GREAT LEADER IN ANY FIELD by Durba Mitra

GREAT LEADER IN ANY FIELD

In our own country or anywhere else in this world – people look up to good leadership in any field to lead to success. The synergy between the leader and his followers keeps changing according to the history-geography-demography of the group.

From a mere facebook group to running a corporate firm or a military unit – upto leading a country – leadership is a key factor in doing so.

We are mostly criticizing the leaders without realizing their workload and responsibilities – be it a football team – or our own state – or the country itself.

Let us have a walk through the nitty grittiness of leadership instead of battering them fruitlessly.

LEADERSHIP: THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR

Without a team—a group of individuals working to accomplish a mission—there can be no leadership. The only meaningful measure for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails. For all the definitions, descriptions, and characterizations of leaders, there are only two that matter: effective and ineffective. Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win. Ineffective leaders do not.

For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes and develop a plan to overcome them is essential to success. The best leaders are not driven by ego or personal agendas. They are simply focused on the mission and how best to accomplish it.

For leaders, the humility to admit and own mistakes is essential to success.

WINNING THE WAR WITHIN

The leader is truly and ultimately responsible for everything. That is Extreme Ownership, the fundamental core of what constitutes an effective leader in the SEAL Teams or in any leadership endeavour.

On any team, in any organization, all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must own everything in his or her world. There is no one else to blame. The leader must acknowledge mistakes and admit failures, take ownership of them, and develop a plan to win.

When subordinates aren’t doing what they should, leaders that exercise Extreme Ownership cannot blame the subordinates. They must first look in the mirror at themselves. The leader bears full responsibility for explaining the strategic mission, developing the tactics, and securing the training and resources to enable the team to properly and successfully execute.

Not bad teams, bad leaders

When leaders who epitomize Extreme Ownership drive their teams to achieve a higher standard of performance, they must recognize that when it comes to standards, as a leader, it’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.

Once a culture of Extreme Ownership is built into the team at every level, the entire team performs well, and performance continues to improve, even when a strong leader is temporarily removed from the team. Leaders should never be satisfied. They must strive to improve and build that mind-set into the team
Be a Believer

In order to convince and inspire others to follow and accomplish a mission, a leader must be a true believer in the mission.

If a leader does not believe, he or she will not take the risks required to overcome the inevitable challenges necessary to win. And they will not be able to convince others

In many cases, the leader must align his thoughts and vision to that of the mission. Once a leader believes in the mission, that belief shines through to those below and above in the chain of command.

Check the Ego

Ego clouds and disrupts everything: the planning process, the ability to take good advice, and the ability to accept constructive criticism. It can even stifle someone’s sense of self-preservation. Often, the most difficult ego to deal with is your own. Be confident, not cocky.

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Simple

Simplifying as much as possible is crucial to success. When plans and orders are too complicated, people may not understand them. And when things go wrong, and they inevitably do go wrong, complexity compounds issues that can spiral out of control into total disaster. Plans and orders must be communicated in a manner that is simple, clear, and concise.

If your team doesn’t get it, you have not kept things simple and you have failed. You must brief to ensure the lowest common denominator on the team understands.

Prioritize and Execute

On the battlefield, countless problems compound in a snowball effect, every challenge complex in its own right, each demanding attention. But a leader must remain calm and make the best decisions possible.

Even the most competent of leaders can be overwhelmed if they try to tackle multiple problems or a number of tasks simultaneously. The team will likely fail at each of those tasks. Instead, leaders must determine the highest priority task and execute. When overwhelmed, fall back upon this principle: Prioritize and Execute.

Even the most competent leaders can be overwhelmed if they tackle multiple tasks simultaneously.
To implement Prioritize and Execute in any business, team, or organization, a leader must:

·         Evaluate the highest priority problem.

·         Lay out in simple, clear, and concise terms the highest priority effort for your team.

·         Develop and determine a solution, seek input from key leaders and from the team where possible.

·         Direct the execution of that solution, focusing all efforts and resources toward this priority task.

·         Move on to the next highest priority problem. Repeat.

·         When priorities shift within the team, pass situational awareness both up and down the chain.

·         Don’t let the focus on one priority cause target fixation. Maintain the ability to see other problems developing and rapidly shift as needed.

Decentralize Command

Human beings are generally not capable of managing more than six to ten people, particularly when things go sideways and inevitable contingencies arise. Teams must be broken down into manageable elements of four to five operators, with a clearly designated leader. Those leaders must understand the overall mission, and the ultimate goal of that mission.

Junior leaders must be empowered to make decisions on key tasks necessary to accomplish that mission in the most effective and efficient manner possible. Teams within teams are organized for maximum effectiveness for a particular mission.

SUSTAINING VICTORY

What’s the mission? Planning begins with mission analysis. Leaders must identify clear directives for the team. Once they themselves understand the mission, they can impart this knowledge to their key leaders and frontline troops tasked with executing the mission. A broad and ambiguous mission results in lack of focus, ineffective execution, and mission creep. To prevent this, the mission must be carefully refined and simplified so that it is explicitly clear and specifically focused to achieve the greater strategic vision for which that mission is a part. The mission must explain the overall purpose and desired result, or “end state,” of the operation.

The test for a successful brief is simple: Do the team and the supporting elements understand it?

The best teams employ constant analysis of their tactics and measure their effectiveness so that they can adapt their methods and implement lessons learned for future missions. Often business teams claim there isn’t time for such analysis. But one must make time.

The best teams employ constant analysis of their tactics and measure their effectiveness.

A leader’s checklist for planning should include the following:

·         Analyse the mission. —Understand higher headquarters’ mission, Commander’s Intent, and end state (the goal). —Identify and state your own Commander’s Intent and end state for the specific mission.

·         Identify personnel, assets, resources, and time available.

·         Decentralize the planning process. —Empower key leaders within the team to analyse possible courses of action.

·         Determine a specific course of action. —Lean toward selecting the simplest course of action. —Focus efforts on the best course of action.

·         Empower key leaders to develop the plan for the selected course of action.

·         Plan for likely contingencies through each phase of the operation.

·         Mitigate risks that can be controlled as much as possible.

·         Delegate portions of the plan and brief to key junior leaders. —Stand back and be the tactical genius.

·         Continually check and question the plan against emerging information to ensure it still fits the situation.

·         Brief the plan to all participants and supporting assets. —Emphasize Commander’s Intent.

·         Ask questions and engage in discussion and interaction with the team to ensure they understand.

·         Conduct post-operational debrief after execution. —Analyze lessons learned and implement them in future planning.

Leading Up and Down

Any good leader is immersed in the planning and execution of tasks, projects, and operations to move the team toward a strategic goal. Such leaders possess insight into the bigger picture and why specific tasks need to be accomplished.

This information does not automatically translate to subordinate leaders and the frontline troops. Junior members of the team—the tactical level operators— are rightly focused on their specific jobs. They must be in order to accomplish the tactical mission. They do not need the full knowledge and insight of their senior leaders. Nor do the senior leaders need the intricate understanding of the tactical level operators’ jobs. Still, it is critical that each have an understanding of the other’s role. And it is paramount that senior leaders explain to their junior leaders and troops executing the mission how their role contributes to big picture success.

Chain of command

As a leader employing Extreme Ownership, if your team isn’t doing what you need them to do, you first have to look at yourself. Rather than blame them for not seeing the strategic picture, you must figure out a way to better communicate it to them in terms that are simple, clear, and concise, so that they understand. This is what leading down the chain of command is all about.

As a leader if your team isn’t doing what you need them to do, you first have to look at yourself.

I do so hope and wish that above set of words shall help us to understand the throwbacks of leadership and minimise our habits of critisizing them without rhyme or reason.