[September 27, 2015] Whenever I think of the maxim that real leaders don’t panic, I’m drawn to the actions of the men of 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment at the 1965 Battle of la Drang, Vietnam. Documented in the movie, We Were Soldiers Once … And Young, Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore and his men fought off a much larger North Vietnamese force that were sent to annihilate this “new American Army formation.”1
I had the honor to have dinner with Hal Moore a few years ago and listen to him speak of the actions of his men at this battle. Someone asked him if there movie was an accurate portrayal of what happened. He said that the main thing they got right was that he promised his men that he would be the first to set foot onto the Landing Zone (LZ) X-Ray and the last to depart the LZ. “That,” he said, “they got right”.
Leaders may be afraid, they might even be terrified, but they don’t panic when the going gets tough. Leaders don’t panic … ever. And they don’t show panic. Once a friend of mine said that real leaders are like the rock in a stream, irresistible, where everything flows around them. When people panic and start to run, it’s the leader who keeps them from going off the cliff to their demise. Leaders also look for opportunities when things are bad; they look for the solution to problems that would confound many of us.
Much the same can be said for business. Those who own and operate a commercial enterprise should be steady at the helm and keen to make decisions that push their company in the right direction when economic circumstances are an obstacle. Walt Disney is an example of someone who refused to give up on his vision of a grand entertainment complex when everything pointed to economic failure. Disneyland was opened in 1955 and is now the most attended amusement park in the world.
Being a good leader means understanding yourself and consciously testing oneself to ensure that in an emergency, you will not panic. Many combat leaders have prepared themselves for battle but none of us knew how we would behave when the enemy was shooting at us. For those who prepared well, they did not panic.
Hal Moore didn’t panic and he was able to save his men and destroy a large enemy force. If he had lost his head and let the circumstances close his mind to what might happen, his battalion would have been destroyed. Like Hal Moore, real leaders don’t panic.
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