"Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other."Shipmates,
~ John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963), speech prepared for delivery November 22, 1963
Yesterday, I wrote about using 360-degree evaluations to learn more about your own self and your own leadership actions, behaviors, and style. I consider evaluations, including full-circle evaluations, to be a fairly formal process. The good news is that there are several informal processes you can use to gain an understanding of the impact of your own leadership and management. In a sense, what I'm going to talk about today ties in situational awareness (your own) with evaluations.
Over the course of my career as a Cutterman, I developed certain leadership practices that are intuitive for a ship captain. I later found that leadership practices that seemed natural and common sense to me, have been codified and formalized by leadership gurus who make big money by selling books and giving lectures! I guess I'm jealous of their success, but allow me to share them with you for free.
"MBWA" -- Most of us have heard of MBWA, or Management by Walking Around, a technique which requires leaders to actually get up and out from behind the desk. As noted at the Business Dictionary, MBWA is, "in contrast to rigid and distant management. In MBWA practice, managers spend a significant amount of their time making informal visits to work area and listening to the employees. The purpose of this exercise is to collect qualitative information, listen to suggestions and complaints, and keep a finger on the pulse of the organization."
In their article, "Re-examining Management By Walking Around," Neil MacNeill and Ray Boyd note MBWA first came to public notice in 1982 with the publication of, In Search of Excellence, by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman. What Peters and Waterman discovered is that great things happen when managers get out of the office. We have learned much about both leadership and management since 1982; one thing we've learned is that leadership and management are intertwined, and most of us have jobs requiring a mix of both. MacNeill and Boyd suggest that it's time to rebrand MBWA as L&MBWA; they note, too, that L&MBWA has purpose, a purpose greater than just wandering about.
The two facets of a leader's role can be understood in terms of the Baconian aphorism: knowledge is the driver of leadership, and power underwrites management. L&MBWA therefore moves away from the primarily supervisory philosophy promoted in MBWA's early form to encompass both power and knowledge. MBWA affords organizational leaders a rare opportunity to learn about their organization through informal interactions. These interactions work reciprocally, with leaders learning from subordinates and subordinates learning from leaders in a range of situations.Bottom line: you have to get out of the office and around to where everyone in the organization is in order to get a sense of what's truly going on!
"All Hands Q&A Sessions." -- Another way to get a sense of what's going on is to engage your shipmates during all hands sessions. All Hands, or Quarters, isn't just for one-way knowledge transfer. Certainly, passing news is important, but the capable leader sees All Hands sessions as a chance to ask for questions and engage the crew in a conversation.
I stumbled onto this during my first command as a junior officer, and the tactic has served me well since then. Certainly, not every time I ask for questions do I get questions, and not every question I get is one that I think is important, but that's the point. It's not about what I think is important; it's about what my shipmates think is important, it's about gauging what's important to the crew.
Whether you're a section leader or you oversee a major staff, asking for questions during an all hands session is fundamental. A few caveats:
* Don't blow off answering a question; a question asked is a question to be answered.
* If you don't know the answer, write the question down, along with the name of the person who asked the question. After the All Hands, get an answer, and then provide that answer to the person who asked. Ideally, you'd go and seek out that person and answer the question in person.
* Be willing to accept criticism, and don't take any criticism as a personal attack.
"Engaging the Chiefs' Mess." -- A third methodology for learning about what's going on within your organization and to get feedback on your own performance, is to engage the Chiefs' Mess. The Mess truly is the nucleus at any Coast Guard unit, and a well-honed and finely tuned Mess knows what's going on.
As noted in the Chief Petty Officer Charge, advancing from E-6 to E-7 isn't just a simple advancement, but an advancement to a unique body, the Chiefs' Mess. The privileges and responsibilities of the Mess generally don't appear in print. To paraphrase the Charge, they have no official standing, cannot be referred to by name, number, or file. They exist because since 1920, Coast Guard Chiefs' have freely accepted responsibility beyond the call of printed assignment. Their actions and their performance demanded the respect of their seniors as well as their juniors. The Chief is required to be the fount of wisdom, the ambassador of good will, the authority in personnel relations, and the technical expert.
They need to watch out for shipmates, both senior and junior. That Charge notes "Ask the Chief" is a household word in and out of the Coast Guard; "Ask the Chief" should be a phrase you use frequently to assess your own leadership. Check in the Mess; find out what's going on. What concerns does the crew have? What's going well for the crew?
And, if you are a Chief, be ready to answer the mail and live up to the Charge.
Tomorrow I'll talk about how giving and receiving performance counseling can make you a better leader.
~ VADM Bob Papp
