Leadership

In June 2004 I was invited to speak about Leadership at Coast Guard Headquarters. To prepare for this talk I asked for input from three people who I know are leaders. The criterion I used to select these three men was simple: "Could I trust him with my life?"

I served with two of them in the Coast Guard and I have known the third all my life. Although each one's background was vastly different from the other two, what they wrote was amazingly similar.  

This should be the criterion against which all leaders are judged. There are many people who have leadership roles, but who, in reality, are simply managers. Over the years I have come to realized that leadership is innate and not an acquired skill. Leaders cannot be made, only destroyed. A leader's skills can be honed over time and with mentoring from other leaders. They can be easily destroyed by those who are not leaders and are fearful or jealous of a leader's ability.

Hopefully you find these pieces useful in your life. Please let me know what you think of them and if you have anything to add.
                                                                                                     —Mike

Peter W. Rogers
Former Quartermaster Master, First Class, USCG

Here are some random thoughts on leadership. I am concerned primarily with "informal" leadership, that is to say, leadership that is not supported by a command structure. The ideas below are in no particular order.           

Informal leadership depends entirely on the trust and confidence of those who are led.

The leader, in this voluntary circumstance, must continually earn that trust and confidence through knowledge, competence, imagination and hard work. He must lead by example rather than by command.

He [or she] must always demonstrate a high level of determination and focus on the problems to be solved, but also be amenable to sensible advice from others. The leader must not persuade himself that he is the sole source of good ideas.

He should rely on a small group of trusted advisors, a "brain trust," but must make it clear that he cannot be manipulated.

At times of extreme stress he must keep his wits about him and maintain an even temper.

He can never "fake it." Posturing and pretense will rapidly dissolve the trust of those who are led.

He should expect a high standard of performance, praise it when it is met, and make it clear he values the energy and efforts of all members of the team, even when mistakes are made. Not everyone is highly competent and a leader can destroy the moral and commitment of certain individuals by demanding performance beyond their capacities.

A leader must know how to LISTEN and to bear in mind Red Auerbach's famous dictum: "What I say is less important than what you hear." The leader may be right and may present his arguments persuasively but always bear in mind that there is enormous variability in how others view the world.

A leader cannot be too concerned about matters of personal loyalty. This is not about HIM, it is about the task at hand and the overall mission—it is not about HIS personal validation.

A leader should bring wit and humor to the task but he must also be tough minded—and his people should know that. His people should intuitively know that he is accessible but that you cannot take liberties with him.

A leader deals with discontent early. Respect is reciprocal but there are always some people who resent leadership. Such people can usually be marginalized before a mutinous situation arises.

Leadership often emerges in pursuit of strongly fought-over political objectives, thus there is opposition to be overcome. That opposition must be out-maneuvered, out-thought and out-organized. And then there is the large number of uncommitted people between the two groups who must be persuaded. This group will respect enterprise, hard work and toughness but will react badly to anger and arrogance. Tone and attitude often have as great an impact on this group as do the objective merits of the arguments and the issues at stake. Fight a tough, clean fight.

There are often many strategies for solving a problem. A leader must exercise discipline and judgment in deciding which strategies to pursue. The energies of his group are a finite resource and can be too easily dissipated by trying to do too much. A sense of timing is also essential. A strategy may be worthless now and the perfect approach in 6 months.

Thus every bit of thought and planning that the leader invests on his own in anticipation will pay off in group energy well spent.

A leader should never go to a meeting unprepared.

A leader should never speak in clichés, bromides and platitudes. Nothing can more clearly signify the lack of thought that has been put into solving the problems at hand. This is "lazy leadership" and is seldom worth listening to.

A good leader has to be able to "look over the horizon" and anticipate problems and solutions that others haven't thought of.

Leadership that works is natural and organic, not forced. A leader who constantly has to struggle to assert his leadership should ask himself whether he is a leader at all.

A leader must be seen to care a great deal about the outcome of an effort but there is no leadership if it is not a group endeavor. If a leader gets too far out in front in terms of commitment he then starts feeling put-upon and sorry for himself.

Above all else, a leader inspires others—and does it effectively enough that the enterprise can carry on its full momentum even without him. A good leader is not threatened by subordinates who demonstrate initiative and, yes, leadership.

A leader must speak clearly but does not inspire through ringing speeches. He does so through clear-eyed vision, solid hard work, even-handed treatment of his team and results. Victory vindicates leadership.

James T. Sears, MD
Read Admiral, US Navy Medical Corps, Retired

1. "The vision thing"—Seems to me a leader has to have a place he wants to be going. It usually involves a somewhat unique perspective or a synthesis that drives to a particular goal. It usually involves people saying "Hey, that makes sense, I hadn't thought of these elements in that way before" Ideally; it also is something that advances humankind in some way.

2. "The great communicator"—Leaders have to be able to get their vision across. They have to be committed to it, remain determined and persistent and be able to inspire others to follow.
3. "Followers"—In my case any success I have ever had as a leader has depended on the people who have worked the program with me. If you asked me why I have had any success it would clearly be that I have some talent in picking good people. You always want to pick people who are smarter than you and preferably people who are willing to tell you things you may not want to hear. You have to be open and listen. The good ideas on any project come from below, not from above.
4. "Value people"—I think that any success I have had is because I value and respect the people who work for me. I try to treat them well and be concerned about their welfare. I understand that their loyalty is going to get us through tough times and gets them to the place where they will do whatever it takes to get their job done and get to success.
5. "Opportunity"—I think you can teach someone how to be a manager. I think it is quite another thing to "teach" someone to be a leader. Most leaders I respect have become successful because they have taken advantage of an opportunity that they have come upon that others, who have had the same opportunity, have missed.
6. "Risk takers"—Finally, leaders need to feel strongly enough on what they want to achieve to be willing to risk failure or humiliation to get to where they want to go. Temporary failures or challenges do not deter good leaders. It does at times take some courage and some elevated to ego to charge ahead.

Mike Gutmiller
CWO4 Boatswains Mate, USCG, Retired

1. The natural leader, is the member of the group, long into the tunnel, who sees the light, believes it to be the sun, is positive it is daylight, tells all the people around him it is the light of day, then immediately starts making preparations to get everyone off the track, JUST IN CASE.
2. Perhaps leaders are born, perchance they are made, it isn't remarkable that they lead, it is remarkable that, for no apparent reason, sane men will disregard all danger and disorder to follow them, for no personal gain other than the glory of being there when that leaders' "hour in the sun" arrives.
3. It is almost always remarkably easy to find the leader in a group. Everyone is trying to follow their example, or trying to put them down in the coarsest of ways. Never tainting their ranting with even a smidgeon of truth or a provable fact. (See Jealousy).
4. Try to entertain the thought of following some one into an almost certain death situation, and then look forward to the trip. That person is a natural leader.
5. To lead it is best to know how to follow.
6. I am impressed by natural leadership, people who take charge without conscience thought, of glory or personal gain, they just seem to attract the people around them then form those individuals into a tight group. It happens in the military often, in politics sometimes and in business and industry a lot.  
7. After 25 years in the Coast Guard, much of the time being a successful "OinC" of shore and floating billets, I was sailing a desk for my last tour at a group office in the south. There were a multitude of hats assigned to me but mostly I was the Aids to Navigation officer, with a collateral duty of Group Officer of the Day every third to fifth day. One night on watch, the call came in from a grandfather with his "young" grandson, they were broke down in the bay and the batteries of the cell phone were dying. As per OPORDERS I notified district I was sending a small boat out to get them before we lost contact and the approaching band of weather hit both them and us. I was ordered not to send the boat. District had rumors there might be drug activity and they wanted every unit to be in its place. I argued but lost and immediately started composing my retirement letter.   The leadership of the USCG had lost completely their perspective of who we were and why we lived the way we did. I was embarrassed to tell that grandfather I couldn't do anything until morning and that there were storms sweeping towards them.
8. It isn't who is biggest or fastest or best looking, it's who can handle the stress best.
9. There comes a time when even the most reluctant of men (Read and edit to mean women also) must see the time has come for him or her to step forward and lead. I have found this to be usually in periods of confusion, stress, or danger.
10. When I had gotten some age and experience, and was older than the kids who had to work for me, I sometimes needed a job done properly. I remember starting out on a long voyage on one of the Ice Breakers after morning muster I sent a seaman to get me a garbage can (in those days they were "Shit Cans") and another to fetch some soap and a brush. While I had my entire deck force watch I scrubbed out a smelly shi. . . garbage can. Most had never seen a First class Bos'n do real work before and it held their attention. When I was done I had each of them examine what I had done and explained that when I scrub 'em, This is what I expected. I always got it.
11. I also found that if there was a difficult job that needed done I could explain the end results required to the laziest sailor on board and then give him the job. Living within the parameters given he would always find the easiest way to do it.
12. I tried to remember that even though I was senior to the rest of the crew they all had experienced different lives than me and I could usually learn from them. Not always good useful stuff, but stuff I could learn something from.  I learned to make casting nets by sitting beside a Boston boy who nobody on the ship liked. He was a loner and a lot of trouble, but he could make fishing net faster and better than I ever will.

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