[March 11, 2015] Whenever I think of volatility I’m drawn to one of the greatest battles during World War II. In late 1944 the German military broke through a weak Allied defensive area in an attempt to force them to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis Power’s favor. Great leaders on the Allied side were responsible for stopping it and ultimately defeating Nazi Germany.
Called the Ardennes Counteroffensive, the operation caught the Allies completely off guard and it threatened a major break out into the open. It is difficult for us looking back at what went on in the minds of those senior leaders who ultimately defeated the Germans but what we do know is that General George S. Patton was the main factor in stopping it.
Patton made himself famous because he thrived in the volatility of war. His successes were an outgrowth of his abilities as a master of adaptation, aggressiveness, and inspiration. These characteristics allowed him to rise above other, more mundane, senior commanders on the battlefield to productively manage volatility. The same volatility made others hesitate and fall into a state of confusion.
Great leaders thrive on volatility because they stand out among their peers. They achieve this methodically by continuously testing themselves. In his book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (see my review here), Nassim Nicholas Taleb studied how testing ourselves through various “stressors” were the key to insuring leaders are made better. Patton did this and shows us that being antifragile is the key to succeeding in a volatile environment.
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