Mahan and Sims made trust the center of leadership

Mahan's account of Nelson locates his strength in confidence in his own judgment paired with confidence in his officers. Sims approaches the same problem through the junior officer's need to trust a superior while exercising independent judgment. Mission command depends on a shared understanding of the objective and permission to decide how to achieve it. Clarke adds that trusting one's judgment includes recognizing when another person's case is stronger. He interprets Parker's withdrawal signal at Copenhagen as giving Nelson a way out while leaving room for Nelson's local assessment. Armstrong cautions that trust sometimes fails, and deciding how to respond makes these principles difficult to apply.