Lee & Grant: Profiles in Leadership from the Battlefields of Virginia

Rating:
Summary: Delightful use of history to teach leadership.
Review: This is a very interesting book that uses military history to first illustrate and then teach leadership skills that are applicable to both military and business problems. In its discussion of the war situations, the two generals faced many of the same problems that other leaders face. The particular part of the Civil War being discussed is Grants moves towards Richmond during the summer of 1864.

At the beginning of the summer, Lee had leadership probems with the people under him. He had lost 15 of the top 45 leaders of his army. He was faced with elevating people to positions where they had been promoted beyond their competence. Grant had just assumed leadership over an army about which he knew little and which was troubled by perceptions of incompetence and with bickering between generals of like rank but dislike of each other.

Then the battles start, battles that have become so famous their very names ring with history: Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor. Strangely enough they were all victories, of a sort, for the Confederates, but the net effect was to lose the war. Each battle, in the author's words has lessons to teach the modern leader.

Major Bowery brings a supurb writing style to this book that blends the historical with the lesson with a simple switch of paragraphs. It's a delightful book, educational and a pleasure to read.