“You look like hell,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said. “That girl I’ve been dating did a number on me.”
“Yeah?” I asked, “You mentioned she was kind of unstable.”
“I thought I could handle it,” he said, “but unstable turned to downright mean.”
“You don’t need that,” I said. “Cut her loose.”
“I know. I know,” he said. “I also need to move out of my mother’s house. That’s driving me crazy too. I moved in there when my business went into the toilet about five years ago, and now it’s time to get out.”
“Ok great,” I said. “The fixes are clear — get rid of the girl and get your own place.”
“Easier said than done,” he responded.
And there’s the rub.
I enjoy chatting with Jim. A fellow business owner I’ve gotten to know when we’re both catching up on email at the local Starbucks.
“You know,” I said. “Everything is easier said than done, but when you know what you have to do, not doing it is crazy.”
And the more I think about it, the stronger I feel that the transformation of strategic vision into operational reality is what true leadership is all about. True leaders not only divine and define true North, but then make the necessary changes (reallocation/augmentation of resources, etc.) to take the hill.
Take, for example, the recommendation by Winston Churchill to go all-in on oil with the British fleet just as the European situation started to heat up prior to World War I. Sure, the fleet could stay with coal (which the country had in plentiful supply), but coal meant slower, dirtier and less efficient ships, and that was bad for the business of making war. But oil, with all it benefits, brought huge supply problems — England had none in the ground.
“To commit the Navy irrevocably to oil was indeed ‘to take arms against a sea of troubles.’ Wave after wave, dark with storm, crested with foam, surged towards the harbour in which we still sheltered. Should we drive out into the teeth of the gale, or should we bide contented where we were? Yet beyond the breakers was a great hope. If we overcame the difficulties and surmounted the risks, we should be able to raise the whole power and efficiency of the Navy to a definitely higher level; better ships, better crews, higher economies, more intense forms of war-power — in a word, mastery itself was the prize of the venture. A year gained over a rival might make all the difference. Forward, then!” — The World Crisis, Vol. 1 (Winston Churchill’s World Crisis Collection) by Winston S. Churchill
And take notice because (as I often tell my wife in relation to her cryptic texts) punctuation matters. Churchill lays out the case for taking a certain direction and, rather than minimize, highlights the difficulties ahead, but he ends not with a resigned, “Forward, then.” but an inspiring call to arms: “Forward, then!”
And this is the same feeling you must instill in your troops after defining their objective, at which point strategic vision turns into tactical hill taking. As a result of your inspiration, they must be propelled forward with all the fervor and singularity of purpose that those dying of thirst display when pursuing a distant stream whose location has been revealed.
Want some inspiration for besting the toughest of tactical challenges? Try the advice given to Navy Seal and “Lone Survivor” author Thomas Luttrell as he was about to begin Hell Week.
“Six instructors filed into the room, surrounding a Navy captain. And we all knew who he was. This was Captain Joe Maguire, the near-legendary Brooklyn-born Honor Man of Class 93 and onetime commanding officer of SEAL Team 2 …
“He talked to us calmly. And he gave us two pieces of priceless advice. He said he was addressing those who really wanted this kind of life, those who could put up with every kind of harassment those instructors at the back of the room could possibly dish out.
“’First of all, I do not want you to give in to the pressure of the moment. Whenever you’re hurting bad, just hang in there. Finish the day. Then, if you’re still feeling bad, think about it long and hard before you decide to quit. Second, take it one day at a time. One evolution at a time.
“’Don’t let your thoughts run away with you, don’t start planning to bail out because you’re worried about the future and how much you can take. Don’t look ahead to the pain. Just get through the day, and there’s a wonderful career ahead of you.’” — Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell
If such words of wisdom can get guys through Hell Week, it can certainly get your team through go-live.
Superior leadership is about the gliding, the transitioning between the strategic and the tactical. Do just the former and you’ll have a great vision which stays just that. Do only the latter and you’ll check lots of stuff off your list, but they won’t be the things that matter. It is only in the melding of both skills that you can do as Churchill did — envision future’s harbor, and then make damn sure those under your purview get there ready to fight.
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