Henry Knox As A Transformational Leader

Prominent Leaders
C
Ashford University: MGT 380
7/28/2014

PROMINENT LEADERS IN TIME
Moments in history are remembered by the impact and importance that were brought upon a Nation and its people. Henry Knox, a transformational leader was born in July 1750 as a native of Boston Massachusetts, has impacted the United States in multiple ways. Raised in Boston, Knox became an apprentice as a bookbinder where he became a self-taught skilled engineer and military tactician as well as learning to speak French. He soon later owned and operated a bookstore along with being a supporter of colonial rights by being involved in the “Sons of Liberty”. This was where Knox received his first formal artillery training. At the age
He soon came to the attention of Army command General George Washington who quickly befriended Knox after being impressed by fortifications designed near Roxbury. Washington consulted Knox for advice understanding that there was a desperate need for more artillery in the ranks as the Cambridge did not currently have artillery. Knox proposed a plan that would move captured artillery guns from Fort Ticonderoga in New York up north to siege lines around Boston. Transformational leaders influence, inspire, move, and literally transform followers to achieve organizational goals (Weiss, J.W. 2011). Being commissioned to the rank of Colonel, and being placed in command of the Continental Regiment of Artillery, Knox executed his well constructed plan which resulted in the British evacuating Boston instead of facing bombardment and accepting their defeat. Knox became Washington’s chief of artillery soon after returning from Boston where he stopped off in Rhode Island and Connecticut to assist in the creation of powerful fortifications. While devising a attack on Trenton, Knox was given a daring role along with Colonel John Glover to get their attack force across the Delaware River in a timely fashion which he succeeded and for his service was promoted to the rank of Brigadier
General Knox believed that it was a means of an opportunity of acquiring a more particular and expansive knowledge of the profession and making themselves better qualified to discharge the duties of their respective stations. The officers were considered everyone above sergeant or corporal and were expected to apply themselves as good gentlemen, to study and learn their “branch of science”, as it would be of their reputation and the expectations of their Country. Knox, like many of the officers of the Army, was a Mason, who held himself to values as did all of the other men who helped create the government and felt it important to train each member of the military to believe in those values as well and to pay close and most diligent attention to what they are