Trying To Not Be The Go-to Answer Man

Trust your staff to let them be trustworthy

[. . .] The best leaders are those the people hardly know exist . . .
Daodejing, Chapter 17

I’d like to share with you something that is close to my heart as it’s an idea I’ve always believed to be true, but I’ve never really managed to convince my superiors to see it the same way.

I was an Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO), a sergeant, in the Royal Netherlands Army for eight years. As you can image, leaders in an army very much exist on every level. A battalion commander gives an order to a company commander, who orders the platoon commander, who orders the group commander, who orders his soldiers to get things done. Everything is done by order and those orders are executed by, almost religiously, following written out procedures and drills, no room for flexibility, no room for thought. When I, as a group commander, gave an order, it was to be followed without any objection or hesitation. I didn’t like that.

I had many discussions with my platoon sergeant-major who accused me of undermining my, and his, authority by not acting my rank. My argument was that he was stuck in the past. Until 1993, the Netherlands had had an army conscripts, people who mostly did not want to be there and had no vested interest in doing their work well. In my days, however, we were a professional army and my soldiers were there by choice.

I could easily see how in the days with conscripts, when my sergeant-major had been a group commander, it would have been essential to give very specific orders and follow them through every step of the way to make sure they were executed properly. After all, if not, the group commander would be at fault.

But that was the past. Now, I reasoned, my soldiers were specialists at their jobs, no matter how simple or trivial some of those jobs might be and, since this was their chosen profession, they did care about doing a good job. I could not see the value of giving oversimplified step-by-step orders and then keep interfering as my soldiers just did the work they were trained to do.

The way I saw my position was that, as a group commander, I should paint a very clear picture of whatever it was my group had to achieve as a whole and set a firm deadline. I would then made sure that my soldiers had everything they needed and just let them get on with their work. Of course I would check progress every now and then, but not in an intrusive way, more by bringing over a cup of coffee and having a short chat.

Over the years, I learnt to ignore the comments of frustrated sergeant-majors, kept quiet, and just did things my way. I was right to do so, my groups were consistently the happiest and best performing bunch in the units I was assigned to. At some point a platoon commander told me: “I don’t know what you’re doing and how you’re doing it, and you probably shouldn’t tell me, but keep doing it!”

I firmly believe that by treating people with the assumption that they will live up to your expectations of them, they usually will. As long as they have what they need to do their work, they will just do it.

Real leadership is making sure your subordinates can do what they are supposed to do and trusting them to do it well, not telling them what they already know.

[T]here you are.