Another of Marshall’s traits was a willingness to listen. General Omar Bradley tells of being called into Marshall’s office in 1939, a week after the outbreak of the war in Europe. Marshall expressed his disappointment in Bradley and his fellow officers: “You haven’t disagreed with a single thing I have done all week.” The next day the officers returned with a recommendation that in Bradley’s recollection seemed “questionable.” To which Marshall replied, “Now that is what I want. Unless I hear all of the arguments against something I am not sure whether I have made the right decision or not.”
After Pearl Harbor, Marshall called Ike to his office and told him to draft a plan to save the Philippines. Ike took a few hours, then reported that it was not possible but suggested alternatives. Marshall said, “Eisenhower, the department is filled with able men who analyze their problems well but feel compelled always to bring them to me for final solution. I must have assistants who will solve their own problems and tell me later what they have done.” To General Marshall, leadership was not about pleasing the boss or saying the right words; leadership was doing the right thing. This was the creed by which he lived.