The Commander Formula

During on our leisure time we was sitting and discussing about how should the manager look like and what kind of qualities he should have. And we had been trying to simulate how should the manager represent himself in order to be effective? While we were discussing, I remembered “the Commander formula”, which I read in my student years.

It seems to me that this formula, on the one hand very briefly, and on the other hand, in full details explains not only the essence of successful commander, but also the core of effective manager. I haven’t found the origin source, but everything refers to Napoleon as to the author of “the Commander formula”, namely to his “the square formula”. It sounds as:

“… the commander is like a square: the base is Will and the altitude is Mind ”.

What is important in Napoleon’s Commander formula? Why is it called as “the Square formula”? Because the commander should have not only mind and will, but also, what’s important, both qualities should be kept in balance. Square can b e square only when the base is equal to the altitude.

What will happen if there is an absence of harmony and balance between will and mind? If the commander owes advanced will, but he doesn’t have enough mind, that is why he will act fast and bravely, but for all that will make mistakes and wrong decisions, what could be fatal under the conditions of military conflict. If the commander will be a man of great mind (intellect), but even so he won’t be more strong-willed, he may work out ingenious combinations, but he won’t have enough forces or determination to put them into practice. As a result while he is doubting or hesitating, the situation changes and time for realization misses, that can also become fatal.

That is why Napoleon’s “the square formula” emphasizes on the balance of commander’s will and mind.

Why did I remember this formula? Because the commander is, first of all, the manager! He is the manager, who wins because of how he trains and what he teaches the army in peacetime, how he plans the actions of military campaign, how he analyzes incoming information from the battlefield and what decisions he makes according to it, i.e. because of how he manages!

The commander is the manager, who heads and manages the powerful social system. And survivability, effectiveness and potency of this social system depend on his ability and skills.

Referring to the direct analogy, every manager heads and manages the social system. Not projects, companies and departments, but only people, who participate in projects and work in company and departments, can be managed.  That is why any large or small group is the social system. That is to say, this “the Commander formula” is suitable naturally for every effective manager’s description.

It’s not in vain that many people put experience accumulated in military sphere into the books and articles in management sphere. Striking examples are 36 Chinese stratagems, which have been crystallized as military campaigns experience and which are essential part of the Chinese management. It’s also Charles von Klauzevits with his “About war”, Nikkolo Makiavelli’s "Sovereign" and Sun Czi’s “Art about war”.

How can this formula be useful for us? Perhaps, if we understand how to develop these two components – Mind and Will, we can strengthen ourselves and improve our effectiveness as managers. What is the mind in my point view? Vocabulary definition can be taken as an example, where “mind” is characteristic of thinking and comprehension ability. That is how we think and understand and what the result of our mental activity is. The ability to analyze also relates to this characteristic. It’s because the manager makes decisions according to data, which are not full (while you’ll be waiting necessary information to make a decision, it’ll be too late to do something), complicated and varied (it demands to keep in mind a huge amount of factors). In reality we have to analyze huge amount of extremely difficult stuff. That is why, first of all, it’s important to study systems theory and to develop system thinking. These knowledge and skills will permit as analyze data more fully.

But the analysis of basic data is only the first step in making managerial decision. The second one is the choice of managerial decision. Taking into consideration that such situations, where there are no all necessary data for analysis, time is passing, and the decision ought to be made, appear very often. So this is also one of the important mind characteristic – the ability to make decision under the lack of information conditions. Information for analysis is not enough, but we can advice you some solutions how to make a choice. The manager should be able to find and pick out all the important things and considering lack of resources make the decisions, which will lead us towards success.

The third step is to bring the managerial decision to the executor and put it in action. In manager’s everyday work plans elaboration is inseparable from its execution. It’s very often when you have to make a decision in a moment relying on incoming information and put in into action immediately. It’ important that decision must start right away! At the same time the managerial decision itself should be simple, comprehensible and well-defined. The simpler plan, combination and decision, is, the more chance of success you may get. First of all, it’s because the executors will understand and realize the plan better, each of them in one’s own sphere, and, at the same time, they will comprehend their place in the whole idea.

Now let’s talk about what the managerial decision is as a product. The managerial decision is a pattern of actions what to do in one or another situation. Moreover, very often the patterns we use are those patterns we have already used in our practice. And the more set of patterns and actions the manager has, the more flexible he is, and the more decisions he can choose in any situation. Where can we get them from? First of all, we should learn to pick up our typical patterns neatly. And then to read, study, discuss and learn to see others’ action pattern everywhere and add them to your armoury. And one more important skill is the ability to combine, mix and join these patterns, and also the ability to destroy old patterns and think out the new ones. With this skill and having even small number of patterns we can increase in many times the variability of our actions, and, if we personally are able to create new action patterns, now we don’t need to study in depth other’s experience. Here is more likely that your experience will be studied.

Summing up briefly, the mind is how we can analyze incoming data, what models we use for this analysis, the set of action patterns we can apply to, the ability of their combination and the set of patterns for decision making (i.e. how we select the concrete one from our patterns in this situation).

Now let’s try to think what the Will is. In this formula the word “Will” means as a complex of skills, namely, strength of character, courage, determination, energy and persistence, etc.

Will is the ability to inner efforts, required for person’s goals achievement. In other words, for manager the Will is the Mind’s continuation. We’ve made the decision with the Mind, and we are able to put it into action because of the Will. Through the “I do not want” we’re guided by “I ought to”. It means the ability to reach settled goals, to force yourself and surroundings to work, and always aspire to your aim day and night. So this is the Will. It’s something that really can be or not.

And these are thoughts about what the manager should have, and about “the Commander formula” which still remains relevant.

What is more, it’s possible to compare qualitatively the managers with each other according to this “square (or the cube) formula”. Just imagine hypothetical situation, when we have 3 commanders, Will and Mind of who are in balance. Who of them will win? Who will be more effective and more likely to obtain victory?

Probably, that one, who has more Mind and Will in qualitative sense. Who’s Mind is stronger and more flexible, than the others’ one, and whose Will is able to bend others’ will. Exactly this qualitative difference (because even when the Mind can be measured with IQ, it’s tough thing to measure the Will) will permit to compare managers, one with another. It’s even possible to set up work hypothesis. And if to have a test which could give final result about the balance between Will and Mind (not in quantitative but in qualitative sense), so possessing all necessary tools for quantitative mind measurement, like IQ test as an example, we could more effectively and clearly recognize such managers, who could satisfy “the square formula” and represent themselves as “big square”. In this case we could be guarantied, that they would be able to bring our company into success.

It means that not only the balance of Mind and Will, but also their quantity is very important.

And, in the end, what to do if there is lack of Mind or Will? You can use the experience of militaries. With army headquarter being implemented, part of military campaigns planning functions went to that department. So Mind and Will functions have been started to strengthen and increase due to efforts integration of huge number of people. Later on, the practice showed that the “Commander-Headquarter Chief” bunch compensated to each other effectively the lack of one or another quality. They supplemented and reinforced each other.

The same thing is with us, when we feel the lack of something, we may strengthen ourselves by working in bunch with that person who will compensate our disadvantages and will allow us to get that balance of Mind and Will.