General Colin Powell’s Rules:
1. It ain’t as bad as you think. It will look better in the morning.
2. Get mad, then get over it.
3. Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
4. It can be done!
5. Be careful what you choose. You may get it.
6. Don’t let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
7. You can’t make someone else’s choices. You shouldn’t let someone else make yours.
8. Check small things.
9. Share credit.
10. Remain calm. Be kind.
11. Have a vision. Be demanding.
12. Don’t take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
13. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
I woke up at 3am on the morning of my 38th birthday with a persistent muse (which was preceded by a persistent co-sleeping 3 year old and a hungry 3 week old wanting second breakfast).
I want to consider a concept that has been in much of my reading, thought, and discussion lately. It is a concept that has spiritual connotations for some, but whose value in application for the military leader is indispensable.
Gratitude. I believe it’s time we place a higher premium on gratefulness as a leadership trait.
U.S. Army Maj. Paul Bollenbacher shakes hands with a Si Av village resident from the Bawka district in Farah province, Afghanistan, June 12, 2010. U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Rylan K. Albright.
Link to photo.
Updating Your Leadership Arsenal
What parts of your leadership skillset have you not examined, evaluated, and improved lately because you feel like you mastered them long ago?
Maybe, listening to others?…Delegating?…Leading by example?
Ask yourself if you can afford to neglect those skills as your professional responsibility increases…then change accordingly.
One interesting aspect of hosting The Military Leader is that I get to see the website’s viewership stats. Unlike counterinsurgency, online writing has a clear way to measure results. Google Analytics provides detailed reports on the number and locations of visitors, time spent on pages, number of shares, and lots more data that I don’t get into. (Here’s a post about The Military Leader data.)
What’s neat is when people discover and share some of the older posts, causing a spike in that page’s traffic for a day or two. This happened recently and I found it fascinating that thoughts I had months ago were continuing to provide meaning and value for people. The metaphor to leadership hit me like a truck.
I learned an important lesson on the first day of my new command in a headquarters company in 2007. I had already commanded a rifle company and thought that I had pretty much honed the skills needed to succeed again. (Maybe I was giving myself too much credit?…a topic for another post.) The change of command ceremony concluded and I walked into my new office to find my First Sergeant waiting. He said, “Sir, do you have a few minutes?” “Of course,” I replied.
What followed was one of the most enabling and professionally developing exchanges I’ve had in my entire career. Yes, this First Sergeant is exceptionally talented and would teach me more about leadership than any other NCO I’ve worked with, but the conversation was powerful because he and I synchronized how we would lead the company together. We discussed everything from combat to family readiness to weight control. We spent hours together that day and set the tone for success because we got aligned from day one.
Today, I think back on that experience and realize that I would’ve been a fool NOT to have had that conversation, and that there are actually a few more areas in the military leader’s life where a frank and honest conversation is necessary to enable success.
Command Sgt. Maj. Frank A. Grippe, command senior enlisted leader for U.S. Central Command, speaks with soldiers of Apache Company, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, on a foot patrol in the Panjwaâi district of southern Afghanistan, Sept. 22, 2012. Grippe visited the soldiers as part of his visit to Regional Command (South).
Link to photo.
“Remember that when an employee enters your office,
he is in a strange land.” -Erwin H. Schell
Erwin Schell’s quote is partly about your physical office, which can be a foreign and scary place for everyone you lead. But the statement is also about how you wield power when your people enter the domain of your influence.
When you’re the recognized leader, you automatically hold the dominant terrain at the outset of every engagement. Of course, this is especially true in the military, where command authority is the ultimate trump card and rank is clearly displayed on our uniforms. Your people know who is in charge – you don’t need to restate it.
What will outlive your professional accomplishments is the way you enable individuals to feel capable and powerful, despite the obvious fact that you hold ultimate authority.
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What is one leader development approach you are using right now? – Comment below!
It’s Baghdad, 2007. I’m a company commander deploying to a contentious area during the height of The Surge. As my unit starts to shadow the unit we’re replacing, and I spend time with my counterpart and his battalion’s staff, I begin to hear a new phrase pop up: “It is what it is.”
I wouldn’t have thought much of it, but I heard that response from numerous members of the unit, and applied to all types of discussion topics. My buddies and boss picked up on it, too. I heard “It is what it is” so much that I began to think it was an approved mentality of the unit, a sanctioned mindset.
Warrior Diplomat Soldiers from 85th Civil Affairs Brigade use teamwork to negotiate obstacles at the Leaders Reaction Course on Fort Hood, Tx., Oct. 9, 2014.
Link to photo.
