Leadership Strategy and Tactics

Key Concepts

Leadership starts with relationships

“Leadership requires relationships; good relationships with people above you, below you, and beside you in the chain of command are critical for a strong team. The better the relationships, the more open and effective communication there is. The more communication there is, the stronger the team will be.” (p. 48)

If you’re not humble, you won’t be successful as a leader

“Because there is one type of person who can never become a good leader: a person who lacks humility. People who lack humility cannot improve because they don’t acknowledge their own weaknesses. They don’t work to improve them, and they won’t bring someone onto the team to offset their shortfalls. This person will never improve. Beware.” (p. 69)

Leaders need to adjust their approaches for different people and situation

“Too often, when leaders apply the same leadership tool in the same way that has worked for them in the past, they cannot figure out why their team or individuals on the team are not performing the way they had envisioned or the way a different team had performed when they had received the same leadership.” (p. 120)

Good leaders empower their team, even if the leader has the “best” answer

“If I had a solution I estimated to be a 90 percent solution and saw that their plan was only an 80 percent solution, I would still let them execute their plan instead of mine. The commitment they would have when they executed their own plan would easily make up for the 10 percent loss in efficiency.” (p. 147)

“Here are some fundamental rules to keep in mind as you take command: 

1. “Be humble. It is an honor to be in a leadership position. Your team is counting on you to make the right decisions. 

2. “Don’t act like you know everything. You don’t. The team knows that. Ask smart questions. 

3. “Listen. Ask for advice and heed it. 

4. “Treat people with respect. Regardless of rank, everyone is a human being and plays an important role in the team. Treat them that way. Take care of your people and they will take care of you. 

5. “Take ownership of failures and mistakes. 

6. “Pass credit for success up and down the chain. 

7. “Work hard. As the leader, you should be working harder than anyone else on the team. No job is beneath you. 

8. “Have integrity. Do what you say; say what you do. Don’t lie up or down the chain of command.

9. “Be balanced. Extreme actions and opinions are usually not good. 

10. “Be decisive. When it is time to make a decision, make one. 

11. “Build relationships. That is your main goal as a leader. A team is a group of people who have relationships and trust one another. Otherwise, it is just a disconnected, incoherent cluster of people. 

12. “Lastly, get the job done.” (pp. 157-8)

One needs to lift their perspective when becoming a new leader

“As a leader, your goal should be to look up and out, not down and in at your team. So when transitioning to a leadership position, the goal is not only to guide the development of the plan but then also to oversee its execution. This means the leader should not be doing much of the actual doing. Let the troops do the doing.” (p. 171)

Make decisions iteratively when there is uncertainty

“In times like this, when I’ve been unsure about a situation or did not have good enough information to make a bold, clear decision, I utilized an iterative decision-making process. That means I looked at the situation and made small decisions to move toward a direction that aligned with my best guess on what the situation was, without overcommitting since I wasn’t sure.” (p. 192)

Executive communication needs to focus on what people actually care about

“This is a lesson learned for any leader. Explaining the why is important. But the why has to tie back and connect to everyone in the chain of command. Success for ‘corporate’ or ‘profit for the shareholders’ is not great motivation for everyone. You have to think about how the mission and outcomes benefit the whole team and then explain that.” (p. 271)

Quotables

“Two teams working together, covering and moving for each other, don’t just double their effectiveness; they multiply their impact and capability exponentially.” (p. 43)

“It is obvious that building a trustworthy relationship with your superiors is important. But how do you do that? One of the simplest ways is obvious, but it often gets overlooked—that is performance.” (p. 49)

“So how can a leader become great if they lack the natural characteristics necessary to lead? The answer is simple: a good leader builds a great team that counterbalances their weaknesses.” (p. 66)

“Subordinate your ego, build relationships, and win the long game.” (p. 78)

“Truth and honesty are perhaps the most essential of leadership qualities. Tell the truth to your people. Tell the truth to your boss. Tell the truth to your peers. And, of course, tell the truth to yourself.” (p. 78)

“Lastly, when you get down in the dirt with the frontline troops, you get to know them. You build relationships. And when you have relationships with the frontline troops, they actually tell you what is going on.” (p. 88)

“Similar to building trust, to build respect and influence you have to give respect and influence.” (p. 97)

“Discipline is the best way to take care of your people.” (p. 135)

“Optimal discipline in a team is not imposed by the leader; it is chosen by the team itself. Optimal discipline is self-discipline.” (p. 137)

“To build pride within a team, you have to put the members in situations that require unity, strength, and perseverance to get through. You have to push them in training to the point where they are truly tested, and in that they will develop pride in what they have accomplished.” (p. 143)

“General George S. Patton famously told his troops not to dig in; he wanted them to advance, advance, and advance. You can’t advance if you are dug in.” (p. 188)

“Let there be no doubt—the most important thing in a team is the team.” (p. 203)

“So what did I do when I had to teach a young, overconfident leader some humility? I would put the young leader in charge of a mission or project I knew was outside their level of competency.” (p. 216)

“Sometimes you have to quit on a short-term tactical goal—you have to retreat. But never quit the strategic mission. Never give up on your long-term strategic goals.” (p. 254)

“The hardest part of this [keeping the troops informed] from a leader’s perspective is understanding that the team doesn’t always see what you see.” (p. 260)

“...but ‘Because I said so’ gets used in many forms: ‘It’s my call,’ or ‘This is my project,’ or ‘I outrank you.’ All of these are just another form of ‘Because I said so,’ and they all are about the equivalent in terms of their leadership effectiveness—that is to say, not very effective at all.” (p. 266)

“As we said in the military: hope is not a course of action.” (p. 280)