Leadership programs should be complete and simple enough to use. We have centuries of experience to draw from. Start with the fundamentals, then help people apply them at work.
My Father worked at NASA and was subjected to whatever leadership program was the flavor of the day. I remember him complaining that Total Quality Management was a complete waste of his team’s time. His team was receiving most of the same information they had received before, with only a couple of new concepts... and, of course, a different and fancier name.
Total Quality Management, Total Quality Leadership, Servant Leadership, Situational Leadership, Transformational Leadership... The names keep coming. Many of these approaches draw on the same basic leadership principles. The emphasis changes, and so do the tools, but the fundamentals remain. TQL grew out of TQM, for example. We aren’t short on material. In fact... we may be suffering from leadership information overload.
The Marine Corps pounded leadership principles into our heads at boot camp and OCS. Know your job. Set the example. Know your people and look after their welfare. Keep them informed. Make sound and timely decisions. Take responsibility. Train and work as a team.
You put the principles into practice, tethered to and guided by leadership traits such as integrity, judgment, and courage.
Leadership 101... easy to understand and agree on. Harder to follow and surprisingly easy to forget when convenient. Even the best leaders are only human.
Take setting the example. You expect people to meet their commitments. Are you meeting yours? You want them to admit mistakes. Does that include admitting your own mistakes in front of your boss? The principle hasn’t changed. The audience has.
Or take knowing your people. Do you understand their abilities, concerns, and motivations? Have you asked how they prefer to receive direction? Or have you decided that what works for you should work for everyone?
Feedback helps us examine those assumptions. You may think you welcome disagreement. Your team may remember what happened to the last person who disagreed with you. A 360° review can help bring that difference to light. What you do with it is where the work begins.
Leaders will fall short too. I know I have. When you fall off the horse, you need to have the tenacity and fortitude to quickly get back on.
The organization has a part to play too. If you ask people to work as a team while rewarding competing priorities, another seminar may not solve the problem, but it can help identify what’s getting in the way.
That is the thinking behind the Iron Sights Leadership Effectiveness Program: two days of practical development, supported by 360° feedback, a working-style profile, and team problem-solving. Participants leave with a focused action plan. Follow-up looks at what they have put into practice and what needs adjusting.
So, before we reinvent the wheel, let’s dust off the one we have and get better at using it. There is plenty to work on in the fundamentals.
Which leadership principle do you agree with... but set aside when it becomes inconvenient? And would your team give the same answer?