THE IMPORTANCE OF CLARITY AROUND ROLES AND GOALS
The easiest way to determine what books you should read (or listen to) on the subject of leadership is simply to type into a Google search “top 10 books on leadership” and cross-reference these lists to see what titles consistently float to the top. I remember doing this years ago and having the book “The Art of War” come up again and again to the point where I thought I’d better read this.
The book is by a Japanese military general written around 5BC and, as the title suggests, is a treatise on warfare, military strategy, and tactics. It fascinated me that a book that was so clearly written about warfare could be so useful to workplace leadership, but once I started to read it, I understood why.
The book opens with a story by General Sun Tzu (the author) in a conversation with a Japanese Emperor. The emperor is quite unimpressed with Sun Tzu’s credibility and challenges the general to demonstrate his leadership prowess by commanding a group of women. Sun Tzu gathers the Emperor’s concubines and establishes them as the team leaders of small groups of women, places a spear in the hand of every female, and gives simple instructions to the concubines to in turn relate to their teams- face left, face right, face forward, about face. General Sun Tzu then proceeds to issue instructions to the concubines to pass on to their teams- he gives the first instruction for all of the women to turn with their spears in their hand, but this instruction is met with laughter from the women.
The emperor looks on in amusement from the roof of his palace, then Sun Tzu makes a comment which is relevant to anyone in a role of leadership. If a leader gives instruction and the instructions are not followed, in the first instance the leader must examine himself, asking if his instructions were clearly communicated and adequately understood.
The general then calls over the concubines once more and repeats the instructions checking that they have been clearly understood. Once he is convinced that the women understand the task, he again gives orders to the concubines to instruct the women to adopt the appropriate pose with the spear.
When his instruction is once again met with laughter he prepares to behead one of the concubines, stating that if the leader’s instructions are clearly understood and not complied with, then a leader needs to address the failure with consequences. When the Emperor hears that Sun Tzu is about to execute one of his prized concubines, he demands that the general cease, being more than convinced of his understanding of military leadership. The general asks for a message to be given back to the emperor: “If an Emperor has entrusted a general with a task to complete, then the emperor must not undermine the authority of the leader by interfering with his treatment of the troops” and proceeds to execute one of the concubines (things have changed in terms of modern HR procedures).
The lesson in the story is certainly not to execute team members when they fail to comply with your instructions! The primary lesson is that whenever a team fails to deliver, then effective leadership always takes a good hard look in the mirror in the first instance to ask “Was I clear in my expectations? Did I clearly communicate those expectations? Was I certain that those expectations were clearly understood?”
If the answer to all three questions is not a resounding “yes”, then the leader needs to take responsibility for the failed performance, and do more work to effectively communicate goals, objectives and expectations. If, however, there is every assurance that clear understanding did occur, and the person has adequate knowledge and skill to perform the task required, then the responsibility for underperformance lies with the team member, and the team leader should address the inadequate performance accordingly.
