Then, unexpectedly, he drew out a spectacle case from his pocket. Few officers had ever seen him put on spectacles. Usually a severely formal man, he said in a voice softened with apology: "Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in service of my country.

The deep, human, emotional power of that moment can hardly be described. It electrified officers. Here was their commander who had never taken a furlough during his eight years of command, who had faced storms of musketry fire, who through his daring and intelligence had kept Army in tact in what most of world thought was a lost cause, here was George Washington modestly asking his officers to bear with him in an all-too-human failing. It was an astonishing turning point.

As Maj. Samuel Shaw, who was present, wrote in his journal, "There was something so natural, so unaffected in this appeal as rendered it superior to most studied oratory. It forced its way to heart, and you might see sensibility moisten every eye."

After Washington left hut, officers unanimously voted to "continue to have unshaken confidence in justice of Congress and their country ...." The result was that Continental Army disbanded without incident after War formally ended a few months later and thereby set in motion peaceful events that led to creation of Constitution.

Without Washington's intervention, America may very well have become a kind of banana republic, at mercy of thousands of armed and angry soldiers and their officers. And it wasn't his speech that did it, it was a Leadership Talk.

Washington's Talk is a lesson for all leaders: The best way to communicate an idea is to bundle it in a human being. If you can't feel it, you can't lead it, and they won't do it.

2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Engaging employees in improving their work creates new levels of communication and gives ownership of improvements to worker. We now recognize that “you know your job better then management does because you are one that does it every day.” Since people are expert in their work, who better to come up with ideas to improve it then them. We all want, need and deserve respect. Engaged people see fruits of their labor as other people have accepted their ideas. They now receive positive feedback for a “job well done.”

Any process, any product, any service can be made better in some way, somehow. One plant manager said, “It used to be that my problem solvers were solely management team, but now my problem solvers are everybody in building.” How can you beat that?

Copyright © 2005 Chuck Yorke - All Rights Reserved