Schwartzkopf on Leadership

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Schwartzkopf on Leadership

  1. You must have clear goals. You must be able to articulate them clearly. When the goal is clear and simple, it is easy to focus on success.
  2. Give yourself a clear agenda. Every morning write down the five most important things for you to accomplish that day. Whatever else you do, get those five things done. Insist that the people who report to you operate the same way
  3. Let people know where they stand. Everyone knows you do a disservice to a B student when you give them and A. This applies in life as well as in school. The grades you give people who report to you must reflect reality.
  4. What’s broken, fix now. Don’t put it off. Problems that aren’t dealt with lead to other problems. Besides, tomorrow something else will break and need fixing.
  5. No repainting the flagpole. Make sure all the work you are doing is essential to the organization.
  6. Set high standards. Too often we don’t ask enough of people. Schwartzkopf was at one point in charge of helicopter maintenance. When asked how many copters were available to fly on any given day, he was told 75%. He then raised the standard to 85%, which was met quickly. The moral is people generally won’t perform above your expectations, so it’s important to expect a lot.
  7. Lay the concept out, but let your people execute it. Yes, you must have the right people in place. But then step back and allow them to own their work.
  8. People come to work to succeed. Nobody comes to work to fail. It seems obvious. So why do so many organizations operate on the principle that if people aren’t watched and supervised, they’ll botch the job?
  9. Never lie. Ever. Schwartzkopf said there had been a big debate about whether to use disinformation to mislead the Iraqis during the Gulf War. “We knew they were watching CNN. Some people argued we could save American lives by feeding incorrect information to our own media”. Schwartzkopf vetoed the idea because he believed it would undermine the military leadership’s credibility with the American public.
  10. When in charge, take command. Leaders are often called on to make decisions without adequate information. As a result, they may put off deciding to do anything at all. That is a big mistake. Decisions themselves elicit new information. The best policy is to decide, monitor results, and change course if necessary.
  11. Do what is right. “The truth of the matter,” said Schwartzkopf, “is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.