Good Leader, Bad Leader
Glenn posted an entry this afternoon, which was in response to an entry by Sam, whose blog I just started reading (thanks Glenn for pointing out that post as it wasn’t included in the RSS for Sam’s blog). I found both entries interesting as I had never thought about leadership from the pilot perspective.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if you removed the flying references from Sam’s post you could title the entry ‘Good Leader, Bad Leader’. Whether you are a flight crew captain, a tank commander or the lead developer on a project, it’s all the same; if you have people that report to you one way or the other, you are a leader whether you want to be or not. As such, you need to accept all the responsibilities that come with being a leader, not just the cool ones like ‘I get to tell the driver where to go and the gunner what to shoot at’.
One of the best part of being in the Canadian Army long enough to make Sergeant is that I received formal leadership training. I think that pretty much anyone who tries can be a good leader, all you have to do is follow what the Army calls the ‘Principles of Leadership’. Great leaders, on the other hand, are good leaders that have a natural ability; that can never be taught.
Anyway, back to Sam’s list of 6 traits that a good captain (GC) should have. If you look at the Army’s list, Sam’s points are all pretty much covered off. For example, Sam’s point #6 is that he ”…cares about his crew and takes care of them”. The Army calls that ”Know your soldiers and promote their welfare”. You get where I’m going with this. While you can take the general principles and specialize them for a particular job or trade, in the end what you are looking for is a good leader, whether that leader is the captain of an aircraft, a tank commander or a lead developer for a team of programmers.
And finally, if you are interested in the Canadian Army’s Principles of Leadership, the list is given below (the US Marines have a similar list I believe):
- Achieve professional competence
- Appreciate your own strengths and limitations and pursue self-improvement
- Seek and accept responsibility
- Lead by example
- Make sure that your followers know your meaning and intent, then lead them to the accomplishment of the mission
- Know your soldiers and promote their welfare
- Develop the leadership potential of your followers
- Make sound and timely decisions
- Train your soldiers as a team and employ them up to their capabilities
- Keep your followers informed of the mission, the changing situation and the overall picture
Fri, 15 Jul 2005 01:03 Posted in General
