24 May 2011

About Small Team Leadership....

In regards to leadership..... in case you missed this in past post, a very good friend of mine has written a short book on Small Team Leadership.  It's on the Amazon Kindle reader, but the software can be down loaded for free and you can read it on any computer, I-Pad etc.  And it's only $4.99 (us dollars). 

Small-Team-Leadership-101-ebook

Funny, when I started out in the Army and police work many years ago, I never thought I'd have ended up in a leadership position.  Even though this was written for Military and Law Enforcement, I think it'd be helpful for any leaders.  However, there are leaders in many jobs who may have been promoted, but never got any proper training...and in some cases, they may make things worse than they know. 

Just last week when I was moving, I had to stop at a car part store to pick up something.  It was very early, and as I walked in, I heard the store manager talking to his workers.  The manager didn't appear to have any clear topics that he was talking about, but he just seemed to babble on and on.  I picked up what I needed, when out and installed it on my truck.  When I went back into the store 20 minutes later, the manager was still babbling on.  I could tell the workers were bored and with the expressions they had on their faces, I could tell that if they could find a new job the next day, they'd be gone.  The manager was not only babbling, but he was critical of everything his employees had done... but he couldn't give them any clear answers on how he wanted things done. 

He needed training.  I was pretty sure that I'd never go back into that store just based on how the employees were being treated....in front of a customer.  Was the leader that stupid? 

Now, think about leaders you've had in the military or police work...were they that stupid? 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

1. Had an unending stream of bad leaders as an Army troop.
2. One of the reasons I switched to the USMC.
3. In my time, the troops sucked it up and coped.
4. In the Corps, SNCO's and non-rates alike, would not put up with bad leadership.
5. Never served in a unit where pretty much everyone did not feel comfortable asserting themselves when they felt there was a leadership problem.
6. Rational limits to this, of course.
7. If you paid attention, your troops could help you through a lot of the rough stuff.
8. As former enlisted, with combat time and time as a squad leader, still needed help when I became a platoon commander.
9. Troops, NCO's, 1st SGT, superiors were not bashful in 'assisting' me.
10. A good lesson in humility, which I've had to learn over and over.
V/R JWest
BTW, Small-Team-Leadership 101 is really good. 102??