Principles of Leadership

Throughout my life I have been fortunate enough to work within highly professional organisations that have allowed me to experience both the very best and the very worst in terms of leadership. These mixed experiences have shaped my own style of leadership, and to a lesser extent management, style.

In my usual rambling literary style, I will try and recount examples of the best and the worst, how these mentors both good and bad have influenced me and how I now pay less heed to what I read and see in books and ‘how to’  guides and live within a real world where one word exemplifies the trait that is worth far more than any other in every scenario – honesty.

As with most, if not all young boys, their earliest guide to leadership is visible in their own parents, especially their father. I was both fortunate and unfortunate in almost equal measure. My father, who I have discussed in detail in previous blogs, was very old school, so old school in fact that he was Victorian in his approach to life. There were two things that you could be guaranteed of with my father, brutal honesty, and a complete lack of overt affection. When my father was dying, in his last weeks when he knew the final sleep was approaching him with the certainty of a spring tide, he openly admitted to having not always loved me. Spare the tears, this was not exactly news to me, but I did not entirely believe him either.

He believed that if you didn’t utter words then they could not be assumed. What he didn’t realise was that a man who often worked 70 hour weeks to provide for his family, took them on a holiday every year and allowed the fruits of his labour to allow his children the trappings of a lifestyle that was certainly not close to the breadline, expressed their devotion in a far more tangible way. We can, all of us, be fooled by words but it is not so to disguise the reasonings behind our actions. Actions will always far outweigh words in terms of expressions of love.

Anyway, I digress as always, back to leadership. What did my father teach me? He taught me that there was a thing called work ethic, that loyalty mattered and that everything was underpinned by honesty. I will expand on these later.

I used these traits to my own advantage at an early age, especially when playing sport. I would lead from the front and put my head in first to any challenge and I expected the same from those I played with. There was no need for a captain’s armband to take on that responsibility though I often wore one. Perhaps at that age I was not entirely cognisant of the reasons why I would be so vocal when off the pitch I wasn’t. It was only with the wisdom that age brings that I can look back on these times and realise that I am far happier when sitting within the confines of a team. I could lead, and lead well, but I could also be led as easily if I believed intrinsically that the person calling the shots could match my own ideals. Very few have over the years, very few, but there have been a couple.

When I first stated work in the real world as opposed to part time jobs delivering papers or flipping burgers in McDonald’s on a weekend, I secured a role as a Civil Servant. This again was an eye opener. We had a small team of around eight people, headed up by a red-faced manager called Howard. Howard was a kind enough man, married with children and also having an affair with a buck-toothed crone on our team. I didn’t like this. I couldn’t respect this. I was still young enough and naïve enough to believe that marriage was a commitment to monogamy and calm, a vow that could not be broken. I still hold these views personally but in hindsight perhaps I judged too harshly, there are always a myriad of layers in situations like these but regardless, I didn’t like him, I didn’t respect him, and he was not a role model in the truest sense. He managed the team, but he was not the leader, that role fell to someone who was not paid for that purpose. A valleys lady called Yvonne who would bring the morale to the team, who knew her job with such certainty that you knew you could always approach her and receive the correct answer but in a manner that never left you feeling inadequate or lacking in ability. She was the ‘go to’ person and espoused values that I could relate to.

After two years of ‘working’ with Howard I could no longer work with him. I just couldn’t do it as we were working on the top floor, the 16^th storey of a tax office and increasingly I felt the urge to throw him out of the window. I would never have acted on this obviously, I am not a total psychopath, but I knew that I would sabotage my tenure within the team if I stayed. My work ethic had diminished to negligible levels, and I no longer wanted to go to work in the mornings. I transferred to another department and only lasted a year there. The management was ok but the job so mundane there was no requirement for a leader. I need almost constant stimuli to function at my best, the more pressure I am under the better I perform and the more I drive myself onwards.

I left for a role as an assistant manager at a local pub. Wow, I learned a lot. The thing I really learned was the difference between management and leadership. I will cover this towards the end of my diatribe, but again, I had some very short, sharp lessons in how to do things but more importantly how not to. I worked under a few managers, at times I became the manager directly, but the grounding I received was excellent for my own personal development.

One manager, Brian, was a leader. He had charisma by the bucket load, could sell anything to anyone but was so wrapped up within his own ego that everything was always going to end in tears. Another leader who believed that there was opportunity to turn the role of mentor into fondler. I just don’t get this on any level. Why would you take the trust and respect you have earned through admirable qualities to use them for nefarious purposes? A simple rule is that you do not rub another man’s rhubarb, not under any circumstance. Brian was the sort who would schmooze and when working with a staff of young, impressionable women this is not the way to conduct business. When there are clear favourites within your staff, when special treatment is reserved for people based on nothing else than their ability to commit acts that belong in the bedroom and not the bar, any sense of team dynamic is eroded. Erosion is a curious thing. At first it is not noticeable, certainly not when you are too engrossed in your own self, but eventually it reaches a stage from which only one outcome is inevitable, collapse. The collapse of any team is difficult to watch, even more so when the person who helped forge that team dynamic in the first instance is the one who ultimately destroys it.

Brian was replaced, but his successors were worse as they could not match the qualities that Brian had and were equally flawed in different ways.

I will jump ahead a little now to emphasise this point. I have written before about my time in the RAF but there is one incident that springs to mind that perfectly exemplifies a fundamental flaw of any ‘leader’ who cannot lead. There was an expression that was prevalent within my time in the RAF – rank has its privileges. It does, this cannot be argued. You earn a higher wage; you eat and sleep in better facilities and you have far more freedom. I hate this expression though for it is just one side of the coin and the side that only the worst leaders choose to see. Yes of course, it has privilege, but it has something far more important and tangible on the reverse face – responsibility. This is the side that gives birth to the other, not vice versa.

When you carry that responsibility well, nobody will begrudge the privileges it brings. If you fail to see the responsibility as your duty, viewing it as a cumbersome or even burdensome result of the privilege you are a fool and you are no leader.

We were overseas and there was an incident involving one of our team. Late one night he had returned to camp drunk, arguing with armed guards of an ally at a checkpoint to the camp on which we were based. Word got back to me the next morning, but I was the second in command, not the leader. I spoke with the commander that day and asked what he intended to do. To this day I cannot help but feel angry at his response. “I don’t like conflict, there was no real damage done and I am sure it will blow over, so I am going to say nothing and hope it doesn’t happen again”. With this sentence any respect I had for this man, and admittedly there was little to begin with based on previous experience of his ineptitude, dissipated immediately. I didn’t ask him, I told him that he was a disgrace and that I would have no other option than to report this to a more senior officer.

I explained to the senior rank that this ‘leader’ had acted in an entirely cowardly manner and brought disrepute to both his rank and uniform. When you are prepared to ignore a clear disciplinary offence based on nothing more than an unwillingness to fulfil your responsibility and a friendship with one of your team them you should not be afforded the privilege of leadership. The ramifications of inaction in this instance would not only have caused a diplomatic incident but also broken the morale of the team totally. We could not afford that as one thing a true leader understands unequivocally is that the strength of a team is what makes the leader able to lead, not the other way around. You can forge a team into a wonderful thing but always and all ways the worth of the team must matter more to you than your own position as its head. Your ability to lead must never be taken for granted or assumed a right. When we talk about the privileges that rank carries, perhaps this is the most easily forgotten.

So, back to leaders, and one that taught me more than any other and for all the right reasons and followed on directly from one of the very worst. I will start with the worst.

I was managed by an Army WO2 who, in all honesty, was a twat. I can’t think of another word to describe her other than that. She was foul in every way. She had her favourites and they received preferential treatment at every turn, whilst the rest of us were made to feel like peasants. We would work lengthy and gruelling shifts, with no lunch breaks, only to be called lazy, useless etc. Her marriage had recently failed, and we were the unwilling recipients of her own despair perhaps? I couldn’t care. To lead you must separate any internal angst from your decision making, applying logic even when it seems counterproductive to your emotional leanings.  Her approach to management and leadership were truly desperate. We were tasked with impossible targets and then humiliated for not reaching them. Of course, it is simply not in my nature to stand back and accept unjust management, especially of my team.

On one occasion my team had just finished a sixteen-hour shift, a shift in which they worked their socks off, dealing with life and death decisions. At the end of that they were subjected to a level of man management that I still, to this day, struggle to believe happened, but it did. Rather than a thank you, or a well done, fourteen of the hardest working people I knew were ushered into a room and torn apart. The phrase ‘dripping like a septic fanny’ may have scored well on a YouTube clip, but this was real life.. ‘Dry your eyes cupcake’ was another oft used phrase that served to lower team morale to breaking point. It was hideous, a charade played out by a charlatan that only succeeded in uniting the team in a negative manner. If ever that erstwhile colleague should read this, as I do believe she was educationally if not emotionally literate,  I remember the night in America that you broke down in tears that I could show so much commitment, so much drive and so much leadership. You broke your heart and I let you cry on my shoulder. It wouldn’t be there for you now.

I endured eighteen months of this and then I met a man who changed the way I saw everything. He looked like Touche Turtle, was Scottish and was the best manager I ever worked for.

We hit it off straight away. He was so far up his food chain that he could not get promoted any further. We were a dream team in terms of management. He would listen to me, and I would learn all I could from him. Perhaps he was my Mr Miyagi, but I love the man to this day. He taught me that to say the truth was not a crime, to wear your heart on your sleeve for the rights of those you managed was exactly how it should be. For three years I was allowed to run the section the way I saw fit, he would be the face, the man whom senior officers would talk to, but I would do everything else. I selected who worked for us, I selected the hours they worked, and I backed them to the hilt every time. If they wanted something I made it happen, if they needed a kick up the arse, they got one, but they also got the hug that they needed, the time off to deal with issues and the respect they deserved. I was fair, I was uncompromising in many ways, but they knew me to be honest. I never once promised something I couldn’t deliver but they also knew that I would go into battle with senior management on their behalf and tell it exactly how it was.

I recall one incident where I had found out one of my Corporals had failed to gain a very much deserved promotion. I didn’t have to out of official duty, but moral obligation made me visit him personally. I spoke to him and his wife and what was said will always remain between them and I, but he had the right to know the truth about things, that I was gutted to my core that he had been let down by weak willed superiors who couldn’t care for anyone but themselves. I have often been told I don’t care. Rubbish. I care more than I am capable of at times, and this is often at the detriment of myself in terms of career progression. If you want someone to blow smoke up your rear end and tell you how great things are teach a parrot to smoke, I will always tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.

I could recount countless instances that have helped forge my own approach to leadership, but I won’t recount too many. I am aware that some of these examples could be seen as efforts to ingratiate myself or alienate myself with current colleagues for whom they feel the cap may fit. As the adage goes though, if the cap seems to fit there may well be room to fit an empty head within it.

One manager for whom I did work, no longer thank goodness and he has moved on, was possibly the most incapable leader I toiled for. Now I must be fair, he was a genuinely nice man, there was no malice in him, no rancour to pass onto the team and had he been a team member rather than its figurehead would have been a pleasure to work with. As a role model though he was utterly bereft of the qualities needed to inspire and motivate.

He was intelligent but lacked any charisma or leadership qualities. He had clearly read every book on management and leadership and could talk the talk but, and this is key, there was no authenticity behind the words. There was a split-second timing issue that left the words empty and the eyes did not display the emotion that the words were meant to convey. As a result, there was a severe lack of credibility. It was almost pitiful because it was clear that there was a willingness but there was no substance to build the platform that allowed the messages to carry any legitimacy. As a result of this, rather than the confidence of the team underneath him, he gained instead a cartoon character quality, almost David Brentesque without the humour or the goatee.

He is certainly not the worst though, far from it. He did not want to be the alpha male in the room. Others have. I do not take well to ego driven leaders. I will not laugh along at an unfunny joke, pander to the whims of a clearly maniacal persona that needs constant flattery to function. We all know the type but there is a niche market for them. Certain circumstances allow these kinds of leader to flourish, usually when there is an age gap and a lack of character within the individuals they lead. Rather than reward honesty of those underneath them they favour the platitudes of subservient plebiscites who massage their own self-worth. In short, they will take a kiss on the arse far more favourably than an honest response. It never ends well.  

Rather than look to establish trust through endeavour and a fair appraisal of those whom they are tasked to lead, they will devour sycophancy with an unquenchable appetite. I once described a chain of command as being a human centipede of incompetence and stand by that comment. The head of the centipede was dire, unable to formulate coherent plans or understand the consequences of them. An autocratic approach that led to numerous errors that undeniably impacted on the morale of almost everyone underneath them. I used the word ‘almost’ with good reason as there were some saw opportunity to feather their own nest. Rather than display key traits of leadership, they suckered up to the head to the extent that their own ability to lead was eroded to the point that they spoke only in the voice and manner of their own boss, and this replicated itself even further down the chain.

Senior managers had now disappeared so far up the derriere of the mouthpiece that their voice could never be heard as the only part that was still visible were their ankles, so intent were they in their pursuit of being favoured. Of course, underneath this you then had several junior managers trying to squeeze their head up the back passage of the person above them because they had seen that this was far more effective than carrying out the role for which they were being paid. The result is always the same in these scenarios, a complete breakdown in communication, trust and the glue that holds any business or unit together, morale.

One question that has been debated for aeons is to elaborate what separates the manager from the leader. This is so banal and has caused an entire industry to be formed on the faux psychological soundbites and inspirational quotes that we all love to read on conference room walls. In isolation they can seem to strike a resonance with the reader, and rightly so. If however they were all thoroughly analysed there would be one clear conclusion – they are mostly utter bollocks with direct contradictions and logic failings.

The truth is that over centuries language has evolved and the literal meaning of words should never be overlooked or understated. Leadership is simply the ability to lead, management the ability to manage. They are obviously unique in the qualities needed to succeed in becoming proficient in either aspect and whilst some people possess the ability to do both, for a business to flourish you need more managers than leaders.

A manager is someone who can take hold of a situation and manage it effectively with the tools and personnel at their disposal, providing guidance and control to secure the results that the leader has looked to implement. They provide the immediate tactical nous to ensure the strategic vision of the leader can be delivered. Often a leader’s vision is fragmented with an overall target in mind and the basis of the plans to achieve that aim, without the necessary know how to deliver that aim. The managers are crucial here.

There is a quote that I love from Benjamin Franklin “If passion rules you, let reason hold the reins”. The leader’s passion allows them to overshoot in their desire to achieve a result or even quantify with any certainty the reality of the target they wish to achieve, the managers are the reins that ensure the target is reached and that the passion is tempered with a healthy dose of realism and pragmatism. The two are the symbiotic relationship that allows all businesses to achieve.

A leader can lead by possessing one of two innate abilities – they can lead by example, or they can lead by force of personality but the best, the very, very best can do both.

I am going to list the abilities that all the very best leaders have shown to me over the years. I am not arrogant enough to believe I possess all, if many, but I aim to. They are not listed in a specific order as followers will respond to differing traits in unequal measure.

• Charisma – This is essential and should not be confused with an aesthetic quality. What you look like matters far less than who you are when leading. A look at some of the most revered leaders, and despised, are proof of this. Neither Adolf Hitler nor Margaret Thatcher was ever likely to enter Love Island even in their youth, but they knew how to lead. Hitler is the perfect example of someone who led by force of personality, his use of language and understanding of the effectiveness and power of its delivery enabled him to commit atrocities the history books should always carry as a warning of what happens when leadership turns into despotism.
• Work ethic – If the leader sits in the penthouse suite of an office block, his office light should be the herald of the new dawn and the sole accompaniment of a rising moon. You cannot expect anyone to follow your lead if that lead is full of privilege and not burden. Leadership can be burdensome, but it is what inspires those who look at you as the embodiment of what their toil represents. The highest seat of office is one that carries the requirement of leading by example. If you are the first out of the door at the end of the day, then you will soon hear the footsteps behind you become more frequent and heavier in volume.
• Integrity – Another quote I love – “integrity is doing the right thing when nobody is watching”. You have a duty to do the right thing by those who follow you and act upon your desire to reach strategic aims. When you show an integrity in your dealings with staff at all levels, treat everyone with the same manner and never allow yourself to believe that your ego is more important than those of the lowest paid member of your team, they will follow you to the gates of hell itself. It will also engender points four and five below to become second nature rather than a forced issue.
• Trust – Trust your staff. Trust your managers and trust your teams. They are the tools that you use to reach your goals. They will either offer incredible levels of support or pull you down. Speak with them, understand them and above all else, listen to them. If they feel that their opinion has value, they will be the flies on the wall that give you eyes in areas that you cannot have direct sight of. If you are in charge of multiple departments, you cannot afford to doubt the word of those tasked with managing them and they cannot afford to doubt that you will take on board the feedback they provide.
• Respect – there is a base level of respect that should be afforded to all initially. You should not afford yourself the belief that you deserve more respect than anyone else within your organisation purely as a result of your position. Do not expect doors to be held open for you or to jump a queue in the canteen. By doing this you are not gaining respect, you are losing it, and if you lose respect, you lose efficacy and trust. Be one of the team not because it is the right thing to do for effect but because it is the reality. You are no better and they are no worse.
• Humility – You are a leader as a result of circumstance, not fate or divine right. You are the one who ultimately will control the success or failure of any venture but those who work for you will be the ones who facilitate this. When there is blame to be apportioned for failure, you should look in the mirror first and foremost. What could you have done differently? Did you listen to the advice that you were given by your management teams and act on it? Conversely, when there is success, the limelight will naturally fall upon you in equal measure to when you fail. Whilst you should act as a sponge for the failings, you must act as a radiator when the praise is directed towards you. The managers and their teams achieved YOUR goal, not you personally. Always show humility in accepting the results of a team rather than it’s mascot.
• Consistency – No matter the situation, no matter the extenuating circumstances or pressure, two multiplied by two always equals four. If you react to stimuli in a certain manner this becomes expected behaviour and allows for free communication that is not altered by fear to deliver truth. If you encourage and reward honesty on a Monday do not act differently on the Tuesday or by Wednesday you will not get the information you need, you will get the information that managers hope will elicit the same response as on the Monday. This can be catastrophic. If you set out on a journey even point five of a degree off course, you will never reach your destination. Always respect those who tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.
• Loyalty – Loyalty matters. If you show loyalty, you will in most cases receive it in equal measure. Show disloyalty even once and it will revisit you tenfold. Be loyal to yourself and your belief in the task at hand and others will follow you. Show doubt and others will mirror this. If the leader cannot show loyalty, why would anyone choose to stand by their side. For every one person who views their job as a means to an end there will be another who measures their own self esteem on their ability to help you achieve your aims. Never take this for granted, it matters far more than you may realise.
• Passion – Passion is not to be confused with volume or tubthumping speeches. Passion is the one thing that will allow ten people to do the work of twelve. Passion is what drives someone to work a full day when they have a head cold rather than call an automated absence line and passion is what drives most people more than financial aim. It is also infectious. If when you speak to people, they hear that you mean those words, that your eyes shine with belief when praising, disappointment when you need to admonish and ecstasy when you achieve as a team then they will mirror this. It no longer becomes just your goal; it becomes our goal. It is no longer an achievement it is our achievement. When you give one hundred per cent of yourself towards something you will get that back. If you give ninety per cent you will get only eighty per cent back. Nobody will put their life on the line for a cause they do not believe in or a leader they feel does not believe in themself.
• Ruthlessness – If you give one hundred people the exact same training, within three months you will be able to see who can perform and who can’t. There may be myriad reasons for underperformance, but you must be able to both identify and act on it. If the issues cannot be resolved pastorally or through further training, then you must be hard enough to make the tough decisions. Likewise, never believe that someone who performs brilliantly within a given role could manage others performing the same role. When looking to promote it is not just a reward for good performance, it is recognition that the recipient has the ability and skillsets required in the new role. If you promote on a false basis you not only reduce the effectiveness of the team through the individual loss of a high performer, but also the new managers inefficiency in delivering the mentorship the team require. A prime example of this is football management – very few top tier players have the skillsets to become capable managers, even fewer successful ones.
• Transparency – Stay away from phrases such as ‘bigger picture’ or ‘you do not need to know’. If someone is asking why they are doing something, then they are effectively doubting the aim you wish to achieve. Tell them. By obscuring non-sensitive information, you make the person question your trust in them. Remember that they are working for your goals and by allowing ego to obscure the truth you are demotivating someone who cares enough to ask. The issue for a leader is not when someone is asking for clarification or reassurance, it is when they can no longer be bothered to ask. Only the highest egotist or self-delusional fool would allow themselves to believe that everyone under their leadership is happy enough to never question direction.

Has this been long-winded? Absolutely. Do I claim to be an authority on leadership? Absolutely not. I am just an ordinary man leading an ordinary life who likes to pontificate. If you disagree with what I’ve written that is your right. If you read anything that resonates then great.

Being a leader is an exalted position. It certainly is not for everyone.