With Freedom Comes Responsibility

In 2011, at the commissary of all places, I had an experience that showed me the importance of our public duty as service members. I captured my thoughts about the incident, which I think are still relevant.

Following his imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps, neurologist and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl wrote:

“Freedom, however, is not the last word. Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness. In fact, freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.”

The other day, I encountered two people on opposite ends of the responsibleness spectrum and have some thoughts about how we, as military service members and families, should behave.
 My first encounter was a positive one.

freedom

Staff Sgt. Skipper J. Smith of the 39th Infantry Brigade’s Benton based Echo Company, 1-153rd Infantry Regiment assists in the cleanup after the Vilonia tornado. Photo Credit: Sarah Jones

Article: “8 Ways to Spot Great Leadership”

What qualities signify great leadership? We know the typical answers…example, courage, inspiration, etc. But this Forbes article provides a different perspective, highlighting leader characteristics you probably hadn’t considered.

great leadership

Spc. Jason Curtis, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 151st Infantry Regiment, pulls security while leaders of a medical civil action project searched for a suitable site in Parun, Afghanistan June 28. Link to photo.

A Simple Observation About Great Leaders

The other day I was having a conversation with a good friend and I realized that almost every time we talk, we end up talking about some professional development topic, usually leadership.

I made a quick mental comparison with the other colleagues I have worked with over the years and came to the conclusion that my friend is a superbly talented leader, which brought an obvious insight into focus:

Great leaders regularly talk about leadership.
Leadership, for them, is at the very least a dedicated hobby but more often, it is a passion.

Start Here

Sergeant 1st Class Shvoda Gregory, motor sergeant for the 557th Engineer Company, 864th Engineer Battalion, shows a group of specialists and new sergeants how to properly inspect a squad of Soldiers in formation. Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
Photo Credit: Sgt. Christopher M. Gaylord

12 Things Good Bosses Believe (#10)

Bad is stronger than good. It is more important to
eliminate the negative than to accentuate the positive.

In my first few weeks as a company commander, I noticed that directly across the hall worked a consistently loud mid-level leader. He made a point to interrupt and talk over everyone around him who was either junior in rank or wasn’t annoyed enough to walk away.

As his leader, though, what concerned me was that his talk was also constantly negative. He seemed to be incapable of agreeing with or encouraging a positive thought by those around him. It was an emotional drain to listen to and I’m sure it was exasperating for the Soldiers working for him.

#10 on Robert Sutton’s “12 Things Good Bosses Believe” zeros-in on negative interactions and caustic team members because they can quickly overwrite the positive that exists within an organization. Being a nice leader and encouraging others is not enough, Sutton explains in his Harvard Business Review blog post on the topic:

Eliminating the negative, as any skilled leader can tell you, is not just the flipside of accentuating the positive. It’s a whole different set of activities. For someone with people to manage, accentuating the positive means recognizing productive and constructive effort, for example, and helping people discover and build on their strengths. Eliminating the negative, for the same boss, might mean tearing down maddening obstacles and shielding people from abuse.

Some might say that the climate of authority and bravado in military units makes positivity “uncool.” Success in the military, like anything else, “rises and falls on leadership” (John Maxwell). Sutton’s point is that actively developing a positive climate is less important than removing the negative people and interactions. Sutton draws an analogy to marriage:

Negative information, experiences, and people have far deeper impacts than positive ones. In the context of romantic relationships and marriages, for example, the truth is stark:  unless positive interactions outnumber negative interactions by five to one, odds are that the relationship will fail.

In the instance of my former subordinate, it was clear to me that his corrosive attitude was exactly opposite of the command climate my First Sergeant and I were trying to build. One day after a particularly cynical monologue, I engaged him with an ultimatum…cut out the negativity or I’d pull him out of the position, period. He adjusted his attitude.

Here are a few tips for action:

  • Lead with positivity and publicly reward such behavior in your team.
  • Words matter. Pay close attention to how you discuss problems and difficult people. Your attitude will propagate through the organization.
  • Frame conflict in the context of growth, always placing the outcome and the learning process higher than the friction that caused it.
  • Establish no tolerance for caustic, negative people (Robert Sutton’s book on this topic is called The No Asshole Rule)
  • Go on the hunt for negative people. Roam around the building, get conversational with people, and investigate rumors of negative behavior.
  • Use Baird CEO Paul Purcell’s approach to clarify your stance on negativity:  “If I discover that you’re an asshole, I’m going to fire you.”

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TED Video: “Lead Like the Great Conductors”

With humor and poignancy, this TED Video could be a leader development session by itself. Conductor and business consultant Itay Talgam shares the varying styles of great symphony conductors, revealing lessons on organizational behavior, emotional intelligence, leadership styles, and many others.

Watch this video with your team and keep the following questions in mind for discussion:

  • What do Talgam’s points have to do with the conduct of military mission command?
  • How do the conductors set boundaries and conditions for the orchestra?
  • What role does emotional intelligence have in leadership?
  • How do great leaders respond to change? What about setbacks or failure?
  • What inspiration should the leader provide for the team? Does it depend on the type and talent of the team?

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It’s improper for one person to take credit when it takes so many people to build a successful organization.

Jim Sinegal, COSTCO CEO

Stop Creating Confusion and Start Providing Answers

There’s nothing more frustrating for a subordinate headquarters than to receive an order that lacks context on the situation or fails to provide the resources needed for execution. It seems that some people advance in their careers and forget what it’s like to serve at the lower levels. One example provides a good lesson on how higher leaders and staffs can enable their organizations instead of causing confusion.

answers

CAMP HIGASHI-CHITOSE, Japan (Dec. 3, 2009)- An aerial view of the combined operations/intelligence center, manned by the Northern Army of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, Contingency Command Post of United States Army, Pacific and I Corps Forward during the early stages of Exercise Yama Sakura 57. Photo Credit: U.S. Army Sgt. Gerardo DeAvila, 124th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

Avoid Becoming an Intellectual Roadblock to Your Team

These two articles from Harvard Business Review look at different areas of the same critical topic:  the powerful, sometimes unintentional ways that leaders influence the intellectual capability of their organizations.

Maj. Kirby Robinson, chief planner, 1st ABCT, briefs a movement plan to convoy drivers prior to a key leader’s engagement April 24 at the tactical movement area at NTC, Fort Irwin, Calif. Photo by: US Army Images