On October 21, 1805, Nelson and his ‘band of brothers’ won the most devastating and strategic naval battle in British history, which ensured their supremacy over the seas for a hundred years. And it was won with the simple instruction that “no captain can do wrong if he places his ship next to that of the enemy.” The attitudes of individual leaders make a difference, especially in terms of positives and negatives. Do they trust people easily, having faith and confidence, or do they assume the worst, thinking that they must experience the behavior of their team firsthand before they can make a judgment? Is their glass half full or half empty?

As a business school professor teaching Organizational Behavior, I am often called upon to teach leadership and teamwork for business. I am always searching for interesting cases showing how a team was built successfully from scratch, which can provide useful leadership and teamwork lessons for MBA students and for practicing managers.

Having written a well-known book on leadership and teamwork based on history— Nelson’s Way: Leadership Lessons from the Great Commander (Jones and Gosling, 2005)—using history to teach business is a popular option for me. Written jointly with an academic colleague, Professor Jonathan Gosling, making use of adapted extracts from this book has been effective in many leadership and teamwork sessions we have conducted. This has been used not only in the English language version, but in the Chinese and Russian translations, in mainland China and in many Russian-speaking countries.

Effective Executive Magazine, Business School Education, Attitudes of individual leaders, Organizational Behavior, Leadership and teamwork, Leadership Lessons.