Leadership

What is leadership? Thats the question we all ask. Is it yelling at your lower ranks, browbeating them until they got things right? Is it just something for you to achieve? Or even plainly to abuse others with your leadership.

This is something we come to understand. Leadership is a heavy responsibility, and should not be simply used to abuse others.

1. Treat your followers with respect. Sound simple? Well, it is. Respect is a two-way street. You can order your followers to show you customs and courtesies, but you cannot demand voluntary respect. As a young Lieutenant, Chesty commanded the Marine Corps Silent Drill Team. It had been years since the Marine Corps had won an inter-service drill competition. Private Bob Norrish, a member of the team, had an interesting observation to share: “Yet, somehow, though he was hard as nails, he could be friendly with us like no officer we’d ever seen. We gave him all we had.” Think about those two sentences for a moment. Chesty made a distinction between discipline and kindness, and his Marines noticed it. He worked them hard – real hard. But he was still kind to them. Because of that, his Marines were willing to work hard out of respect for their Commander.

C/2d Lt Jackie Briski, CAP - cadetstuff.org


If your people don't know better - that is, if they don't know how to do something right or forgot the correct way to do it - yelling at them isn't helping because they already feel badly about being wrong. Your people don't want to make mistakes, but mistakes sometimes happen to the best of us. In this case, the solution is not to yell, but to remind them what needs to be done, how to do it and why it's important.

Most of the time, people just need a reminder of what is expected and then a chance to try it again. If you yell at them for making an honest mistake, you'll only make them feel stupid and useless. This will make them resent and dislike you; after all, who enjoys being around or working for someone who makes them feel stupid and useless?

Sometimes people's mistakes will be your fault, not theirs. If you don't train them properly or don't give them complete information on what is expected of them, how can you yell at them for failing? The fault is yours - and your people will know that as well.

What good does it do to yell at someone who doesn't care to do the right thing? If he doesn't care enough about what he's supposed to do in the first place, then he sure doesn't care about your yelling. In fact, your taking the time to yell at him may be giving him a thrill. You're certainly giving him a lot of attention, aren't you?

There are times when yelling is appropriate, but mostly those times are when you want to get someone's attention when their mind is wandering; for instance, if Cadet Jones is staring at the birds during drill. But this is merely to get his attention so that you can explain his mistakes in a normal tone and get on with the job at hand.

Yelling at people for their mistakes is for bullies, not for leaders.

Shawn Stanford - cadetstuff.org

Let the BB2SJ motto be a reminder in all of this.

One Body, Many Parts.

Sure & Stedfast