I am a huge supporter of our military! I praise God for our men and women who fight daily to keep us safe. While I bite my tongue when I hear people make a lot of comments, not so much when they say something about our troops. If I’m having a bad day, I try to think of what they are going through. My “PTSD” from Starbucks not making my coffee correctly doesn’t seem to compare.
Not only do I love our troops, but I also love to learn leadership wisdom from their officers and senior officers. Recently, I watched General Stanley A. McChrystal’s TED Talk, “Listen, learn…then lead.” It was a fantastic talk, and I wanted to share some nuggets I got from it with you. It might take me another post to do it because there is a lot to unpack.
General McChrystal started talking about how—about ten years ago—he was doing a routine parachute jump—just like he had for the last 27 years. It was a lovely Tuesday morning in September. They began with a refresher course, then put on their parachutes with a buddy, carefully pulling all the straps together. Then, a jump master came by to recheck everything and crank the straps tighter. It’s painful enough that the General believes it’s designed this way, so you want to jump!
The jumpers are all hooked up to the static line. This is where they realize there’s probably no getting out of this… “We’re jumping today.” Then the green light comes on, and they all “fall,” one by one, out of the plane. Soon, the parachute deploys to slow the rate of their descent to the ground. But–make no mistake–with tons of gear on and a parachute that doesn’t steer, there’s no delicate way to land.
General McChrystal hit the ground, rolled around, and ensured he didn’t break anything he needed. He asked himself, “Why didn’t I go into banking?” As he jumped up, he saw young paratroopers pulling out the needed equipment, putting away the stuff they didn’t need, and realizing they were doing exactly what they were trained to do.
At that moment, General McChrystal had a revelation: if the paratroopers went into battle, they would do exactly what leadership trained them to do. And if they came out of battle, it would be BECAUSE leadership trained them well. That Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, the world was right when they boarded the plane. But when they hit the ground that day, the world had changed.
What amazes me is that our troops are trained by their leaders not only to survive the battle but also to succeed and come out alive every day! Now, that shows leadership wisdom!
What are we doing as leaders to ensure our “troops” are thoroughly trained? And not just trained, but taken through refresher courses as well? As a leader, I must understand that my team goes through battles. And while they don’t come out with the physical scars, many times they come out with mental and emotional ones.
Over and over, I say it is your job as a leader to make your team successful. Let me add that it’s your job to ensure your team is redundantly ready for battle! And to the extent that you have led them correctly for it, great job. If you have put them out there without spending time training them, don’t be surprised if you end up with a severely wounded team. Don’t just hope your team can do it. Make sure. It could be the difference between life and death, even in business.
Questions: Have you ever felt like you haven’t done an excellent job in preparing your “troops” for battle? If so, how did this post change that?
This reassures me, Chris, THANK YOU! Seriously, I’m not a worrier…my friends are “worried about this” and “worried about that” and “worried about me” and I’m thinking, is something wrong with me because I don’t worry? Of course I give it to God. But when my son was recently deployed….deployed EARLY……I experienced worry. And I know he was well TRAINED by the Marine Corps….but I was worried, because this was bigger than me. I realized that I didn’t worry about things because I could handle those. When it came to something that was bigger than me, and truly as big as God, I was worried….this showed my my lack of faith….I had to repent and RETRAIN myself to rely on God in ALL things…not just in things that I had a handle on.
Wow!! I’m so glad I wrote this!!! Nobody understand this like a Marine mom, huh?!
Well, I wouldn’t go that far haha…….I’m sure MANY other folks got it too….it just really SPOKE to me maybe in a way that it didn’t speak to them. 🙂 I have a refreshed, renewed respect for ALL branches of the military….and those that TRAIN our young ones….(19 is still young, right?) Can’t ever have too much training!
Amen sister!
Love this blog! I have felt like we have been in “battle” for the past few years in the mortgage business – but when I consider it – I know I have not! We are not on foreign soil, fighting, risking our lives. But I appreciate his comments – in these days of new government regulations and compliance issues – it is critical that a leader keeps everyone focusesd and on task and yes – ready for battle.