Leadership Deconstructed and Reconstructed

Friday, January 10, 2014

 

If you think being a leader is easy, try it when there is someone shooting at you!  The parallels between military and civilian leadership qualities are numerous.  Just because your rank is displayed on your epaulets does not automatically bestow leadership abilities anymore than a CEO’s name plate does.  Rebecca "Becky" Halstead, USA, Brig. Gen., retired, outlines 30 fundamental Leadership Principles based on her 27 years of military service in her recently released book, “24/7: The First Person You Must Lead Is You”.  Throughout “24/7”, Halstead weaves a broadcloth of leadership values based on family and faith, and foremost, integrity.  Halstead holds the distinction of being among the earliest women to graduate from the US Military Academy at West Point and the first women to command a US combat unit.

 

The business literature is peppered with self-help books on management and organizational leadership.  What makes “24/7” different from the host of others?  Halstead asks the reader to hold up a mirror to themselves and look introspectively at how they lead themselves and others.  She makes a convincing case that until you demonstrate to those around you that you process the prerequisites for leadership, you are merely ordering others and not leading.

 

In “24/7” Halstead points out that we own the responsibility and accountability for our successes and failures.  She candidly draws a focus on her own successes and failures, noting that leaders have to be keenly aware of their own strengths and weaknesses.  Along this same line of thinking, leaders have to know when to trust the judgment of others and rely on their expertise.  Halstead makes it clear that as a leader, you set the tone for how you organization operates.  If you lack the moral, ethical, and integrity qualities demanded of a leader, your organization will exhibit those same qualities.  In other words, “You reap what you sow”.

 

In today’s hyper competitive world, it is easy for an organizational leader to take the quick way out of any situation.  Halstead draws the reader’s awareness to the fact at times we as organizational leaders must “chose the harder right over the easier wrong”.  Such actions may at times place us at odds with others to the point of being detrimental to our personal and professional well being.  She reminds us that leadership is a privilege, not a right, we have to earn and maintain that privilege though a continuous demonstration of our value systems.  We may fail at times, but it is precisely at those times that a leader’s true value systems, or the lack thereof, becomes apparent.

 

Hardly a day passes without a public or private person being singled out for mis-conduct.  Halstead reminds us that no one is exempt from leadership failure, even those in which we place the highest degree of trust and faith.  However, she also reminds us that those of us who are in leadership roles have a duty to coach and mentor others towards becoming better leaders.

 

While it may be an over simplification, “24/7”’s leadership style can be summarized as strict, professional, demanding intermixed with lots of common sense, faith, and heart.