Category Archives: Leadership

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Sleep that Sabotages Leadership

Today’s HBR recommendation, “Your Abusive Boss Is Probably an Insomniac,” is a summary of findings from a study published in the Academy of Management Journal. The researchers studied 88 leaders and their teams to find out if the leaders’ sleep habits affected performance at work. The result?…you guessed it, but there’s a twist:

We found that daily leader sleep quality, but not quantity, influenced the leader’s self-control and abusive supervision behavior, and ultimately the degree to which his or her subordinates were engaged in their work that day. It is not clear why sleep quantity did not have the effect we predicted, but the effect for sleep quality was very clear; a given leader engaged in more jerky boss behavior after a poor night of sleep than a good night of sleep, and this influenced his or her subordinates to disengage from work.

sleep

Photo by Odi Mitch. Link to photo.
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A Powerful Way to Discover Your Bias

“Whoa, whoa!…What bias?!?! I don’t have any biases!” Was that your response to the title of this post? Well, I had the same thought before I took this test and now I think differently.

Here is a fascinating resource that will help you discover what you think about the world on levels beneath conscious thought. It reveals how your past experiences, upbringing, or even your morning scan of the news can skew your beliefs about race, gender, ethnicity, disability, age, sexuality, and weight.

Why wouldn’t you want to know, especially as a leader, if an unhealthy bias is getting in the way of your leadership?

Bias

Soldiers from Honor Guard Company, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) and the U.S. Army Special Forces Command stand in formation prior to the start of a wreath laying ceremony, Oct. 18, at the John F. Kennedy gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery, Va.
(U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Luisito Brooks)
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What Mastery Means for Military Leaders [TED Video]

Art historian and critic Sarah Lewis delivers a thought-provoking TED talk on “The Near Win,” a concept that espouses the immeasurable gain resulting from just-missing one’s ultimate goal. She highlights examples of artists, musicians, and Olympians in explaining that developing Mastery in a craft is all about “staying at our own leading edge.”

There is parallel connection to the military in that we, like an Olympian archer, must hone our craft through repetition after repetition. Sarah Lewis comments that:

Success is hitting the 10 Ring, but Mastery is knowing that it means nothing if you can’t do it again, and again, and again.

But success in battle requires not only individual Soldier Mastery, but also organizational Mastery. Do we work military organizations with enough repetitions to reach Mastery?

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The Military Leader at 100

I’m happy to share that today marks the 100th post from The Military Leader since its inception in March of this year! What started as a personal venue to capture thoughts and resources on leader development has evolved into an actively connected community of nearly 2000 leaders!

U.S. Army Rangers assigned to 2nd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, fire at an enemy bunker during Task Force Training on Camp Roberts, Calif., Feb. 1, 2014. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Steven Hitchcock. Link to photo.

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How to Build a Team of “Yes Men”

Listening to Michael Hyatt’s superb podcast on creating team unity, my first reaction was, “We’re good! The military has got this team alignment thing figured out. We’re focused on the mission, we have a clear command structure, and we follow orders.” But as Michael explained the steps to creating team alignment, he said that to get the most powerful results, leaders must:

Create an environment that is safe for dissent.

Ouch! Ok, that’s not the first phrase most military members would use to describe their work environment. In fact, I think it’s rare that I’ve seen a military leader who embraces dissent in the name of creating unity. I know I’ve never prioritized it.

The result?…we get a team full of Yes Men who not only fail to speak up when they disagree with mundane issues, but are also trained to remain quiet in the face of critical decisions. If you want a team of folks like that, then make sure you do these things.

U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Caroline Chavez, a senior drill instructor assigned to Platoon 4023, November Company, 4th Recruit Training Battalion, commands her platoon during their final drill evaluation, June 25, 2014, at Parris Island, S.C.
(DoD photo by Cpl. Octavia Davis, U.S. Marine Corps/Released)

If you as a leader allow people to halfway do their jobs and don’t demand excellence as a prerequisite to keeping their job, you will create a culture of mediocrity. If you allow people to misbehave, underachieve, have a bad attitude, gossip, and generally avoid excellence, please don’t expect to attract and keep good talent. Please don’t expect to have an incredible culture.

Dave Ramsey
EntreLeadership (New York: Howard Books, 2011), 159
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The Post-Active Duty Leadership Environment – Part 2 (Leadership)

This is the second of three posts by an Air Force Major discussing the organizational changes he experienced after leaving active-duty to fly for the Air National Guard and a civilian airline. Read the first post here.

In part one of this series, I described my transition from active duty flying in the US Air Force to my current job as a civilian airline and Air National Guard pilot. I addressed how I found my concepts of service and excellence to be more aligned with my post-separation life than my active duty experience.

I also asserted that many leaders I encountered focused more on serving their careers than serving their subordinates and that this mentality has become a cultural issue within the Air Force’s Air Mobility and Training Commands, if not the Air Force itself.

Today’s post compares the active duty and civilian/National Guard leadership environments that I experienced.

Here’s a section from a very insightful book, which relates directly to the risk military leaders carry in being too busy to share information across echelons or worse, up and down the chain of command:

“…that’s a big reason why so many of us withhold information. It’s not that we want to keep people in the dark. It’s simply that we’re too busy. We mean well. We have good intentions. But we fail to get around to it. As a result we become bad at sharing information – whether it comes in the form of a news bulletin, or a heads-up, or instruction that teaches people how to do something that we don’t have the time to do ourselves. Over time it begins to look as if we are withholding information.

Being bad at sharing information doesn’t mean we are willfully withholding it. The two are not exactly the same. But the net result is the same in the eyes of the people around us.

How do you stop withholding information?

Simple answer: Start sharing it.”

Marshall Goldsmith
What Got You Here Won't Get You There (New York: MJF Books, 2007), 71