Age of Leadership?
Last week’s blog was titled ‘Apres Moi, le deluge’ which is the motto of 617 squadron, which it took after it’s incredible dams raid on 17th May 1943. Having listened to a great podcast this week on Richard Rierson’s ‘A Dose of Leadership’ series, it set me thinking some more; At what age do we become effective leaders?
Richard was talking to a chap called Scott Miller, author of “Management Mess to Leadership Success”. I’ve not read the book, but it may well make it on to my reading list in the near future. Scott works for Franklin Covey. His boss, Dr Stephen Covey wrote the seminal ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. It doesn’t get any better than that!
Scott talks about being ‘lured into leadership’ as a young man and how, on reflection, it probably wasn’t a good idea! Even Richard, who was a Marine Corps pilot and had access to some of the best leadership training in the world recognised parallels in his own journey, reckoning it wasn’t until he was in his forties that he became a truly effective leader. It led me to reflect on my own leadership journey in comparison to these two guys from very different backgrounds, both recognising that at times, there was no doubt damage they inflicted on their way up the ladder, to people who were exposed to their ‘leadership’.
Mea culpa!
From a personal point of view, I was a bit of a basket case. I went to RAF College Cranwell as an Officer Cadet as a fresh-faced 19 year old who as it turned out was rather prone to tibia stress fractures. As a result I didn’t complete my commission training, and after some time in the wilderness I joined the police. (I do sometimes wonder if the RAF had started my deconstruction but the reconstruction was never completed?) The police service is a job where without realising it, you have to become a leader from day one, not necessarily of teams but certainly as a leader in your community. People will always look towards you for guidance on their worst day. The training at the time really didn’t equip you well for that, and certainly not for the next logical step of becoming a sergeant. For that role; you sat a couple of exams, and that was it; no coach, no mentor, no course. Here are some stripes - get on with it!
Learning by trial and error is fine, as long as the damage you can do is contained. And that damage can be to yourself as much as others. I was much the same when I was promoted to Inspector; some exams to sit, but no courses to speak of. I did have some coaching, but it was sporadic and on reflection, not much of it was actually great. I was a chaotically creative personality, who needed structures and frameworks. in the absence of effective and progressive learning and training, it was a very hard slog, especially as someone who was a bit different and didn’t always side with the status quo. Some stuff I did really well, but we tend to be better remembered for the plane crashes rather than the good landings. It was really only as I got older, with a fairly substantial library of mistakes to have learned from, that I got better at being a leader. I’m still not comfortable with the fact that it happened like that, and that others and myself had to suffer along the way. It is the main driver behind the coaching and training that I offer today; I genuinely want people to have an easier time than I did!
So where does this fit in with a tenuous link to the Dambusters?
Wing Commander Guy Penrose Gibson, VC, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar was just 24 years of age when he led one of the most daring, dangerous and audacious raids in the history of military aviation. during pilot training he was rated as average, but as a flying companion below average, due to his often rude and condescending manner. When you joined as a pilot back in those days, you would receive as little as 8 weeks initial officer training before progressing to flying schools for up to 2 years. You were either ‘the right stuff’ to be an officer, or you weren’t. Two of the nineteen aircraft despatched on the Dams Raid were actually flown by non-commissioned Flight Sergeants. But importantly, right at the front - first man in, was Gibson.
Even at that age, he was a hugely experienced bomber pilot. Wing Commanders at this age weren’t uncommon, often being referred to as ‘the old man’ behind their backs due to the withering attrition rate of crews lost in combat. He had done as much if not more than any of the men under his command, and could do it just as well, if not better. He was uncompromising, bombastic and in some ways a bit of a bully. Today, in whatever setting, be it the armed services or in civvy street, he would likely last about five minutes before being shown the door.
Does that mean that a 24 year old couldn’t step up to the bar today and run an operation of the magnitude of that raid? In the first instance, it’s unlikely that they would have to, with squadron and mission command being executed by much older officers in real terms. But that isn’t to say that they couldn’t. Commission training is now 24 weeks at Cranwell before moving on to branch training, and companies and organisations that are truly investing in being better are making sure that their people are far more equipped for the leadership role than they were in Gibson’s day. They would achieve the objective through a much different approach, still demonstrating technical proficiency but achieving results through taking their people with them in a much different context than ‘there’s a war on old boy!’
When we are faced with the exceptional, any one of us are capable of being exceptional. The rough edges are more acceptable in the context of the prevailing emergency, but for most of us, we aren’t thrust into that situational theatre. We must be in it for the long game, and that is why it is so vital, right now, for every organisation to make sure their developing leaders are invested in. For the modern world, it is better for everyone if the leader can step into the painful field refreshed, well equipped and with his people in the same frame as a result of the fruits of their development under them. That way, the journey through the tiers of being in charge are less stressful for both the leader and the led. That has to develop better people to fulfil the very highest level roles with a minimum of collateral damage on the journey.
We all reach our leadership prime at different stages. Organisations have a duty to help us reach it well!
Derek Flint Cert.Ed. MCIPR