In preparation for my next role in the Air Force as the Senior Enlisted Leader, I have spent the last few weeks reading and exploring different leadership books and bibliographies. As this new class in my education opens up this week, I am presented with key questions that define my evolution in leadership development.
1) Has your own attitude to leaders changed in you life and is so how?
2) If we take as a starting point the attitude to those in authority/leaders as held by your grandparents and then look at those attitudes held by your parents and then by you and they by the younger generation is there a changing trend? if so what is it?
3) Why do you think that this has occurred? (Obolensky, 2016)
Reflecting on these questions in this blog, I explore my journey of a humble Cajun development to a mildly successful military career. To set this stage, I grew up in a oversize trailer on a farm in south Louisiana. I did not grow up wealthy nor had simple advancements like cable or dishwasher, my family did not need them. We hunted and grew our own food well into my early years in the military. My culture was different, my adolescence years were focused on survival and values and as a result family was close, forming bonds that transcended the "modern family." We were a collective of people that formed its own tribe and had very much tribal leadership in my mother. We lived by our own Cajun values instilled since birth. In Logan, King and Fischer-Wright's book "Tribal Leadership", they describe this inherent behaviors as central to the development of the tribe, "a principle of without which life wouldn't be worth living (Logan, King, Fischer-Wright, 2008)."
During my teenage years, we visited my grandparents as often as we could. They lived in Florida, so any opportunity, my mom loaded up the truck and we drove for eight hours. My grandparents were also poor and had less modern convinces then we did. My mom's mom for example only had a hand pumped for running watering. The sub culture extended straight from her. She work in the tobacco fields until she was in her seventies, raising whatever money she could to buy herself a new Bible. I have more respect for this meek woman than I have for any four-star that I might meet. My evolution in the leadership attitude begins with my relatives. James Allen wrote "those who give little accomplish little; those who give much accomplish much; those who give the most become the greatest (Allen, 1902)." This motto embraced my attitude towards the leaders of my tribe.
Then....the great cell-phone age!
When I joined the military in early 2000, this was my attitude towards leaders, Cajun principles and tribal leadership guided me and helped US survive. My attitude was simple, do not yell, do not cuss, do not drink and do not go to bed angry. Now why this might seem easy enough, trust me the first few days of the military all bets are off and all of these values and many more that I held so tightly in Cajun country now seemed unappreciated and insignificant. There was an instant leadership gap in my own values, principles and structures. How was I supposed to follow people that did not know my name or even cared to know? My attitude as a follower took a nose dive, I did not understand why people felt the need to ridicule and bully subordinates instead of developing and forming a bond? For what cause? My attitude, morale and motivation plummeted into misfortune, mishap and misunderstandings with the leadership.
My tribe was broken, my mother passed away in 2006, my sister passed away in 2011, all of my grandparents pass in the last ten years. The complaining, the crying, the lack of ownership all things I did and admittedly still do not understand. Fitting into this new tribe is difficult and presents its own hazards of leadership. My grandparents did not even have running water, of course I do not understand how the Run-DMC does not compare to Lil'Wayne. The leaders of today, have more information in the palm of their hands then any Cajun ever will. We can literally access the entire world instantly (my dad is still trying to figure out the difference between DVD and DVR). I think that reason why leaders of today are uniquely different is because of this. They have access to millions of people at once for concurrences and non-concurrences, likes and dislikes, they get the entire globe to agree or disagree with 150 words, conflicts can be started over a Twitter. My Cajun tribe would just go to the feed store and ask Mr Tommy what feed was good. The tribe of social media creates of the global collective versus survival on the local tribe.
Leaders of today are faced with this leadership gap challenge, closing this gap is hard, I know I have heard the hard way. I look at "young" leaders of today and am still trying to figure out what they stand for, what they fight for and what are their guiding motivations. Leaders of today's followers have to be prepared for the "why" question and cannot just shout orders and expect people to follow. They cannot just simply say the stove is hot they have to slow down and explain the points of why the stove is hot. Leaders have to continue educating themselves in the origin of task and restoring what I to call PPM (pride, purpose and motivation) in their followers. I often as my troops a very simple question that leaves them pondering the cosmos "what is your motivation and I can I help you anchor yourself in that"?
References:
Allen J., (1902). As A Man Thinketh, 21st Edition [Amazon Kindle E-Book]
Logan D., King J., Fischer-Wright H. (2008) Tribal Leadership, Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization. [Amazon Kindle E-book]
Obolensky N. (2016) Complex adaptive Leadership; Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty. Routledge Tylor & Francis Group, London and New York
