[March 18, 2017] Spoiler alert! No leader does it all; though many have attempted, they all have failed when they tried. Leaders who attempt to do it all inevitably run into the complexities, ambiguities, and unpredictability of reality and quickly discover that humans are far from perfect.
“No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.” – Andrew Carnegie, Business Leader, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist
Last Tuesday night I was re-watching one of my favorite movies, 12 O’Clock High (1949); the World War II film starring Gregory Peck and Hugh Marlowe. Seems like each time I watch it I see something new about either the plot or the characters. I wrote about this earlier in a post entitled “Leadership Lessons from a Movie?” (link here). One lesson from the movie is that the senior leader cannot do it all.
Anyone smart enough and sufficiently experienced to be a senior leader can unintentionally push themselves so hard that they begin to delve too far into the details of their organization and people. In this movie, so it was when Gregory Peck’s character (General Savage) who succeeds at Bomber Command where none could before. But in the end he collapses into a catatonic state and cannot participate in the most important bombing mission of the war.
For my part, I’ve seen commanders – during war and peace – fall apart because they put so much into being successful that they ignored warning signs of their personal physical and mental health. Staying healthy is, of course, important and good leadership means absorbing lessons from our junior leader days when we cannot micromanage our way to success.
I was admonished by my commander once when I was a junior Captain. Although I was in peak physical condition and the Infantry unit I commanded did well in its peacetime maneuvers, it was only because I did too much of the work. He cautioned me that despite the overall performance, it was clear to him that several of my leaders did not do their jobs well. In other words, I was not developing unit leaders; a chief purpose behind peacetime training.
This lesson should be reinforced often. Leader responsibilities should include, explicitly, looking out for other leaders who may be subject to the abyss that so many have fallen into. I learned my lesson the hard way. Others are not so lucky (maybe luck is not the right word, but you know what I mean).
Leaders certainly cannot do everything. Nor should they be required to do so. Failure is the penalty for those who believe they can do it all.
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