Leadership ➝ Part 1

Over my thirty-three year military career, I had to do three main things in the course of being a fighter pilot and head of organizations: (1) I had to provide leadership to get things done, (2) I had to manage risk in order to preserve lives and assets, and (3) I had to find opportunities when I was faced with challenges.  I have since found it is the same in nearly every endeavor of life and certainly in business.

The difference for me as I look back was that in the military I was given comparatively more responsibility to get things done much earlier in life than many civilian counterparts experienced. As a result, I learned much about leadership early and built on it over time. In some cases, the risk was also much greater when considering lives were at stake as in going to war. Turning challenges into opportunities was probably the most difficult of the three but equally as important and became a skill I found most useful to this day.

This article is the first of three to go into some insights on leadership, risk and opportunity. In this first one, I will review some lessons I learned in leadership that may be helpful to others. In the second, I will describe how I learned not to avoid risk but to manage it to minimize loss and maximize results. And in the third, I will provide insights into the skill necessary to turn challenges into opportunities.

I experienced just about every aspect of leadership over my military career which ran from being a junior team member and subordinate follower as a teenager beginning as a Navy enlisted Sailor to being a pinnacle leader as a three star admiral in my fifties. Along the way I saw the good, the bad and the ugly in leaders and they were all useful in learning important lessons. Contrary to what can be read in some books, leadership must be taught. One must have instruction, guidance and inspiration. There are a rare few natural born leaders but in my experience they are exceptions.

For most of us, we have to learn how to lead. Much of learning about leadership in the military is taught formally and reinforced through mentors. The best way to learn is from a good leader who also mentors particularly when he or she remains available to you as a confidante as you work through your challenges. The next best way is to learn by observation particularly from the examples of others with both good and bad lessons to take to heart.

I have often been asked what is the most important thing about leadership. While there are many ways to describe what it is and its attributes the main thing about leadership is getting things done, e.g. achievement. Performance is the only measure of leadership while the key to it is persuasion. A leader is one who is responsible for making it happen. It applies to everything from leading development of a new product or service to responding to a world-class catastrophe like what was experienced in the Gulf of Mexico recently. Or, as was my experience, from leading a flight of two F-14 Tomcats from an aircraft carrier as a young pilot to a 25,000 man task force into war in Iraq as an admiral. Leadership is about accomplishing the mission or success of the enterprise and the leader is the one most responsible and held most accountable for delivering results.

I am sometimes asked to differentiate leadership from management. In the simplest forms, they are essentially the same. To some it is only terms or lexicon describing what is done in the military⎯leadership⎯and what is done in business⎯management. For sure the military places a premium on leadership skills principally because, I believe, service is the goal and peoples' lives are the price. In business, I observe profit is the goal and people are assets to help achieve it.

My experience causes me to differentiate it this way: leadership is about people and management is about tasks or projects with attendant resources. The goal of leadership is to get things done through and/or with people. The goal of management is to maximize value or return on investments.

It is important to learn from leaders by the examples they set. It is equally important to teach or develop it by example when in charge. So, what defines a good leader? 

Sometimes the bad examples can be more instructive in defining what is good. For sure someone who gets things done is viewed as a good leader particularly by their seniors. But there are many ways to get things done. For example, one can be a tyrant who leads by fear and intimidation. I saw plenty of those in the military⎯they exist today. They are easy to spot. When things get tough or tougher, they become louder and meaner. For me, those kind became examples I learned from in how NOT to do things because in the process they often demoralize people around them and certainly do not contribute to others' development or long term success of an organization. 

Others lead more by positive example and work to empower others to get the job done and are more widely successful. Former president, US Army general and extraordinary leader Dwight Eisenhower said "the ideal leader is one who invariably acts kindly and with consideration and is still decisive and instinctively bold."  

I found the ones I admired most in getting things done were ones who exhibited more trust than others. I could tell that those who had little trust were often micro-managers and volatile. I observed that what we did ⎯ practicing the art of war from flying on and off aircraft carriers at sea, at night and under bad weather ⎯ was tough enough and did not need to be made more difficult by leaders who I came to believe were dishonest and could not be trusted. They were poor leaders and eventually most failed but sometimes not until later in life which is the unfair reality of it--some poor leaders do succeed in their careers.  

I believe trust is the most important attribute that defines the best leaders. They are trusted by those who they work for, work with, and who work for them. They trust those around them which requires taking risk ⎯ a topic we will discuss in the next article. A common mistake leaders often make, I did once, is believing that with appointment to a position comes trust. I found that trust has to be earned and the best way to do that is to set and be a good example. The first lesson I learned in this aspect was to ensure my words were matched by my actions. The worst examples I saw [and catalogued] were those who lived by "do as I say not as I do", or, 'talk the talk but not walk the walk', or, believed that because they were higher in the organization they had different rules to live by than I did.

Another important lesson I learned was how to provide good leadership. The first thing in doing this was self-acknowledgment that I did not know it all. All the years of experience help prepare one for higher management positions but do not make anyone more knowledgeable about what all is going on around him or her. In fact, often the higher one is more insulated from the day-to-day reality he or she is. The second thing was to admit that to others. Others know you certainly do NOT know everything so in admitting it you empower them to help you especially when you ask for it and are receptive to it.

Making good decisions also highlights a good leader. The key to making good decisions is having enough data to analyze, make interpretations and use sound judgment. Of course, having experience helps as well. Furthermore, experience is often better than enthusiasm or prestige when selecting leaders.  Experience often determines or guides judgment and learning to ask good questions determines whether you get enough of the right data. Almost always someone in your organization has the best way to do something, or the best idea to counter something, or even the best solution to a problem. The trick is how do you find them ⎯ how good are your questions ⎯ or how do they get to you ⎯ how accessible are you ⎯ and how receptive are you to listening to them ⎯ how open are you. Nothing frees up and empowers a good decision maker more than not caring who gets credit for the successes and accepting responsibility for failures.

How does a good leader sustain continuous success over time? Perseverance with the lessons above practiced continually. Admitting that you don't know it all and remaining receptive to support by relying on a team you've formed and trust. And staying humble.

In summary:

• The most important thing about being a good leader is to be trustworthy ⎯ always believe that every word you utter and every action you take will be observed and judged by others regardless of where you or what you are doing.
  
• The most important role of being a good leader is to deliver success ⎯ ensure those you trust have the resources they need to get their parts of the job done and that you accept responsibility and accountability for their actions.
  
• The most important characteristics of being a good leader are asking good questions, being a good listener, and being receptive to others' ideas ⎯ being open is a good way to enable making good decisions.
  
• The most important advice to being a good leader is to assemble a good team ⎯ rarely can anyone do anything of substance or consequence alone; it requires support which requires dependence on others.
  
• The most important way to be a consistently good leader over time is to build a record of sustained success one task or job at a time with teamwork, developing others, making good decisions, being ethical and giving credit.

Being a leader when things are going well is easy if not almost superfluous. But it becomes paramount when faced with having to deal with risk in decision making. And the reality of life is that leaders are always tested with challenges. So the value of leadership is being able to manage risk and turn challenges into opportunities. More about these to follow.