[February 12, 2017] As an Army ROTC cadet, I once attended a special exercise that involved team building. One of the Leadership Development Exercise events involved cadet teams, four to each, working to cross a concrete gap with planks of wood. They key to completing the task was that everyone had to work together. My team had a young lady who refused to participate and thus we failed; she was our weakest link.
The challenge was to get her to work with us. I’m not sure if she was an uncooperative plant by our military instructors or that was just her personality to refuse to work in a team, but our small group regularly failed our tasks. Those team-building tasks were fairly simple but the cast-iron rule was that everyone was required to finish all assignments.
The weakest link can cause team morale to decline, decreased productivity, missed chances for team success, or disintegration (or disbanding) of the team. It is imperative to do the right thing by coaching that person as the weak link so the team reaches its maximum potential. J.T. O’Donnell, founder and CEO of WorkItDaily.com has a few suggestions on how to identify if you are the weakest link and what to do about it.1
Many of us are sure to look down on these people (although we shouldn’t). They are the ones holding us back so we are inclined to sneer at them contemptibly; openly or not. Yet, there is nothing like being in that position ourselves. No matter how smart, gifted, or lucky we are, one day in the future we will be the one who will be the weakest link. That happened to me when I was asked to stand in for my boss during an important assignment.
My boss was to travel to northern Iraq to oversee the emplacement of a new bridge over a strategic waterway. I was his engineer for all construction efforts so it made sense for him to send me to act in his place at a Base Strategic Defense meeting held at Army Headquarters in Baghdad.
I was a colonel and the most junior officer present. The Flag officers in attendance had far more experience and knowledge of this meeting and I was unable to provide anything relevant and, in addition, I was unable to answer engineer-related questions; a personal and professional disappointment. In effect, I was the weakest link. The meeting was rescheduled to a later date when my boss could attend.
This made me realize that sometimes the weakest link is not due to incompetence or conscious ignorance but sometimes it is the circumstances we are under. I realized that a good leader should help that person with compassion and respect if they ever plan on them getting stronger. This is how a leader can be both authentic and successful.
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