By AD (Andi) Marshall
Top Ten Prioritized Leadership Qualities, ver 0.1
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00. Wisdom (somewhat ineffable, but likely comprised of the following qualities, several of which overlap or are interdependent)
01. Wit
02. Grace
03. Kindness
04. Resilience
05. Humble Intelligence
06. Open-minded Skepticism
07. Physical, Mental, Spiritual & Economic Fitness
08. Awareness of Contemporary Domestic and Global Issues
09. Reasonable Degree of Contemporary Legal, Scientific and Technological Savvy
By Mr. Shane Wall
*1. Willing to openly canvass and listen to all opinions, including ones the leader may disagree with.* Only by listening to all views and perspectives can the correct one be found.
*2. Be totally committed to the welfare of the “entity” being led as a whole, not just elements within it.* If only one section of the entity is cared for, human nature will
quickly ensure that the entity disintegrates. This also means that sometimes a leader must be willing to harm part of the whole in order for the whole to become or remain healthy. A true example is the Ship Captain whose ship has an uncontrolled fire in the engineroom. He knows there are 4 sailors still in the engineroom and 195 others safe. He does not know if the 4 are still alive or dead already. He orders the engineroom sealed and the firefighting chemical Halon to be dumped into the compartment. Halon is lethally toxic when it reacts with fire (that’s part of how it works). He knows if the 4 are alive, he has just killed them. He knows if he does not extinguish the fire, he places all
195 others in jeopardy. I know this story is FACT because it happened in the Royal Australian Navy when I was still serving.
*3. Not afraid to make the hard decisions, like the example above, for the good of the whole.*
*4. Able to be self-critical and honest about mistakes or errors.* The member of a sports team who gives their all and is defeated by their opponent because the coach put them in the wrong position or gave the wrong task is not to blame for losing the game, the coach who put there is. The coach must then be able to exonerate the player and take
the blame.
*5. Never asks another to do what he/she would not do themselves*, a.k.a. lead by example or leading from the front. This does not mean the leader has to actually participate, but it does mean that those being led must know that when placed in the same position, the leader DID do exactly what he/she is now asking others to
do, so understands their plight.
*6. Is cooperative rather than combative or manipulative.*
*7. Honest, moral, ethical and upstanding with a sense of justice and what is “right”.*
Nothing loses the respect of the led faster than some misdeed by a leader. Nonetheless, this does not mean the leader cannot have made mistakes, (See 4. above), but just how they handle them. Another true story. On learning that their team leader was simply writing his own reports based on his own presumptions and perceptions and not analyzing and compiling their results and reports as he should have done, the team
simply stopped collecting the information and writing the reports – not a healthy situation for intelligence operators. When I took over the team, they were the worst, most demoralized team and the laughing stock of the Unit. Morale was deeper than Whale doo-doo!
*8. Openly and equitably distributes and shares the benefits and burdens.*
I’ve seen instances where everything is shared equally (a Communist-style model) and others where things are shared according to pre-determined criteria or systems (a Capitalist-style model). From my (limited) experience, it doesn’t seem to matter which method is used, rather that it is open and mutually agreed upon (See 6. above).
*9. Deep understanding of the aspirations, wishes, needs and desires of the led.*
Without this understanding, no leader can ever hope to satisfy these things for their followers.
*10. Willingness to delegate responsibilities, reward success and rectify the causes of failure.*
By letting people undertake important tasks, rewarding them when they succeed and helping rectify the reasons they may have failed, a leader builds trust. From mutual trust comes teamwork. From teamwork comes success. Any team-building guru will tell you that, or something similar.
Finally, I don’t remember where this comes from, but I remember a definition of “Leadership”:
_*”The ability to make others willingly do what they otherwise do not want to do.”*_
(to be continued)
