The title of the book says it all. The Be-Know-Do of Generalship. Generalship is possibly one of the most difficult words to define. It is leadership with a difference that demands varied skills from the very basic to the most sophisticated. It is a position of responsibility like none other. It demands making decisions in the most complex environment pregnant with VUCA character. It carries with its position the heavy weight of values and expectations that have come to characterise military leadership since millennium. A General is the face of the system, is always naked and always under scrutiny by soldiers who expect him to be God like. The book is laid out in two parts. Part I, comprising six chapters covers every aspect of Generalship in a ‘self-help’ easy to assimilate style to develop oneself to be an inspiring General relevant for the future. Part II, comprising Chapter VII is an honest and a dispassionate appraisal of the Indian military leadership since independence. It makes a convincing case to address the existing institutional shortcomings with respect to Generalship and their selection in the Indian Army with de-novo recommendations not heard before. This book is a product of the author’s four decades of passion and dedication to the profession of soldiery and the art of military leadership. It is an excellent tutor to BE the General you should be, to KNOW what you should know and to DO what you should do to be future ready and leave a legacy worth remembering. A unique book on the subject, it is a must read for officers of all service groups in any vocation, not only the uniformed services. This book is a ready recipe for those who aspire to lead with a difference.

“What does it take to make a great general or a great leader in any field? . . . An excellent contribution to the study of leadership among those who make life-and-death decisions in the most challenging situations—one that could well serve as required reading in both military and business schools.”—Kirkus Reviews Throughout his life, Edgar F. “Beau” Puryear has studied America’s top military leaders. In his research for this book, he has sought to discover what allowed them to rise above their contemporaries; what prepared them for the terrible responsibilities they bore as the commanders of our armed forces during World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf, and on to today; how they are different from you and me. Ultimately, first and foremost, Dr. Puryear discovered that character is the single most important and the most distinctive element shared by these individuals: that character is everything! “Beau Puryear again reaches into his gold mine of research and comes forward with the essence of great generalship. . . . Well-done and a worthy read.”—General Colin L. Powell “We can always learn more about the importance of character to successful leadership. With this book, we do just that.”—General H. Norman Schwarzkopf

The United States Army is one of the most complex, best run organizations in the world, and central to the Army's success are strong leadership and exceptional leadership development. Army leaders must be able to act decisively and effectively in challenging situations. But the Army, despite its organizational structure, does not train leaders in a hierarchical manner. Dispersed leadership is the key to the success of the Army leadership model. Now, for the first time, you can have access to the Army's successful leadership philosophy and the principles that are outlined in Be Know Do the official Army Leadership Manual. Be Know Do makes this critical information available to civilian leaders in all sectors--business, government, and nonprofit--and gives them the guidelines they need to create an organization where leadership thrives.

A New York Times bestseller! An epic history of the decline of American military leadership—from the bestselling author of Fiasco and Churchill and Orwell. While history has been kind to the American generals of World War II—Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley—it has been less kind to the generals of the wars that followed, such as Koster, Franks, Sanchez, and Petraeus. In The Generals, Thomas E. Ricks sets out to explain why that is. In chronicling the widening gulf between performance and accountability among the top brass of the U.S. military, Ricks tells the stories of great leaders and suspect ones, generals who rose to the occasion and generals who failed themselves and their soldiers. In Ricks’s hands, this story resounds with larger meaning: about the transmission of values, about strategic thinking, and about the difference between an organization that learns and one that fails.

The title of the book says it all. The Be-Know-Do of Generalship. Generalship is possibly one of the most difficult words to define. It is leadership with a difference that demands varied skills from the very basic to the most sophisticated. It is a position of responsibility like none other. It demands making decisions in the most complex environment pregnant with VUCA character. It carries with its position the heavy weight of values and expectations that have come to characterise military leadership since millennium. A General is the face of the system, is always naked and always under scrutiny by soldiers who expect him to be God like. The book is laid out in two parts. Part I, comprising six chapters covers every aspect of Generalship in a 'self-help' easy to assimilate style to develop oneself to be an inspiring General relevant for the future. Part II, comprising Chapter VII is an honest and a dispassionate appraisal of the Indian military leadership since independence. It makes a convincing case to address the existing institutional shortcomings with respect to Generalship and their selection in the Indian Army with de-novo recommendations not heard before. This book is a product of the author's four decades of passion and dedication to the profession of soldiery and the art of military leadership. It is an excellent tutor to BE the General you should be, to KNOW what you should know and to DO what you should do to be future ready and leave a legacy worth remembering. A unique book on the subject, it is a must read for officers of all service groups in any vocation, not only the uniformed services. This book is a ready recipe for those who aspire to lead with a difference.

History has thrilling accounts of brilliant Generals leading small armies to defeat huge forces of their opponents. Better the Generalship, greater the victories. The Indian Army too has produced many great Generals, who have defeated evil designs of adversaries. Yet they have produced none like Rommel, Manstein, Model, or even like our old warriors Maharana Pratap, Hari Singh Nalwa, or Zorawar Singh. India can and must produce Generals of that calibre; Generals who don’t just defend territory or restore status quo, but those who annihilate aggressors, to teach memorable lessons to adversaries who transgress, who initiate punitive actions for conventional and nuclear deterrence to be effective. To produce Generals of such calibre, the first step is to understand what is good Generalship. Then study Generalship in previous conflicts to appreciate achievements and also learn lessons from opportunities missed. Only then can the Armed Forces institute measures to improve the quality of Generalship for the future. This book is written to facilitate such study, in that order.

Drawing on his own experiences of a lifetime in the Army, the author provides insight into military life at its most important levels, discussing the challenge of leadership and outlining a pattern for a successful commander to follow

His campaigns, military thought, and insurgent strategy There are many biographies of the Prophet, and they tend to fall into three categories: pious works that emphasize the virtues of the early Islamic community, general works for non-Muslim or non-specialist readers, and source-critical works that grapple with historiographical problems inherent in early Islamic history. In The Generalship of Muhammad, Russ Rodgers charts a new path by merging original sources with the latest in military theory to examine Muhammad's military strengths and weaknesses. Incorporating military, political, and economic analyses, Rodgers focuses on Muhammad’s use of insurgency warfare in seventh-century Arabia to gain control of key cities such as Medina. Seeking to understand the operational aspects of these world-changing battles, he provides battlefield maps and explores the supply and logistic problems that would have plagued any military leader at the time. Rodgers explains how Muhammad organized his forces and gradually built his movement against sporadic resistance from his foes. He draws from the hadith literature to shed new light on the nature of the campaigns. He examines the Prophet's intelligence network and the employment of what would today be called special operations forces. And he considers the possibility that Muhammad received outside support to build and maintain his movement as a means to interdict trade routes between the Byzantine Empire and the Sasanid Persians.

What can we learn about leadership and the experience of war from the best combat leaders the world has ever known? This book takes us behind the scenes and to the front lines of the major wars of the past 250 years through the words of twenty combat commanders. What they have to say--which is remarkably similar across generational, national, and ideological divides--is a fascinating take on military history by those who lived it. It is also worthwhile reading for anyone, from any walk of life, who makes executive decisions. The leaders showcased here range from Frederick the Great to Norman Schwarzkopf. They include such diverse figures as Napoleon Bonaparte, commanders on both sides of the Civil War (William Tecumseh Sherman and Stonewall Jackson), German and American World War II generals (Rommel and Patton), a veteran of the Arab-Israeli wars (Moshe Dayan), and leaders from both sides of the Vietnam War (Vo Nguyen Giap and Harold Moore). What they have had in common is an unrivaled understanding of the art of command and a willingness to lead from the front. All earned the respect and loyalty of those they led--and moved them to risk death. The practices of these commanders apply to any leadership situation, whether military, business, political, athletic, or other. Their words reveal techniques for anticipating the competition, leading through example, taking care of the "troops," staying informed, turning bad luck to advantage, improvising, and making bold decisions. Leader after leader emphasizes the importance of up-front "muddy boots" leadership and reveals what it takes to persevere and win. Identifying a pattern of proven leadership, this book will benefit anyone who aspires to lead a country, a squadron, a company, or a basketball team. It is a unique distillation of two and a half centuries of military wisdom.