Battle Tested!: Gettysburg Leadership Lessons for 21st Century Leaders

You may never visit the Gettysburg battlefield, but understanding historic lessons from Battle Tested! will have a profound influence on not only your leadership abilities, but also your life, organizations, and career.

In order to be a truly effective leader, it is necessary to learn as much as possible from the examples of history—the disasters as well as the triumphs. At Gettysburg, Union and Confederate commanders faced a series of critical leadership challenges under the enormous stress of combat. The fate of the nation hung in the balance. These leaders each responded in different ways, but the concepts and principles they applied during those traumatic three days contain critical lessons for today’s leaders that are both useful and applicable—whether those leaders manage operations at a large corporation, supervise a public institution, lead an athletic team, or govern a state or municipality.  

In the twenty-first century, leadership is the indispensable quality that separates successful organizations from failures. Successful leaders communicate vision, motivate team members, and inspire trust. One must move both people and the collective organization into the future while, at the same time, dealing with the past. A leader must learn to master the dynamic requirements of decision-making and change.

Jeff McCausland is the founder and CEO of Diamond6 Leadership and Strategy, LLC. He also serves as a Visiting Professor of International Security Affairs at Dickinson College and is a former Distinguished Visiting Professor of Research and Minerva Chairholder at the U.S. Army War College. Jeff is a retired U.S. Army Colonel, holds a PhD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and is a West Point graduate. His military assignments included: the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans, Army Staff; command of an artillery battalion during the Gulf War; Dean of the Army War College; and Director for Defense Policy and Arms Control, National Security Council Staff, the White House. Since retiring he has served as a Chaired Professor of Leadership at the U.S. Naval Academy and subsequently a Visiting Professor at the Penn State Graduate School of International Affairs. Jeff is also a national security consultant for CBS radio and television as well as a Senior Fellow at both the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York, and the Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership at the Naval Academy. He has published and lectured broadly—both in the United States and over twenty-five foreign countries—on national security affairs, NATO, the wars in Afghanistan/Iraq, and leadership development.

Co-author Colonel Tom Vossler, U.S. Army (Retired) served thirty years active military service in the U.S. Army to include command of an infantry platoon in combat during the Vietnam War. Since retiring in 1998, Tom has worked as a Federally examined and Licensed Battlefield Guide at Gettysburg where he specializes in battlefield studies and leadership seminars for national and international military units and civilian corporations. Additionally, Tom conducts on an annual basis upwards of fifty Gettysburg battlefield tours for individuals, families and youth groups.

For the past ten years, Tom has served as the leading historian for Jeff McCausland’s Diamond6 Leadership and Strategy, LLC. on American Civil War battlefields at Gettysburg, Antietam, and Manassas. The book which they’ve collectively put forward is the culmination of ten years of leadership seminars conducted "on the field" with various and disparate groups of high achievers.

Tom is the co-author of two previous books on the 1863 battle at Gettysburg (one in the second edition) and one book on the 1862 battle of Antietam at Sharpsburg, Maryland. His television credits include participation in historical documentary programs appearing on The History Channel, The Discovery Channel, C-SPAN 3, and the Pennsylvania Cable Network.