Leadership Lessons from Jimmy Stewart And How We Can Use Them Today

Leadership Lessons from Jimmy Stewart

And How We Can Use Them Today

From Architecture Student to Accidental Actor

1936 – Rise to Stardom

1938 – Best Picture You Can’t Take it with You

1939 - 31 years old: - Nominated for Best Actor

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February 1940

“Philadelphia Story” Best Actor Oscar

Biggest name in Hollywood with:

Clark Gable,

Cary Grant,

Katherine Hepburn

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Is anything Jimmy Stewart knew still relevant today?

From Actor to Leader• October 1940 – Drafted and declined• March 1941 – Jimmy volunteers for Army• August 1945 – Acting General (4 yrs 6mos) war as

Commander 8th Air Force, 2nd Combat Bomber Wing

Commanding 12,000 men; 350 bombers

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Jimmy Stewart’s 5 Basic Leadership

Lessons

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Jimmy Stewart’s 5 Basic Leadership Lessons

1. Teamwork is Essential

2. People Work Better with Purpose, Planning and Training

3. The Leader Must Lead by Example

4. Without Integrity, Leaders Fall

5. Be an Actor: Communicate Confidence

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Teamwork is Essential

How do you build a team?• Know Your People as People• Let Them Know You Care• Give Credit, Take Blame• Comrades, Not Friends• Correct Carefully but

Clearly

Teamwork: Know Your People as People

Jimmy spent great deal of time with the ground crews, who other officers and pilots hardly seemed to

notice. Stewart had a special affection for the ground crews and they often mentioned this.

Jimmy also took a great interest in the backstage crew in all his pictures.

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Teamwork: Know Your People as People

“He had a tremendous rapport with crews, an easy, somewhat humorous way of putting them at ease in tight situations.” Col. Ramsey Potts, Commander

Patient: His learning disabilities caused him to be very patient with slow learners

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Teamwork: Let Them Know You Care

When not flying missions, he would stay at the control tower until his last crew had returned. The men appreciated this.

In the middle of a mission, he’d ask the co-pilot how his wife was

doing, or some detail about a child. The crew was often surprised he remembered

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Teamwork: Give Credit, Take Blame

1944 mission, Troyes, France. Navigator gave him wrong target. Jim asked several times if he was sure as Jimmy thought the target was elsewhere. Navigator was sure. Wrong target.

At the debriefing, Jimmy took complete blame. Nothing did more to win respect from his crews than that one mission.

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Teamwork: Comrades, Not Friends

“When you’re in command, you don’t make friends of the men of lower ranks. That’s not to be precious or anything about your rank. It’s just the practical and proper way to run a command. You can’t make the men you command into your friends. Comrades, yes, but not…not friends. You might have to chew a man out for some indiscretion and you can’t do that to a friend.”

Jimmy Stewart

The Incident of the Stove at Old Buc

Teamwork: Correct Carefully but Clearly

“Somehow he always made me feel that he was my friend. I knew when I had ten missions, Major Stewart had flown five of them alongside or near me. He had a great feeling for all of us. You felt it when you were around him. Even when he was trying to give you hell for something you deserved, he got his point over without hurting you deep inside.”

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Teamwork: Correct Carefully but Clearly

No one likes being embarrassed.

No one likes begin told they were wrong

You want to make an enemy, hurt someone!

Keep in mind, it is:

Feedback

not Failure

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Let Them Know You Care

Focus meKnow meCare about meHear meHelp me feel proudEquip meHelp me see my valueHelp me growHelp me contributeThank me

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“It’s a Wonderful Life…is my favorite film. The whole thing was done , not from a book, not from a play… but just an idea. An idea that nobody is born to be a failure. As simple as that. I liked that idea.” Live on Purpose

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People work better with Purpose, Planning and Training

“Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motive them, they hire already motivated people and inspire them… Unless you give motivated people something to believe in, something bigger than their job to work toward, they will motivate themselves to find a new job and you’ll be stuck with whoever’s left.”

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“Maj. Stewart took charge immediately. He was meticulous, precise, painstaking, exacting. It was obvious that he knew what he was doing.”

Capt. Stewart “had a constant and steady; hand in the preparation of the missions and briefed most of them.”



Hopped in, said hello, went to the flight deck. Went through thorough preflight check with pilots, then down to bombardier, then to navigator. Went to every crewman. Asked them questions on their positions and on others duties. Gave them ‘what ifs’. He knew what every position was supposed to know.

“He had a question about everything. Capt. Stewart really knew his airplane. He wanted us to know it too.”

Sgt. Robbie Robinson, flight engineer. From his book “A Reason to Live”

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“What if we train them and they

leave?”

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“What if we don’t, and they stay?”

The Leader Must Lead by Example

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“We couldn’t keep him out of the cockpit, and the brass worried about what might happen to such a well-known figure.”

“Major Stewart flew more than any other squadron commander. Brass limited him to 1 every in 5. He picked all the worst.”

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“I just can’t sit here and send these fellows [on missions] without knowing myself what I am sending them into.”

“I always had a feeling that he would never ask you to do something he wouldn’t do himself.”

Sgt. Steve Kirkpatrick, 703rd


Without Integrity, Leaders Fall

“He was a small town boy who grew up with strong family values and a bedrock foundation in honesty and integrity….”

“It’s a pleasure to work with Stewart – he isn’t above himself like the other actors. You can almost touch his goodness.”

Woody Van Dyke

Director


Sure that he missed target, after clearing the flak he told his squadron they had to go back and check, doubling their risk. They in fact had missed it. They dropped the rest of their bombs. Bremen Raid, December 1943

“He had to hit the target no matter how long it took.”

“If you’re gonna’ do a job, you got to do it well.”

Jimmy Stewart

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Capt. Stewart ran into two crewmen. “How you boys doin’?”

“Sir, the payroll clerk says he doesn’t have time to pay us until next month.”

“We all were beginning to think this Jimmy Stewart was really an all right guy.”


Maj. Stewart started buzzing the tower of a nearby airfield to awaken his ‘old boss’. They dived until the tower crew abandoned the tower.”

Confronted by his Colonel at his own field, he first tried to explain, then remembered, “when you are at the bottom of a hole, don’t dig.” He simply admitted his foolishness.

Promoted to Lt. Col a month later

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Ability will get a person to the top!

But only integrity will keep him there!

Be an Actor: Communicate Confidence

“He was the man with the pointer, truly in charge of operations. Stewart’s confidence-inspiring presence and his reputation as a “lucky” pilot, with a skillful and sagacious sense of combat operations spread throughout the group.”

Communicate plans with: Clarity

Confidence

Optimism

453rd was a ‘bad luck’ group. Stewart helped turn it around. In part with good communication. •Preflight briefing •Knew intimate details•Talked clearly, concisely, but in a low key way•Easy to understand and follow •Well planned briefings

•No dramatics, just to-the-point instructions. One could almost feel the inspiration, the confidence, the galvanizing response in the air.

“A reassuring kindling of spirit.” 36


“We had had a high turnover of combat crews. Even so, morale was unusually high and much of it was due to a very down-to-earth Jimmy Stewart”

“I guess it helped some of the men liked my movies.” Jimmy Stewart


More than an Actor: A Good Person• Mar. 1941 - Private• June 1941 - Corporal• Jan. 1942 - 2nd Lieutenant• Aug. 1942 – 1st Lieutenant• July 1943 – Captain (500 men)• Jan. 1944 – Major (2,000 men)• June 1944 – Lt. Colonel • Mar. 1945 – Colonel (6,000 men)• Aug. 1945 – Command of 8th AF

for demobilization (80,000)• July 1959 – Brig. General

- permanent

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More than an Actor: A Good PersonThen back to Hollywood

First movie after the war?

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To Lead• Tell the truth

• Be transparent

• Extend trust and respect

• Be vulnerable

• NO games

• Keep your promises

• Communicate clearly

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Jimmy Stewart’s 5 Basic Leadership Lessons

1. Teamwork is Essential

2. People Work Better with Purpose, Planning and Training

3. The Leader Must Lead by Example

4. Without Integrity, Leaders Fall

5. Be an Actor: Communicate Confidence

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“…but of them all (actors), I think that Jimmy Stewart was most like those modest heroes he portrayed.”

Walter Cronkite

Iconic CBS News Anchorman

More than an Actor: A Good Person

Timothy Harrington, CPAT.E.A.M. Resources

800-788-9542

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Leadership Lessons from Jimmy Stewart And How We Can Use Them Today