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ETAG Conference - 29 Jan 13
‘Leading the Troops’
Brigadier David Allfrey MBEChief Executive and Producer - The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo
“Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor dampened,
your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity.”
Sun Tsu (544 - 496 BC) - The Art of War
It is the fault of the officers
Who are the Leaders?
You all are!
The inclusive nature of the tourist economy in
Scotland means that we are all responsible for
playing our part, whether it be large or small, in
the collective success… and for encouraging
others to do the same.
Scope
� What is the context for the leadership challenge?
� Normal Running - In the advance or in retreat
� Change
� Establishing a Common Framework of Understanding
� Attributes of a Leader
� The Particular Task
� Selection and Maintenance of the Aim
� The planning process
� The Human Dimension - the key enabler!
� Bringing it all together
� Leadership Philosophy
� A few thoughts to finish
The Leadership Context
� The macro environment
� The level(s) of leadership
� The timeframe/s involved
� The shape and size of the task
� The balance of risk and opportunity
� The mood , competence and character of the team
� Key individuals
Physical/Environmental Dimension
Socio-demographic Dimension
Science and Technology Dimension
Economic Dimension
Legal and Ethical Dimension
Political Dimension
Military Dimension
The Macro Environment
The different levels of challenge and their
associated lead times
‘Strategic’ (6 - 10 years)
‘Operational’ (2 - 5 years)
‘Tactical’ (the here and now!)
‘Grand Strategic’ (10 - 25 years)
PHYSICAL COMPONENT
(The means to do business)
Manpower Information & Intelligence
Infrastructure & Equipment
Training Finance
MORAL COMPONENT
(The ability to get people to
give of their best)
Motivation Leadership
Management
Principles Practice Development & Creativity
CONCEPTUAL COMPONENT
(The thought process)
BUSINESS POWER(The ability to be effective and efficient - to generate profit/surplus)
Business Effectiveness
‘Leadership is visionary; it is the projection of
personality and character to inspire people to
achieve a desired outcome. There is no prescription
for leadership and no prescribed style of leader.
Leadership is a combination of example, persuasion,
and compulsion dependent on the situation. It
should aim to transform and be underpinned by
individual skills and an enabling philosophy. The
successful leader is an individual who understands
him/herself, the organisation, the environment in
which they operate and the people that they are
privileged to lead’
‘Leadership is visionary; it is the projection of
personality and character to inspire people to
achieve a desired outcome. There is no prescription
for leadership and no prescribed style of leader.
Leadership is a combination of example, persuasion,
and compulsion dependent on the situation. It
should aim to transform and be underpinned by
individual skills and an enabling philosophy. The
successful leader is an individual who understands
him/herself, the organisation, the environment in
which they operate and the people that they are
privileged to lead’
Establishing a Vision
Vision Statements and Mission Statements are the
inspiring words chosen by successful leaders to
clearly and concisely convey the direction of the
organisation. By crafting a clear mission statement
and vision statement, you can powerfully
communicate your intentions and motivate your
team or organisation to realize an attractive and
inspiring common vision of the future. www.mindtools.com - Jun 12
Either could/should include a statement of unifying
purpose: “….in order to….”
Personality and Character
� Integrity
� Vision
� Ability to Communicate
� Decisiveness
� Innovation
� Humility
� Professional Knowledge
� Additional qualities or attributes unique to each individual leader
….Underpinned by appropriate values
� Courage (physical and moral)
� Discipline
� Respect for Others (and yourself)
� Integrity
� Loyalty
� Selfless Commitment
….and standards
� Appropriate Behaviour
� Legal
� Professionalism
Towards a Desired Outcome
� Define the aim
� Harvest the necessary intelligence and information
� Define the factors that bear on the situation
� Tease out possible courses of action (including doing nothing!)
� Select the optimum course of action
� Refine the intention and establish a plan
� Brief the intention and any key detail
� Execution of the plan - getting on with it!
� Evaluate continually
� Adjust if necessary
� Lessons identified (and learned !)
Key Capabilities
� Leadership and Team Playing
� Knowledge Management and Market Intelligence
� Marketing and Sales
� Quality and Customer Service
� Innovation and Entrepreneurship
� Collaboration and ‘Partnering’
� Sustainability
� Training and Development
� ICT and connectivity
� Finance and Investment Appraisal
Action-centred Leadership
Task
Team Individual
The leader must achieve the task, build and maintain his team
and develop the individuals within it
™ John Adair
The Leader’s Task Focus
Task
� Define the task
� Set objectives
� Make the plan
� Allocate work and resources
� Brief the team
� Monitor progress and
exercise quality control
� Adjust the plan
� Keep checking against the
aim
The Leader’s Team Focus
� Involve the team in planning
� Set standards & priorities
� Maintain discipline
� Build team spirit
� Provide a sense of purpose
� Appoint sub-team leaders
� Coordinate
� Ensure internal communication
Team
The Leader’s Individual Focus
� Physical (Food, drink and sleep)
� Security
� Social (companionship and leisure)
� Esteem (self-respect, status,
achievement)
� Self-fulfilment (ambition and
personal interest)
Individual
Unease in three main areas….
� Most Positive - Ambassadorial
� More Positive - Supportive
� Positive - Benevolent
� Neutral - Ambivalent
� Negative – Irritated
� More negative - Resentful
� Most negative - Antagonistic
Levels of Engagement
Influencing Perceptions
Building Interest CommitmentAwareness
Listening to
the proposition
Responding
to it
Placing a
value on it
Society
Institutions
Individuals
Telling others
about it
Changing
behaviour
Communication in Action-centred Leadership
Co
mm
un
ica
te
CORE
FUNCTIONSTASK TEAM INDIVIDUAL
Define the AimIdentify tasks
Identify constraints
Involve the team
Share commitment
Clarify aims
Gain acceptance
Plan
Establish priorities
Check resources
Produce plan
Consult
Agree standards
Assess skills
Establish targets
Delegate
Brief Brief the team
Check understanding
Obtain feedback
Establish ‘ideals’
Develop initiatives
Advise
Listen
Enthuse
Praise
Execute Maintain standards
Progress & Discipline
Coordinate
Reconcile
Develop suggestions
Reassure
Observe
Counsel
Praise
EvaluateReview objectives
Assess progress
Re-plan if required
Recognise success
Learn from failure
Assess performance
Guide & train
Action-centred leadership is highly dynamic…
The relative importance of ‘needs’ will alter as the situation
changes - everyone must understand this dynamic
An Appropriate Philosophy?
‘Distributed Responsibility’Auftragstaktik or ‘Mission Command’
•Decentralised
•Empowerment
•Trusted subordinates
•Freedom of action
•Initiative encouraged
•Understanding higher intent
•Relies on a well educated workforce
•Copes well with friction and
complexity
‘Directive Control’Befehlstaktik
•Centralised decision-making
•Reliant on a geometric and
detailed plan
•Initiative not encouraged
•Drills and repetition
•Relies on a well-trained
workforce
•Does not cope so well with
friction and complexity
‘Distributed Leadership’
…..incorporating centralised intent and decentralised execution to
deal with complex, dynamic and adversarial situations.
� Unity of Effort
� A specified ‘Main Effort’ (and corresponding economies)
� Freedom of Action (and appropriate control measures)
� Trust (up, down and sideways)
� Mutual Understanding
� Timely and Effective Decision-Making
Toxic Leadership
Toxic leadership refers to a process in which leaders, by
dint of their destructive behavior and/or dysfunctional
personal characteristics inflict serious and enduring
harm on their followers, their organizations, and non-
followers, alike. Defining toxic leaders can prove
vexing, at best, since one individual’s toxic leader is
another’s heroic savior, given that context, history, and
perspective weigh heavily in such judgments.
Jean Lipman-Blumen, Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito (2005)
“Leadership is the will to dominate, together with the
character which inspires confidence. A leader has got
to learn to dominate events which surround him; he
must never allow events to get the better of him; he
must allow nothing to divert him from his aim; he
must always be on top of the job, and be prepared to
accept responsibility. He must analyse the good and
bad points in a man’s make up; we must then develop
his good points and teach him to keep the bad points
in subjection.”
Field Marshal The Lord Montgomery of Alamein
“If you want to empower people, you should do it from a place of generosity and care”
Marianne Elliott - Associate Director at the National Theatre and Director of ‘War Horse’
"I will tell you as officers….that you will neither eat, nor drink, nor smoke, nor sit down, nor lean against a tree, until you have personally seen that your men have first had a chance to do these things. If you will do this for them, they will follow you to the ends of the earth. And if you do not, I will bust you in front of your regiments“
Field Marshal William Joseph Slim
“General Slim emerged from under the trees by the lake shore.
There was no nonsense of “gather round” or jumping on
boxes; he just stood with his thumb hooked into his carbine
sling and talked about how we had caught the Japs off-balance
and were going to annihilate him in the open; there was no
exhortation or ringing clichés, no jokes or self-conscious use of
barrack room slang - when he called them [the enemy]
“bastards” it was casual and without heat. He was telling us
informally what would be, in the reflective way of intimate
conversation. And we believed every word - and it all came
true. And afterwards, when it was all over and he spoke of
what his army had done, it was always “you” not even “we”
and never “I”.
George MacDonald Fraser OBE - ‘Quartered Safe Out Here’ (1992)
Some points for discussion
� Could you recite 6 key personal values without thought?
� Are these values the same as those in your business?
� Should your approach to leadership be adapted differently for male and female staff ?
� Would you approach leadership differently when dealing with people from different nationalities
� Which is the key stage in problem solving?
� Can you recognise ‘toxicity’ in a leader
� Can you recognise toxicity in yourself?
� Are there occasions when toxicity might be a good thing?
� Which of these tenets is the most important?
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