I want to share with you some brief descriptions of my best leaders. The first person I want to talk about is Henry Kitts. Back in 1988, I was in the U.S. Air Force stationed in Kunsan, South Korea, and Captain Kitts was the officer in charge of my work section.
I had a great job in the Air Force; I was a program manager. So I tell folks that in a nutshell, I really did not do anything, I just had to make sure other folks around the base did what they agreed to do to support our programs installing fixed communication systems (e.g. radar, weather, telephone systems). This was before I earned a college degree, so I was enlisted and at the time was a Sergeant (E4). Everyone else in my section, other than Captain Kitts, was also enlisted.
Captain Kitts was one of the least impressive officers I ever met in terms of physical appearance. His weight was always just within the acceptable standards, and his uniform was never crisp and sharply pressed. I had some great (and some terrible) leaders in the Air Force, but Captain Kitts was the best.
Every Monday, Captain Kitts would come to our work area first thing in the morning and pull up a chair to talk with us. In turn, he would listen to each of us describe what we had done over the weekend. Then, he would share of himself, what he and his family had done as well that weekend. This was critical because it made him authentic. We knew he cared about us because he both listened and shared, and because of this we trusted him.
The conversation would then roll around to what we were working on. When Captain Kitts asked, we told him everything we were doing.
Then he would ask “How are things going?” And we would tell him honestly.
His true brilliance came when we admitted we were having problems with a project. He would simply ask “Do you need my help?” We usually did not, and he left it at that. If we did need help, we told him what we needed, and we knew that he would take care of it and then let us return to working autonomously.
I never worked harder in my life to try to make someone look good and was glad to do it. We so valued how Captain Kitts treated us that we gave him our best effort all the time. I did not realize it at the time, but this was simply brilliant leadership on his part.
Take excellent care of the people you have been given the privilege to lead. Teach them to take care of each other. Enable them to do their jobs and then let them work autonomously. If you will do this, you won’t have to worry about them taking care of you and what they will do for you will be more than you could ever have gotten from them if you tried to “command” it.
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