Friend and colleague
Karl Moore (McGill University) interviews U.S. Army Commanding General Martin Dempsey on how the military is moving toward a model where trust is a currency more valuable than control. Here are a few excerpts:
- Leadership Lessons From a Four-Star General
by Karl Moore, The Globe and Mail
The essence of leadership, and the way you interact, the way the leader interacts with the led, has remained fairly constant, it seems to me. But, ... the environment has become so much more complex, and that's the big difference I see, in the challenge we've got in developing our leaders – to deal with that complexity and uncertainty, in a way that I didn't have to until I probably became a colonel.
We think our more likely threats we'll encounter will be networked. And we have a phrase, that "to defeat a network you have to be a network." So, I think where we're heading is to more trust than control. And we have been the quintessential hierarchical organization. And, in that capacity, leadership will move around the table. Now, we'll always have our rank structure. We'll always have our disciplines. But I think that you will see us evolve into an organization where trust is as much the coin of the realm as control is.
There's a very deliberate process where we take concepts and turn them into requirements, and requirements and turn them into resources. And that has to happen in a hierarchical fashion, so that the government can continue to function. And we have to “nest into” that process. So, at the Department of the Army level in particular, there will always be a hierarchical structure that essentially allows us to compete for resources based on concepts and requirements. But, below that, I think, absolutely we are seeing that there's real potential in decentralizing.
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Stumble It!
Comments
Thanks for this - it gives me hope - if the military can move away from command and control leadership then anyone can.
All the best from Brighton,
Mark
http://integrationtraining.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Stress Management Training Mark | August 15, 2009 11:44 AM
During the US Army’s Intermediate Level Education course at Ft. Gordon, Ga. I had an opportunity to participate in a leadership lecture delivered by Maj. Gen. (Ret) Perry Smith, author of “Rules and Tools for Leaders.” I took away several great points he made about the importance of leadership, ethics, and leverage.
The ability to be a good listener, learning from failures, and making ethical decisions were some of the characteristics he described in his lecture. I cannot agree with him more. So many leaders talk past their subordinates without taking the time to listen and understand the real issue. He said those who talk more usually are thinking about what they are going to say next instead of listening. Exhibiting good listening skills show that the leader actually cares. Furthermore, failure is not uncommon. Everyone fails in something to some degree in their life. The focus should not be the failure, but what is learned from it in order to prevent future failures. Many seem be so afraid of failure that it drives some to take drastic measures to hide it rather than inform and improve. This has the potential to lead to unethical practices.
In leadership, I believe ethical decisions made by leaders define their personal morale character and credibility, which can influence the culture of an organization. Maj. Gen. Smith described one his experiences as an analyst with a news network when he decided to quit the network due to the network’s unethical practices. He was found out of favor by the unethical network, but on the contrary, his decision not only increased his personal moral character, his credibility with other networks increased with interest. This goes to show that a true leader who makes ethical decisions gain the respect of others as a person of moral character.
For leader development, Maj. Gen. Smith gave his advice to everyone on the importance of “leverage.” Leveraging assists in sustaining and improving a leader’s personal knowledge and professional growth. Leveraging friends to build what he called a personal “brain trust,” a network of friends and associates who are well connected; leverage technology to stay connected; improve and educate your personal intellect through reading; get rid of any unnecessary things in your life; and make time for those other important things in life such as family.
Posted by: Edward K. Hooks | October 1, 2009 02:02 PM