LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM LEWIS & CLARK (PART 1)

By Dr. John C. Maxwell

Before beginning, I'd like to thank my friend Ed Rowell. His research and thoughts played a major role in this study.

On May 21, 2004, Americans celebrated the beginning of perhaps the most amazing journey in American history. Two hundred years prior, Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark left St. Louis, Missouri at 3:30 in the afternoon heading upstream on the Missouri River.

Their expedition, dubbed the Corps of Discovery, had been commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson to find the mythical "Northwest Passage," an all-water trade route across the continent to the Pacific Ocean that explorers had searched for almost 300 years. At stake was the fur trade, the continent's most easy exploitable natural resource.

Lewis and Clark had never seen the Pacific Ocean, nor did they have an accurate sense of how far west the continent stretched. Once they were a few days west of St. Lewis, their opportunities for communication with home were nonexistent.
When they returned to St. Louis down the same river, they'd covered more than 8,000 miles and been gone for 28 months. Long feared dead, they came home as national heroes. Even today, their journey overland across the continent is among the most courageous journeys ever conceived and attempted.

Along the way they were to develop an accurate map of the Missouri River basin, record all available information about natural history and geology, and report on and begin building relationships with native tribes they encountered.
They discovered 120 new species of animals and 178 new species of plants. They were the first Europeans to cross the Continental Divide. They were the first to see herds of buffalo, numbering in the thousands, grazing on the largest grassland in the world, and they were the first white men that most of the tribes they met had ever seen.

One of the most remarkable accomplishments is that in spite of the brutal grind of moving people, boats and tons of gear upstream, serious accidents, life-threatening weather, and less than peaceful contact with some of the continent's earliest residents, the Corps of Discovery experienced just one casualty.

It was a grand journey that still inspires and awes after two hundred years. But there are no great journeys without great leadership. And the journey across the American Continent is a case study in leading where no one has gone before.
Without trust, the journey is over before it begins.

When asked to lead the expedition, Meriwether Lewis immediately contacted a man that he had served under in the army, William Clark. Lewis was a self-aware man, and he recognized that Clark's strengths would counter each of his own weaknesses. Four years older, Clark had a strong leadership resume, having served as a company commander. He was a popular, tough, and a fearless woodsman. Clark had been raised in Kentucky, was an accomplished river explorer who was usually with the fleet.

Lewis, on the other hand, was of Virginia aristocracy, having lived much of his life among the educated, successful gentry of the day. Lewis loved to walk and was often out front, days ahead, scouting out the route. And when it came time to buy horses to get across the mountains, he knew a good animal when he saw it. Lewis was the camp doctor, Clark the camp counselor.

Most importantly, Clark offered a stability that Lewis was unable to give. Lewis suffered, as his father had, from a "melancholic spirit," or "depressions of the mind." Most modern scholars look at the evidence and believe that he was bi-polar, or manic-depressive. The journey gave him reason to shove back the darkness, and his ability to keep going is a testimony to his sheer strength and will.

Lewis' offer to Clark was to be an equal leader in every conceivable way, including rank and pay. Because the army bureaucracy refused to recognize a co-commander, Clark did not receive his promised captain's commission. The two leaders never mentioned it to the men, and for the next seven years, only Lewis Clark, and Jefferson, and a clerk or two at the War Department knew the truth. When asked as an old man to describe their relationship, Clark replied, "Equal in every point of view."

"Most of all, Lewis knew that Clark was competent to the task, that his word was his bond, and that his back was steel. And Clark knew the same about Lewis. Their trust in each other was complete, even before they took the first step west together. How this closeness came about cannot be known in any detail, but that it clearly was a long time before the expedition—that cannot be doubted."

Our true self-awareness forces us to place trust in others.

Lewis knew his limitations, and he sought a leader with abilities to complement his strengths and weaknesses. In selecting Clark, Lewis showed maturity in realizing he could not lead the way alone. In allowing Clark equal rank and an equal share of the credit, Lewis demonstrated remarkable security.

Competence is essential if trust is to be continued.

Lewis and Clark had differing skills, but each was a greatly talented man. From their diaries, it is obvious that as the journey progressed, their trust in each other deepened. They had a sense of great security because of the mutual confidence they placed in each other. Trust is not unfounded. Trust must be built upon competence.

Trust is strengthened when trust is proven.

The two officers would have one opportunity after another in which they literally put their lives into the hands of others on the expedition. Surmounting each challenge, their trust increased as they proved their merit.

The highest level of trust is expressed in obedience and submission, even when there is a lack of understanding or agreement.

At one point on the journey, the explorers came to two rivers and had to decide which one was the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark's choice went against the general consensus of their men. Even while disagreeing, the men were willing to trust the judgment of their leadership. The submission of the team at such a critical juncture demonstrates their absolute faith in their leaders.

The reward of trust is an intimate relationship that few ever experience.

There is an intimacy when proven by time and experience and competence, that only people that have gone through that trusting experience ever realize. The attitude of the men displayed their intimacy: "they would triumph together or they would die together".