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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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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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TED Video:  Why Veterans Miss War (Sebastian Junger)

Watch Sebastian Junger, author and creator of the documentary Restrepo, describe the physical and emotional effects of combat.

I think a curse should rest on me — because I love this war. I know it’s smashing and shattering the lives of thousands every moment — and yet — I can’t help it — I enjoy every second of it.

WINSTON CHURCHILL, letter to a friend, 1916

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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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12 Things Good Bosses Believe (#7)

I aim to fight as if I am right, and listen as if I am wrong —
and to teach my people to do the same thing.

#7 of Robert Sutton’s 12 Things Good Bosses Believe should be a no-brainer. Military leaders generally don’t have a problem fighting as if they’re right, but what does “listen as if I am wrong” mean for leaders who are driven, experienced, and trained to perform with total confidence? Let’s start by looking at the antithesis.

good bosses

Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, talks with members of the Marine Guard Detachment at the U.S. embassy in Cairo, Feb. 20, 2016. Link to photo.