First Principles Friday: Great Leaders Exhibit Unity of Command
How to employ effective command and control in your team to get more done
“Unity of command is essential to the economy of time…” — Napoleon
I work on a small, global team. We all work together and have uniform processes from region to region to help drive consistency and structure with what we do. But recently one of our regional heads left, and the only other person we had in the region was brand new. They started right after the coronavirus hit and didn’t have time to learn the processes or get to know the team. In an effort to help, other team members started reaching out, offering advice, hosting quick training sessions, and trying to involve them in work so they felt included. This was all done with noble intent. But it just ended up overwhelming the person. There was so much information from multiple directions, they didn’t know what the priorities were. Everyone’s well-intentioned yet uncoordinated involvement made matters worse. What we lacked was “unity of command.”
What is Unity of Command?
Unity of command is a military term and one of the core principles of military operations, but it can be applied to leadership in the workplace as well…
