Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim

"We, the officers and NCOs, owe it to the men that we command and to our country that we make ourselves fit to lead the best soldiers in the world, that in peace the training we give them is practical, alive and purposeful, and that in war our leadership is wise, resolute and unselfish."

- Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim

"Leadership is of the spirit, compounded of personality and vision: its practice is an art. Management is of the mind, more a matter of accurate calculation, of statistics, of methods, timetables and routine; its practice is a science. Managers are necessary; leaders are essential."

- Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim

"In the British Army there are no good units and no bad units – only good and bad officers and NCOs. They make or break the unit."

- Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim

"I had a sort of a motto, “No details, no paper, and no regrets.”"

- Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim

"Unselfishness, as far as you are concerned means simply this – you will put first the honour and interests of your country and your regiment; next you will put the safety, well-being and comfort of your men; and last – and last all the time – you will put your own interest, your own safety, your own comfort."

- Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim

"Leadership is that mixture of example, persuasion and compulsion which makes men do what you want them to do. If I were asked to define leadership, I should say it is the ‘Projection of Personality’. It is the most intensely personal thing in the world, because it is just plain you."

- Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim

"Leaders are made more often than they are born. You all have leadership in you. Develop it by thought training and by practice."

- Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim

"I had a sort of a motto, “No details, no paper, and no regrets.” No details-don’t go about setting machine guns on different sides of bushes. That is done a damn sight better by a platoon commander. Then, no paper. You cannot entirely do without paper, but you can get rid of quite a lot of it. Do not have people coming to you with huge files, telling you all about it. Make the man explain it; and if he cannot explain it, get somebody else who can. When I say “no regrets”, that is important. You do the best you can. You may have gotten it wrong; you may have lost a battle. You may even have lost a good many of your men’s lives which hurts more, but do not have regrets. Do not sit in the corner and say, “Oh, If I had only gone to the left instead of the right,” or “If I had only fought in front of the river instead of behind it.” You have done the best you could-it hasn’t come off. All right! What’s the next problem? Get on to that. Do not sit in the corner weeping about what you might have done. No details, no paper, no regrets."

- Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim