Stress Management

A Guide for Senior Leaders

Stress, Mind & Body | Adrenaline Storm | Stress Hardiness Behavior Connection | Object Lesson

An Object Lesson

General George C. Marshall served as the Army Chief of Staff from September 1939 to November 1945. During his tenure, the Army grew from a mobilization base of 174,000 troops to a vast operational force exceeding eight million. The demands of leading this tremendous buildup and conducting a global war compelled General Marshall to develop effective strategies for managing his time and conserving his energy. He followed a strict routine that included time for work, time for exercise and sleep, and time for Family and friends. He rose at 0600 and exercised daily on horseback because it allowed him time to think. He ate lunch at home, and after lunch, Marshall would often take a nap on the chaise-lounge in the second floor sun room of his quarters. He worked until 1600. Although General Marshall occasionally worked longer hours, one of his most famous assertions is that, "nobody ever had an original thought after 1500." He spent 1600 until 2100 on dinner and relaxation. Marshall generally dined with his wife on his sun porch and then went for a ride or a walk with her around Fort Meyer or Arlington Cemetery. When the weather was too hot, Mrs. Marshall would prepare a picnic dinner and the two of them would then go canoeing on the Potomac River. He usually went to bed at 2100.

Dr. Sherwood of the Army Center for Military History summarizes Marshall's lifestyle:

Because of the many relaxation strategies that Marshall and his wife employed, this Chief of Staff managed as he put it himself to "save [his] ammunition for the big fights and avoid a constant drain of little ones." He also was extremely successful in putting his best face forward. "I cannot allow myself to get angry," he once remarked, "that would be fatal, it is too exhausting. My brain must be kept clear. I cannot afford to appear tired, for I recall in the First World War that General Pershing, after a long inspection trip, leaned back in the car to rest as we drove back to his quarters in Chaumont, and those who saw him took his attitude for discouragement. From that small incident the rumor spread that things were going very badly." Needless to say, things rarely appeared to be going badly during Marshall's tenure, and his time and energy management strategies may have contributed greatly to his record of success.

What can a senior leader learn from this example? Perhaps the instruction is best conveyed by General Marshall himself, by quoting from a letter penned in August 1939, to a young brigadier:

I want to make a few very confidential, personal comments on this new business of yours of being a brigadier general.

...Now I counsel you to make a studied business of relaxing and taking things easy, getting to the office late, taking trips, and making everybody else work like hell. It is pretty hard for a leopard to change his spots, but you must cloak your new rank with a deliberate effort to be quite casual. I know that try as you will, it will be almost utterly impossible for you to take things too easy, and I fear that it will be next to impossible for you to relax to anywhere near the degree that I think it is important.

I woke up at about thirty-three to the fact that I was working myself to death, to my superior's advantage, and that I was acquiring the reputation of being merely a pick and shovel man. From that time on, I made it a business to avoid, so far as possible, detail work, and to relax as completely as I could manage in a pleasurable fashion. Unfortunately, it was about six years before I could get away from details because they were in my lap. In China I made a good beginning, and at Benning I refused to read a great deal of the material worked up, and made it a practice of pleasant diversions. I have finally gotten to the point where I sometimes think I am too casual about things; but I think I have reaped a greater advantage than this other possible disadvantage.

Please take me very seriously. You have wonderful qualities, but you are too conscientious. I will be delighted to find that you have decided to take leave and do a little traveling before you report for duty, and I would be even more pleased if I had to write to you later and tell you that you were absenting yourself too frequently from your duties.

With my most sincere regard for your future. Faithfully yours,

Source: Stress and the Mind-Body Connection by Paul T. Harig, Ph.D. Colonel, US Army, A Guide for Senior Leaders

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This article represents a chapter from "Executive Wellness: A Guide for Senior Leaders", an online book written and edited by staff and contributors at the U.S. Army Physical Fitness Research Institute (USAPFRI), U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Stress, Mind & Body | Adrenaline Storm | Stress Hardiness Behavior Connection | Object Lesson