Surround Yourself with Sergeants
Surround Yourself with Sergeants
There are countless books on leadership. You can find a piece I wrote about the overwhelming 125,000 plus available books on leadership in a recent post found here.
Many individuals who we hold up as great leaders go on to write books describing their thoughts about leadership. One of my favorites is Colin Powell.
Colin Luther Powell (A quick bio for those who may be unfamiliar):
- Four-Star General — U.S. Army (Retired)
- 65th Secretary of State (2001–2005)
- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993)
- National Security Advisor (1987–1989)
- Commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command (1989)
Over the last eighteen months I have been fortunate enough to participate in a Masters degree program at the Naval Postgraduate School, Center for Homeland Defense and Security.
It is extremely difficult for me to articulate the value of this program and the impact it has had on me. The material has been rigorous, eye opening and extremely relevant. The program has exposed me to new ways of thinking. It has changed the way I approach things, the way I look at things, and the way I understand things. As @RodrigoNieto likes to say…
“be metacognitive about it…”
One of the most incredible aspects of the program’s curriculum is its ability to be so comprehensive while at the same time being so detail oriented. The curriculum has exposed us to ideas that have worked and changed homeland security for the better. We have also seen examples of the opposite. It has introduced us to ideas from different disciplines and challenges us to find new ways to incorporate what we learn into practice.
As I head into the final stretch, I a reminded of a story from Collin Powell’s book entitled, It Worked for me. Powell’s book begins with his famous thirteen rules.
Just skimming through Colin Powell’s thirteen rules is not sufficient to understand his entire message. If you merely read the rules and either skip or skim the rest of the book, you risk missing the salient points of Powell’s message.
Beer in the Barracks
In his book “It worked for me,” Collin Powell tells a story from his formative years as a young lieutenant in the U.S. Army. During his time as a lieutenant he worked on ideas to solve two concerns that plagued his Soldiers. First, he wanted to improve the morale of his Soldiers and second to reduce the number of DUIs within the ranks. These two challenges were both serious issues that demanded his attention and resolve. One of Powell’s peers came up with an idea that was well received by the ranks — beer machines in the barracks.
The idea was presented to Powell with the following logic. Allowing the Soldiers to drink beer in the barracks would improve morale and give them the option of drinking within the confines of the barracks. Thus, alleviating the need to go off base to a bar and drive home under the influence. While the idea was endorsed by the ranks, Powell’s NCOs (sergeants) were not convinced beer machines provided the solution.
One of Powell’s sergeants exposed the shortcomings in the proposal:
“Lieutenant, putting machines in the barracks won’t end the bitching. They’ll just start to bitch about the brand of beer in the machines, except they will be drunk when they bitch.”
Colin Powell’s thirteen rules are full of lessons he has learned over the years. Powell’s lessons from the Beer in the Barracks incident:
- “As you examine solutions, make sure you think them through down several levels into secondary effects, and when you arrive at what you believe will be a solution, you have to then ask yourself if you have the real solution, or if you have just let wishful thinking set you up for more problems.”
- “I learned a second lesson from the beer in barracks episode: surround yourself with sergeants — that is, people with ground truth experience whose thinking is not contaminated with grand theories.”
It seams that there is always someone with new and improved methods for doing things. Always a “better” way. Sometimes these are indeed a better way. But not always.
Sometimes these ideas don’t work. Some ideas and theories look great on paper. They pass the eye test—but don’t translate into reality very well.
So a final message to leaders — surround yourself with sergeants.
These are the individuals who carry out missions on a daily basis. They know the ins and the outs on the ground. They have the experience to tell you if your idea is on track and if it can work. And if you’re off track, they have the experience to help guide you back onto the track and find a solution that can work.
