It take 15,000 casualties to train a major general.
Interpretation
Leadership often requires difficult experiences and significant sacrifices to develop competence.
Ferdinand Foch's quote emphasizes that the journey to becoming a capable leader, particularly in a military context, is fraught with challenges and losses. It suggests that the experiences gained from facing and overcoming adversity, often through painful consequences, are essential for personal growth and effective leadership.
In practice
In a talk about resilience, one might quote Foch to illustrate the costs of leadership.
The military mind always imagines that the next war will be on the same lines as the last. That has never been the case and never will be. One of the great factors on the next war will be aircraft obviously. The potentialities of aircraft attack on a large scale are almost incalculable.
My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack.
A battle won is a battle which we will not acknowledge to be lost.
One is defeated only when one accepts defeat.
Any Idiot can point out a problem .... A leader is willing to do something about it! Leaders solve problems!
It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion. They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness.
I think that we need women role models everywhere. I think that it's really hard to imagine yourself as something that you don't see.
One thing my dad's always told me about leadership is when all hell's breaking loose, everyone's looking at you to see how you're handling it. If you're frantic and out of control, they're going to be frantic and out of control. If you're calm, cool and collected and doing the right things, they'll follow you.
Good governance never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders.
An overburdened, overstretched executive is the best executive, because he or she doesn't have the time to meddle, to deal in trivia, to bother people.
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