[September 3, 2016] From the ranks of those who study leadership, lessons from some of the most admired military leaders of all time has been summarized for us. After hundreds of interviews with current military leaders from across the globe, research has shown that there are special nuggets that inform and teach us what makes a person successful as senior leader.
Military leadership is ancient in its origins and complex in its role in any particular society. Stereotypically, military leaders practice a form of hierarchical and paternalistic leadership that falls short on creativeness, flexibility, and collaboration. While many, like me, disagree with such typecasting there still remains many lessons from which every one of us can learn.
Here are five strong lessons derived from military leaders. There are certainly many more but these stood out as keys to professional success as a senior military leader:
- Listen to others and honestly speak your mind.
- Control what you can and know what battles to fight.
- See the future, understand it, and know how to tell others about it.
- Know when to not make a decision.
- Recognize that leadership is about people; never forget them.
Naturally, these can be summed up as elements of adaptability. Ultimately everything leads back to adaptability and all the traits of a leader point to courage as the focus. Whether it is respect for others, bravery in combat, taking care of soldiers, or just plain, old-fashioned hard work, adaptability is the nexus of a great leader.
Too many leaders forget why they’re where they are chosen to be leaders of men and women. Too many believe somehow that it is something within them alone that makes them successful. But we all know and should never forget that those “others” are the real source of power in a leader.
It is true that successful leaders must know how to make informed, timely decisions, control risk taking activity, and solve problems while on the go, but it is the great leader that knows how to motivate others to achieve something that they would not ordinarily do. It is therefore no surprise that the Army Leadership Manual in the post-Cold War era sought to combine a leader’s character, competence, and action-taking into a coherent whole.
Thus, to understand the thinking of a leader in the modern volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world, one must fundamentally acknowledge that leadership today is about the challenge of ceding control and allowing for more adaptable leadership.
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