Chapter 9: Personal reminders and thoughts worth thinking 211ii) Thoughts worth thinking •Teambuilding
‘You do not know me, I do not know you, but we have got to work
together.Therefore, we must understand each other, we must have confidence
in each other. I have only been here a few hours, but from what I have seen
and heard since I arrived, I am prepared to say here and now that I have
confidence in you.We will work together as a team. I believe that one of
the first duties is to create what I call atmosphere. I do not like the general
atmosphere I find here – it is an atmosphere of doubt, of looking back. All
that must cease. I want to impress upon everyone that the bad times are
over and it will be done. If anybody here thinks it cannot be done, let him
go at once. I do not want any doubters. It can be done and it will be done
beyond any possibility of doubt.’
Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery
Extract from speech to staff in taking over the Eighth Army
before the Battle of El Alamein