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Never, Ever, Every Hire This Man: On George B. McClellan

Never, Ever, Every Hire This Man: On George B. McClellan

Last updated on: April 3, 2017 at 4:52 pm by John Mark N. Reynolds

Never, Ever, Every Hire This Man: On George B. McClellan 2017-04-03T16:52:34-04:00 John Mark N. Reynolds

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If he applies, just say “No.”

If you are hiring a leader, avoid one type more than (almost) any other. Do not ever hire George B. McClellan to run your university, church, or non-profit. If so, you will regret it every day. If you presently work for McClellan, flee. Do not pass “Go.” Do not collect two hundred dollars.

Flee. If you have a McClellan in your life, don’t be deceived: he is a fearful man that uses fear to gain power. He always sees huge foes where there are none and so ends up failing everyone who trusts in him.

If you have ever worked for a McClellan, you will know the type. He must be in charge, he suffers critics as if all critics were fools, he is thin skinned, but thinks himself humble. He loves praise . . . it is impossible to flatter him too much, but he frequently attacks flatterers. He is enamored with external qualifications and those who look the part, but will end up misjudging men like Abraham Lincoln whom he named “the original gorilla.”

If there is a shyster peddling bad information, a McClellan will hire him because the grifter will tell him what he wants to hear. The further you are away from a McClellan, the more you are likely to buy what he is selling, but his staff knows. When the going gets rough, he gets going off at headquarters. This is not because he is a coward, but because he hates the idea of failure worse than anything.

No matter who you are or how good a friend, he will cut you lose or blame you if things go badly. Oddly, to be a McClellan is also to be very good at appearing to do your job, while being very bad at doing that job.

There was an actual George B. McClellan and he was the bane of the Union Army and Abraham Lincoln for the first three years of the War. He had the right credentials to be supreme union commander. He was charming, direct, and even folksy. He had vision, but his vision centered on his rising star and God’s absolute call on him, George B. McClellan, to save the Union.

He was very bright, personable, but once he believed a thing, nothing, absolutely nothing, would change his mind. He was totally loyal to the Cause, but the Cause needed George B. McClellan, so his loyalty to America was also loyalty to himself. What was good for McClellan was good for the Union and he was personable enough to convince his subordinates this was true. Fortunately, the American people had the good sense to stick with Abraham Lincoln when George B. McClellan decided to challenge the Great Emancipator for the White House, though it was closer than you might wish.

A McClellan associates his success with that of the organization.

The General believed that his failure would doom the Union and almost doomed the Union through his refusal to take personal risk.

A McClellan blames his subordinates for failures or his superiors (if he has them).

McClellan never failed. His generals failed him. President Lincoln (the Original Gorilla as McClellan called him) failed. The Secretary of War failed. McClellan never really failed. He had the sort of humility that would say “I know I make mistakes, but . . . ” and the “but” was the message.

A McClellan cannot stick to one plan, but reacts to everything that happens.

McClellan had a strategy until his foes insisted on “moving too fast” and ruining his plan. He would then develop a new plan. In fact, at the end of the war there were few strategies that worked for a good commander like Grant that McClellan could not say he had supported. He supported many ideas, but executed none to the end.

A McClellan is confident of winning until people let him down and they always let him down.

McClellan projected being either a winner or a martyr. If things were going well, then he was generous to his subordinates and effusive to all. If things were going badly, then he was betrayed. If he had been Messiah, he would have said: “Eleven of you will betray me.”

A McClellan cares about popularity, but will not burn external popularity for a cause other than his own.

McClellan knew how to make those far away from his dithering narcissism believe in the Cause, but he would never risk that popularity by taking the blame for a tough decision on himself. The problems were always “the Administration” or the weather or something. He wanted to be loved by the little people and ended up losing an election for President to Lincoln even amongst the troops who had once cheered him. They finally saw through Little Mac.

God help us all avoid McClellanism.

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I owe this post to reading the brilliant George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon by Stephen W. Sears. Read and learn.

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