Whether winning wars or clients and accounts is your pursuit, the factor most important to your success and failure is people.
You need to understand that machines don’t destroy or produce, vehicles don’t move cargo, satellites and towers don’t talk, people do. People run the world and all things that are within their ability to affect, and for as long as you exist as a human being, you will affect and be affected by people.
Therefore understanding the human condition and how humans think and operate is imperative for you to succeed as a leader. When seeking an improvement in combat ability or revenue, the first aspect to analyze is who leads your organization. We first must thoroughly examine the successes and failures of those in leadership and measure them up to initial estimations to determine their strengths and weaknesses.
The leader controls the organization’s destiny so we must examine their qualifications:
Is the leader willing?
Those who find themselves in a leadership position that they are unwilling to make appropriate sacrifices for will never be more than mediocre. No amount of experience or credentials can cover up the flaws of someone who doesn’t want to be there.
Does the leader like people?
The leader that hates people or is slow to interact with is a poor excuse. How can the leader influence if he does not have an interest in others? How can the leader respect and provide for his people, if he doesn’t interact?
Does the leader possess a critical mind?
Intelligence or what passes for education in our time is superfluous if the leader is not a free thinker. The leader needs to be able to analyze a situation in all its ways, and the leader needs to be self-educating.
These are the minimum qualifications for the leader to start leading.
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As for how that leader interacts with his organization:
Are rewards and punishments clear?
Are the rules and regulations known and enforced? Is there candid admonition and heartfelt praise when necessary? Do subordinates know clearly what their job is?
Is there a vision for the organization?
If there is no road map to improvement and success, how can an organization compete?
Does the leader actively develop those beneath him?
This is in following with the vision and with respecting people.
If these factors are in favor for the leader, then he possesses the minimum faculties necessary to lead an organization to success. Leadership, however, is more than the sum of the factors, it is something all-encompassing of a man. Leadership requires sacrifice for peoples sake.
This will be the beginning of a short-article style series on leadership focusing on the initial estimations.