May, 2006, Volume
10, Number 8
CONTENTS
Tip of the Spear: Leadership Lessons from the U.S.-led Armed Forces in
the Middle East
Developing Leadership: Teaching Leadership to High School Seniors
Confidence: Putting Grace In Your Swagger
Tip of the Spear:
Leadership Lessons from the U.S.-led
Armed Forces in the Middle East
The
Pentagon recently invited a group of 43 civilians, including Michael
Useem, director of Wharton's Center for Leadership and Change
Management, to witness the management and leadership of its Central
Command, which is responsible for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Useem and other members of the group -- which included executives,
private equity investors, media commentators and academics -- traveled
to the Middle East to observe troops and operations in Kuwait, Bahrain,
and the Arabian Sea. In this report written literally from the
frontlines, Useem takes "a look at the execution of American military
policy -- not the policy itself -- a subject of continuing and
increasingly intense national debate .... From even this brief foray
into their world, it is evident that the U.S. armed services have built
what many private companies strive for: a culture of readiness and
commitment, cross-service and cross-national integration, and pragmatic
flexibility."
Imagine
you have been asked to transport more than 198,000 men and women in
uniform and another 29,500 civilians to a new location some 7,500 miles
from home. They will need shelters, meals, and materiel to get their
jobs done. You will have to prepare and motivate them to meet the
competitive challenge of their lives -- one that could cost them their
lives. They will have to square off against al-Qaeda cells, Taliban
remnants and Iraqi terrorists.
It is not your
position to make the policy, but it is your war to win. You are the
officer in charge, the divisional president. The CEO -- President George
W. Bush -- had ordered the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq as part of a
broader war against terrorism, and your predecessor -- General Tommy
Franks -- had mounted both. Your assignment is to finish the task, and
it will require a deft combination of organizational management,
personal leadership, and judicious decisions. Backing you up, in the
words of Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Allison Barber, is
"America's oldest, largest, busiest, and most successful company" -- the
U.S. Department of Defense.
The Pentagon recently
invited a group of 43 civilians, including myself, to witness the
management and leadership of its Central Command -- CENTCOM -- the
Tampa, Fla.-headquartered operation responsible for the wars in
Afghanistan and Iraq and security across a wide swath of Asia, Africa,
and the Middle East. The Department of Defense flew the group for a
front-line look at its troops and operations in Kuwait, Bahrain, and the
Arabian Sea. En route the flight passed over Iraq itself, though at
35,000 ft., Baghdad and the Tigris were far -- and safely -- below.
We came from all
walks of life. Our group included executives from 3M, Mary Kay
Cosmetics, and J.P. Morgan Chase; private equity partners, media
commentators, and film makers; the president of the University of
Alabama and the dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard; the
Delaware homeland security chief and the president of the Sierra Club.
Why We Went
The participants were
drawn to the program for many reasons. Some of us brought a working
familiarity with the armed services, and some had traveled in the
region. Views on the overall wisdom of the war in Iraq varied widely,
but everyone wanted to learn more about how the U.S. military operated
in the region.
Some saw it as a way
of better appreciating what they were already assisting. Consider Robert
Stine, chief executive of Tejon Ranch Company, a publicly-traded
real-estate and agri-business company based in southern California. In
the wake of the Afghanistan war, a friend had asked him to become part
of "Cooks from the Valley" (after California's San Joaquin Valley) whose
first mission was to buy and fly more than 5,000 fresh steaks to Hawaii.
At Pearl Harbor, they loaded the steaks onto the U.S. aircraft carrier
John C. Stennis on its return in May 2002 from wartime duty in the
Arabian Sea. The cooks then barbecued their steaks on the flight deck
for the entire carrier crew, their personal way of thanking and honoring
those who served in uniform.
Similarly, John Fox,
vice president of government and community relations for Royal Caribbean
Cruises, arranged for one of the company's ships to be used to raise
college funds for the children of soldiers killed in action in the
Middle East. With Royal Caribbean International contributing food,
beverages, and entertainment, Voyager of the Seas, one of the largest
cruise vessels in the world, hosted more than 800 people and raised more
than $120,000 in scholarships.
What follows is what
I learned from a week's contact with the service personnel who
constitute the "tip of the spear" in America's war against terrorism. It
is a look at the execution of American military policy -- not the policy
itself -- a subject of continuing and increasingly intense national
debate. Several impressions emerged from our numerous discussions with
those on the front line and from witnessing many of them at work. From
even this brief foray into their world, it is evident that the U.S.
armed services have built what many private companies strive for: 1) a
culture of readiness and commitment; 2) cross-service and cross-national
integration; and 3) pragmatic flexibility.
A Culture of
Readiness and Commitment
Few of the many
front-line troops with whom we spoke expressed concern about their
personal preparation for the jobs they performed, which ranged from
serving meals and armoring Humvees to patrolling neighborhoods and
piloting aircraft. They affirmed readiness for what lay ahead and
commitment to their particular mission, whether it involved staffing a
base or commanding a ship. When asked about the broader purpose of their
collective presence in the Middle East, some front-line soldiers
demurred, saying it was above their pay grade to worry about it. When
asked about their own purpose, however, none demurred.
Colonel Gary S.
Supnick, Chief of Staff for the U.S. Marine Forces with Central Command,
noted that his Marines "go into harm's way and protect each other." And
harm's way was never far from the minds of most. "This is a fight
against an adversary that inspires fear," observed Vice Admiral Patrick
M. Walsh, commander of CENTCOM's Naval Forces and the U.S. Fifth Fleet.
"If you are fearful or tepid, this is not the place for you."
For many, a culture
of readiness and commitment came against a backdrop of personal
sacrifice. One of the Air Force pilots on the C-17 flying us to the
Middle East, for instance, reported that he had been away from his
family for more than 200 of the previous 365 days. An airman reported
that her parents had quit their jobs to help take care of her
10-year-old son whom she had left behind in the U.S. A reservist in
Kuwait had been called back into service from the senior ranks of Kodak.
A National Guard crew flying a Blackhawk helicopter in Kuwait had until
recently been leading private lives on Cape Cod. Now they are shuttling
combat troops -- and us to meet them.
Closer home, Master
Sergeant Anthony Moreland was working for the highway department of the
City of Philadelphia and enjoying life with his two young sons before
being called up for service. Now he serves as flight engineer for one of
the Air Force's primary transports, the C-130.
The home front never
seemed far from home. Several reservists reported that their employers
supplement their temporary military paychecks with enough to make them
financially whole. Most soldiers said that they were only an email click
away from family, and one group of 40 even pooled their funds to buy a
satellite dish to create their own high-speed internet link. Some
shopped online as if they had never left home. A soldier in Kuwait had
been buying film DVDs galore through Amazon, the packages arriving
within days of what would have been expected in the U.S. Though military
hardware was standard issue, reminders from home intruded: The call sign
for our Blackhawk crew from Cape Cod, not far from Boston, was "Bosox"
(for the Boston Red Sox).
The culture of
readiness and commitment that we saw in the Middle East is crucial for
success not just in war but also in business. Among the factors that
have driven the success of companies ranging from Southwest Airlines and
Nordstrom to Johnson & Johnson and SAS (the software maker) is an
abiding commitment of their employees to the mission of the enterprise.
Cross-national and
Cross-service Integration
Virtually every base,
airfield, and ship that we visited contained personnel from various
nations. A briefing at CENTCOM headquarters included officers from
Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea,
New Zealand, and Yemen. A briefing by the top brass at the Combined Air
Operations Center, mission control for the region's air missions,
included a British officer. So, too, did a similar briefing at the Naval
Forces Central Command in Bahrain, the nerve center for sea operations.
Cross-functional
integration, the Holy Grail for many corporations, was well displayed in
the locations we visited. The uniformed officers who accompanied us came
with Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard insignia. The particular mix
of these four branches and the Marine Corps varied from setting to
setting, with Army and Marines dominating in Kuwait, Navy and Coast
Guard in Bahrain, and Air Force in another location. But nowhere was the
mix exclusive, and it included many reservists and members of the
National Guard.
Consider the huge
airbase that runs the "air war" in Afghanistan and Iraq. Among the units
stationed there is the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing whose mission
includes the refueling of airborne aircraft in what some have called a
"tankers' war" because of the extensive use of aerial refueling to keep
combat and surveillance aircraft flying. On a typical day, Air Force
tankers delivered some 750,000 pounds of fuel to aircraft across the
region whose gauges were pointing toward empty. Of the men and women who
work for the 379th, one twelfth are drawn from the National Guard and
nearly one tenth from the Reserves. Also alongside the airmen are Army,
Navy, and Marine personnel constituting another seventh of the total.
Lieutenant General
Gary L. North, Commander of the U.S. Central Command Air Forces,
described the air operations over which he presides. If ground forces
anywhere in Iraq or Afghanistan require assistance, he said, his
aircraft can be on the scene within 10 minutes of the request. "You
call, we come." He too had integrated a host of non-U.S. nationals into
the operation. "We're an international corporation," he said. Waging the
air war is itself a cross-functional operation: Before a prospective
target is bombed, it must be approved by 12 separate parties
representing various functions, including a lawyer to guard against
violation of international law.
Indicative of the
cross-national operations, the Pakistan Navy assumed direct command of a
maritime security force just as we arrived in the region. Its "Coalition
Task Force 150," taken over from Dutch command on April 24, is
responsible for security operations in the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian
Sea, the Red Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean. The Pakistan Navy now
presides over a fleet of ships, including 12 of its own, provided by
Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain, and New
Zealand.
Officers
at several locations told us that the cross-national and cross-service
integration was a product of necessity. Since it was "one fight," said
Capitan Terry Kraft, commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS
Ronald Reagan, it required "one team." And as the briefing book of
Central Command put it, "It takes a network to defeat a network."
Here, too, business
examples of the same management principles abound. General Electric has
long stressed the importance of each division meeting its target -- but
also all divisions in achieving a common purpose. And when it comes to
cross-national integration, many large multi-nationals ranging from Coca
Cola to Royal Dutch Petroleum have sought to populate their ranks with
managers of many nationalities. It takes a diverse team to succeed in a
diverse market.
Pragmatic
Flexibility
We heard repeatedly
that the armed services are training front-line soldiers to think for
themselves. Conditions are too varied and fast-changing for generic
instructions to work. A one-star general, for instance, explained that
the insurgents' improvised explosive devices -- the infamous IEDs -- had
become the leading cause of battlefield casualties in Iraq. IEDs are
elusive and deadly, and every front-line soldier is trained to identify
and respond to the subtle signs of a hidden IED -- a stray wire, an
unusual pile of trash, freshly-turned dirt along the roadside. Doing so
requires that soldiers learn to exercise field judgment and make their
own spot decisions. The nature of the ground war has, of necessity, made
it a thinking soldier's war. As Army Brigadier General Nolen V. Bivens
said, "The enemy is constantly changing, and so are we."
The
commander of the Third Army, Lieutenant General R. Steven Whitcomb,
summed up the new approach to military discipline: "We are teaching our
soldiers how to think rather than what to think." By way of
illustration, he noted, his commissioned officers must memorize fewer
operating procedures now than in past decades, giving them far greater
leeway to improvise and innovate as field conditions evolve and dictate.
Lieutenant Colonel Christopher L. Ballard is chief of training at the
Udairi base in northern Kuwait that is responsible for preparing those
entering Iraq. He said, "We stress decision making by every soldier."
A mindset of
pragmatic flexibility extends up the hierarchy as well. Consider the
Humvee, the vehicle of choice for moving troops in the field. It has
become a favorite IED target, and coalition forces in the region have
created their own counter-measures. Field commanders have installed
armor on more than 90% of the Humvees, including 43,000 vehicles during
the past year. The results look impregnable. Heavy doors now enclose
hundreds of pounds of armor and the windows are inches thick. Since
remote IEDs are set off by everything from cell phones and pagers to
blackberries and car-key clickers, the field staff has also developed an
array of jamming devices for foot patrols and overhead aircraft to block
the detonating mechanisms.
"We
are in a new kind of war," said Vice Admiral David C. Nichols, Deputy
Commander for Central Command. The label of choice is "fourth-generation
warfare," defined by loose-knit cells of self-generating action groups
operating with little or no state sanction. Ideologically driven and
angered by U.S. support for Israel, the underground groups ferret out
Western vulnerabilities and then melt away as soon as they have struck.
As a result, Nichols said, the U.S. of necessity was moving toward
"lighter, leaner, and more lethal" methods of response.
Many companies have
moved in the same direction, seeking to become more nimble in their
fast-changing and uncertain markets. Sony, for instance, reduced its
governing board from 35 directors to nine to facilitate quicker
decisions in response to rapidly evolving technologies. Microsoft and
eBay have sought to build cultures of change given their need for fast
response to the ever emerging challenges of new competitors.
The Commander's
View
Our
group spent the final day in the region at an airbase, and shortly
before boarding a C-17 for the long flight back across Iraq and then
Europe on the return to the U.S., we met with General John Abizaid, the
Arabic-speaking commander of the Central Command. It is he is who has
primary responsibility for deploying the men and women in the region and
prosecuting the war and protecting security. He is accountable for the
culture of commitment and readiness, the cross-service and
cross-national integration, and the pragmatic flexibility. "Our job," he
said, "is to give our troops the resources they need."
"The enemy knows it
cannot defeat us head on," Abizaid added, "so it uses other measures,"
including an on-going effort to acquire weapons of mass destruction. The
U.S. came into the war with a "short-term theory," he said, but he has
learned that it actually has a "long-term problem." And that problem is
above all located in one country. "The single most important thing to be
done in the region is to stabilize Iraq."
Despite the enormous
obstacles cited by many critics of the war, Abizaid himself projects
optimism about accomplishing his mission. The "troops are confident and
convinced that they can work their way through the problems," he said.
The Mission
The U.S. armed forces
seem well prepared to execute whatever mission they are consigned. And
yet, the selection of that mission remains of critical importance. They
will execute what they are assigned, and that assignment, of course,
comes from the nation's civilian leadership. America's leaders have
dispatched its armed forces into harm's way, and it appears from our
brief look that they are well led to carry out the designated mission.
What is unclear to growing portions of the American public is whether
the mission in Iraq during the past three years has been the right one.
The public remains relatively unequivocal in supporting the war in
Afghanistan, yet far less so in backing the action in Iraq.
The country's leaders have at their disposal a
well-managed institution, giving them enormous power far beyond the
nation's borders. Although the public has become deeply divided in
supporting how that power is being exercised by its leaders, it remains
undivided in supporting those in uniform who are asked to exercise it.
Note: Information on
the
Joint Civilian Orientation Conference
is available by clicking
here, and
photos of the visit can be found
here.
Developing Leadership:
Teaching Leadership to High School Seniors
By
Marc J. Fazio
As a person trained in biology, I created a course
on leadership for high school seniors because the focus of my interest
had changed. Just as cells within a body develop a specialized purpose
for the sake of the body, so too in social organisms, individual actions
are interdependent for the society to survive and flourish. As I moved
away from the microscope and examined more deeply the macro-scope of
historical study, I became increasingly fascinated with not only human
interaction, but also with motives and motivations, and the causes and
reasons for actions. What I was finding most interesting is why humans
seem destined to repeat many of the same mistakes – even though their
free will should enable them to do otherwise.
As I continued to study, learn, and compare, I came
to believe that leadership science could and should be taught to high
school students. To accomplish this, I decided that using historical
references would provide the best sources for exploring the unifying
qualities of good leaders. History is a great tool for teaching how to
deal with the present and prepare for the future. The beauty of using
history as a source is that looking at history is like studying a line;
one can observe the entire line from beginning to end and all of the
intervening points. Students can therefore compare choices made with
outcomes realized, and then assess the entire process in reaching that
end result. Most of the historical references used in teaching the
leadership class deal with aspects of war, not as a promotion of
warfare, but rather to observe people under some of the most trying of
conditions, to look at leadership when individuals are under the
greatest pressure, when circumstances are literally life and death.
The advantage of using historical accounts as a
means of examining leadership is that there is no limit to the topics
pursued. One does not need to teach this subject from the battlefield
perspective as I have done. There are numerous opportunities to examine
the leadership qualities of other leaders or the courageous actions of
peoples acting in times of peace.
Even though I divided my leadership course into
several main topics, I am very careful to tie unrelated or seemingly
unrelated writings together both for the sake of broadening knowledge as
well as to remind the students that the learning of independent
disciplines is anything but independent. The best leaders often find
that the answers to their problems come from unlikely sources. For this
reason one of the major graded assignments is a journal kept by each
student in which the student relates all previously examined readings to
the one at hand.
One of the major themes underpinning this course is
an examination of choices. Leaders must make choices, and my students
are continually confronted with the question of the choices that
individuals made. To make a choice one must have courage, and both
physical and moral courage are examined. One of my chief sources for
the discussion of choices is Moral Courage by Rushworth M.
Kidder. Our discussion begins with such questions as, “What is
courage?” and “What is virtue?” Throughout this discussion and the
remainder of the course, I try to act only as a facilitator, something
very difficult for one who spent most of his teaching career lecturing.
A major assignment is book seven from Herodotus,
The Histories, and a number of short in-class readings are discussed
as well. One reading that particularly inspired discussion while
offering examples of both moral and physical courage is a short story
about Butch O’Hare, a Second World War fighter pilot after whom
Chicago’s O’Hare airport is named. This is then followed by a
contrasting story taken from Kidder’s Moral Courage recounting
the 1999 Mars Climate Orbiter that missed its target by the narrowest of
margins. These two stories, although seemingly very different, serve as
the initial starting point for student discussions of leadership
responsibility. From there the class began its discussions of the
battle of Thermopylae including the choices that were made and the
motivations behind the actions of each of the key characters.
I was pleasantly surprised with how well the
students were able to get through the difficult reading form Herodotus,
and with how well they related the actions of these historical figures
to others we discussed as well as the students’ ability to see their
individual virtues. We closed this section on courage by watching
Shekhar Kapur’s 2002 version of The Four Feathers. This movie
brought everything we had been discussing to life. Students were asked
to evaluate each character and the choices they made.
An enriching aspect of teaching this course has
been what may appear to outside observers as momentary lapses in
direction. Discussions of a particular character’s actions for example
often trailed into explorations of events occurring within our school,
current news stories, or events relevant in their lives and to the world
as the students see it. These digressions are encouraged as they serve
to give meaning and bring to life events that illustrate the qualities
of leadership.
Using a formula similar to the one employed to
explore the topic of courage, we studied other topics during this
semester-long course. Two separate works by John Keegan, The Face of
Battle, and The Mask of Command, offered excellent
opportunities to examine the need for discipline and camaraderie among
people under a leader’s formal command.
The class then turns to a second major theme,
leaders as problem solvers. Successful and failed leadership events are
carefully examined. Students are given opportunities to test their own
decision-making skills by reviewing case studies in which problems are
outlined but no solutions are offered.
In the future our school’s theater director will
help develop the students’ capacities for stage and leadership
presence. Guest speakers from outside of the school will also enhance
the course. One in particular who serves in the leadership of his
company, a former Marine and a Korean War veteran, will offer first hand
accounts of the need for forward-looking leadership.
Note: Marc Fazio teaches at the Detroit
Country Day School and he can be reached at
MFazio@dcds.edu.
Confidence: Putting
Grace In Your Swagger
By John Baldoni
“We want our guys to get their swagger back,” was a
comment I first heard years ago while working with a sales organization
that was trying to regain its traditional number-one role within its
industry. Through hard work, discipline, and some inspired leadership,
the sales people did reach their goal. Swagger soon followed, and as I
recall, the team used it well – with class and dignity, a healthy dose
of confidence without over-confidence. They acted the way a legendary
football coach once counseled his star running back to behave when
scoring a touchdown: “Act like you’ve been there before!” No dance.
No high five. Just hand the ball to the ref. It’s a lesson that all
the great NFL running backs from Jim Brown and Gale Sayers to Tony
Dorsett, Emmitt Smith, and Barry Sanders followed. That’s the true
essence of swagger – conducting your business with confidence but not
over-doing it.
Swagger is, for me, is the subtle display of
confidence and capability. Swagger is the proud reflection of your
ability to get things done correctly, be it sinking a three‑point shot
at the buzzer or reducing defects to near‑undetectable rates. Those
with swagger know what they are doing, and it shows. When displayed
appropriately, swagger can help a team or an entire organization feel
better about itself and its people, and in turn deliver more to its
customers. Here are some ways to develop it.
Know yourself. Before you can achieve
anything, you must know yourself and your capabilities – and fill in
those that are missing. A good manager, for example, will surround
himself or herself with people of complementary skills, those who can do
what the manager cannot, be it to manage details, think creatively, or
balance a budget.
Know your team. Think about what your team
can and cannot do. It makes no sense to give a team a challenge that is
impossible; that only leads to discouragement and disaffection. Like a
mountain guide equipping those in the group with the proper equipment –
ropes, crampons, and tents – the manager must also provide employees
with enough time as well as the tools and resources to accomplish the
job. Just as no mountain guide would fail to provide the climbing
clients with oxygen tanks for high altitude climbing, no boss should
deprive the team of enough start‑up capital or personnel to do the job
well.
Share the glory. Swagger really is a team
product, and it requires some spreading around. If one person gets all
the credit, while he or she may feel pretty “swaggerish,” others will
feel “un-swaggered,” and thus more disengaged and less willing to pull
one’s weight. So celebrate the wins, and make certain that everyone
feels a part of the effort. It doesn’t take much to share the glory,
just a willingness to do the sharing.
Know your limits. Can you ever have too
much swagger? Absolutely, and that can lead to big trouble. U.S.
Marine Lieut. General Gregory Newbold recently asserted in an essay in
Time magazine that the planning for the invasion of Iraq “was done
with casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who
have never had to execute these missions – or bury the results.”
Newbold was taking direct aim at the civilian planners, including
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who ignored advice that didn’t fit
their worldview. That’s the danger of too much swagger – inflated pride
and the resulting hubris. Thousands have died in Iraq as a result.
Newbold does not spare himself, calling his own failure to “challenge
those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were
peripheral to the real threat – Al-Queda.” The job of the leader, said
Newbold, “is to give voice to those who can’t – or don’t have the
opportunity to – speak.” Swagger can dull a leader’s strategic thinking
or obscure an obligation to the people for whom he or she is
responsible.
When used moderately, however, swagger can be a
source of energy and motivation. Just like the New York Yankee ball
clubs of yore, swagger can also be used to intimidate the competition.
Yet too much swagger can degenerate into what athletes call
“showboating.” No one likes a show‑off – not customers, not bosses, not
teammates. Let the inner glow tell the tale.
Note: John Baldoni is a consultant and
author whose most recent book is Great Motivation Secrets of Great
Leaders (2005); he can be reached at
john@johnbaldoni.com and
www.johnbaldoni.com.
Copyright 1996-2006, Wharton Center for
Leadership and Change Management
University
of Pennsylvania
