Leadership: Manager and commander

Don Keogh slammed his drink down on the bar and asked, “Ever read ‘Hornblower'?”

I'd just started work for a Kansas City, Mo.-based group of business newspapers, as an editor at one of its start-ups. My job was to edit not only the Columbus, Ohio, paper's magazine supplement but also to reformat the magazine concept for the entire national chain.

“‘Hornblower,' that movie with Jack Benny?” I replied, trying to keep up - with the subject matter and the drinks.

“No, the ‘Hornblower' series, by C.S. Forester,” growled Keogh, the chain's executive editor. “You need to read 'em. They're our company's management book.”

I wasn't sure at the time if he was kidding. I learned he was not.

Many companies swear allegiance to the leadership philosophy of, say, Peter Druker, author of “The Concept of the Corporation,” among other widely devoured management books. Drucker was ahead of his time: “In attracting and holding knowledge workers” - yes, Drucker coined that term - “we already know what does not work: bribery.”

But my new employers believed in the words and deeds of Horatio Hornblower, the fictional Royal Navy officer of the Napoleonic Wars, of all things.

Eleven novels, I discovered, were published between 1937 to 1967. The main character dashes through dramatic victories and humiliating losses, personal and in combat.

And his adventures indeed were - and are - inspiring.

I soon found out what the attraction was all about in setting a style of management, particularly for an industry that attracts such Wild West types as reporters, photographers, designers and sales folk.

The key to Hornblower's personal leadership style is this: He gives the orders, he believes in chain of command. But when times demand it, he takes off his officer's greatcoat, rolls up his sleeves and takes an oar.

He makes the tough decisions, when other officers might turn and run. In command of the “HMS Sutherland” along the coast of Spain, for example, though often secretly beset with self-doubt, he does his duty and decides to stay to battle the French Navy - even though it's four-to-one.

Here is Hornblower on demanding excellence from his employees:

“What time is sunrise this morning?”

“Er - about 5:30, sir.”

“I don't want to know about what time it will be. I asked, ‘What time is sunrise?'” (“Commodore Hornblower,” Little, Brown & Co., 1945).

And here is our protagonist (also in “Commodore Hornblower”) as he calculates the odds with which his crew has to contend, then determines the job has been done well enough:

He wanted his squadron to come up the difficult channel in exact, regular order, like beads on a string. … In the six ships a thousand men poured aloft, and the canvas vanished as though by magic as the ships swung round to their cables.

“Pretty fair,” said Hornblower to himself, realising, with an inward smile at his own weakness, that no evolution could ever be carried out to his own perfect satisfaction.

Throughout the series, Hornblower matures into not just a brave leader, but a smart one, too. He gains the skill to know when to criticize - “I said, Now!” - and when to hold his tongue - “There was no purpose in being critical without having a helpful suggestion to make at the same time.”

In “Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies” (Curtis Publishing, 1958), he shows he knows when to lavish praise and how to use flattery as a tool, particularly with superiors: “…Hornblower suddenly checked himself. … He did not want to give the impression of a man too anxious to please.”

And, though he was an impatient man, above all he worked at patience, especially in the heat of battle. In a long, exciting sequence during a clash involving several ships, Hornblower knows he must wait for another ship in the United Kingdom's fleet, the “Moth,” to fire on the French frigate, “Blanchefleur.”

Hornblower watched him closely; the temptation to fire his mortars the moment they were loaded, without waiting for “Moth” to take her turn, was powerful indeed, but to yield to it meant confusion for the observer over in “Clam” and eventual losing of all control.

The “Moth” eventually does fire, more than once, and the enemy is defeated. Patience is rewarded.

And through it all, this hero of His Majesty's fleet suffers from seasickness.

These are incredible, stirring stories. They also can be a source of valuable lessons for leadership.

They are where we can acquire the knowledge to determine when it's time to roll up our own sleeves …