George Washington's Leadership In The First Salute By Barbara Tuchman

Like many great leaders who inspire their followers, George Washington valued the people he led rather than thinking of them as means to an end. Richard Neustadt, Presidential Scholar at Harvard University, once observed the following about Washington: “It wasn’t his generalship that made him stand out . . . It was the way he attended to and stuck by his men. His soldiers knew that he respected and cared for them, and that he would share their severe hardships.” Edward G. Lengel, described Washington’s leadership during the extraordinarily cold winter of 1777–78 at Valley Forge as “sacrificial” and noted that “he took great care in seeing that his soldiers were well housed.”

Washington was confident, yet humble. His humbleness was reflected in the way he gave people a voice by seeking and considering their opinions and ideas. David McCullough wrote that during the Revolutionary War, Washington listened to the advice of his war council, a group of soldiers who reported directly to him, and their advice

While writing The First Salute, her gripping account of the American Revolution, Mrs. Tuchman struggled with the onset of blindness. With help from her daughter, she persevered to complete the volume that included a leader who truly inspired her. In an interview with Bill Moyers, Mrs. Tuchman spoke of how much she admired George Washington’s courage and perseverance despite the enormous obstacles he faced and how she and her daughter encouraged one another with the rallying cry, “remember George.” George Washington, like all effective leaders, communicated an inspiring vision and lived it, valued people and gave them a voice. Under his leadership the colonists pulled off one of history’s greatest upsets by defeating the preeminent military power of their age with an under-trained, under-resourced