THE FIVE POINTS OF LEADERSHIP
Steve Cole writes:
I am sure that the US military has an official thing about this, but if so, I don't remember it. When in the State Guard, I used these five points to teach people how to be a leader. They apply equally well to civilian jobs, and I've adapted them here. These are just the high points and some examples; to include everything would mean writing a book. (Hey, that's an idea.)
1. First, be an excellent employee (an excellent soldier, in the original text). Be really good at your job. (If you cannot do your job, do not expect to be promoted to the job of supervising your coworkers.) Understand not just how to do your job, but how your job fits into the overall way the company does business. You have to know more than your job. You have to be doing your job in a way that makes the next guy's job easier, and you have to be able to get your job done even if the previous guy didn't do his job exactly right. Be able to show other people how to do the job. (Hint: If you're not the first in line to show the new guy how your department works, you're not going to be the first in line when I pick a new department head.)
2. Tell people what to do. Oh, sure, any amateur petty tyrant can scream "Get this done!" and stomp out on the way to the golf course. That's not telling them what to do. Give clear and specific directions. Set standards. Establish goals. Give directions AS directions, not as vague suggestions. "Somebody needs to do this" or "This had better get done" is not the same thing as "You need to do this."
3. Make sure the job gets done. Be available for questions. Keep track of who was told to do something, when he was told he had the job to do, what the performance standards are, and what the deadline was. Check to see that they met the standards. Check to see that they met the goals. Check on their progress during the job and don't wait until the end when there will be no time to save a project from failure. (Asking "How's it going?" is not checking on their progress. You actually have to check the amount and quality of work that has been done.) Make sure the employees understand the task. (Have them repeat the instructions back to you for new or unfamiliar projects.) Without going all Big Brother on them, make sure they know that they are under supervision and that there will be consequences for failure to perform.
4. Take care of them while they're doing it. Back in the State Guard, this mostly meant making sure that the soldiers assigned to guard posts got water on hot days, bathroom breaks, and a chance to eat. It meant rotating troops from tough duty posts, and it meant making sure that you had a solution in mind for any plausible situation (such as carrying a first aid kit). The civilian world is different only in the list of things to do. Make sure people have the equipment they need to do the job they were given, and make sure that equipment is safe and in good repair. Make sure people get paid on time, and get raises when earned. Solve any paperwork problems with human resources. Control or get rid of the office bully. If someone has to work late, make sure they have a safe way to get to their car. Make sure they have the training. Encourage them to help each other, but not to annoy each other. Taking care of your troops also means having a continually updated plan about where you're taking the company.
5. Train the next generation of leaders, not just the next generation of employees. Once an employee reached step one (excellent employee) find out if they have it within them to lead, to manage people, projects, resources, and deadlines. Give everyone a chance to be in charge of some middle-size project that they have to coordinate with other people. Make sure that everyone knows that they all have a fair chance to learn to lead. Sure, one of them will be the obvious "next guy to get promoted" but he needs to understand that training for a future promotion does not start after the guy in your way got promoted out of your way. Put a junior guy in charge for an afternoon and make sure that the senior guys know that they're still senior and will remain senior, but that the junior guy needs to grow his skill set over a long period of time. The senior guy will remember that while he still had to wait his turn for promotion, back when he was the junior guy, he got a chance to lead every now and then.
I am sure that the US military has an official thing about this, but if so, I don't remember it. When in the State Guard, I used these five points to teach people how to be a leader. They apply equally well to civilian jobs, and I've adapted them here. These are just the high points and some examples; to include everything would mean writing a book. (Hey, that's an idea.)
1. First, be an excellent employee (an excellent soldier, in the original text). Be really good at your job. (If you cannot do your job, do not expect to be promoted to the job of supervising your coworkers.) Understand not just how to do your job, but how your job fits into the overall way the company does business. You have to know more than your job. You have to be doing your job in a way that makes the next guy's job easier, and you have to be able to get your job done even if the previous guy didn't do his job exactly right. Be able to show other people how to do the job. (Hint: If you're not the first in line to show the new guy how your department works, you're not going to be the first in line when I pick a new department head.)
2. Tell people what to do. Oh, sure, any amateur petty tyrant can scream "Get this done!" and stomp out on the way to the golf course. That's not telling them what to do. Give clear and specific directions. Set standards. Establish goals. Give directions AS directions, not as vague suggestions. "Somebody needs to do this" or "This had better get done" is not the same thing as "You need to do this."
3. Make sure the job gets done. Be available for questions. Keep track of who was told to do something, when he was told he had the job to do, what the performance standards are, and what the deadline was. Check to see that they met the standards. Check to see that they met the goals. Check on their progress during the job and don't wait until the end when there will be no time to save a project from failure. (Asking "How's it going?" is not checking on their progress. You actually have to check the amount and quality of work that has been done.) Make sure the employees understand the task. (Have them repeat the instructions back to you for new or unfamiliar projects.) Without going all Big Brother on them, make sure they know that they are under supervision and that there will be consequences for failure to perform.
4. Take care of them while they're doing it. Back in the State Guard, this mostly meant making sure that the soldiers assigned to guard posts got water on hot days, bathroom breaks, and a chance to eat. It meant rotating troops from tough duty posts, and it meant making sure that you had a solution in mind for any plausible situation (such as carrying a first aid kit). The civilian world is different only in the list of things to do. Make sure people have the equipment they need to do the job they were given, and make sure that equipment is safe and in good repair. Make sure people get paid on time, and get raises when earned. Solve any paperwork problems with human resources. Control or get rid of the office bully. If someone has to work late, make sure they have a safe way to get to their car. Make sure they have the training. Encourage them to help each other, but not to annoy each other. Taking care of your troops also means having a continually updated plan about where you're taking the company.
5. Train the next generation of leaders, not just the next generation of employees. Once an employee reached step one (excellent employee) find out if they have it within them to lead, to manage people, projects, resources, and deadlines. Give everyone a chance to be in charge of some middle-size project that they have to coordinate with other people. Make sure that everyone knows that they all have a fair chance to learn to lead. Sure, one of them will be the obvious "next guy to get promoted" but he needs to understand that training for a future promotion does not start after the guy in your way got promoted out of your way. Put a junior guy in charge for an afternoon and make sure that the senior guys know that they're still senior and will remain senior, but that the junior guy needs to grow his skill set over a long period of time. The senior guy will remember that while he still had to wait his turn for promotion, back when he was the junior guy, he got a chance to lead every now and then.
posted by Federation Commander at 10:15 PM
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