When there is peace and harmony and efficiency in your organization, you are responsible for it. When there are grumblings, lack of enthusiasm and esprit-de-corps, be honest and sensible and see if you are also not responsible for it. No matter how badly things are going at drill, never lose your temper with the company.
When things are going well, let your men feel that you are proud of them. A company should be like a good football team: every man in it right behind the captain.
A FINAL WORD
Now it is proper to consider your relation to your immediate superiors. You have no business commanding unless you have first learned how to obey. The finer the training and caliber of an officer, the more sensitive is he to the wishes of his commanding officer, however, informally they may be expressed.
The ideal officer is a Christian gentleman who has no task too small to faithfully perform, whose country's welfare is above his own, ready for any sacrifice great or small; whose thoughtfulness and efficiency last twenty-four hours a day, whose relations with his superiors are based on modesty, cheerfulness, and loyalty.
A message from the Father and Mother whose son is to serve under you:
"I want my boy to do his bit. I want him to willingly submit to all sacrifices. I don't limit them. I expect him to become efficient. I expect him to obey orders. That means all orders. Wrong orders as well as right orders.
But I want him to have a fighting chance. I don't want him to serve under an inefficient officer who is playing to the galleries; who is in the habit of doing things wrong instead of right. If the worst should come, I want my boy to perish for a good cause. I don't want there to be any blunders about it.
In willingly placing my boy under your orders, I charge you with a sacred task. I charge you to lead him efficiently."