Von Manstein's officer types

Field Marshall Erich von Manstein allegedly categorised military officers into four types (I have been unable to find an original reference and I have seen the same categorisation ascribed to Von Clausewitz). These types are:

The brilliant and energetic man makes the best staff officer. He handles routine work with accuracy and completeness.

The brilliant and lazy man makes the best commanding officer. He tends to see the big picture accurately and avoids preoccupation with detail work which might distract him.

The stupid and lazy man makes the best subordinate. He will do what he is told properly, no more no less.

The stupid and energetic man, however, is to be avoided at all costs. He is quite capable of ruining the best laid plans.

These descriptions are from Colonel Jeff Cooper.

In wartime such a categorisation may be a useful quick and dirty heuristic. One would wonder to what extent it was actually consistently acted upon and whether Nazi party membership did not feature strongly in such decisions. Von Manstein himself was one of the best of the German generals and was eventually fired by Hitler when he opposed his irrational military decisions.

This military rule of thumb is, however, also sometimes proposed as a corporate management tool, classifying people in boxes, as seen below in this figure from Slow Leaderhip.




Now, I believe one should be very careful about such categorisations and I doubt that this matrix is quite what Von Manstein had in mind. People's actions are often context specific, something categorisation does not allow for. The application of a rule of thumb from a military context in a corporate context is also questionable.

I am concerned that such classifications may become self-fulfilling prophesies. Writing about it as I am here, one's staff or customers may wonder in which part of the matrix you have placed them. Even worse, where will they categorise you!?

Having said that, I doubt that Von Manstein's classification is any worse than pseudoscientific classification systems such as brain profiling or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. At least Von Manstein's does not claim to be scientific and does not have a whole mythology built around it. Staff is not subjected to being tested with pseudopsychometric tests of doubtful reliability and validity. They are not subjected to workshops to manipulate their classification, or to show them to get along with others with different different brain or personality profiles. Best of all, Van Manstein's officer typology is free and no consultants are needed to interpret it or follow it up!

It is finally, however, a use now and pay later system. Eventually you'll pay the price for categorising people and losing sight of their individuality in the process.