In this article, US Air Force Senior Operations Director, Michael Carrera outlines specific rules of managing diverse teams distilled from over 20 years of military experience.
Why is it that some teams thrive while others flounder? It turns out there are some definite patterns that fuel well-built teams requiring more than just memos and beautiful speeches but deliberate, specific and involved processes on the part of the team leader. In over 20 years’ experience managing teams in digital systems, manufacturing, aircraft maintenance, and imagery analysis I have learned no single group is alike. Nevertheless, five rules stand out which, when applied appropriately, can cultivate teams geared towards maximized growth and limitless potential.
1. Invest in your people
Words matter but actions matter more. When I took over as Senior Personnel Supervisor for an aircraft maintenance unit, there were about 80 employees in my care. What initially struck me as odd is that not one had received a promotion in the previous year. I then decided to try out a radical idea, take a personal interest in everyone’s advancement. I deep-dived to uncover every members’ motivation and match it to our work center goal. I edited all monthly, quarterly, annual award, and every performance review, I maximized every training opportunity and if none existed before I created one. I also took time to mentor everyone on study habits and techniques to prepare them for their next advancement exams. Bottom line is that I took a deliberate and personal interest in their advancement and tied it to my own. If they didn’t advance, neither did I. This ensured that amidst the flood of daily work, I manage to get everyone to rise together rather than be left behind and drown. It took a lot of work, long hours and some ‘intrusive leadership’ by asking and learning what’s on people’s minds but it paid dividends evidenced the following year with 14 promotions, eclipsing all other flight advancement records for a single year in the history of the maintenance organization.
2. Be stern but be fair
Many believe that the key to good leadership is having great charisma, being agreeable and never pointing out flaws but this, however, has a crippling effect. There was a young airman who, although had a robust set of experience maintaining aircraft, had a penchant for disrespecting his superiors regardless of rank. I called him into the office with my boss and another colleague for a counseling session.What I drew across is that we are not reprimanding him for sport or out of spite but because we care about his well-being and that part of belonging to a team is to look out for one another. I reminded him his insubordination was inexcusable and from this point forward if he even sneezed in the wrong direction I would make ending his career my personal religion. Up until that day no one had ever spoken to him this sternly yet convey care. Weeks later his attitude took a turn for the better, and he was reaping many awards and recognition. People will make mistakes, and some people will undoubtedly test your limits. Remember that while being consistent in doling out punishment to also show them a clear path for improvement.
3. Allow them to fail
Success has nothing to do with perfection, rather, success is a byproduct in the aim to towards perfection. While sitting as a member of a senior qualification board a trainee wrapped up his presentation and exited the room. His presentation was well delivered; his answers were on the mark and leveraged everything expected of him with a few minor discrepancies. My assessment was that he met the purpose of the board and he was ready to pass. Some of the members, however, still had reservations based on a few missed answers. I opened our deliberation talks recounting a seemingly impossible scenario. Everything that could go wrong happened as if by design yet the outcome was still positive at the end of the 4-day ordeal. The scenario described was my own in which my team and I was tasked to support a humanitarian evacuation mission. There were systemic and personnel failures throughout but I applied an oil spot approach to solving issues in sequence to eventually regain control. The point was I didn’t have all the answers to the deluge of problems assaulting our efforts but I knew where to find them. People will fail but failure is not something to be avoided as it is a requirement for success and if you haven’t failed then you haven’t tried hard enough. The member was passed by unanimous vote and he is now one of the most popular and seasoned team leads to date.
4. Create an environment that propels creativity
I once managed a 10-member team comprised of the most junior military analysts in our company. Before coming onboard, I had become quite accustomed to seasoned teams who were pretty much on auto-pilot requiring little involvement from me. What stood out about this particular team is that despite their relative inexperience they possessed ambition and grit. They compiled a list of the best and the worst practices from the other organizations then they engineered eight-month training plan to become the most qualified team in the organization. Not only did they execute their idea, but they also achieved this in five months before moving on to become the best in Europe with one member went on to become so successful that he amassed recognition from Senior Field Grade Officers and Operations Directors across three Major Commands. My role was ensuring the best environment in which they can operate without fear of ridicule and with the freedom to test, shape and implement their ideas. I cut unnecessary assignments, facilitated lines of communication and broke down any barriers they encountered on their road to chartering new standards of practice that ran circles around every peer organization which are still studied, and taught across three continents while breaking performance records still unmatched to this day.
5. Have courage
This is most important rule of all.
Leadership is not a popularity contest but a choice we make. It has nothing to do with being agreeable all the time rather; sometimes you have to say ‘No’ for the betterment of all. Most senior leaders do the exact opposite and say ‘Yes’ to everything coming down from upper management to the detriment of the organization. A stark example of this took place while we were in South Korea for a military exercise.
One of our members came down with sharp abdominal pains late at night. The Doc on call diagnosed him with appendicitis and ordered him to the ER immediately. Our Superintendent at the time had the only vehicle available to take our co-worker to the nearest ER, but even then he wrestled with the idea of whether or not to break base curfew and drive to the hospital. His choice was either obey curfew hours or take the member to the hospital. It seemed like an obvious choice but years of acquiescence had conditioned him to say yes and temporarily robbed him of the needed courage to do the right thing. Ultimately, he took the member to the hospital where he recovered after surgery.
I’ve said ‘No’ to a lot of requests from upper management knowing that at any point I could have been fired for not being a “team playerâ€. My reasoning was not to create friction but to prioritize and discriminate between what is important and what isn’t. If you make everything a priority, then nothing is a priority and your team members will respond in kind. As leaders, we must exercise the courage to make decisions for the best reasons and let the chips fall where they may. The worst thing that could happen is that you will be disliked and that’s a risk a strong leader will be accustomed and expected to take.
**Leading teams is a hazardous job with no warning label and it takes a deliberate and methodical involvement**. Seth Godin, author of the bestselling book “Tribesâ€, describes teams as tribes in which they are “a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an ideaâ€. This is the expected outcome from applying the 5 rules to your own teams: establishing a strong connection to one another around a common idea. **Stand up for something, otherwise you risk falling for anything and successful teams will always rally behind a strong leader who holds their best interest and that of the organization**. There is no reason the two cannot be a part of the same. Apply them to your own organization and turn any team into a magnet of success.