A great summary of lessons from a not-so-new Lieutenant. A must-read for good perspective. Highlights include:
5. Most of the time you’ll have no idea what you’re doing
6. Your parents probably did a better job prepping you for leadership than anyone
7. West Pointers are spoiled
http://www.warcouncil.org/
“One of the most important, and most difficult, parts of my job is to strike the delicate balance between being too assertive and not assertive enough.”
Fact: a team’s performance decreases under too much pressure from its leadership.
It is also true that a team may underperform without enough pressure from the leader…but honestly how often do you see under-motivated military leaders? Our challenge is usually in scaling back assertiveness and pressure so that our teams can perform their best.
Tommy Lasorda summarized it well: “I believe managing is like holding a dove in your hand. If you hold it too tightly you kill it, but if you hold it too loosely, you lose it.”
Similarly, knowing WHEN to apply assertiveness is a skill of great leaders. They read the environment and anticipate when their teams will need pressure and when to back off. It’s a common belief that military leaders must be constantly assertive, Type-A, and intense. But doing so can be counterproductive to achieving unit goals.
http://blogs.hbr.org/2010/05/12-things-that-good-bosses-bel/
3. Having ambitious and well-defined goals is important, but it is useless to think about them much. My job is to focus on the small wins that enable my people to make a little progress every day.
More important than creating big goals is to actually connect those goals to each level in the organization.
This is the process of translating a Mission Statement into Commander’s Intent into actionable tasks. (“There’s the hill we’re going to take…but nevermind that because first we have to cross a minefield…and to do that I need you to mark the lane.”)
It’s also vital for the team members to see that their small win contributes to the team’s big win. And even though Soldiers will dutifully execute any task assigned them…leaders will shift from positional power to transformational power if they can connect at the Soldier level and show how their contribution matters.
http://blogs.hbr.org/2010/05/12-things-that-good-bosses-bel/
“My success — and that of my people — depends largely on being the master of obvious and mundane things, not on magical, obscure, or breakthrough ideas or methods.”
Robert Sutton’s second belief about good bosses reminds us that while it is important for leaders to create vision for the organization, the more important work deals with leading people through the tangible steps to achieve that vision.
Consider commanders you’ve seen that set out “Command Philosophies” containing lofty goals and the challenge to reach ill-defined levels of “x” capability. These documents may chart a path but they’re not what the junior leader will rely on when he’s trying to do his part to reach those goals.
Our military typically operates in a complex environment during combat and a muddled, overtasked environment in garrison. It is the leader’s job to sort through the muck to clearly define the steps/systems the team must perform to reach his goal. Task – Purpose – Endstate. Teams need this clarity to perform well.
Incidentally, consider that our system affords certain perks and comforts to commanders (his own vehicle, good accommodations, etc) because it expects them to get their head out of the weeds and identify the “obvious” when the team is rowing too hard to see what’s ahead.
This statement comes from Robert Sutton’s “12 Things Good Bosses Believe,” which is a pointed and humbling summary of lessons stemming from years of leadership research. Sutton is the author of the very successful books “The No A$$hole Rule” and “Good Boss, Bad Boss.”
His series of articles in The Harvard Business Review dives into each of 12 Beliefs and provides illuminating examples about how easy it is to become a bad boss, and what to strive for in becoming a good boss.
Do the lessons apply to military leadership?…you be the judge.
“Never let your ego get so close to your position,
so that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.”
– General Colin Powell
The other valuable lesson to find in General Powell’s statement is how ego should relate to future jobs and career goals we seek.
A few years ago I had the opportunity to compete for a highly-competitive position on a team that holds unmatched regard in the military. It was the kind of job that, if chosen, would give me instant credibility and esteem in my professional community.
As you might imagine, this opportunity draws the most motivated and talented Soldiers from across the military. Unfortunately for most, the opportunity is also highly and dispassionately selective. Incredibly capable Soldiers prepare for years, only to find out they don’t meet the narrow bandwidth of acceptable talent and are sent home.
Which is what happened to me. During the process, however, I saw peers become obsessed with being selected, making it the ultimate validation of their military career…the definitive stamp of individual self-worth and achievement. They clearly aligned their egos with the position…and many took an emotional hit when they weren’t accepted.
Powell’s advice is clear wisdom for those seeking competitive career goals. It’s wise to remain stoic about the outcome, particularly if the goal is highly-selective. Becoming psychologically-tied to a career outcome can easily cause one to:
No organization, job title, or status can invalidate the commitment, talent, and influence one achieves during an entire career. Separate who you are from what you do and be selective about where you place your self-worth.
“Never let your ego get so close to your position,
so that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.”
– General Colin Powell
It’s easy to assume a position of leadership or take the guidon of command, and think that we were made for the job…that the organization and its people need us there…or that we were ordained to lead.
The responsibility and the recognition of being a leader makes it easy to align our self-worth with our job. It can become who we are, our identity. Similarly, many of us display attitudes/emotions that fluctuate with how we think we are performing in our jobs (i.e., a bad day at work means a bad day at home).
General Colin Powell warns against letting the job overcome who we are, because one day the titles and responsibility will drift away, then what are we left with?
We should keep in mind a few key characteristics about leading in the military:
1. The unit you are leading is not yours…it’s the government’s.
2. The government didn’t create the job for you; it exists for the Nation’s people.
3. The unit and its members will continue to excel even after you leave.
So, it’s prudent to find a way to display passion for the work while appropriately divorcing emotional stability and self-worth. We can’t take the work’s esteem with us when we go. We can only focus on making a positive impact in the unit that outlasts our tenure.
More on ego in the next post.
If you don’t see the ‘leader within you’ developing in the leaders around you, it may be time to assess whether you are achieving the influence you want in the organization.
Are you being intentional about your influence? How often do you communicate lessons, values, and positive examples?
Military organizations (particularly staffs) are very efficient at turning leaders into ‘task executors.’ The tempo of operations can easily overwhelm intentional leader development and personal mentorship…and influence suffers.
As an Operations Officer, it was a struggle for me to connect with subordinate team members when I had two dozen tasks to review with them. I felt like I was simply running an organization instead of leading a team. So, we decided to allot dedicated weekly time to discuss professional topics, capture lessons, and share insights. And throughout the day, I tried to personally connect with the team member before we talked business.
Simple steps…but ones that deliberately created opportunities for influence.
Subscribe to The Military Leader!
