What a Leader Must Possess

Imagine this scenario.

You are in a camp with 100 men and women you are responsible for. You are doing your work when all of a sudden you hear BOOM BOOM BOOM. Five rockets just exploded outside and you they sounded close. You get a call that confirms what you heard. Your responsibility now is to confirm that everyone is safe and that it is safe to resume work. It's night and pitch black out, but you've got to send someone out to check for Unexploded Ordinance, bombs that haven't gone off, but may still explode. You look to one of your subordinates and ask him/her to go. They get up without hesitation, fully understanding the danger, and go do the task.

What would compel this response? Is it blind faith? No. Is it sense of duty and love for a your fellow man? Somewhat, but what makes them listen to you? Why did they not question whether you made the right decision? Why did they do the task without hesitation?

This actually happened and happens quite frequently. This specific time it happened to my unit in Iraq. I wasn't the one asking others to go into harms way, but I got to observe one of the greatest leaders I have ever worked with, Lieutenant Colonel Gammon, make such a request time and again, to myself and to others. To finish the story, this specific time there was an unexploded rocket no more than 50 yards away from our camp and the E.O.D. needed to explode it so it would not do more harm. This was a time when life and limb depended on making the right decisions and having those decisions followed without hesitation. There was not time for questioning what we should do. Col Gammon gave the orders, they were the right orders, and they were followed without hesitation because he had already established himself as a great leader.

Col. Gammon is one of many great leaders I have found both in and out of the military. These great leaders all had four main attributes in common. They are vision, strategy, trust, and ownership.

Vision Endgame. These leaders all knew where we were going, but most important they had and provided clarity. The end of the road was crystal clear for them and they made it crystal clear for everyone else. Their goals were not vague statements. They were specific and actionable. Everyone knew them, understood them, and believed in them.

Strategy Not only did they know and demonstrate what the end of the road would look like, but they could show what it would take to get there. Whether you would have to go down one road and turn at mile marker 99. They knew what that journey would be. Hard work, yes, but a journey that you would want to travel together. Strategy to make vision crystal clear. People will follow you when you can demonstrate that you know what it takes to get where you are going. Many leaders expect strategy to come from the bottom. Strategy cannot be delegated. It must start at the top of the organization and flow downward being refined, or purified like a stream, along the way.

Trust Maybe it's just me, but I can't follow a leader I don't trust or one that doesn't trust me. The best leaders I've come across understood that. They believed that trust is a two way street and without it you can't succeed, especially when the bombs literally are flying. In the military you often don't get to choose who works for you. Unless you are a General Officer or on a general staff you don't get to choose your people. But you can count on the fact that everyone went through the same training. Your people have the skills to do their job. Trust that you have good talented people working for you and let them be good talented people. Trust them to help you refine your strategy and they will trust you to lead them to fulfilling your vision. But that's not where it stops. Trust must be earned and built upon. In the private sector, you can't expect to take on a new position and have any trust at all. No one knows you, you have to earn it. Once you've earned it you've got to fight to keep it. You must continually show your subordinates, your customers, and your leadership that they have not misplaced their trust.

Ownership Delegation is important. These leaders did not try to do everything themselves. They understood that to grow their subordinates into leaders they had to give them opportunities to learn, but that did not relinquish their responsibility. They still owned the work that needed to get done. They gave credit to those who accomplished the work, when credit was due, but they took ownership when the work didn't get done. A great teacher once told me, "As a manager/leader you are responsible for the work. It doesn't matter how much you delegate you cannot delegate responsibility."

So, why would someone go into harm's way when you as their leaders ask it? Because you have a vision they can believe in. You know what it will take to achieve it and everything you do works towards that. You've earned their trust and have shown that you trust them. You own the problem and you would not be asking them to do something you wouldn't do yourself. A leader with these attributes delegates work because it is best for the organization not because they don't want to do it. They care about their followers, because they trust that they add value to the organization. They work hard to earn the trust they have and would not violate that trust. They understand what responsibility means and that it falls on them.

That is what a leader must possess.