Lead In 30 Podcast

Leadership Lessons from Gettysburg: What I Saw & Learned Walking the Battlefield

• Russ Hill

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349: What can a 160-year-old battlefield teach us about modern leadership? Join me as I recount a transformative experience walking the historic grounds of Gettysburg with Marco's Pizza executive team. This episode intertwines powerful leadership lessons from figures like General Meade and General Gouverneur Warren with contemporary strategies, revealing how history's past victories can guide today's leaders. With the backdrop of Gettysburg's pivotal Civil War battle, we'll explore collaborative and visionary leadership styles that continue to influence and inspire.

As we navigate through stories of strategic brilliance and critical decisions, I'll also share my personal journey, racing back to Washington D.C. for my son's significant mission call amidst professional commitments. From securing the high ground to prioritizing family, this episode offers a rich blend of historical insights and personal reflections. Tune in for a raw and candid narrative that seamlessly blends leadership wisdom, history, and the pursuit of balance in life's most important roles.

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The Lead In 30 Podcast with Russ Hill is for leaders of teams who want to grow and accelerate their results. In each episode, Russ Hill shares what he's learned consulting executives. Subscribe to get two new episodes every week. To connect with Russ message him on LinkedIn!



Speaker 1:

What a remarkable day Today. I stood on the ground where Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, atop the hill where slavery in America basically started to die to end, and walked through the fields where more than 50,000 men fell as casualties in the most brutal battle on US soil. Leadership lessons from a remarkable day in Pennsylvania.

Speaker 2:

This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill. You cannot be serious. Strengthen your ability to lead in less than 30 minutes.

Speaker 1:

So I'm just going to start this episode by giving props, calling out who deserves to be called out. Some of you, a few of you, have never heard of this company, this franchise, this restaurant company, and a lot of you have Marcos Pizza, with over 1,200 locations across the US, if not the fastest growing pizza restaurant chain in America, it, darn well, is near the top of it, based in Ohio. And the reason I'm talking about them is because I spent the day today in Gettysburg, pennsylvania, and that was at the invitation of members of the executive team of Marcos. So they are putting leaders through Lead in 30, through the 30-day leadership course, and so they extended an invitation to part of our team to come to their leadership institute, this program that they put on on the battlefields of Gettysburg. Like what companies do that? So they fly these managers and leaders in to Gettysburg and they hire these amazing historians to come in. They rent buses, they do all this stuff and then walk you through the exact spots where these battles were waged. But they don't do it just from a historical standpoint, they do it from a leadership standpoint. What lessons can we learn from this general who was leading the troop, the Confederate troops, on this hill? Or what lesson can we learn from this Union soldier, this general, on this other hill? What lessons can we learn from Abraham Lincoln? Like amazing, you're on the spot, you're in this hallowed place.

Speaker 1:

I don't know how many of you have been to Gettysburg. I have not. It's been on my bucket list as somebody interested in history and I just got to share with you in this episode what happened, and I again apologize for the audio quality, but I'm back on the same highway I was on in the last episode. If you didn't listen to the last one, hit pause on this. Go back to it Then it will make more sense to you. So I'm in a rental car and it's almost 10 o'clock at night again, and once again I'm driving through the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania because I got to get back to Washington DC tonight to catch the first flight out in the morning.

Speaker 1:

Back to Arizona, because our third oldest kid is about to get what we call a mission call in the church that I go to, and so he's getting his assignment of where in the world he will be spending the next two years of his life. It's emotional thing for me If you've been listening to this podcast for a long time. You know this will be our third kid to do this. Our oldest son got assigned to speak Mandarin Chinese in Australia. Our second oldest, our daughter, got assigned to speak Portuguese in Mozambique and now our third oldest is. Our third child is getting his assignment. So I got to get back because we know the email is coming in with the assignment and so I had to change flights around my schedule around. I got to get home and so I'm doing this late night car ride back to be able to stay the night right next to Reagan Airport so I can fly out early in the morning and be home for that family event, because nothing's more important, right? So, anyway, that's the background of why the audio sucks, because I'm talking into the rental car sound system. So just please be patient with me on that.

Speaker 1:

In the last episode and again in this one, if you're new to the podcast, most of the time the audio doesn't sound this crappy. By the way, welcome into the lead in 30 podcast in less than 30 minutes. I share an experience, holy crap. I got an experience to share with you today, or I share with you a framework or a model or a lesson or a best practice or something that I've got an experience to share with you today, or I share with you a framework or a model or a lesson or a best practice or something that I've observed or we've observed as a firm inside of all these companies that we get a chance to interact with. We do that. I share it with you in less than 30 minutes to give you something to think about, potentially implementing or changing or adjusting or leaning into in the way that you lead, whoever you have decided to lead in your organization, in your life, wherever it might be.

Speaker 1:

Wow, what is that? You are one of the? Oh my gosh, there is a. Is that like? Oh my God? Oh that, no, is that really? Is that an LV at no, what is that? Sorry you guys, I'm on on the highway. It's almost 10 o'clock at night and there is something that is lit up at night off in the distance and it is absolutely stunning and um, I've got to. So just bear with me like 20 more seconds. Just hang with me. I'm looking back. I gotta be careful driving. I can't tell what it is. I think. I think I know what it is and it's uh, I think it's a building tied to my own religion. Um, that's towering over these hills of trees in this part of Pennsylvania, but I don't know. I might be misled. It might be some kind of historical thing. I'll look it up when I get to the hotel tonight. Sorry, you all, you're catching me raw and that's the way I do it in these episodes. Anyway, so Lead in 30 podcast less than 30 minutes, share with you an insight and experience and observation, something for you to consider. And if you want to find out more about our 30-day leadership course, go to leadin30.com.

Speaker 1:

My name is Russ Hill, if you're new to the podcast. I don't usually provide play-by-play of what I'm seeing on the highway, but I am tonight and because it's just, I just prefer this. I prefer the people that I find value in. I want access to their life. I want access to the way they think. I want access to what's going through their mind. I don't want a scripted podcast that is just canned like that.

Speaker 1:

There are all kinds of leadership podcasts out there that you can. You can choose right now. There are all kinds of leadership podcasts out there that you can choose right now and you're either going to get like two minutes and insight from somebody. That's like giving a one piece of steak to somebody that really wants a steak dinner, in my opinion. Maybe you like it. Good, keep listening to those Other podcasts. It's some canned approach Today we're going to talk about and they read a script, or it's just.

Speaker 1:

I can't stand those. Like there's no value to me, and at least they don't speak to me. I shouldn't say that strongly. And so you get the kind of podcast I like, because I want to hear the raw thoughts and experiences of the people that I find value in, and so that's what you're getting from me, and hopefully you find value in it. Anyway, I spend my time working with senior executive teams at some of the world's most amazing companies. I got to do that today, and that's the subject of this episode.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so let me tell you how this is going to work. I cannot possibly capture what I want to capture from today's experience in just this episode. What I want to capture from today's experience in just this episode. So I'm going to share some raw thoughts, in no particular order, because both hands are on the wheel and I'm in this rental car driving on a very dark highway in the middle of nowhere, pennsylvania, headed back down south, across Maryland and then to Washington DC to get near the airport. So what I'm going to do is collect my notes from today and I'm going to put together a more succinct episode that captures some of the wisdom that I gathered today from this most remarkable experience. So that's coming in the next two or three episodes. I'm going to share that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, in this episode I'm just going to share the raw train of thoughts coming out of this. I'm literally just driving past the battlefields of Gettysburg, like I'm just out of that area, and let me just share a couple of insights. And there are takeaways, you all, from this for you. So the Civil War right, like how long ago was that? That is not something that I am studying. The American Civil War and if somebody put out a book about the Civil War and what I don't know that, I find myself reading it. I'm way interested in other things At least. Well, I was, well, I still am.

Speaker 1:

But so I didn't go to Gettysburg today thinking that I was going to gain a lot of leadership insights, and I don't know that I did gather a lot of new insights. They were just profoundly emotional. They were just profoundly emotional. They were profoundly emotional reinforcements of things that we talk about. We talk about in these episodes and in this instance, whether or not a leader lived or practiced or executed, those basic principles of effective leadership and I'm going to share a couple of them with you resulted in whether or not his soldiers and it was his, because there weren't women out on the battlefield in the Civil War in Gettysburg. It resulted whether or not the leader executed, lived, fulfilled these basic leadership principles. Resulted in whether or not their troops lived or died, survived or not.

Speaker 1:

And over 50,000 people have you been to get like? Some of you have been here. I've never been here. Most of you never will come here. It's not on your list of things that you're going to take your family and go do a vacation to right, I would never take kids to Gettysburg like I just did, like that they would be bored out of their minds and. But as an adult and and and mature adult as far as age goes, wow, it's just interesting. So let me share a few insights. So maybe two or three, and then a lot more in the next episode. So you cannot go to Gettysburg and not be affected by the magnitude of what happened there.

Speaker 1:

So, as the historians started to talk to our group, of which we had like 20 people right and 20 managers that were invited to this leadership institute, that were whatever put on by Marcos Pizza they are the ones that do this that they do it for executives and for managers in their company just remarkable. So as these historians start to talk, you're like wow, like 50,000 people fell over, collapsed, died on this battlefield, in this area right in front of me, and you start to become curious about why. And so, for those of you that don't know, gettysburg was a three-day battle. So July 1st, 2nd and 3rd 1863, you got Robert Lee, robert E Lee, the general from the South who's leading the Confederates, you got various generals from the North, and this is the battle that really is going to determine how the Civil War is going to go. It's the main battle of the Civil War. It doesn't end the Civil War, but it pretty much starts leading to the end of it. And Abraham Lincoln's in the White House and he's putting everything into it. This is it. This is where we've got to stand. And so a couple of names and lessons that stand out to you. Number one is this guy, general Meade. General Meade is promoted to lead the Union Army, basically three days before Gettysburg. He is a brand new leader of this. He'd been a leader, he'd been moving up the ranks in the Union Army, but he's promoted excuse me to take over by Lincoln. He's promoted by Lincoln three days before Gettysburg.

Speaker 1:

There's lots of reasons for that, I'm not going to get into it. One of the pivotal moments of the battle at Gettysburg is as the Union Army is standing on the high ground, they stake out these hills and if you've been there you know it, if you studied history you know it. I didn't know it, but you picture this green, lush valley. They call them mountains out here in Pennsylvania. They are not mountains, they are not even big hills, they're like little hills. And and so picture this valley surrounded by kind of like a basin we would call it in the West, and it's surrounded by this ring of hills, small hills, and I mean like yeah, they are definitely small, but lush, green, with trees and vegetation, whatever in there. So you're picturing that that's what it looks like Beautiful, lush fields with this tree-lined circle perimeter of hills. And so the Union Army stakes out the top position on one of these hills and the Confederate Army, led by General Lee, is like well, we're taking them. There's no way we're leaving Gettysburg and not being victorious If we can win this battle in Pennsylvania. We are winning a major battle in the north and they potentially could even go on to Washington in the north and they potentially could even go on to washington dc who knows um. But it's massive.

Speaker 1:

And so robert, robert e lee's like we're going at it, like we're charging the hill, and so one of the things that's really interesting is this general mead, who is in his 30s, is that right? No, no, that's not right. He's in his 40s. So he's in his 40s, and on July 2nd there's this massive battle. I don't have time to go into all the details, but long story short. General Meade, at nightfall because they don't battle at night, like once darkness falls, they all just, they just, like a rule of the Civil War, they just basically not always, but usually go to bed or get planned for the next day, and then the battle begins when the sun comes up the next day.

Speaker 1:

And so General Meade calls in his commander, six or seven of them from different positions on these hilltops, and he meets with them the night of July 2nd, and they've suffered all kinds of casualties and they've had such. I mean, we're talking tens of thousands and they're in just brutal position. And General Meade asks them what should we do tomorrow? Should we stand this ground, continue to fight? Should we pull back? What are your opinions? And these leaders weigh in, these commanders lead in Now. General Meade had a position, he had a strong opinion, but he asked the commanders what do you think? This is what all the historians say. And then he counsels with them and they make a decision. We are going to stand our ground, we are going to fight tomorrow. We think we can win it tomorrow. Are we all in? We're all in.

Speaker 1:

And in that moment General Meade creates alignment, he creates ownership, because now it's not his plan that these commanders and all of these Union soldiers are fulfilling or carrying out, it's their plan. Robert E Lee, the same night, as his troops, as his soldiers are battling up this hillside getting pounded by cannon fire, getting pounded by these muskets that are firing at them and they're sustaining huge losses, but they have way more soldiers than the Union Army does. As Robert E Lee the night of July 2nd, guess what he does? He meets with nobody, he doesn't seek anybody's opinion. He sends out a two-sentence statement to the commanders letting them know we're going to keep going tomorrow. We're going to keep fighting on. There's no ownership of the plan Now.

Speaker 1:

Robert E Lee I don't know enough about war and I don't really care about it, but he obviously was an amazingly successful general, an amazingly successful soldier and a person in history that's debated quite a bit because he was so strong in defending and representing the Confederacy. So take all of that out of it, just the emotion and the morality out of it, and just look at whether or not he was successful in battle. He was really good, he was a really good leader, but he screwed up that night. He screwed up, and that's not the only screw up he made. He made several others.

Speaker 1:

But that's one of my takeaways from today. As you stand in that place where General Meade like literally the spots where General Meade is calling his commanders in you cannot be helped but help, but be struck by the fact of how he executed that night, that in the middle of all of that, he actually was seeking alignment, he actually was seeking to create ownership. He actually was demonstrating like I talked about in the last episode curiosity. What do you think we should do Unbelievable. Okay, so that's one lesson. I'm going to go way more detail in the future episode, but I don't want to talk too long in this episode. I'm probably too diluted in what I'm talking about anyway, because I've got energy and emotion around it, but I'm not sure that I'm giving you something super condensed and I still hope I'm bringing value to you. Okay, the second lesson from today.

Speaker 1:

One of them is in this gosh, what the crow is the guy's name? Oh, warren. What's his name? Yeah, like it like Gouverneur Warren. I want to say his name. He's the dude who's in his thirties and he notices. He notices that there is some weakness in the Union Army's protection, basically their line of defense. And there's this spot, gosh you guys I don't have my notes in front of me, it's those of you that are historians on Gettysburg are just going to be yelling at me but there is basically these two kind of high spots, highest spots on the hill. They call it like little, it's almost like little Butte. I can't remember the name of it, gosh, I'll talk more about in the next episode.

Speaker 1:

And then there's, there's another one, anyway, this general Warren, who's young, he's in his, I mean, he's in his thirties, like in early thirties, and he's given the. He notices we have weakness, we do not have troops and there's a long story for why we don't have troops on this highest spot on the hill. And so he moves battalions into this spot and he is credited with that move, his insight, getting to that high spot. He's credited with having a massive impact on whether or not the North, the Union, lincoln's army, won at Gettysburg. And I stood, we stood today. It was a remarkable experience. I took some videos of it. It was a remarkable experience, I took some videos of it.

Speaker 1:

Remarkable experience to stand where General Warren stood and to look out across the valley, the fields of Gettysburg, and realize to see what General Warren saw. What he saw was oh, from this vantage point, from this spot, you can see forever and I there's no, it's going to be very hard for them to get to us meaning the Confederacy, the competition, the opponent, the enemy right. And so he recognized the value of getting to a spot where he had vision, where he could see beyond 10 feet or 20 feet in front of him. And so, as you're in the battle and you're in the fields of Gettysburg, these tour guides today that we had. These historians were remarkable. They've written all kinds of books on Gettysburg or whatever. They're just incredible experts. And so the best of the best.

Speaker 1:

And they took us through the fields and then, late in the day, they took us to this hilltop. And when we got to the hilltop, everything changed. I got out of the tour bus, I went over to this spot. I'm like, oh my goodness, this is an incredible perspective. Like no wonder they won. Look at how far I can see, look at how much vision, like you can see the whole picture of the whole war, the whole battle in front of you. Wow, wow. This is unbelievably unique, valuable real estate to be standing on, and I'll share more about that in a future episode.

Speaker 1:

Why does that matter to you? Because the best leaders have vision. They make moves to enable them to gain altitude. How many times have I freaking talked about this? We teach it in the beginning of Lead in 30, clarity. And clarity isn't just defining the key results for your team or your organization, it's putting together the vision. What are we trying to accomplish? What is the purpose of this team? Where are we trying to accomplish? What is the purpose of this team? Where are we going? And the lower your altitude as a manager or leader, the less valuable you are to the troops. If you will underneath you, the harder it is for you to lead your team against the opponent is for you to lead your team against the opponent because you can't see very far, because you're so in the weeds right. A lot of people term this management versus leadership, and so you can't lead if you don't gain altitude.

Speaker 1:

And what General Warren did was he gained altitude and then he put the Union soldiers up on top of there and then the confederacy just kept running into him at full speed. Well, no wonder they mowed him down, because I it was, and you know to teach that and write it on a flip chart is one thing, to read about it in a leadership book is another, and to stand on a hilltop, like I did today, to did today that's hallowed ground and see and be able to feel how true that principle is, was just incredibly powerful. So just two quick takeaways. There's a million more. You all I'm going to share a bunch more in upcoming episode and and so two takeaways alignment, ownership.

Speaker 1:

General me did not go to all his commanders and said go, do this, go, execute on it, just do it. Just do it. General lee did. And the confederacy lost at gettysburg for lots of reasons. Not just that, but that certainly contributed to it. At least that's what the historians we're with today and based on what I saw, man, it rings true. So, building alignment, helping the people underneath us, around us, that are engaged in this battle, whatever the battle is that our organization or team is working toward.

Speaker 1:

The way to create alignment is through curiosity. That's why I talk so much about curiosity. That's why I am obsessed with that topic right now. Curiosity. And General Meade was curious that night in the tent and I just picture him standing there. I can picture him pulling these commanders into his tent standing there. I'm like I can picture him pulling these commanders into his tent and I can't even imagine the smell of death and destruction and smoke and all of that around him. And in that intense, pressure-filled, horrific moment he thinks to demonstrate curiosity. Unbelievable. And they won. The next day, they went out the next morning and they, stinking, took down the Confederate army that had way more men than they did.

Speaker 1:

And then the lessons from General Warren seek out the high ground, get altitude as a leader, so you can have vision, because then you bring tremendous value to the people that you lead. When you, as a leader, are down in the field, there's value. For those of you managing a team that are just maybe you're new to leadership or you're just kind of on a management execution level, you don't need altitude, you just need to be yeah, in fact, you need to be in the field just helping the, helping the troops, execute the game plan. But you can't scale leadership if you stay there. You, with me, you want to grow your impact, grow your career, grow your lifestyle, grow your compensation, grow all of that. You've got to look for opportunities in the future after you nail it on executing the game plan given to you as a manager. You got to do that, otherwise you don't even earn a ticket to the dance. So you got to execute as a manager. And then, if you execute as a manager, you look for opportunities to where you can gain altitude as a leader and have vision and provide people some direction, some insight of what the landscape looks like, where the opponents or competitors are, where we're going. You just bring tremendous value, like General Warren did.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I got to wrap up. I've been rambling. It was powerful to you all. Powerful to me, you all. I got to wrap up. I've been rambling. It was powerful to you all, powerful to me, you all. I hope that came across. I hope you found value in here.

Speaker 1:

I just give huge props to this organization we're working with. We work with so many awesome companies. But I'm so grateful actually because I'm looking at my schedule. I'm like I don't have time to go to Gettysburg Are you freaking, kidding me? And to fly out on a Sunday. And yet I just leaned into it and so I'm standing out there. I'm like, wow, what kind of an organization takes their managers? I mean, they got to put out pizzas. That's how they make money. This company's got to make pizzas. They take people away from the restaurants, away from the corporate office, and they take them to a battlefield, pay all this money to develop leaders and to help them gain a vision of what effective leadership looks like by looking at the past and seeing how those lessons apply to the future. Just amazing. So I'm grateful to them. Great partners there. Okay, that's what's on my mind.

Speaker 1:

I'll share more and then we'll get off of battle, because there's some of you if you didn't find any value in talking about a battle of Gettysburg or lessons. You had stopped a long time ago, so I'm assuming you got some interest in it. But maybe one more episode somewhere in the next few where I am more succinct on lessons learned here. Just a powerful, powerful day and I'm driving into Washington DC tonight thinking what an, how fortunate I am, what an amazing experience to be able to be in that place with those people learning lessons, and I was nothing, you all, nothing but curious today. Wow, did it pay off? I'll talk to you in the next episode of the Lead in 30 podcast.

Speaker 2:

Share this episode with a colleague, your team or a friend. Tap on the share button and text the link. Thanks for listening to the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill.