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March 23 - March 26, 2023
Our world’s bright future will be built by people who have discovered that leadership is the enabling art. It is the art of releasing human talent and potential. You may be able to “buy” a person’s back with a paycheck, position, power, or fear, but a human being’s genius, passion, loyalty, and tenacious creativity are volunteered only.
Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves.
leadership is a choice, not a position.
Our greatest struggle is within ourselves. Whatever sense we have of thinking we know something is a barrier to continued learning.
I seemed to be the only one who wanted a more democratic and empowered workplace, and I wondered if I was on the right track.
Empowerment programs appeared to be a reaction to the fact that we had actively disempowered people.
I felt my power came from within, and attempts to empower me felt like manipulation.
I felt I was at my best when given specific goals but broad latitude in how to accomplish them. I didn’t respond well to executing a bunch of tasks. In fact, being treated that way irritated me and caused me to shut my brain down. That was intellectually wasteful and unfulfilling.
I concluded that competence could not rest solely with the leader. It had to run throughout the entire organization.
One of the things that limits our learning is our belief that we already know something.
It didn’t matter how smart my plan was if the team couldn’t execute it!
When the performance of a unit goes down after an officer leaves, it is taken as a sign that he was a good leader, not that he was ineffective in training his people properly.
What are the things you are hoping I don’t change? What are the things you secretly hope I do change? What are the good things about Santa Fe we should build on? If you were me what would you do first? Why isn’t the ship doing better? What are your personal goals for your tour here on Santa Fe? What impediments do you have to doing your job? What will be our biggest challenge to getting Santa Fe ready for deployment? What are your biggest frustrations about how Santa Fe is currently run? What is the best thing I can do for you?
Focusing on avoiding mistakes takes our focus away from becoming truly exceptional.
The first step in changing the genetic code of any organization or system is delegating control, or decision-making authority, as much as is comfortable, and then adding a pinch more.
Don’t preach and hope for ownership; implement mechanisms that actually give ownership.
When it comes to processes, adherence to the process frequently becomes the objective, as opposed to achieving the objective that the process was put in place to achieve. The goal then becomes to avoid errors in the process, and when errors are made, additional overseers and inspectors are added. These overseers don’t do anything to actually achieve the objective. They only identify when the process has gone bad after the fact.
Control without competence is chaos.
Why is “learning” a better word than “training”? Training implies passivity; it is done to us. We are trained; we attend training. Learning is active; it is something we do.
If all we do is learn, how does the work get done? We do the work. But, we learn by doing—maintenance, evolutions, casualty drills, studying. So, when we are working, even doing field day, we are learning.
We strive to grow each day.
An effective survey question to ask your employees is how many minutes a week they spend learning on their own, not mandated, not directed. Typically it’s a small number. An organizational measure of improving health would be to increase that number.
The problem with specifying the method along with the goal is one of diminished control. Provide your people with the objective and let them figure out the method.
Taking care of your people does not mean protecting them from the consequences of their own behavior. That’s the path to irresponsibility. What it does mean is giving them every available tool and advantage to achieve their aims in life, beyond the specifics of the job. In some cases that meant further education; in other cases crewmen’s goals were incompatible with Navy life and they separated on good terms.
Don’t Empower, Emancipate
Ultimately, the most important person to have control over is yourself—for it is that self-control that will allow you to “give control, create leaders.” I believe that rejecting the impulse to take control and attract followers will be your greatest challenge and, in time, your most powerful and enduring success.
