As a former NHL player, and now coach I have always looked for, and have tried to learn from examples and biographies of great leaders. As a player, you may be counted on to help lead your team. As a coach, you have no out…you are the leader. What style will you adapt? How do you create the type of environment that allows every player to be their very best and at the same time enjoy the journey?
I have been impressed with the leadership style of Tiny Freyberg, a World War II General from New Zealand. As you read the following story, I encourage you to extrapolate the underlying values and principles that fueled Freyberg’s leadership style and see how they may help you lead this season.
As two Generals stood talking in the North African sun shortly before the fateful battle of El Alamein in 1942, several New Zealand soldiers strolled past without giving any sign of recognition toward the Generals. “Don’t you chaps salute anymore,” inquired Lieutenant General Bernard Montgomery, commander of the British Eighth Army.
“Oh, they’re alright,” replied Lieutenant General Sir Bernard Freyberg, commander of the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force, grinning. “If you just wave to them, they’ll wave right back.”
That was typical of “Tiny” Freyberg, one of the greatest fighting Generals of WWII. 6-2, with broad shoulders and a rough-hewn face, he was a big man in every way, too big to let rank come between him and his troops.
Tiny Freyberg was a soldier’s General, a born leader who won the respect and devotion of his men through feats of cold courage and acts of warm compassion. Rather than commanding from the rear, he was always near the front, usually sitting cross-legged on top of a tank. Churchill dubbed him the Salamander because despite being wounded in action nine times, he seemed to thrive under fire, playing a major role in battles such as Alamein, Tripoli and Trieste.
Beneath Freyberg’s rugged exterior was a kind, sensitive man who worried constantly abo ut his troops. Except in combat, when necessity made him belligerent, he was genial, generous and engagingly modest. He had such boyish charm that his friend Sir James Barrie once described him as, “Peter Pan grown up.”
In 1916, as a colonel in France, Freyberg won Britain’s highest award for valor, the Victoria Cross. When his battalion suffered heavy losses in an attack at the Somme, he left his headquarters and raced forward through a barrage that killed both his adjutant and his signals officer. Rallying his own troops and strays from other units, Freyberg led a fresh sortie through the German lines and took 600 prisoners. Twice wounded, he held his ground for 24 hours under steady fire, then drove into a heavily fortified village, which was the objective of his whole division, and captured it. Though hit two more times, he refused to be carried away until he had given instructions for defending the new position.
Freyberg ended the war as one of Britain’s most decorated heroes as well as the youngest brigadier in the British Army. The doors of London society opened wide to him. One of his good friends, Winston Churchill, was so fascinated by the reports of Freyberg’s many war wounds that he once asked to see them. “He stripped,” Churchill wrote later, “and I counted 27 separate scars and gashes.”
His senior staff officer for two years in North Africa and Italy, who worked, ate and lived with Tiny Freyberg, learned firsthand why the 30,000 men in his command worshipped him.
“You can’t treat a man like a butler,” Freyberg used to say, “and expect him to fight like a gladiator.”
No detail affecting his troops was too minor for Freyberg’s attention. It was his idea to equip his division with the only mobile bakery in the Eighth Army. When even Montgomery had to make due with bully beef and hardtack, Freyberg’s men enjoyed the luxury of fresh bread. One of his familiar expressions was: “Morale is a lot of little things.”
Ryan Walter played 15 NHL Seasons, won a Stanley Cup and is an assistant coach for the Vancouver Canucks. For information on Ryan or to purchase his books contact Ryan at [email protected] or go to ryanwalter.com. |
