A Definition of Leadership

This post comes from a book I have been reading, “Forgotten Fundamentals – The Answers are in the Box” by Dan Clark.  One of the chapters is "The Definition of Leadership" as described by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Faulk, Commander of the 30th Student Squadron/Air and Space Basic Course, Air War University:

To me leadership is three things best captured in a memory tool that I call Set3.  First, a leader must set the example.  I’ll use a simple scenario to frame the topic.  Is a leader going to be the faster runner in his or her squadron/organization?  As I look at a squadron where most of my staff and students are nearly half my age, I can tell you that I am not the fastest runner.  Being the fastest runner is not the point.  The point is that the leader needs to be out there running, running like it matters, running like he wants to win every time.  The same concept applies to everything that a leader does, setting the example in both action and behavior.

A leader must also set the right environment.  People want to work in an environment that is suitable from a creature comfort perspective, professionally challenging, and personally rewarding.  The environment needs to be one where people trust their leader, are comfortable with that leader, and can discuss issues, thoughts, concerns, good ideas, bad practices and so forth, and know that they will not be ridiculed or negatively impacted when they address something with the leader.  I believe that setting the right environment is the most challenging area of Set3 construct in that there is a tremendous amount of variables outside of the leader’s control that generate both physical and mental stressors which can interfere with setting a good environment.  It is easy to be overcome by these and lose your sight picture on keeping that open and trusting relationship between you and your people.  Keeping your people in mind every step of the way will help maintain the right environment.

Finally, a leader must set his of her people up for success.  There are many opportunities to do so: awards, new jobs, one-of-a-kind opportunities, promotions, special recognition, and so forth.  However, the process to set people up for success must be fair.  Some people will do the minimum that is expected to successfully meet the task at hand to a minimum degree.  Should they be rewarded for standard performance at the expense of someone who does the “heavy lifting”?  No way!  If you do that, you just marginalized your reward/recognition tools and lost your people’s respect for you.  Setting people up for success is more than awards, special recognition, and new jobs.  It is about taking time to provide proper feedback (the good and the bad), mentoring them in a way that allows them to develop over the continuum of their lifetime regardless of what job duties they perform, and providing new avenues to lead (if they are ready and have earned it).