In the summer of 1996, aged 18, I saw Oasis play Knebworth and then I joined the Army. I learned a lot in the year I spent with the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment as a junior infantry officer on a “gap-year commission”. Including how it is not a good idea to turn up at the Sergeants' Mess Black Tie dinner in 70s disco fancy dress. There were plenty of other lessons. On one training exercise, I attended the company commander's briefing, then went to brief my platoon. They had questions, detailed questions, but I had no answers because I hadn't taken notes. What I remember most is how my platoon sergeant made me feel. He made it clear I'd messed up and that it mattered, but he did it respectfully and supportively, so I could take it on board and learn the lesson. I’ve taken notes ever since.
I only stayed in the Army a year, and served with people who went on to experience conflict zones and accomplish greater things than I, but the lessons I learned that year have stayed with me. Whilst there have been times over the years where I have been proud of myself as a leader, and times when I know I have come up short, I’ve always tried to keep learning about leadership.
I was thinking about my short time in the army when I recently finished the Masterclass Certificate in Leadership and Decision Making Under Pressure. It covered the US Navy SEAL principle of "No one is too junior to be right, or too senior to be wrong”. It’s a principle designed to make sure that teams freely share feedback and information. The aim is to avoid groupthink and senior people only being told what they want to hear, and to ensure the team learns fast from what is actually happening on the ground and what is working and not working.
Looking back I realise this was the guiding spirit of my platoon sergeant’s actions that day, he made being wrong survivable and in doing so he created the conditions for me to learn, fast. Ultimately that is an important goal of leadership, to help our teams learn fast and adjust to the changing world. I’ve recently started asking “what’s the one thing you learnt this week” in my team 121s, so far we’ve had some interesting conversations as a result that we wouldn't have otherwise, about how we can perform better as a team. If we can keep learning to lead, and leading our teams to learn, then we give ourselves a better than average chance of thriving through whatever is thrown at us next.
What's the best thing a leader has done to help you learn?
