Category Archives: Military Leadership

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12 Things Good Bosses Believe (#9)

Sutton’s #9 from 12 Things Good Bosses Believe has significant, daily application for the military leader. You definitely need to read his expanded blog post on #9, which provides details on how successful companies become more effective at cultivating the right ideas. Here is #9:

“Innovation is crucial to every team and organization.
So my job is to encourage my people to generate and test all kinds of new ideas.
But it is also my job to help them kill off
all the bad ideas we generate, and most of the good ideas, too.”

bosses

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6 Reasons Staff Officers Should “Surge on the Problem”

Good staff officers surge right away on mission analysis
after identifying a new problem or receiving guidance from the commander.

Even though the task suspense may not be pressing, they ‘get after’ the problem because doing so:

  • Defines the problem as a result of the design process
  • Getting After the ProblemGives the staff (and the commander) immediate perspective on the problem
  • Injects a surge of energy into the organization
  • Allows everyone to analyze the problem with the commander’s guidance and situational conditions fresh in mind
  • Results in a reference product (e.g. staff estimates, Mission Analysis Brief, or at least pages of notes)
  • Shapes immediate coordination/guidance to give subordinate headquarters.

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“Iron Major Survival Guide v2”

The Iron Major Survival Guide is 29 pages of advice on how to succeed as a field grade officer. It includes everything from how to arrive as the new S3/XO to how to set up systems for unit property accountability. This document will make you a better manager and leader, period.

(Hint:  it’s not just for field grades.  NCOs, junior, and senior officers need to read this, too.)

Iron Major Survival Guide V2

Here are some excerpts:

  • The ability to anticipate and fix problems before they happen is why FG officers are paid the big bucks. Key to this is time to think. Get yourself out of the knife fight early and often. Hold your staff to extremely high standards early so you can build a level of trust and confidence in them that allows you to decentralize taskings and grants you the space and time to ask the “what if?” Spend your time anticipating what could go wrong then take steps to avoid failure.
  • Apply some analysis to emails; don’t manage/lead your staff by forwarding higher HQ/or the boss’ orders. Make them your own. An “FYI” on a forwarded formation time is acceptable, but when the boss writes you and says “I’m tired of units submitting their Green 2 reports late”, don’t simple forward to company commanders and write “please note BN CDR comments below.
  • If you can’t get out of the office most nights by 1800, then you are doing a poor job of time and task management.
  • If you think staying up for 48 hours will make you more efficient and garner the respect of your subordinates, then you are probably oblivious to the poor decisions you made or the irascibility you demonstrated for them over that time.
  • Figure out how to assign tasks, give guidance, establish suspenses, follow up, and quality control. It’s easy to hand out tasks, it’s harder to remember to keep track and follow up.
  • Remember, that in addition to managing your staff, you still have to ‘lead’ your staff. Many a good junior officer has decided to bail on the Army because of a bad experience on a staff, most of which were instigated by a leader who didn’t care enough to lead them.

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Article: “Leadership Lessons from a Three Star General”

“Leadership is deliberate: You don’t accidentally have successful teams.”
Lieutenant General (ret) Frank Kearney, US Army

This short read about leadership lessons from Lieutenant General Frank Kearney is worth a few minutes. LTG Kearney was speaking t0 business leaders at the Thayer Leader Development Group at West Point and explained several of the basic military leadership principles. His thoughts are a good reminder to do the basics, which we sometimes take for granted.

A few of them are:

  • “You have a responsibility to everyone you bring into an organization and that means having the courage to give candid feedback.”
  • Effective communication is a three-part process:  Issue Orders, Backbrief, and Refine Guidance
  • “You have to know what right looks like for each role in the organization.”

This article was originally published by Jenna Goudreau at Business Insider online on May 27, 2014.

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“The Energy Comes from You”

We had just departed the aircraft at 500 feet, landed, then assembled at the edge of the drop zone to start a multi-day training evaluation of our skills as an Infantry platoon. It was Fort Bragg, North Carolina in August, so of course the weather was blazing hot and stiflingly humid. This was the first true test of my leadership skills and I was about to receive the best piece of advice of my career.

energy

The platoon was spread out across the woodline and ready to begin the patrol to locate and destroy enemy in the area. I knelt down to verify our map position and give the order to begin the patrol when I felt an overwhelming presence over my right shoulder. My battalion commander, a Lieutenant Colonel with 18 more years of experience than I had and commander of our 750-man unit, had quietly walked up behind me and was watching my every action. When he knelt down next to me, I expected criticism…”What are you waiting for, Lieutenant?”

Instead, he locked eyes with me, leaned in, and said:  “Remember…the energy comes from you.”

The lesson immediately ‘clicked’ with me. This is what he was saying:

  • You are in charge. There should be no doubt in your mind…or anyone else’s…about who is leading this patrol.
  • You set the tone. How you react to each situation will determine how the Soldiers will react. If you bark frenzied instructions, your subordinate leaders will transmit that tension to the Soldiers. But if you remain calm in execution, you’ll infuse confidence in the formation.
  • You provide the organizational momentum. This is about to be a very long exercise with multiple challenging engagements. Fatigue will bring the platoon to a halt unless you motivate the team and set an example of discipline.
  • You are responsible. If the platoon fails, you get the blame; if it succeeds, your Soldiers get the credit.

Then, as if to immediately prove the point, he said, “Now, get after it!”

Questions for Leaders

  • What kind of “energy” does your organization get from you?
  • Do you have the pulse of the team to sense when you need to create momentum?
  • What moments in your career have provided you key lessons?

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Note: the battalion commander I mention has continued to be a mentor throughout my career, providing priceless advice that has had direct positive impact on my career and many others.

He is retiring this year after a very successful career of inspiring and leading Soldiers.

Thanks, “Coach”

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12 Things Good Bosses Believe (Rule #8)

One of the best tests of my leadership — and my organization —
is “what happens after people make a mistake?”

Robert Sutton’s 12 Things Good Bosses Believe continues to provide insight for military leaders. Sutton explains that of his five books on business and leadership, #8 is the most important lesson:

Failure is inevitable, so the key to success is to be good at learning from it. The ability to capitalize on hard-won experience is a hallmark of the greatest organizations — the ones that are most adept at turning knowledge into action, that are best at developing and implementing creative ideas, that engage in evidence-based (rather than faith- or fear-based) management, and that are populated with the best bosses.

The military has a lineage of “no fail” leadership. There are clearly times when error, failure, or underperformance are unacceptable. (On this 70th anniversary, the D-Day landings at Normandy come to mind.)

D-Day Landings

There are also times (I’m sure you can recall from your own experience) when military leaders have exercised “no fail” leadership in situations that were slightly less decisive as D-Day. Unit meetings in garrison come to mind, where I’ve observed a commander routinely rip into the staff for minor (and often unavoidable) deviances from his perfect expectations. What is a person or team to do when they offer their best effort only to be cut down and reminded of their failings?

There are basically three responses to failure:

  1. Nobody notices. In the military, not identifying failure is worse than overreacting to it. Given the importance of our military mission, this typically does not happen in the areas of warfighting. However…don’t forget that “what doesn’t get checked often doesn’t get done.” It’s easy to assume that areas like counseling and property management are “good to go” and not identify a problem until critical system failure.
  2. The team gets crushed. In this case, the individual or team gives it their best but falls short, and the leader gives no allowance for not meeting the standard. Sometimes a leader has to intentionally do so to make a point, but leading without allowance for failure destroys creativity, morale, and learning.
  3. The leader uses failure to grow the team. Provided that failure wasn’t illegal, immoral, or unethical, the leader should use every opportunity to calmly walk the individual/team through a process to objectively capture the facts, identify successes as well as faults, and then extrapolate the appropriate lessons. This leader assumes that everyone is doing their best and wants to learn. And when the leader couples this process with positive feedback for the parts that went well, the result is immeasurably productive.

The effects of having a measured response and using failure to grow will be twofold:

  1. Productivity will increase. The team members will feel inspired to seek excellence, won’t be afraid of failure, and will be enabled to try new methods.
  2. Trickle down effect. Your subordinate leaders will follow the leader’s example and treat their teams in a similar way, which elevates the entire organization’s growth.

Questions for Leaders:

  • What determines how you react to failure? Your mood? The severity of the failure? The frequency of failures?
  • What is your threshold for what is an acceptable failure and what is not? Have you clarified your philosophy to your team?
  • Do you know how your subordinates react to their team’s failures?

Leave your comments below and be sure to share your thoughts with your team.

“12 Things Good Bosses Believe” was published on the Harvard Business Review online leadership blog May 28, 2010.

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Blog Recommendation: “From The Green Notebook” Blog on Developing the Military Professional

I stumbled upon this blog and instantly noted the high quality of thought and writing by the blog’s author, an Army Captain of ten years. This blog is certainly worth your time, particularly if you are interested in professional reading, developing yourself intellectually, or providing resources to your team. The Archives have a trove of good insights, too. Great work and exactly the type of influence our profession needs!

https://fromthegreennotebook.wordpress.com

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You Are Being Watched – A Lesson in Example

Years ago, as I approached my commissioning as a Second Lieutenant, a mentor was describing Army life to me and said something memorable about example. He pointed out,

“You will pass probably a hundred Soldiers throughout each day…and you’re gonna have to salute each one of them…and it will start to feel routine and unimportant, almost an annoyance. But don’t get sloppy and don’t take it for granted. You won’t remember each one of those Soldiers, but they will remember you. You may be the only officer a Soldier sees that day…the only salute he sees in return. So execute each interaction as if it were the most important of the day.”

Always on Parade

There is clearly the “professional bearing and appearance” side of my mentor’s lesson, the idea that a leader, whether she likes it or not, is on a perpetual stage.  Every moment is an opportunity to represent the organization’s values and telegraph desirable performance standards. Appearance matters. Doing correct push-ups matters. Training to standard matters. And suffering hardship with the team matters.

“Be an example to your men, in your duty and in private life.
Never spare yourself and let your troops see that you don’t in your endurance of fatigue and privation.”
~ German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

“You are always on parade.”
~ General George S. Patton, Jr.

Another aspect is that leaders influence followers in ways that are less-direct and more personal. Just as you have chosen what talents you like about your leaders, your followers get to choose what traits they will model after you. Each person views your leadership from a different perspective and a different set of needs. Some are looking for perseverance during busy times. Others are disgruntled and need the passion reignited. Some need a good lesson in humility. Still others will bend their parenting behavior to model your character traits.

Bottom Line

You don’t get to decide which lessons people take from your example or when they decide to learn from your behavior. You’re always “on” and you will likely never discover the true impact of your leadership. This is both the burden and the blessing of leadership…make it count.

“The most important thing I learned is that soldiers watch what their leaders do.  You can give them classes and lecture them forever, but it is your personal example they will follow.”
~  General Colin Powell

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