I have read more than my share of leadership books and essays, and the majority focus on stories and lessons learned from the best leaders the author has encountered. While I have had the privilege of working for some excellent leaders, the best lessons I have learned come from the worst leader I ever encountered. His example showed me the consequences of not taking your job seriously and inspired me to do the right thing.
A Challenging Environment
To set the scene, I was a young lieutenant in the Coast Guard sent to Saint Louis along with 10 other officers, 40 enlisted, 10 civilians, and 70 contractors to stand up a centralized IT help desk for the entire service, over 70,000 people. None of us had any experience with such work at this scale, and the pressures of the assignment took their toll. We had different personnel arrested, die on duty, and commit suicide. We even had a member fake his own death and hide in the hills of West Virginia for six months before the U.S. Marshals arrested him.
Throughout this, we were led by a commander I will call “Bill” who embodied poor leadership. Bill was a boss who was not well suited for his task. He did not know the work, had no real interest in learning it, and generally spent his time trying to avoid it. We tried to engage Bill to better align him with his boss’s expectations, but with no joy. His chain of command determined that our output was good enough, so they left the situation alone.
The negative aspect is that I, as a mid-level manager, had no credible or reliable senior source to go to for mentorship or support. The positive side of this is that I discovered among my peers some of the best leaders I have ever encountered. Together, we worked to solve the unique problems we faced on a daily basis. Without engaged leadership, we were free to craft our own vision and to enact creative measures to achieve operational successes while balancing the health and well-being of our crew.
The tour was one the most enjoyable in my 20 years of service because I was able to work with great people in pursuit of a mission in which we all believed. Once I made the choice to learn from the poor examples of Bill, I was able to carry out my duties with a sense of purpose and a goal to do it better when in his position. I picked up four specific lessons that have stuck with me.
1.The most valuable thing you can give your people is your time.
Bill quickly discovered one of the primary benefits of being the senior most member is that no one can chastise you for applying a very liberal definition of the term “teleworking.” He started by missing Fridays, then Mondays, and some weeks Tuesdays and Thursdays; eventually, we never knew if or when to expect Bill on a given day.
This lack of supervision empowered me to lead. I learned to make tough decisions without hesitation and to own them, and I had opportunities not normally afforded members of my rank. I was able to emcee retirements and advancements, write recommendations for high performers, and provide key input in strategic planning meetings.
I now make it a point to have regular interaction with my subordinates. If we are not able to talk throughout the day, I set weekly synch meetings to stay current with their work, hear their concerns, and refine their plans. When we converse, I make a point to stop any other task I am doing and give them my full attention. They are the most important thing to me at that time.
2. Your people are always listening to you; say what you mean and mean what you say.
Bill was fond of calling all-hands meetings at which he would address about 120 people to tell us of important events, upcoming plans, and his ideas. He frequently made promises to follow up with people, send out amplifying information, and solve issues raised in his talks. This talk, however, never translated into action on his part. Initially, his staff did our best to answer the mail on his commitments to the crew and to remind him to get back to them. Eventually, his lack of interest in honoring his word informed us that he was more interested in public image rather than reassuring his people, and we applied our efforts elsewhere.
From these incidents, I learned to be careful with my words. Credibility is a precious commodity, and failure to deliver once can blemish your reputation with a member forever. I do my best not to commit to a reward, a punishment, or a meeting unless I can deliver. Once I have, I do everything in my power to honor that commitment, and I provide a timely explanation to the member if I am overtaken by events.
3. Always seek the advice of peers, subject matter experts, and anyone you trust before unveiling an idea.
Bill had a favorite quote that he used all the time: “You’re making it too hard; it’s easy.” The truth of the matter was that it was rarely easy. His tendency to take a “big picture” point of view and not worry about the details made adoption of policy by his subordinates difficult at best, and impossible at worst. Upon arrival to our unit, Bill was advised that we needed a change management process to measure the impact of operational changes. Alone, he developed a byzantine process that required formal review by two separate bodies and his personal approval. His previously established tendency to miss work caused a logjam of change requests and complete stagnation of our business processes, which lowered productivity and morale. Bill eventually declared defeat and abandoned change management altogether, without analyzing the process failure or even asking for feedback.
I learned from this and other incidents that one person seldom sees the entire picture, and consultation with people you trust can greatly increase your understanding of the issue. Some of my fondest memories from Saint Louis involve discussing business challenges with my peers after work. We would drink a beer together, provide varying perspectives on an issue, and always produce a better solution. By vetting our ideas with people who would eventually be asked to adopt them, we tightened up our business cases and had advocates at staff meetings.
I now socialize important documents, official responses, and my own evaluations with trusted peers prior to release whenever I have the chance. Their varied perspectives add value to my arguments and help me avoid blind spots.
4. Your people are your most valuable resource, use them wisely.
Bill did not dislike any of his employees to my knowledge, but he did have a habit of undervaluing their contributions, while overvaluing his own. On two separate occasions, he removed a primary job responsibility from me without warning. I inquired about the performance of my duties and was told it had nothing to do with that, he just did not feel the need to notify me beforehand.
Bill would also take off most of the month of June each year, our busiest time, and return with ideas about how to improve operations. We would listen to his ideas and try our best to enact them, but his lack of knowledge of the business details assured their failure. He generally thought he had great ideas that were implemented poorly by us, and he let us know.
I learned to make a real effort to understand how my people are doing. As they onboard, I ensure that their personal needs are met before letting them know my expectations. I monitor their progress as they learn their job and do my best to instill confidence and empower them. I let them know that I want them to “work me out of a job.”
Lessons Learned
At times I wonder about the value of my experience and the challenging assignments I have had, but then I am afforded opportunities to apply leadership lessons. My brother is a cybersecurity expert who has worked in the field for over ten years, and he was recently given supervisory authority over one other person. He asked me for some quick and dirty advice, wanting to know how he should go about leading people. I told him, “Remember the best boss you ever had, and do the same things that person did. Remember your worst boss, and try not to repeat any of those actions.” It might seem too simple to be meaningful, but many people forget basic things when they advance. Ignoring your people, lack of understanding of your job, tunnel vision, and underutilizing resources are all poor practices that new leaders can easily fix. Good leaders should regularly self-assess and ask for other perspectives to perform at their best and get the best from their people.
While plenty can be gleaned by working from great leaders, you can learn some of your best and most memorable lessons from your worst leaders. You just need to stay true to your service, accomplish your tasks to “Bill’s” satisfaction, and take detailed notes about what you feel could be improved upon. When you are done, you will have good sea stories and will be a better leader, and there will hopefully be no hard feelings. As for Bill and me, upon checkout I was able to sincerely tell him that “I learned more about leadership here than in any assignment I have ever been given.” I just allowed him to fill in the details of that statement.
