William Joseph Slim, 1st Viscount Slim Quotes

We have good soldiers but crummy generals.

The National Defense Act of 1916 left the United States with a General Staff of 19 officers, against Germany's 650.

I am a combat leader. As such I am responsible for everything that is done in my unit. I just wish that our civilian leaders would accept the same kind of responsibility.

It is not without good reason that two captains are assigned to every company. For as it always is uncertain, what will be the conduct of an officer, or to what accidents he may be exposed; and, as in the affairs of war, there is no room for pretext or excuse; this method is contrived, that the company may not upon any occasion be destitute of a leader. When the captains therefore both are present, he that was first chosen leads the right, and the other the left of the company. And when either of them is absent, he that remains takes the conduct of the whole.

My father volunteered in early 1941, before Pearl Harbor, and became an officer in the U.S. Navy. As I was growing up, he taught me the responsibility of command: A leader is ultimately responsible for every aspect of the welfare of people under his or her care. That was a deeply felt obligation in his generation.

Ah! the Generals! they are numerous, but not good for much!

If officers desire to have control over their commands, they must remain habitually with them, industriously attend to their instruction and comfort, and in battle lead them well.

You got responsibilities when you’re a leader. You got a responsibility not to kill too many of your men. Or who’re you going to lead?

When a general complains of the morale of his troops, the time has come to look at his own.

Discipline can only be obtained when all the officers are imbued with the sense of their awful obligation to their men and to their country that they cannot tolerate negligence. Officers who fail to correct errors or to praise excellence are valueless in peace and dangerous misfits in war.

The Army needs leaders the way a foot needs a big toe.

I think, generally, the NCOs and officers in a platoon or company want to take care of their soldiers, and they understand it doesn't run from nine to five, like in the civilian world.

As leaders, we owe it to every employee to let them know where they stand in the organization.

It would probably be a direct order, shape up your morale. And so he understands command. He understands how to delegate. And I think that [General John Kelly] will bring law and order.

A leader can give up anything - except final responsibility.

When you leave people behind, and those people who are left behind, it's not their fault, it's the leaders of the institutions. There's always going to be an elite. You can have an elite in a communist society. It is the leaders, something went wrong, and the leaders collectively are responsible.

When you're the leader, everything is your fault.

Woe betide the leaders now perched on their dizzy pinnacles of triumph if they cast away at the conference table what the soldiers had won on a hundred bloodsoaked battlefields.

There is a great Field-Marshal, my friend, who arrays our battalions; Let us to Providence trust, and abide and work in our stations.

I'm a big fan of General Douglas MacArthur and General George Patton.We have a few generals that have been so incredible to me. Now we have 200.

You have no right to be a leader if someone who works for you doesn't know where they stand.

Leading the party is a privilege not a right.

If you don't want responsibility, don't sit in the big chair. To be successful, you must accept full responsibility

A company and leaders of the company have the responsibility of the precious lives of all the human beings that work there.

There is only one kind of discipline, and that is the perfect discipline. As a leader, you must enforce and maintain that discipline; otherwise, you will fail at your job.