There are so many things that contribute to a leader’s style and ability to motivate and deliver significant positive results within an organization. Recently, I listened to an interview on Simon Sinek’s podcast with Air Force Chief of Staff General CQ Brown on some of his insights. He’s very sharp—and he’s also accessible, warm, and open about how he builds trust with his teams to deliver under pressure. Below are my main takeaways from their conversation.
Leadership impact: How we listen
As you advance in seniority, it can often be difficult to get the “truth” and open feedback from team members. Sometimes people hold more candid comments until after the meeting is complete, in the hallway or over Teams chat, for fear of looking bad or even retribution. General Brown focuses on bringing those comments into the meeting live. Make sure you are getting “the meeting after the meeting” during the meeting itself! You’re saving time on rework and alignment conversations, getting important issues on the table, and even increasing the teams trust with each other as they say what they’re really thinking. This is even more critical with so many teammates working remotely.
If you expect to get the truth from your team, consider how you react to bad news. General Brown notes: If you can’t listen without an emotional response, you’re starting down the path of cutting yourself off from that person delivering anything but good news to you in the future. Every time you’re interacting with your team, you need to be hyper aware of how you act and how you listen. The better you listen, the more you’ll receive the truth.
Part of his approach is to involve and listen to junior team members. For senior leaders, you’re relying on your direct reports who have aggregated the perspectives of their more junior team members. This can dilute or misinterpret comments, and potentially miss the intent altogether. Speaking directly with team members lower in the organization can give different viewpoints and a sense of what is happening on the front lines of day-to-day implementation of the strategy.
Balancing vision and execution
How do you focus on your strategic priorities without getting bogged down in daily minutiae? Have a vision that is broad enough that you can handle the curve balls thrown by forces outside your control. A vision should allow for changes in activities and tactics without losing the big picture of where you’re going and for what result. Be willing to take slight detours, as you learn, that still drive toward your North Star.
Part of this balance is ensuring you meet on strategic priorities (we call them Quarterly Rocks) with a set operating rhythm. When your team knows that you’ll be checking in every 1, 2 or 4 weeks, they will stay focused on your priorities.
As you find this balance, General Brown notes his “ATE” approach: Delegate (to the lowest capable level), Tolerate (everything won’t get done exactly as we envisioned and that’s okay), and Iterate (stay involved to help your team learn from your experience and stay on track). These things build capabilities, transparency, and even more trust across the organization.
Put your oxygen mask on first
So many of us go from meeting to meeting without stopping to consider what we’ve learned and what it means for our team. As you get more senior, it’s critical to schedule time to think. EOS Worldwide calls this a Clarity Break. Make sure you have time to ruminate, process, and think through implications on your team.
One thing is for sure: change and rapid innovation will only escalate in the next few years. When you factor in technology and AI’s exponential rate of implementation, many of us are making more decisions, more quickly, and under more pressure than ever before. It’s important to identify and stay guided by leadership tenets so we can continue to serve our customers in accomplishing the missions most important to them.
