Here is a link to a video in which Gen. (Ret’d) Hillier passes on some
wisdom to the business community.
There’s some good stuff for serving soldiers, too; especially important is the 95/5 idea and his admonition to
not spend 95% of your leadership time and talent on the 5% of the people who are problems, who hold the organization back.
I think a lot of people will agree with me that during the first week in command of this that or the other organization one gets to know the
problem children best – that’s natural because
commanding is more than just leading – it is also about
managing and managing is about identifying problems and solving them. But,
in my opinion, one must not get too focused on problems – there is a staff and a ‘system’ to help deal with them and one can, usually, use them with reasonable confidence – rather one wants to focus, quickly, on reinforcing success: supporting and developing the good people (and procedures and equipment, too). Broadly, the best way to ‘solve’ problems is to
prevent them and helping good people get better is often the best way to prevent them from becoming indifferent and even turning into problems, themselves.
Anyway, the
Codfather offers some food for thought for working leaders and would-be leaders in business and the military.