OK, two books in the same month.
Mastering the Dichotomy of Leadership requires understanding when to lead and when to follow; when to aggressively maneuver and when to pause and let things develop; when to detach and let the team run and when to dive into the details and micromanage.
I work with some people who think of themselves as leaders when in fact they are not.
Every successful leader must:
- Take Extreme Ownership of everything that impacts their mission, yet utilize Decentralize Command by giving ownership to their team. NEVER the nation of Command and Control. Never the notion of Centralized Command.
- Leaders must care deeply about their people and their individual success and livelihoods, yet look out for the good of the overall team and above all accomplish the strategic mission. This caring starts with the recognition of what motivates the individual. What meets their needs to continue as members of the team in the commercial domain. In the military domain, that motivation is built into the obligation to serve. In the commercial world, that member can walk out the door at will.
- Exhibit the most important quality in a leader―humility, but be willing to speak up and push back against questionable decisions that could hurt the team and the mission. The humility starts with recognizing that members of your team may have the skills and talents you have yet to recognize. Treating people as labor is the path to willfully ignoring these people skills and talents. Seek to understand, then to be understood as Steven Covey tells. I can't tell you how many times I've come across self-proclaimed leaders that what to tell people what to do before seeking to understand what motivates the individual to engage with the problem. What motivates that individual to contribute to a solution that may not have been considered by the leader.
