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GENERAL WILLIAM SLIM AND THE POWER OF EMOTIONAL AND CULTURALINTELLIGENCE IN MULTINATIONAL AND MULTICULTURAL OPERATIONS
A thesis presented to the Faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF MILITARY ART AND SCIENCE General Studies
by MAJOR DAVID G. FEARON, CANADIAN ARMY B.A., History, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, 1995
Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 2015
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- ABSTRACT** British General William Joseph Slim’s accomplishments in the Burma theatre of World War II are well known. However, Slim’s greatness stems not only from his accomplishments on the battlefield, asimpressive as they were, but more so for his accomplishments as a leader. Slim faced two unique challenges. The first was the diverse and multicultural makeup of his army. The second was theestablishment and maintenance of special personal relationships with a remarkable set of personalities, each of whom could destroy the unity of effort and purpose required in such a theatre. The challengesSlim faced, were daunting yet he was wildly successful. How did he achieve this? What edge did Slim have that many others seemed to lack? This paper will argue that Slim’s success was the result of ahighly developed sense of emotional and cultural intelligence. Future multinational force commanders will face the same challenges as Slim in establishing unity of effort and purpose given diversenationalities, cultures, and personalities. As such, Bill Slim is an excellent case study in the power of emotional and cultural intelligence in surmounting these challenges. 15. SUB General William Slim, Emotional Intelligence, Cultural Intelligence, XIV Army, Burma, Leadership **JECT TERMS
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ABSTRACT
GENERAL WILLIAM SLIM AND THE POWER OF EMOTIONAL AND
CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE IN MULTINATIONAL AND MULTICULTURAL
OPERATIONS, by Major David G. Fearon, Canadian Army, 97 pages. British General William Joseph Slim’s accomplishments in the Burma theatre of WorldWar II are well known. However, Slim’s greatness stems not only from his accomplishments on the battlefield, as impressive as they were, but more so for his accomplishments as a leader. Slim faced two unique challenges. The first was the diverse and multicultural makeup of his army. The second was the establishment and maintenance of special personal relationships with a remarkable set of personalities, eachof whom could destroy the unity of effort and purpose required in such a theatre. The challenges Slim faced, were daunting yet he was wildly successful. How did he achieve this? What edge did Slim have that many others seemed to lack? This paper will argue that Slim’s success was the result of a highly developed sense of emotional and cultural intelligence. Future multinational force commanders will face the same challenges asSlim in establishing unity of effort and purpose given diverse nationalities, cultures, and personalities. As such, Bill Slim is an excellent case study in the power of emotional and cultural intelligence in surmounting these challenges.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This paper would not have been possible without the superb advice, encouragement and patience of committee members; Dr. Mark Hull, Dr. Richard Olsen and Mr. Gerald Sewell. Their expertise was critical to its successful conclusion. I would also like to acknowledge the work of Ms. Venita Krueger in the formatting and organization of this paper. Last, but most significantly, if it were not for the continuing support of my wonderful wife Lauralee and our amazing children, Norah and Isaac, this paper would remain unwritten. Thank you
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The Physical Component of Cultural Intelligence ........................................................ 76 The Motivational Component of Cultural Intelligence................................................. 79 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION............................................................................................ 80 APPENDIX A EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENT DOMAINS AND ASSOCIATED COMPETENCIES ............................................................................................................. 85 APPENDIX B XIV ARMY ............................................................................................... 86 BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................................................................................. 87
INTRODUCTION
In 2011, Britain’s National Army Museum undertook the mammoth task of determining Britain’s greatest general. Judges considered twenty Field Marshals and Generals spanning over 450 years of empire and conquest and including such stalwarts as Cromwell, Marlborough, Wellington, Haig and Montgomery. The end state was a draw between the aristocratic Duke of Wellington, the victor of Waterloo, the vanquisher of Napoleon and future Prime Minister and a humble man from lower middle class Birmingham named Bill Slim.^1 As the National Army Museum demonstrated, William Joseph Slim was one of the finest British generals of the 20th century and in the eyes of many, the most outstanding general to emerge from World War II. Slim, as commander of the British XIV Army, led his shattered and defeated forces through the longest retreat in British history, across the length and breadth of Burma, one of the most challenging environments on earth, while pursued by a vicious and seemingly invincible Japanese Army. He then systematically reorganized, retrained and reinvigorated his army in time to smash the Japanese invasion of India at the battles of Imphal and Kohima. In these battles, XIV Army endured some of the most brutal and prolonged combat experienced in any theatre throughout the war. Slim then pursued his enemy through the monsoons and jungles of Burma until XIV Army emerged onto the Central Burma plain where he unleashed a brilliant mechanized counterstroke that destroyed the Japanese Army, inflicting upon it one of its greatest defeats. Slim’s accomplishments are all the more (^1) National Army Museum, “Britain’s Greatest General,” accessed October 4, 2014, http://www.nam.ac.uk/exhibitions/online-exhibitions/britains-greatest-general.
supplied their own complications. Dominating personalities such Lord Louis Mountbatten, “Vinegar” Joe Stilwell, and Orde Wingate could knock XIV Army off course. Each was too important to ignore yet Slim quietly won their confidence and trust, and convinced them of the importance of unity of effort and purpose in a theatre where resources were scarce. Mountbatten was the “Supremo”, the Supreme Allied Commander in South-East Asia. Connected to the Royal Family, he was self-centered and craved attention. “Vinegar” Joe Stilwell was the American advisor to Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek. He filled a number of roles, often conflicting, including Chiang’s Chief of Staff, Mountbatten’s deputy, and commander of all U.S. forces in the theatre, and nominally of Chinese forces as well. He was rabidly xenophobic and trusted none of his allies including the British or the Chinese. However, Slim needed Stilwell, mainly because the American transport aircraft that supplied the Chinese also supplied his own troops. Orde Wingate was a personal favorite of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and created the Long Range Penetration Group or Chindits, attacking the Japanese in Burma in 1943 and 1944. He thought himself a genius, as did Churchill; others thought he was insane. Slim felt that Wingate’s methods were reckless and wasted good men and material for little gain yet, Slim could not afford to alienate Wingate and risk interference by Churchill. Thus, the challenges Slim faced, including molding a diverse army and managing so many dominating personalities, to say nothing of the terrain, weather, logistical constraints and of course the enemy were daunting yet he was wildly successful. How did he achieve this? What edge did Slim have that many others seemed to lack? This paper will argue that Slim’s success was the result of a highly developed sense of emotional
and cultural intelligence. Emotional intelligence is “the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior.”^2 Thus, a high degree of emotional intelligence allows one to select and apply appropriate influencing techniques in order to achieve a purpose, goal or end state. Cultural intelligence is “the ability to recognize the shared beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviours of a group of people and, most importantly, to effectively apply this knowledge toward a specific goal or range of activities.”^3 Future multinational force commanders will continue to face the same challenges Slim experienced in the Burma campaign: achieving unity of effort amongst multinational forces and leveraging key personal relationships. As such, Slim is an excellent case study into the power of emotional and cultural intelligence in surmounting these challenges. Chapter 1 will provide a biographical overview of Slim’s early life including his service as a junior officer in World War I and as an Indian Army officer in the interwar period. Chapter 2 continues the biographical account with greater focus on Slim’s challenges and accomplishments in the Burma campaign. Chapter 3 reviews both the theoretical foundations of leadership theory as well as the theory of emotional. Specifically it discusses how emotional intelligence assists the leader in the selection of appropriate leadership tactics and techniques and demonstrates how Slim used these (^2) Andrew Coleman, A Dictionary of Psychology , 241. (^3) Karen Davis, Cultural Intelligence and Leadership. An Introduction for Canadian Forces Leaders (Winnipeg, Manitoba: Canadian Defence Academy Press, 2009), ix.
CHAPTER 1
Bill Slim’s career path was atypical of most British World War II generals. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not attend a well-respected English public school or university and did not attend the British Army’s Royal Military College at Sandhurst. His primary education was decidedly middle class. Slim was born in Bristol in 1891 to lower middle class parents and moved to Birmingham in his early teens. As a young boy, Slim wanted to pursue an Army career, despite no tradition of military service within his family. His earliest military experiences came in the form of illustrated books and magazines such as “ British Battles on Land and Sea ” to which his father subscribed.^4 Books such as these were inexpensive and readily available at the end of the 19th century when Pax Britannica was at its peak. Recounting British heroes and great victories throughout history with colorful pictures and maps it would have been easy for a young boy to become spellbound. However, a military career was simply out of the question for young Bill Slim. As part of a middle class family, Slim lacked the financial means to support a career as an officer. Still organized upon Victorian lines, British officers were to bridge the gap between their meager pay and the expected lifestyle of a British officer. In even the most modest of regiments, this was simply not feasible. Similarly, joining the ranks would result in a noticeable drop in social status not just for Bill but for his family as well.
(^4) Russell Miller, Uncle Bill: the Authorized Biography of Field Marshall Sir William Slim (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2013), 32, iBooks.
Slim was by no means an exceptional student; however, he seems to have been good enough to win a scholarship to Birmingham’s King Edward’s School at the age of
- Considered one of the best schools in the country,^5 it would serve as a good preparation for a career as a schoolteacher, a more appropriate choice for someone of Slim’s social standing. Slim left King Edward’s at age 18 and took a job as a pupil- teacher at Steward Street School, situated in a poor working class neighborhood of Birmingham. Although there are some disputes among Slim’s biographers concerning his motivations for taking this position, all agree that this decision had a monumental influence on his development as a future leader. “He discovered very quickly the need to keep control of his class, but he learned too, that sympathy and understanding also brought results.”^6 Slim’s students were desperately poor, undernourished and maltreated. Many came from homes where alcohol abuse was rampant and their prospects for the future were dim. Nevertheless, Slim had a deep respect for his students who despite their miserable conditions struggled to be good and make the most of their situation. He sympathized with their plight and gained an understanding of where his students came from. Young Slim, still in his teens, quickly empathized with his pupils and the low quality of their lives; this was to give him an insight into the British soldier enjoyed by very few other officers in high command in either World War. These boys came from appalling homes, where drunkenness and violence were commonplace; many had what today’s psychologists would describe as severe behavioral problems, and discipline, (^5) Ibid., 40. (^6) Ibid., 44.
that he had with the boys at Steward Street School.”^9 Again, the close daily contact with the common man gave Slim a unique perspective on their inner workings. Slim appeared set to follow a path in business and had secured a more adventurous position with the Asiatic Petroleum Company, which operated in China. However, circumstances intervened and Slim would finally get the chance to be a soldier. The start of the Great War removed all the social barriers that had stood before him and Slim soon found himself an officer in the British Army. “For Bill Slim, and hundreds like him, what was to be known as the Great War provided an opportunity to obtain what was formerly unattainable – a commission in the British Army.... On 22 August 1914, William Slim was gazetted as a temporary second lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment.”^10
The Great War Slim was assigned to the Regiment’s 9th Battalion and spent the next nine months training with his new platoon and by June 1915 the battalion finally received orders to deploy. Rather than join the attritional slaughter of the Western front, the 9th Warwicks reinforced the Allied effort at Gallipoli. The Gallipoli campaign was an ill-fated attempt by the French and British to gain control of the Dardanelles in order to attack Constantinople and perhaps force the Ottoman Empire out of the war. The amphibious landing was disaster and the Allies soon found themselves contained by the Turks after having made only marginal gains. The deployment of Slim’s battalion was part of an
(^9) Ibid., 49. (^10) Ibid., 57.
Allied effort to reinforce the initial landing and subsequently breakout. The battalion landed on 13 July 1915 and on 8 August, it participated in a large-scale attack, which quickly bogged down. By nightfall, Slim found himself in command of what remained of his company, approximately 50 men. To his flank was the remnant of a Gurkha battalion and Slim was greatly impressed by their courage and tenacity; this was his first experience with Gurkha troops. Slim linked up with the Gurkha commander and together they planned a coordinated assault the next morning, however within minutes Slim was severely wounded and evacuated from the field. This attack, like many before it, cost the Allies dearly and accomplished little. Within two days, the Allies lost 3500 men killed in action.^11 Slim came perilously close to dying on the transport ship that carried him to Lemnos where he transferred to a hospital ship for the long journey back to England. The fact that Slim’s wound was serious was clear to all however, the treatment was not. The senior doctor recommended that he undergo a certain medical procedure but another, younger doctor talked Slim out of it, and thus saved his career. The young doctor recommended a different procedure; if it failed, Slim would be no worse off. However, if successful, he could make a full recovery; he chose the alternate procedure. The operation was a success and Slim retained the use of his arm and shoulder. He now faced a long period of recuperation in England and when he recovered sufficiently he joined the Regiment’s holding battalion, the 12th. This was where new recruits trained and sly officers avoided the front. Slim hated it, but it did provide him the opportunity make two
(^11) Commonwealth War Graves Commission Homepage, “Find War Dead,” accessed November 8, 2015, http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead.aspx?cpage=1.
Still not cleared to return to active duty Slim continued to perform duties with the 12th Battalion, including escorting a draft of recruits to France. This was the closest he ever came to the Western front. In August 1916, Slim volunteered to bring a company of replacements to his old 9th battalion then serving in Mesopotamia. The 9th Warwicks, with the remainder of the Allied force, evacuated Gallipoli after it became clear that the campaign there was hopeless. Upon arriving in Mesopotamia with the new recruits, Slim simply stayed with the battalion as it prepared for another campaign against the Turks. The British has suffered a second humiliating defeat in June 1916 at the hands of the Turks at the siege of Kut. The 9th Warwicks were part of General Stanley Maude’s plan to seize Baghdad, defeat the Turks and avenge the loss of Kut. Slim was often at the front of the battalion advance and was awarded the Military Cross for seizing, on his own initiative, a piece of key terrain which rendered the opposing Turkish defensive position untenable and forcing their withdrawal. The British occupied Baghdad in March 1917 but despite their success British tactics in Mesopotamia did not impress Slim. He felt that the frequent frontal attacks against prepared defensive positions were wasteful and resulted in unnecessary casualties. Slim himself was wounded a second time in the course of one of these attacks. His nomination for the Military Cross and subsequent wound caused some bureaucratic confusion in London since clearly a recovering casualty could not be wounded in battle if he had never been cleared to return to active service by a proper medical board.
Indian Army Officer Evacuated once again, Slim convalesced in India; a decision that greatly facilitated the second stage in his career. Cleared to conduct administrative duties, Slim
joined Indian Army Headquarters in Delhi and it was at this time that he applied for a transfer to the Indian Army. It is important to note that there were two armies stationed in India. The British Army in India comprised those regular British battalions assigned to India as part of the normal rotation of units throughout the Empire. These battalions could serve in Egypt, Hong Kong or at home in the British Isles. The other army was the British Indian Army or simply the Indian Army. This was comprised of Indian soldiers and NCOs and mostly British officers, however the slow intake of Indian officers had already begun. In peacetime, it served almost exclusively in India where it was responsible for internal security duties and defending against Pashtun raids on the Afghan frontier. The successor of the East India Company’s private army it was recruited on ethnic lines, specifically from the so called “martial races” of India including Sikhs, Punjabis, Rajputs, Gurkhas, and Jats to name only a few. Due to its multi-ethnic nature, British officers were required to adapt to the particular culture of their regiments and the relationship between the officers and their men was very close, each battalion like a family. One must remember that each race needed different handling, whether they were Pathans, Sikhs, Rajputs or Gurkhas, although perhaps the last had more incommon with the British soldier than the others. It was very much a family show from the point of the British officer and the Indian soldier, particularly the latter for, in a regiment, a son followed his father who, in turn, had followed his father– nephews followed uncles–and the relationship was much more continuous than in the British Army.^14 A career in the Indian Army offered Slim everything he could have hoped for: a viable career as an officer, financial stability due to the much lower cost of living in
(^14) Sir Claude Auchinleck, quoted in Geoffrey Evans, Slim as Military Commander (London: Batsford, 1969), 24.
