Recently, Drew Steadman posted a thought-provoking piece on the large role luck plays in a military career. His four points are all worth pondering, but I find the last one, “Create an environment for luck,” the most compelling…or at least the item that came to my mind during our internal discussions on this topic.
Build for your team a feeling of oneness, of dependence on one another
and of strength to be derived by unity. – Vince Lombardi
Creating an environment for luck in a military career is all about people. While promotions are “objectively” based on performance captured on evaluations, many times placement in positions is much more about your reputation, the people you know, and your skill sets. This is especially the case the higher you go.
For those leaders who may be late bloomers, this is good news. Maybe you weren’t the top platoon leader in the battalion or the best company commander in the brigade. If your reputation is solid and you’ve impressed some upwardly mobile leaders, you could overcome previously mediocre evaluations to perform well at field grade levels, whether as an operations officer, executive officer, or staff officer.
The Duality of Luck
This highlights both kinds of luck that can affect a career…”traditional” luck and the kind created through personal intervention. Traditional luck is the opportunity that occurs because you happen to be at the right place in the right time. Examples of this dynamic would be leading an operation that ends up being a theater-wide effort and highlights your skills to senior leaders, or landing at a post or in a specific job that happens to be a hotbed of intensive leader development or innovation. There’s not much someone can do about this kind of luck, though it never hurts to keep a finger on the pulse of your service to determine the locations and people who might create such environments.
The other kind of luck – that created by personal intervention – is more achievable…and more dangerous. Unlike traditional luck, “making your own luck” through the deliberate cultivation of meaningful relationships and a planned career path is something anyone can do. All it takes is self-reflection to ascertain personal goals, conducting an analysis of how to achieve them via education, experience, and relationships, and then working to meet that plan. It’s largely no different from any other task or operation we conduct as military leaders.
That said, what is different when working for your own luck is the perception it could create within our very particular organizational culture. This kind of deliberate behavior can be viewed as “careerist,” “manipulative” or “political.” This is the dark side of “making your own luck” or creating luck through personal intervention.
No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
There are two ways to overcome such a perception, particularly when used in concert – sincerity and teamwork. Just because you want to make your own luck doesn’t mean the focus has to be on yourself; work to achieve your own goals while also focusing on how to build up those around you. Be sincere in focusing your organization’s success and supporting the personal goals of your peers and subordinates and they’ll support you.
Ask any mentor or senior leader what attribute or action they most look for in those they work to develop and they’ll tell you: teamwork. Focusing on the team not only makes the organization better, it also supports your own personal goals by building coalitions interested in supporting you as a leader. It may be counterintuitive to focus on others to achieve your own goals…but luck is a human occurrence, and its creation is best achieved through relationships and empowering each other.
Now read the next post on luck and leading, graciously offered by DoctrineMan!! What has been your experience with luck in your career? Leave a comment below.
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