Category Archives: Personal Development

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Leader to Follower: “You’re not really important to me.”

Go ahead and admit it – you’re just like me…you check your phone during meetings. But have you ever thought about what you are communicating to your team when you do?important

This short post from Psychology Today explains what you’re really saying when you distract yourself in meetings and is a good reminder to set the example for focus, discipline, and common courtesy.

Here’s a Tip: I had a battalion commander who decreed, “If your spouse calls during one of our meetings, you have to answer the call.” He set the example when his own wife called and enforced the rule around the room. It sent a clear signal that family is always important.

Questions for Leaders:

  • Have you published your expectations for behavior during meetings?
  • Are your meetings engaging enough to keep people from becoming distracted?
  • In what other ways might you be distracted when engaging with your team throughout the day?

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“A Summer with Grant” Reading Series by ‘From the Green Notebook’

Check out this professional reading opportunity using the Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, hosted by the “From the Green Notebook” Blog. Get a free digital copy of the book and connect to a group of professionals for discussion and debate. Topics include “Professional Military Education,” “Leaders at War,” and “Developing Strategic Thinking.” Be sure to pass it on to your team.

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Starts June 23rd, so click here for details or email Read2Lead2014@gmail.com for questions.

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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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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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Article to Veterans: “9 Reasons Why I Won’t Hire You”

There’s a lot of truth to the idea that our responsibility as military leaders goes beyond training our Soldiers to be good Soldiers. I am of the firm belief that we also have an obligation to make them better men/women, better fathers/mothers, and better citizens that will contribute with a lifetime of service, even outside the military.

Be sure to pass on this article from Business Insider.

The Bottom Line is a tough fact to accept:

Veterans often feel entitled to a well-paying job following active duty and
don’t do enough to prepare for the reality they will face after transitioning.

Here are some takeaways that service members at ALL RANKS could benefit from refining before they depart:

  • You Can’t (or Won’t) Accept That You’re Starting Over
  • You Don’t Know What You Want to Do
  • You Believe You’re Unique (Just Like Everyone Else)
  • You Didn’t Prepare For The Interview

“Thank You For Your Military Service – Now Here Are 9 Reasons Why I Won’t Hire You” by Sultan Camp was published by Business Insider on January 3, 2014.

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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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What You Can Do About Your Full Inbox

It’s tough to deny… Email is our closest companion and our most prolific mode of communication. Despite the personal nature of military leadership and the requirement to build close-knit teams, I can’t think of a single thing we do that isn’t planned, assigned, or communicated on email.Inbox

And if you’re like me, this list sounds familiar:

  • I feel like I need to keep every email for accountability
  • My OCD personality makes me want to sort all my emails into folders
  • I get a little anxious when I open my Inbox and find dozens of new messages
  • I have dozens, even hundreds of unread messages in my Inbox
  • I feel like I can’t leave the office without responding to the day’s new mail
  • I have checked mail while having a face-to-face conversation with someone on my team
  • I feel like email is taking up more of my day than it should

After living with the military Inbox for 16 years now, I’m convinced that few of us manage it well and could use some techniques on being more efficient. If you agree, you need to check out leadership and productivity expert Michael Hyatt’s post, “Yes, You Can Stay on Top of Email.”

Take Aways

  • You get 5 options, that’s it:  Do, Delegate, Defer, Delete, File
  • You’re wasting time by sorting emails into folders
  • Use the search box to find emails quickly
  • Use automatic rules and conditional formatting to organize your high and low priority emails

Bottom Line:  we don’t need more time to process email…we just need to be disciplined and efficient in managing it.

Questions for Leaders

  • Do you think email has negatively impacted the leadership environment in military teams?
  • Have you ever tried to move your organization away from email and engage more personally?
  • What methods do you use to manage your Inbox?

Feel free to leave a comment below.

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Video: TED Talk – The Impact of Leadership

“As long as we make leadership bigger than us, as long as we keep leadership beyond us, as long as we make it about changing the world…we give ourselves an excuse not to expect it everyday from ourselves and from each other.”
Drew Dudley

“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate…our greatest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light and not our darkness, that frightens us.”
Mary Ann Williamson

In the majority of the time that military units aren’t specifically training to win wars, we spend our time trying to make the unit and its people better. We do this through organizational policies and decisions…and we do it by personally influencing people.

This short TED video reminds us that our influence and our impact on others is deeper than we realize…or give ourselves credit for. All leadership boils down to making people better, and the nature of our profession gives military leaders significant power to do that.