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Happy Holidays! The Walking Leader Podcast #159 Is Now Available

Just want to take a moment to let blog readers know the latest episode of my podcast, The Walking Leader, is out now. Episode #159 entitled “Leadership is Everyone’s Business” is now available.

• my website (https://daveguerra.com/wlpodcast/walking-leader-podcast-150-159/walking-leader-podcast-159/)
• Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/walking-leader-official-blog/id886737443)
• Stitcher (https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/dave-guerra/the-walking-leader-podcast?refid=stpr)
• iHeartRadio (https://www.iheart.com/podcast/53-the-walking-leader-28373233/)

In this episode, sadly, far too many people believe that leadership is solely the property of those with a title, a degree, or tenure. While there is something to be said for those individuals who have but in the work to achieve that title, earn that degree, or outlast others. However, what about everyone else? Simple, they are leaders as well. The rules, guides, suggestions and premises behind leadership are not the dedicated to those who manage others, they are for everyone. Everyone that wants to not only improve themselves but actively pursuing the success and growths of others, of creating new leaders. New leaders because leadership is everyone’s business.

In under 7 minutes long, I invite you to take a listen…

Have a Happy & Prosperous New Year,
David G. Guerra, MBA

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Question of the Week: What is the one thing you would like to change about Leadership?

East German Border Guards Riding By The Wall In Teltow, East Germany photo by David G. Guerra (circa 1987)This week’s walking leader weekly leadership poll question is ” what is the one thing you would like to change about leadership?”

That’s a loaded question and the answer is, as well. And what I mean by a loaded answer is that the answers will vary from the simple to the complicated. Because the question reaches deep inside an individual and every individual has been impacted by good leadership, mediocre leadership, and awesome leadership as well as bad management. Thus, most people’s answer will come from past experiences.

Using myself as an example, I can reach back far into my life, even my early childhood and can say that my grandfather impacted my fledgling concept of leadership. Then as I grew older my father to some extreme of well not so good management. Whom I kidding, he was a terrible manager. He is my father but he was not a leader. Of course, he did the best he could with what he had when it came to raising a family but for some strange reason, he could not help himself.

Obviously, there were other individuals, that impacted my sense of leadership. Them and what leadership meant to them or how they showed it started to chip away at the rawness of I understood leadership was and was not. All that took place while I was growing up. It was not until after I graduated high school that the reality of what leadership is, what it is not, and what makes bad managers started to influence me. I found out because I volunteered for it.

I joined the U.S. Army as an Infantryman. An Infantryman like my Grandfathers before me. The Army in its infinite wisdom and by luck I found myself in a place where PROFESSIONALISM was not just a word but it was a day-to-day expectation. It was the STANDARD.

PROFESSIONALISM was not a word on a poster on a wall in someone’s office. We lived and breathed PROFESSIONALISM 24-7-365-52. When I joined the military, we did not know then that we were in the ending days of the Cold War.

My first duty station was 110 miles behind the Iron Curtain. I was based in West Berlin. My barracks room was a couple hundred feet from East Germany in the Soviet Zone of Occupation. It was said that Soviet mortars were zeroed in on our barracks buildings. We were told that if war were actually to happen, we would be the first to go while we slept in our bunks. Not a pretty thought, but we lived with that concept every single day. We believed that because not a day went by that we didn’t see a Soviet tour car or Soviet Mi-8 Helicopter fly around. That was a lot for kid fresh out of high school, but what made all of that bearable were our leaders.

Oh yeah, there were few knuckleheads here and there, but for the most part we all knew that we were all we had should something go wrong. Being 110 miles behind enemy lines limits your options of relief or rescue. Thus, that is why I say I was lucky to be assigned to that unit, at that place and time, and it shaped me into the person I would become after I left Berlin.

The examples of leadership that I experience first-hand in West Berlin, were never ever to be duplicated again. The Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers as well as the Enlisted soldiers of the Berlin Brigade each brought their “A-game” every single day, come rain or shine. We had no choice not only was it a standard it was the standard our nation called on us to deliver because of where we were and because on a daily basis, we stood toe-to-toe with our adversaries. Because of where we were and our mission in Berlin centered on PROFESSIONALISM. That is because PROFESSIONALISM was the mission, it was the vision, it was where everything began and everything ended when it came to being assigned to the legendary divided city of West Berlin. If we failed being PROFESSIONAL then we would have failed in our mission. We did not fail.

Thus, I ask myself this week’s question; What is the one thing I would like to change about leadership?

The one thing is for leaders to remember and never forget that their actions will be emulated by those that follow them. What they do will mean so much more than what they say. For leaders to believe in themselves as PROFESSIONALS. For leaders to believe that those who follow them are as PROFESSIONAL as they are.

The moment a leader forgets to be PROFESSIONAL is the moment that leader should be stripped of the title of Leader and that is Non-negotiable!
– = – = – = –
David G. Guerra, MBA
email: [email protected]
twitter: @daveguerra
instagram: dave_guerra
facebook: thedavidguerra

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LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE #11: EMPLOY YOUR TEAM IN ACCORDANCE WITH ITS CAPABILITIES by David Guerra

LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE #11: EMPLOY YOUR TEAM IN ACCORDANCE WITH ITS CAPABILITIES

As a leader you will most likely have a team of individuals backing you, supporting you, all while doing their job. As a leader you must allow them to do so without it compromising the job they were hired to do.

In a combat situation, ground troops, the Infantry work in teams. These teams have specialist with unique functions (grenadier, machine-gunner, assault, etc.) that make the Infantry squad, platoon, company, battalion, brigade lethal on the battlefield. The same level of lethality can be applied to the workplace. Imagine a team that can unite and put together a contract winning proposal or complete the annual report in record time.

How does this happen? It happens when the leader allows the team to function as one and function as individuals that are mutually supporting each other. Where the Infantry squad members support each other by providing interlocking fields of fire. Meaning the Infantrymen do their job but recognize that others (typically to their left and right) might need covering fire.

In the Accounting firm, a group works on balancing the client’s books while others work on prepping the Federal Tax paperwork. Then there is a someone who runs the Quality Assurance and checks the figures. Then another group works on putting it all together. By having all team members doing their respective jobs the individuals complete their assigned tasks and the team keeps moving because like a well oiled machine that runs unhindered when allowed to do, the team knows what to do and does it well.

Leaders (and Managers) keep your team running by letting them do their job. It may be tempting to meddle or to tinker with the work flow but why fix something if it is not broken? Exactly, there is nothing to fix until it breaks then get it working as fast as possible. Otherwise, it may cost you more than a broken sprocket, it could cost you a gear or the well oiled machine. You know you cannot have anything less than that.

Thanks,
David G. Guerra, M.B.A.


Do you agree or disagree with this list? Let me know either by
Twitter @daveguerra or by email [email protected] or both.