[January 2, 2016] Now is the time of year for new resolutions that we create to hopefully make us better as a person and as a leader … but more on those resolutions later. Today, I’d like to add that to be a leader means doing the job, not just observing leadership. While we can learn from observing there are no substitutes for the actual conduct of leadership. Therefore, don’t be a mud flap1; it will not enhance your skills.
One of the smartest persons I’ve ever known once worked with me. The problem? He lacked key leader social skills and did’nt want to be in a leader position until he, in his own words, “had a chance to see leadership for what it’s about.” Assigned to observe leadership in action, his job was to follow me and learn leader techniques. His failure to learn earned him the nickname “mud flap” from the soldiers who worked for me.
In the military this can be a problem and it was a big problem for him. He was a lieutenant and the expectation was that you lead. Since we were U.S. Infantry, leadership could not be learned in a correspondence course, it had to be learned from real life experiences. How he managed to survive the officer training he’d received up to the point before meeting me was and still is a mystery.
He was a master at information on Soviet military equipment and tactics. For example, he could tell us the angle and density of steel of the front armor plate of the new Soviet T-72 tank (new at the time) and what U.S. military armor piercing round it took to penetrate it and how to position your tank to do so. But he couldn’t give orders to men in training to do it; in combat it he would have been incapable of any action.
Later he resigned his military commission as an officer and returned to civilian life. As a military officer, a person can’t be a mud flap; they cannot follow someone to learn about leadership. Certainly there is much to learn through observation but it must be combined with actual experience.
Real leaders don’t lead from behind … they lead from the front.
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- Mud Flap (also Mudflap) is a flap that hangs behind the wheel of a vehicle and is designed to prevent water, mud, and stones thrown up from the road from hitting the bodywork of the vehicle or any following vehicles.