Category Archives: Guest Post

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The Leadership Bottleneck

What happens when managers and leaders cross lines (by Philip Gift)

As editor of The Military Leader, I want to introduce this post. Philip Gift is a U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, studied engineering at the Naval Academy, and has offered this thorough analysis of leadership through a lens of Operations Research. It is so far the longest post on this site, but you will find that his insights apply to a wide range of leadership, management, and operations topic areas. You can find his expanded byline at the end of the post.

Many people view Operations Research, if they view it at all, as dealing solely with numbers. Operations Research is more than just numbers; it is primarily about the thought process to get those numbers. An example of this would be increasing the throughput of an assembly line. Adding more resources at the beginning of the line does not necessarily mean there will be an increase to the quantity of the product at the end of the line within the same timeframe. No matter how much is put into the assembly line, it will not be able to produce any more if the slowest point in the assembly line is not quickened.

Leadership Bottleneck

ABOARD USS IWO JIMA (LHD 7) — An MH-53 helicopter prepares to depart the flight deck of USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7) September 25 for assesments along the Louisana/Texas coast following Hurricane Rita’s landfall. U. S. Navy Photo by Photographer’s Mate Second Class (AW/SW) Robert Jay Stratchko

By viewing a problem through an Operations Research lens and breaking down the assembly line into its key components, the slowest point can be discovered. Once this point is discovered, a fix can be put in place that would eliminate this bottleneck and allow the assembly line to increase productivity.

The same Operations Research lens used to view the assembly line and break down the key components can be used in non-number related situations, such as leadership. An organization can have better leadership once the bottleneck is discovered and fixed. The leadership bottleneck is non-leadership roles, such as managers, encroaching on the leader’s responsibility.

Just like in the assembly line, no matter how good the leader is, he will not be able to succeed and thus the organization will not flourish without fixing this bottleneck. Managers create this issue because they feel they have all the needed information. When this information is not routinely gathered with face-to-face interactions, though, it is only partial and will lead to poor decisions and create a disconnection with the rest of the work force.

We have ‘Stone Age minds in a space-age universe’.
– An evolutionary psychologist caricature of humans. (Dunbar, 161)

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Leadership in Action: Colonel Charles A. Beckwith

by Phil Walter

In 1977, after many years of advocating for the U.S. Army to develop a capability similar to the British 22nd Special Air Service (SAS) and in response to multiple terrorist incidents worldwide, Colonel Charles A. Beckwith established the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-DELTA.

DELTA’s mission set included hostage rescue and specialized reconnaissance. [1]  On November 4, 1979, Islamic fundamentalists seized the United States Embassy in Tehran, Iran and took 53 U.S. diplomatic personnel hostage there. [2]  DELTA’s first mission would be to rescue these hostages.

Beckwith

Phil Walter has served in the military, the intelligence community, and the inter-agency. The views expressed here are those of the author alone and do not contain information of an official nature. He tweets @philwalter1058 and blogs at www.philwalter1058.com.
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The Post-Active Duty Leadership Environment – Part 3 (Developing Leaders)

My goal is to contrast leadership development in my current environment with my experience on active duty in the U.S. Air Force’s Air Mobility Command (AMC). The thing is, I didn’t really experience much formal leadership development during those 12 years on active duty. So what do I want to share?

I’ve settled on this: The active duty Air Force is purging leaders that were developed the hard way over a decade of constant war and other contingency operations, while nearly exclusively retaining candidates who developed their careers and resumes according to official timelines and benchmarks. There is a need for both types of leaders and I want to close this series by advocating for a compromise. Strong leaders, in any stage of their careers, should be considered for positions that have come to be reserved for career development.

leaders

U.S. Air Force Capt. Chance Hansen, a C-130 Hercules aircraft pilot with the 36th Airlift Squadron, visually locates another C-130 over Japan Oct. 22, 2013, during a large-formation flight. (DoD photo by Yasuo Osakabe, U.S. Air Force/Released)
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“Sir, you humiliated us.” – A Commander’s Lesson in Leadership

Guest author Captain Joel Martinez shares his story of humility in command

Reading a post on The Military Leader one day, a question reminded me of a critical leadership lesson I learned from my time in command. It read, “When was the last time you heard a unit commander ask for feedback, consider the input, publicly admit he’s wrong, and change his opinion?”

Given that I have a vivid example of being humbled while in command, I felt compelled to share my story.

Leadership

The 1st Cavalry Division Soldiers trying out for the 2nd Battalion, 38th Cavalry Regiment, Long range Surveillance, Airborne unit here at Fort Hood, Texas gut out the last mile of a two and a half mile buddy run, July 27.
U.S. Army photo by Spc. Adam Turner, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs.
This is a guest post by Army Military Intelligence Officer, Captain Joel Martinez. He commanded the 66th Military Intelligence Company of the 3d Cavalry Regiment and now passes on his lessons as an Observer/Coach Trainer at the National Training Center.
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How to Write Your Own User Manual

by Jim Perkins

One of the constants of military life is the cyclic change of scenery and organizations. While this iterative churning serves many purposes, it has a clear drawback in that with each new assignment, leaders and subordinates must learn to work with each other. What should be a simple task, managing group dynamics distracts from more pressing issues at hand and is often in conflict with other priorities.

Perhaps it is precisely because of these other demands that what I’m about to propose is not widely used in most organizations. What if it were possible to bridge that psychological gap more quickly and reduce the friction between leaders and their teams? Can we accelerate Tuckman’s Form-Storm-Norm-Perform cycle of organizational development? We can.

User manual

U.S. Army Second Lt. Mark Lucas, a platoon leader with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team, briefs his soldiers before a logistics resupply mission July 8, 2012, at Forward Operating Base Arian, Ghazni Province, Afghanistan.
U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod, Task Force 1-82 PAO.
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Purpose, Freedom, and the Superman – An Officer Looks Back

by David Dixon

Ever since I left the Army, I have felt a sense of something I struggle to even find the words for. It was not a sense of loss, because loss is related to something tangible, something one can clearly say was here at one point and gone at another. It was like nostalgia, the feeling or desire for a place or time previously or things as they once were. But I am not naive enough to mistake this for true nostalgia, because I knew what I felt I longed for had not even really been there to begin with.

Can someone have nostalgia for a time that never was? The closest word for what I felt is probably sehnsucht, a German compound word that mixes together concepts of loss and addiction with the idea of the unattainable or unknowable. In a sense, it is that nostalgia for a place that never–or may never have–existed.

Freedom

The sun sets behind U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Jamie R. Johnson, a platoon sergeant from Bayonet Company, 2nd Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, Task Force No Slack, in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province March 17. Photo by U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Mark Burrell, 210th MPAD.
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Success Depends on a Proactive Mindset

by Alan Hastings

Recently, a West Point Cadet asked me what I, as a Troop Commander, expected from a Platoon Leader. I provided four traits that I believe define successful lieutenants: unquestionable integrity, an aggressively proactive attitude, a willingness to engage in open and candid communication, and a commitment to self-study.

I want to highlight the second trait, maintaining a proactive mindset, which in my mind separates mediocre and outstanding junior leaders. Being proactive, especially in the face of potential obstacles and failure, is a key determinant of one’s level of success.

Lieutenants share four common situations that can lead to failure:

  1. You don’t know how to accomplish a given task.
  2. You know how to accomplish a given task, but (you think that) you can’t.
  3. You know how to accomplish a given task, but choose not to.
  4. You know how to accomplish a given task, but make mistakes or errors that cause you to fail.

For each cause of failure, there is a proactive response that leads to success. Let’s explore each of the reasons for failure and corresponding reactive and proactive responses.

success

U.S. Army Capt. Chad Pilker (right) and a lieutenant from Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 2nd Cavalry Regiment discuss strategy during a decisive action training environment exercise, Saber Junction 2012, at the Grafenwoehr Training Area in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Oct. 15, 2012.  U.S. Army photo by Specialist W. Ryan Livingston/Released.
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It’s Time to Rethink 360 Degree Reviews

by Nathan Wike

The Military Times recently published an article discussing the usefulness of the 360 degree reviews in assessing leaders. This study (which was not included in the article) concluded that 360 degree reviews “probably should not be used as a part of the formal military evaluation and promotion process.” It cited “a long list of legal, cultural and practical concerns…(and that) Stakeholders were overwhelmingly against using the tool for evaluation.”

Given the integration and widespread use of performance feedback tools, this topic is clearly relevant. This year the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum asked its followers and readers to offer their opinion.

Here is my take.

360

Nathan Wike is an officer in the U.S. Army, and an associate member of the Military Writer’s Guild. The opinions expressed are his alone, and do not reflect those of the U.S. Army, the Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.