Brad Harbison
Editor’s note: Alan Feuer, technical director, Preventive Pest Control, Albuquerque, N.M., is also a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. Feuer is writing a series of leadership articles for PCT based on his years of his military and pest control experience. In part one, Feuer shares two goals of leadership to keep in mind as you continue developing yourself as a leader. Feuer, along with Pete Schopen, Schopen Pest Solutions, McHenry, Ill., and Maria Sorrentino, president of Pest Pros of Michigan, Portage, Mich., will be presenting on how to grow as a leader in a series of in-person events: the “Lead People, Manage Stuff” series. The first session, “Fundamentals of Leadership and Company Culture,” takes place April 29-30, in Denver, Colo.; May 20-21 in Chicago, and June 17-18 in Dallas. For more information contact Sorrentino at 269/503-9860 or maria@pestprosmi.com.
Welcome! This is article #1 in a series of leadership articles which I hope might help you in developing yourself as a leader and which also might help you by developing others in your life into leaders.
Let’s get right to it.
There are only 2 goals of leadership:
1. Accomplishment of Mission
2. Welfare of the Team
SERIES POINT OF VIEW. Let me be very clear, this series will be overtly written from the paradigm of military mission leadership, and to be more precise, the leadership principles as prescribed by the United States Marine Corps.
No, this is not going to be written from a boot camp “OORAH, hurry up maggot,” perspective.
Instead, think more Mother Theresa, servanthood-ministry than Sergeant Stryker, taskmaster and personal terrorist.
That’s right! Leadership is all about being a servant.
Now, that does not mean that you are the maid, the chaplain, or the emotional support human. It also does not mean that you are to coddle, compromise or concede with those that you lead.
WHAT LEADERS SHOULD NOT DO WHAT LEADERS SHOULD DO |
3 TOP LEVEL LEADERSHIP CONCEPTS. Keep these three leadership concepts top of mind.
1. Authority
2. Responsibility
3. Accountability
AUTHORITY
“This is the legitimate power of a leader to direct the action of those who are subordinate to him. Authority is responsibly exercised to accomplish a mission.” - USMC Leadership
Where does Authority originate? Who determines who is granted authority?
“Who gave you the sword which makes you, Arthur, King of the Britons?” - Monty Python
We in authority might want to investigate where we gain our authority and how legitimate it really is. I’ll allow you, dear reader, to wrestle with that.
In the meantime, know this: AUTHORITY should be delegated and granted to others to accomplish a mission.
“Joe, here are the keys to the shop. This is your shop. You need to make decisions about how your shop runs. You make the calls, and I will help if you need me to. You may make some mistakes, but let’s learn from them and get better. Oh, by the way, use this authority over your shop to RESPONSIBLY get the job done.”
Granting authority includes clarifying the assets and resources which would fall under the authority of the grantee. Some of that authority may even be leadership or technical proficiency development required to succeed with AUTHORITY in the role appointed. We will be tackling this head on in the upcoming articles of this series.
RESPONSIBILITY
“The obligation to act appropriately in the accomplishment of a mission and to ensure the welfare of the personnel and property which you have been granted authority over.” - USMC Leadership
To clarify, responsibility means that everything you have authority over is your fault. This is in a good or bad light. If your team wins, that is your fault. If your team fails, that is your fault. If one of your team is harmed that is your fault. If one of your team excels, that is your fault. It is all on you. You have the burden.
Responsibility, at the end of the day, cannot be given away to another. Even if you delegate something to another, the responsibility remains yours. Their failing becomes your failing. In true leadership, CRAP ROLLS UPHILL when things go wrong.
All too often in business we get the AUTHORITY – RESPONSIBILITY thing all messed up. We often hand RESPONSIBILITY to a subordinate without granting that person the AUTHORITY that would be required to get the job done.
Here is an example of that.
“Here is a job I want done. Figure it out. Don’t let me down.”
No clarification, no development, no support, no authority.
While this may work sometimes, it never works all the time. This where we see subordinates “thrown under the bus.”
ACCOUNTABILITY
“The reckoning wherein a leader answers for his actions and the actions of those he has authority over and responsibility for.” - USMC Leadership
Do you see how ACCOUNTABILITY is the final connection between RESPONSIBILITY and AUTHORITY. If there is never ACCOUNTABILITY, there is no need to bother with delegating jobs, missions, or goals to others.
To make this article very personal, I believe that this is a missing element in our society. We see utter lack of accountability in all walks of modern life. Some of this is simply leadership folly and confusion, but a fair amount of this is criminal in nature. I’ll leave that there. If you want to vent on this topic, send me an email.
CALL TO ACTION AND NEXT ARTICLE
I’m leaving you hanging. I want you to digest the RESPONSIBILITY, AUTHORITY, ACCOUNTABILITY thoughts I have presented today. Please think about how these concepts play out In Real Life (IRL).
- How are you delegating authority to others?
- How are you considering the responsibility you have?
- Where is accountability lacking?
- How do these things fit together
Even if you are not the “top dog”, think about how these things come down on you and how they affect your boss.
In the next issue we will cover the 4 INDICATORS OF LEADERSHIP.
1. Proficiency
2. Discipline
3. Esprit de corps
4. Morale
Carry on!