What Is George Washington's Leadership Qualities

General George Washington was a great leading officer not so much because of his heroic victories but because of his brilliant strategic retreats. Selected by the Continental Congress to head the hastily improvised army that was besieging Boston, Washington made it clear that he wanted the position because he dressed in his full military uniform when meeting with the Congress. The tall, powerfully built, dignified Virginia planter, then forty-three, had never risen above the rank of a colonel in the militia. His largest command had numbered only twelve hundred men, and that had been about twenty years before. Because he lacked a strong military mentality, he would actually lose more battles than he would soon win.
But the Virginian was gifted with outstanding powers of leadership and immense strength of character. He spoke of patience, courage, self-discipline and a sense of justice. He was a great moral force rather than a great mind for the military which is why people instinctively trusted him. He insisted to serve without pay, though he kept a careful expense account amounting to more than one-hundred thousand dollars.

Since Washington was from Virginia which was the most populated colony at the time, Congress believed that choosing someone from a highly populated colony would stand for the betterment of the colonists fighting against Britain. Also, since New Englanders were receiving a lot of attention from Britain, Prudence suggested that they should appoint a commander from the most populous colony, Virginia. As a man of wealth, both by inheritance and by marriage, Washington could not be accused of being a fortune-seeker. As an aristocrat, he could be counted on by his peers to check “the excesses of the