My study of leadership began around 2001 when I started duty as a facilitator in the Navy leadership continuum (as it was known then; it doesn’t exist anymore). I enjoyed it enough to do my Master’s degree from Liberty University in Christian Leadership. I’ve always had somewhat of an interest in it, but I will be the first to admit that after a few years, it all seemed to be the same kind of stuff. The “new” leadership theory was just the old stuff repackaged in a slightly different form, just like they do with candy in the grocery store. More on that in a minute...
One of my classes during this term is “Leadership and Management in the Intelligence Community.” My professor is Dr. Mike Mears, and he’s a pretty amazing guy. I love his class. It’s not really about leadership in the intel community, but leadership in general. I can’t believe how smart the guy is. He can quote from studies and books like he read them yesterday, and he is loaded with personal stories from his consultations with so many well-known leaders, both government and commercial. But what impresses me most is how he boils down so much leadership theory to “being a good person,” or as he sometimes likes to say in class, “Don’t be a dick.”
We had an assignment for a class discussion to watch this video by Dan Pink called, “The Puzzle of Motivation.” I admit that my first thought was, “Yeah yeah yeah, they always say that money doesn’t motivate people but…” As I mentioned earlier, I thought this was going to be another “repackage” job. But I will admit that I was blown away. The science and research part of it is just crazy. And when it was all done, I started thinking about the stuff in my leadership bag that I use to try to motivate Sailors, and was embarrassed to find that it was completely extrinsic stuff. Time off work, awards, recognition, Starbucks cards, promotions - these are the things that I’ve assumed people want the most. I’m not saying that they don’t ever want those things, but they don’t get to the core to build a culture that makes people want to stay and work with or without those other things. I feel like I’ve been missing the mark for years. I’ll be taking a hard look in the next couple of weeks to see what I can change to give people autonomy, mastery, and purpose (see the video - it’s a TED talk so it’s not too long). It’s certainly no easy task, but I feel like I need to make a change to some of my personal leadership philosophy.
This class is causing me to do a lot of introspection about myself and my strengths, weaknesses, etc. I’ve done a couple of assessments that I had not done before. I did Marston’s DISC assessment which I thought was very interesting because it gives you two results: how you view yourself and how you probably actually act. I wasn’t too surprised that my own perception was very balanced across the board. Dominance was a little lower than the others, but influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness were all equal. But how I actually act was completely different. Dominance, influence, and conscientiousness practically disappeared, and I was extremely high in steadiness. I read the description of a high “S” in the DISC assessment, and it was pretty spot on for me.
I also did the StrengthsFinder 2.0 through Gallup. That one cost a bit of money, but my professor loves it and highly recommended it. My top five traits from 1-5 were: developer, connectedness, communication, positivity, and input. I need to do some more reading (I took it today so have only done a cursory look) to see how I can apply an understanding of those strengths.
If I’m honest with you guys, I’ve suspected for years that I’m not really gifted with the strengths to be the guy at the top. I’m really more suited to be a supporter and helper - kind of a right hand man. It’s what I do best, and I actually enjoy that aspect of my work now. I like lightening the burden for those that I work with by handling mundane or “lighter” tasks. Thinking of a few years down the road, I don’t know how that translates to a resume or job interviews. The military focuses so much on leadership and being the leader that saying, “Hey, I’m better suited to be a helper” wouldn’t be viewed as such a great things and I suspect it may be the same when I am applying for civilian employment.
As a side note, one of the things we’ve discussed in class is that the bottom 15% of leaders (the worst leaders) think that they are in the top 25%. They are clueless and have no self-awareness. I’m consoling myself with the thought that because I tend to be introspective about how I’m doing as a leader, hopefully I’m not in the bottom 15%!
You guys have a LOT of experience leading and developing people. I’d love to hear your thoughts on motivation and the value of these assessment tools that supposedly help you identify strengths and weaknesses. I still have a lot to learn.
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