How to influence men : the use of psychology in business / by Edgar James Swift.

  • Swift, Edgar James, 1860-1932.
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: How to influence men : the use of psychology in business / by Edgar James Swift. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    said the French admiral. “But they won’t come in to- night. They have no charts.” But Nelson did go in. He did not follow the line of least resistance, as the opposing admiral thought he would. He went in without charts and in the darkness, because he understood human nature. He knew that he would not be expected. And so Napoleon wrote: “But for Nelson at the Nile I should have been the conqueror of the world.” ^ Another writer,2 however, has estimated Nelson more accurately than did Lord Fisher. “Nelson, we are often told, never measured risks,” says Corbett, “but nothing was really farther from his character than such folly. . . . He faced risks, measured them with consummate tactical insight, and provided a means of discounting them that was without precedent.” At one time, Corbett con- tinues, “his unmatched eye for a battle had seized a weak- ness in the enemy’s position and with perfect mastery he meant to deliver his attack accordingly.” So he reverted to a long-discredited formation to meet the exigency of the moment. “Leadership could not well rise higher.” ® The explanation of Nelson’s disobedience of instructions is that he was an immensely bigger man than any of those who gave him orders. Who remembers the names of the commander-in-chief in any of Nelson’s battles? In all of these cases only one name stands out—and that is Nel- son’s. What, then, was it in the case of this great com- mander that made him so superb a leader ? What was the secret of his personality that made his mere presence in command worth many ships and countless sailors? Lord Fisher has answered these questions by naming self- reliance, fearlessness, initiative, and fertility of resources; ^ The French admiral blew up his flagship, the Orient; and Casabianca, the captain, and his son are the theme of “The boy stood on the burn- ing deck.” 2 The Campaign of Trafalgar, by Julian S. Corbett, p. 349. (Long- mans, Green.) »Ibid.