eye, and ask one or more of the following questions: Who was he? Which encyclopedia? Where is the encyclopedia? Was I hired for that? Don't you mean Bismarck? What's the matter with Charlie doing it? Is he dead? Is there any hurry? Shan't I bring you the book and let you look it up yourself? What do you want to know for? And I will lay you ten to one that after you have answered the questions, and explained how to find the information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off and get one of the

2 other clerks to help him find Garcia - and then come back and tell you there is no such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according to the Law of Average, I will not. Now if you are wise you will not bother to explain to your "assistant" that Corregio is indexed under the C's, not in the K's, but you will smile sweetly and say, "Never mind," and go look it up yourself. And this incapacity for independent action, this moral stupidity, this infirmity of the will, this unwillingness to cheerfully catch hold and lift, are the things that put pure socialism so far into the future. If men will not act for themselves, what will they do when the benefit of their effort is for all? A first mate with knotted club seems necessary; and the dread of getting "the bounce" Saturday night holds many a worker in his place. Advertise for a stenographer, and nine times out of ten who apply can neither spell nor punctuate - and do not think it necessary to. Can such a one type a letter to Garcia? "You see that bookkeeper," said the foreman to me in a large factory. "Yes, what about him?" "Well, he's a fine accountant, but if I'd send him to town on an errand, he might accom- plish the errand all right, and, on the other hand, might stop at four saloons on the way, and when he got to Main Street, would forget what he had been sent for." Can such a man be entrusted to carry a message to Garcia? We have recently been hearing much maudlin sympathy expressed for the "down-trodden denizen of the sweat shop" and the "homeless wanderer searching for honest employment," and with it all often go many hard words for the men in power. Nothing is said about the employer who grows old before his time in a vain attempt to get frowsy ne'er-do-wells to do intelligent work; and his long patient striving with "help" that does nothing but loaf when his back is turned. In every store and factory there is a constant weeding-out process going on. The employer is constantly sending away "help" that have shown their incapacity to further the interests of the business, and others are being taken on. No matter how good times are, this sorting continues, only if times are hard and work is scarce, this sorting is done finer - but out and forever out, the incompetent and unworthy go. It is the survival of the fittest. self-interest prompts every employer to keep the best-those who can carry a message to Garcia. I know one man of really brilliant parts who has not the ability to manage a business of his own, and yet who is absolutely worthless to anyone else, because he carries with him constantly the insane suspicion that his employer is oppressing, or intending to oppress, him. He can not give orders, and he will not receive them. Should a message be given him to take to Garcia, his answer would probably be, "Take it yourself." Tonight this man walks the streets looking for work, the wind whistling through his threadbare coat. No one who knows him dare employ him, for he is a regular firebrand of discontent. He is impervious to reason, and the only thing that can impress him is the toe of a thick-soled No. 9 boot. Of course I know that one so morally deformed is no less to be pitied than a physical cripple; but in your pitying, let us drop a tear, too, for the men who are striving to carry on a great enterprise, whose working hours are not limited by the whistle, and whose hair is fast turning white through the struggle to hold the line in dowdy indifference, slipshod imbecility, and the heartless ingratitude which, but for their enterprise, would be both hungry and homeless. Have I put the matter too strongly? Possibly I have; but when all the world has gone a-slumming I wish to speak a word of sympathy for the man who succeeds - the man who, against great odds, has directed the efforts of others, and, having succeeded, finds there's nothing in it: nothing but bare board and clothes. I have carried a dinner-pail and worked for a day's wages, and I have also been an employer of labor, and I know there is something to be said on both sides. There is no excellence, per se, in poverty; rags are no recommendation; and all employers are not rapacious and high-handed, any more than all poor men are virtuous.

My heart goes out to the man who does his work when the "boss" is away, as well as when he is home. And the man who, when given a letter for Garcia, quietly takes the missive, without asking any idiotic questions, and with no lurking intention of chucking it into the nearest sewer, or of doing aught else but deliver it, never gets "laid off," nor has to go on strike for higher wages. Civilization is one long anxious search for just such individuals. Anything such a man asks will be granted; his kind is so rare that no employer can afford to let him go. He is wanted in every city, town, and village - in every office, shop, store and factory. The world cries out for such; he is needed, and needed badlythe man who can Carry a message to Garca.