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Establishing control in advance the way Hitchcock did might not seem like presence of mind, but it actually takes that quality to its zenith. It means entering battle (in Hitchcock’s case a film shoot) feeling calm and ready.
Inudes premortems. Premortems cAN help those who are concerned about reenquishing control
your relaxed manner will prove contagious to other people, making them easier to manage in turn.
Our minds seem rather strong when we’re following our routines. But place any of us in an adverse situation and our rationality vanishes; we react to pressure by growing fearful, impatient, confused. Such moments reveal us for the emotional creatures we are: under attack, whether by a known enemy or unpredictably by a colleague, our response is dominated by feelings of anger, sadness, betrayal.
The main point effe ting trust shift.
Expose yourself to conflict.
The story of Patton teaches us two things. First, it is better to confront your fears, let them come to the surface, than to ignore them or tamp them down. Fear is the most destructive emotion for presence of mind, but it thrives on the unknown, which lets our imaginations run wild.
deliberately putting yourself in situations where you have to face fear, you familiarize yourself with it and your anxiety grows less acute.
Tactic continued
Being a leader of even the smallest group gives you something to live up to: people are watching you, judging you, depending on you.
Tactic
Being self-reliant is critical. To make yourself less dependent on others and so-called experts, you need to expand your repertoire of skills.
You must be able to distinguish between small matters that are best left to others and larger issues that require your attention and care.
Trust prioritize
Suffer fools gladly.
Tactic
On a famous occasion during the civil war, Caesar tripped when disembarking from a ship on the shores of Africa and fell flat on his face. With his talent for improvisation, he spread out his arms and embraced the earth as a symbol of conquest. By quick thinking he turned a terrible omen of failure into one of victory. CICERO: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ROME’S GREATEST POLITICIAN, ANTHONY EVERITT, 2001
Instead he treated them like children, indulging them in their fears while cutting them out of his plans. Occasionally he threw them a bone, doing some minor thing they had suggested or pretending to worry about a danger they had imagined. But he never let himself get angry or frustrated;
He knew how to suffer fools gladly.
Politics
Crowd out feelings of panic by focusing on simple tasks.
Often the best way to calm down and give yourself such control is to force the mind to concentrate on something relatively simple—a calming ritual, a repetitive task that you are good at.
Rommel didn’t just study his men, his tanks, the terrain, and the enemy—he got inside their skin, understood the spirit that animated them, what made them tick.
The more you have lost your balance, the more you will know about how to right yourself.
is a wise course to find a way to make your enemies lose theirs. Take what throws you off balance and impose it on them. Make them act before they are ready.
Put yourself in situations where you have too much at stake to waste time or resources—if you cannot afford to lose, you won’t.
His new motto was “Try to get as much done as possible in the shortest time.” Some pitied Dostoyevsky
Write down
Society is organized to make death invisible, to keep it several steps removed. That distance may seem necessary for our comfort, but it comes with a terrible price: the illusion of limitless time, and a consequent lack of seriousness about daily life.
over two thousand years ago, the Chinese strategist Sun-tzu came to believe that listening to speeches, no matter how rousing, was too passive an experience to have an enduring effect. Instead Sun-tzu talked of a “death ground”—a place where an army is backed up against some geographical feature like a mountain, a river, or a forest and has no escape route. Without a way to retreat, Sun-tzu argued, an army fights with double or triple the spirit it would have on open terrain, because death is viscerally present.
We often wait too long to act, particularly when we face no outside pressure. It is sometimes better to act before you think you are ready—to force the issue and cross the Rubicon. Not only will you take your opponents by surprise, you will also have to make the most of your resources.
When we are tired, it is often because we are bored. When no real challenge faces us, a mental and physical lethargy sets in. “Sometimes death only comes from a lack of energy,” Napoleon once said, and lack of energy comes from a lack of challenges, comes when we have taken on less than we are capable of.
attacking enemies when their morale is low gives you the advantage. Maybe they are fighting for a cause they know is unjust or for a leader they do not respect. Find a way to lower their spirits even further.
Let people work unsupervised and they will revert to their natural selfishness: they will see in your orders what they want to see, and their behavior will promote their own interests.
Unless you adapt your leadership style to the weaknesses of the people in your group, you will almost certainly end up with a break in the chain of command.
Streamline the organization, cutting out waste—in staff, in the irrelevant reports on your desk, in pointless meetings. The less attention you spend on petty details, the more time you will have for the larger picture, for asserting your authority generally and indirectly.
The group has a mind of its own, and that mind is cautious, slow to decide, unimaginative, and sometimes downright irrational.
Group think
the over-arching strategic vision must come from you and you alone. At the same time, hide your tracks. Work behind the scenes; make the group feel involved in your decisions. Seek their advice, incorporating their good ideas, politely deflecting their bad ones.
Control is an elusive phenomenon. Often, the harder you tug at people, the less control you have over them.
an image as a delegator, a fair and democratic leader; and a saving in your own valuable energy, which you can redirect toward the larger picture.
To delegate requires trust amd shared vision/values wth your team.
In creating this team, you are looking for people who make up for your deficiencies, who have the skills you lack.
Motivation - cognitive diversity
never choose a man merely by his glittering résumé. Look beyond his skills to his psychological makeup.
What you need is what the military historian Martin van Creveld calls “a directed telescope”: people in various parts of the chain, and elsewhere, to give you instant information from the battlefield. These people—an informal network of friends, allies, and spies—let you bypass the slow-moving chain.
Are they restless? Do they often move from place to place? That is a sign of the kind of ambition that will keep them from fitting in.
Elizabeth’s solution was to keep her opinions quiet; on any issue, no one outside her inner circle knew where she stood. That made it hard for people to mirror her, to disguise their intentions behind a front of perfect agreement.
If you are ever offered a position in which you will have to share command, turn it down, for the enterprise will fail and you will be held responsible.
The critical elements in war are speed and adaptability—the ability to move and make decisions faster than the enemy.
Patton’s philosophy of command was: “Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” PATTON: A GENIUS FOR WAR, CARLO D’ESTE, 1995
Your team coalesces under the wHy. You define the what. They divine the how
A pack of wolves on a rabbit
Motivation
Smaller teams are faster, more creative, more adaptable; their officers and soldiers are more engaged, more motivated. In the end, fluidity will bring you far more power and control than petty domination.
the essence of strategy is not to carry out a brilliant plan that proceeds in steps; it is to put yourself in situations where you have more options than the enemy does.
Share idea with Val
the key is not to win in tbe turns. That presu.es a k
nown track and o
ne that has been run before. Winning in the turns is not indicative of preparing for an unknown. It
positioning yourself to be able to do A, B, or C depending on the circumstances. That is strategic depth of thinking, as opposed to formulaic
Sun tzu
rigid, centralized organization locks you into linear strategies; a fluid, segmented army gives you options, endless possibilities for reaching shih.
This is an important strategic tactic
is the gartner operating model truly adative
