By Dean Hambleton
In modern business, a successful leader doesn’t tell people what to do. Most businesses and their processes are too complex.
No one person can be a superstar and know everything. What a modern leader does is that they teach their subordinates how to make choices that allow the entire organization to thrive.
That sounds simple enough. The devil is in the details. The benchmark for a strong leader would be General Dwight Eisenhower in managing World War II. General Eisenhower never led a team on the field, but he was a genius in getting everyone on the same page and co-coordinating activities.
It must be understood that for most of his army career, General Eisenhower was the base football coach. This training was a primary reason why the Allies prevailed in World War II. The Allies were made up of 3 players that did not like or trust one another. Ike Eisenhower understood how to co-ordinate the differences and to how to make the differences strengths and not weakness.
There are 5 steps to creating an effective team.
1. CREATE UNITY. This is how World War II was won. General Eisenhower motivated people by giving them a vision of the future. He gave the opposing generals a vision for a higher purpose. The world could not tolerate a German victory.
2. VALUE DIVERSITY. Ike had diverse generals in Montgomery and Patton. He took these two brilliant but different generals and used their personal differences to create opportunities for learning, creativity, and innovation. One reason why D-Day was a success was that Ike convinced Patton to be a decoy. The Germans always thought it would be Patton who would lead the charge across the Channel.
3. INVOLVE EVERYBODY. Before D-Day, Ike made a personal visit to the invading troops. This visit made the “grunts” understand just how important their efforts were in the winning of the war.
4. PROMOTE IMAGINATION, CREATIVITY, AND INNOVATION. Americans are taught to be problem solvers. A problem is an existent condition. Modern business moves so fast that new products must be created in real time. Creativity and innovation bring something new into existence. At Normandy, Allied troops were bogged down. Montgomery and Bradly used creativity and innovation to get their troops off the beach. The Battle of the Bulge is benchmark is how manager (General Patton) should make decisions in real time.
5. LOOK FOR THE THIRD WAY. People are hung up on the Right way vs. the Wrong way. The original debate at D-Day was where to land. General Eisenhower understood the importance of Special Operations to create a network of citizen support in order for the D-Day mission to succeed.
Dean Hambleton
I hope this article sheds light on how to create teams that create brands in our modern era
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