Leadership: Sobel and Winters-Part 2

Thank you to everyone who has read my blog lately especially those who have provided feedback (Twitter, Facebook and email).

This is part 2 of my personal view on leadership, focusing on Sobel and Winters of Band of Brothers (BoB) fame.

This part provides a brief intro into the early histories of both men, and how (...IMHO) it may have affected their development as leaders (..or not). As a starter, I have put together a simple table which covers some of the relevant information and shows where there were similarities..

	Winters		Sobel
DoB	21-01-18		26-01-12
Place	Ephrata, PA		Chicago, Il
Religon	Mennonite		Jewish
Military School or equivalent	Lancaster Boys school		Culver M.A, IN
University	Franklin and Marshall		University of Illinois
Served as Enlisted?	Yes		Yes, National Guard
Year	(25-8-41)		(est 1931)
Age entered service	23		19
Means of Commission	OCS		OCS
Married	Yes		Yes
Children	Yes		Yes

 The table shows some areas where both Sobel and Winters had a similar background...areas such as their religious background (Sobel was raised in a strict Jewish household whilst Winters was raised in, what I believe to be, a fairly devout Mennonite family), both attended a form of boarding school (I believe Lancaster Boys school was a boarding school-happy to be corrected), both did well at college/University and both were commissioned via OCS.

The main differences appear to be that Sobel grew up in an Urban environment compared to Winters but I am not sure that has a lot of relevance given he was shipped to Culver Military academy for his formative teenage years whilst Winters spent his at the Lancaster Boys school which was an extension of his Mennonite upbringing. I would think that both offered a rather distorted view of society...What is interesting is that Culver M.A advertises that they 'educate its students for leadership and responsible citizenship in society...'.  I wonder whether Sobel's approach in later life was to try to strictly apply the lessons learned at Culver.

The other notable difference was that Winters 23-24 during his early years with the 506th whilst Sobel was around 30. In normal circumstances I would have given the age difference a bit more emphasis. However, I don't think that it means that much given the personalities and circumstances.

I still believe that social influences have an impact on whether a person becomes a leader or not.

What I am interested in discovering, if it is possible, is why did the two men end up on opposite ends of the leadership matrix. What I have discovered, with a lot of help from a Psychology Doctoral candidate, is that there appears to be some underlying personality issues evident in Sobel that don't appear to be present in Winters. That would include a tendency to control, the lack of empathy, introversion and issues with relationships. What I will say, at this early stage of my blog, is that IMHO those tendencies do not necessarily keep someone from becoming a leader.

In my next post, I will try to dig deeper into the traits of the two men and how they contributed to the events of WW2 and the 506th.

Thanks for reading...

Leadership: Sobel and Winters.

Leadership: Sobel and Winters...

This is the introduction to my next series of posts...apologies if it is a change from my 'normal' theme which is based on either the 101st AB and/or Travel. That being said, it is linked to the 101st AB in that it is focused on two of the principle 'characters' of the popular HBO Mini-series, 'Band of Brothers'.

Why the subject I hear you ask...simple, it stems from my background as a former USAF officer (Started as an E-1 and left the service as an O-3 after 15 years) and my 'experiences' with Leaders and Managers over 40 years of employment. To be fair, I have a lot of 'Managers' over the years but can honestly say that I have only had a few true 'Leaders'...individuals who inspired me but I will get to the detail of my thinking on that statement in later parts to this post.

NB: I will using quotes from articles in this post, when and where possible I will refer to the source (some actual follow me on Twitter...)

Capt Herbert M. Sobel Sr

Capt Richard Winters

Ever since I first watched 'BoB' back n 2002 (and countless times since...) I have found myself drawn to the character of Captain Sobel. Of course, the series draws viewers to Lt (and eventually Major) Richard Winters and for very obvious reasons and I am no different from that majority. However, I find that I am compelled to try to understand Sobel and to try to figure out what made him the man that he was. The logical approach to this endeavor, for me at least, is to frame this within the context of "leadership'. Therefore, this post will be centered on MY interpretation of what Leadership is and what Management is. Please note my emphasis on 'my' in the previous sentence. That is because there is a lot of information on Leadership available on the web and there are many who make a good living lecturing and training future and current leaders on how to be better at what they do.

This first post, is a brief summary of my thoughts on Leadership and Management which I will expand upon as my research continues.

In today's world, not the world of Sobel and Winters, there is a lot of focus on Leadership in business (and in the military). The following bullet points tend to show the focus on much of the business world as to what 'leadership' entails...

• A clear Vision.
• Sharing of that Vision.
• Providing the information, knowledge and methods to realise that Vision.
• Coordinating, balancing the conflicting interests of all members and stakeholders.
• Leadership stems from social influence and not authority or power.
• Leadership requires others.

Additionally...

• To be able to think and act creatively in a crisis.
• Leaders are born and not taught.
• No 'One size fits all' definition.

Now, for the first contentious point of this post, I don't think that Leadership in business is the same as Leadership in the military. This opinion is not just based on the obvious reasons such as, in most cases, nobody is trying to kill you in business and the fact that the military is not a democracy. That being said, the following points can be applied to both the military and business, perhaps slightly different in scope and breadth of application...

• Leadership is the projection of your expertise in a way that gains confidence.
• Leadership is the use of our own 'Personal' power combined with Strategic influence.
• Leadership involves Character and humility.

What I have noted in my research is that, even with the above basic points, there is contradiction among the experts. Some say that leadership has nothing to do with personal attributes for example...

Having read a number of great articles about leadership and having experiences Leaders and managers..I won't say good leaders or bad leaders, you are either a leader or you are not...I am finding myself drawn to a scale for defining Leadership type. The managerial grid model (1964) is a situational leadership model developed by Robert Blake and Jane Mouton. The model originally identified five different Leadership styles based on concern for people and concern for production. 

Personally, the 'situational' aspect of the model is what draws me in, further explained in later posts.

The model is important in this series of posts as it is a way to diagram the differences between Sobel and Winters (later posts) within an agreed context. It is important to note that the model is focused on People and/or Task and you can't get much clearer than that. However, there are shades of gray which means most people do not fall into the 5 categories...rather somewhere between them.

A few final comments in this intro post..The above information is only a taster of what Leadership is, I could go on and on about what defines Leadership and, as such, a Leader but I'd rather not. Suffice to say it is a matter of interpretation and, as they say, the 'proof of the pudding is in the eating'.

My points...

Leaders are born not made.

Leaders Evolve based on the situation they are facing.

Leaders Do have specific personality traits.

However, to be able to judge whether a person is a Leader and how effective they have been you must understand the person, their history and the circumstances that they find themselves in...my next blog post will focus on Captain Sobel, his personality and his history.

I hope you join me for the next post and contribute to my understanding of the topic by adding comments.

References:

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3647-leadership-definition.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2013/04/09/what-is-leadership/
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/leadership.asp