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The Chemistry of Leadership

Gen. Norton Schwartz, nominated to become the new Air Force chief of staff, will be expected to fix many of the problems that plague the service. The leadership that he, and those under his command, provide will be essential to that task.

This speech, which Schwartz delivered in 2003 to the Association of Public Treasurers of the United States and Canada, when he was a lieutenant general serving as director for operations of the Joint Staff, provides insights into his views on leadership. — Ed.

On behalf of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers, thank you for the opportunity to address such a distinguished group of leaders. For those of you are visiting from out of town, welcome to Washington, D.C. I hope you enjoy your visit.

I extend a special welcome to our friends from Canada. I’ve been proud to jointly defend North America in partnership with Canadian Defense Forces as part of NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command. Again, welcome. Washington, D.C., certainly sees its share of visitors. But truth be told, most everyone who lives here is just visiting — you’ll find very few natives. Many of us come here to do the business of our nation and seem to cycle back through, time and again, between assignments. Dwight Eisenhower said, “There are a number of things wrong with Washington. One of them is that everyone has been too long away from home.” This is my sixth tour of duty in D.C. I’ve almost forgotten where home is.

Good leadership is key to any successful organization, and your leaders wisely selected this most appropriate topic to open your Successful Strategies for Treasurers conference.

Leadership has certainly been essential to the success of our armed forces throughout our history and especially since Sept. 11, 2001. While technologically superior weapons, global command and control, and sophisticated reconnaissance platforms have been important to our efforts; we clearly owe our successes to the talents, dedication and professionalism of our service men and women. Key to those successes are the individuals who by rank, position or personal charisma provide the way ahead, encourage, comfort, inspire, discipline and command the finest military in the world.

Though good or bad leadership may not mean the difference between life and death in the treasury business, its importance to the success of your profession cannot be overstated. As officials entrusted with receiving, keeping and disbursing public revenues, you also have a great responsibility to ensure the organizations you lead manage the people’s money wisely and effectively. James A. Garfield said that, “Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce.” Your profession and your leadership are vital to the health and well being of our nation, and you share in meeting the challenges of today’s security environment as you lead the charge to find innovative and effective ways to counter new security threats, without breaking the bank. Just as leadership has been critical to military success in the global war on terrorism, it will be key to your efforts as public treasury leaders.

I don’t have any illusions about being a great leader, but after 34 years in uniform, I’ve certainly seen my share of both good and bad ones. I’d like to briefly share with you this morning what I call “The Chemistry of Leadership.” It is less a discussion of “how to lead” and more a description of “what, in my experience, makes a good leader.” None of this is rocket science, nor is it particularly profound. And, I’m sure you’ve heard at least some of it before, but perhaps I can offer a different perspective.

All of you probably have a short list of qualities, skills and values that you’ve seen in leaders you admire and didn’t see in those you don’t. My list, my chemistry of leadership, contains five basic elements — character, situational awareness, credibility, interpersonal skills, and values and ethics. I’ll talk about each in turn.

Character

I recently saw a Boy Scouts of America poster with a theme that I believe was right on the mark, “Character Counts.” I couldn’t agree more, and I would like to spend an extra minute on character up front because it has several facets and it forms the foundation for the way we operate and the way we lead every day. Leaders with character have vision. They refuse to let the daily battles interfere with the longer view that transcends today’s issues and articulates a meaningful and productive path for the future. People follow leaders who see beyond today or the crisis of the moment.

Leaders with character are tenacious. Anyone can perform under ideal circumstances. If you give up in tough times, so will the people you lead. Thomas Edison tested over 1,600 materials before he finally found the right combination to make a light-bulb filament. Leaders must have the discipline and perseverance to “stay the course,” and inspire others to do the same.

Leaders with character are resourceful — they are problem-solvers. They help those they lead find effective solutions to the inevitable challenges faced in achieving goals. Their playbooks are full of options — if taking the ball straight up the middle isn’t working, an end-around, a pass or even an unexpected trick play may provide the yardage needed to succeed.

Leaders with character possess good judgment and moral courage. People bring the tough decisions to their leader — a leader must be ready, willing and able to make the call and stand by his or her decision.

In France, during World War I, a young Capt. George Marshall, on orders from Gen. “Black Jack” Pershing, was directed to bring a division together for inspection. The division was spread out over some 30 miles and the soldiers, most in the Army for less than a month, marched through the night to arrive muddied, tired and, therefore, quite unprepared for inspection.

Upon seeing this motley crew, Gen. Pershing quite passionately berated the division commander for his men’s poor showing. Capt. Marshall, in a demonstration of exceptional moral courage (some at the time surely thought “exceptional stupidity” might better describe his action), stepped forward to explain, going so far as to grab the general’s arm and turn him around when he tried to walk away. Pershing was so impressed that instead of firing him on the spot, he kept Capt. Marshall in his unit and promoted him to major. George Marshall later became the five-star U.S. Army chief of staff.

Finally, leaders with character are competent. A leader must know his or her job, especially the fundamentals. Judgment, personal credibility (the third chemical on my list), and the trust of one’s subordinates, peers and superiors all rely upon professional competence.

Situational awareness

Okay, enough about character. We have a concept in the flying business known as situational awareness. As a pilot, in order to maximize the chances that your take-off is followed sometime in the future by a successful landing, that you consistently maintain an altitude above that of the ground, and that you refrain from sharing your aircraft’s airspace with any other object, you must be constantly aware of an incredible array of data and information: flight parameters such as airspeed, angle of attack and altitude; aircraft systems’ status — engines, fuel, hydraulics, electronics, sensors and weapons; information about the airspace around you — are you where you think you are, are you authorized to be where you think you are, are you sharing the airspace with anyone, are you in communication with those who control the airspace. Combat operations add a whole new set of factors that must be tracked: where is the enemy; what are his capabilities; what is your mission and rules of engagement, and the list goes on.

There are obvious, and some not-so-obvious, parallels in leadership. A good leader knows his people and the environment in which they interact, both within and outside the organization. Good leaders understand and remain aware of the “pulse” of their organizations; they know when things are going well and when they are faltering.

Situational awareness does not imply continuous monitoring. Just like a pilot, it is impossible to continuously monitor every parameter, and it is foolish to try. Rather than micromanage, good leaders choose where and when to apply their detailed attention to contribute most effectively. Good situational awareness enables a leader to give others the freedom to act, the basis for empowerment. A keen understanding of what’s happening around them affords the confidence necessary to let the co-pilot take control.

Credibility

My third fundamental element of leadership chemistry is credibility. The moment you step into a new organization or a new position your credibility is “on the line.” Though it certainly takes time to earn the genuine respect, trust and confidence of your organization, as a leader you are in the spotlight from the day you arrive to the day you depart. As I discussed earlier, your character forms the foundation of your credibility; your day-to-day professionalism and ability to do your job make up the rest. Without credibility, a leader is that in name only.

Interpersonal skills

Of course, leadership is about people and moving them towards an objective. So the fourth element of leadership chemistry is interpersonal skills. Leadership isn’t about moving paper. It isn’t about hardware, law books or tools. Great leaders need to know and care about the strengths, ambitions, capabilities, talents and shortcomings of their people. They know when to motivate, when to cajole, when to discipline and when to comfort. To be an effective leader, you must be able to connect with people. This does not mean that you have to change your personality or your basic leadership style. Gen. Patton, a man you would probably not refer to as genteel, was an effective leader, but so was Mohandas Gandhi.

Values and ethics

On to the last, but certainly not least, element of my leadership chemistry list — values and ethics. The connection between these two and great leadership should be obvious. That said, it is surprising to me how often this connection is broken. I won’t argue that one can have successes without values and ethics, but in the large majority of cases, those successes are short-lived, and the resulting downside is nearly always deeper and steeper than the previous upside.

Great leaders demonstrate a commitment to the honorable and ethical standards associated with his or her organization, they set the example in professionalism and integrity and they avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

This is especially critical to those of us who are called to be public servants — we have a moral obligation to wisely use the resources with which we are entrusted — including meeting the public’s expectation that we will perform a day’s work for a day’s pay.

There’s a great story about Gen. “Hap” Arnold, one our few five-star generals during World War II, that drives this values and ethics point home. Air Force pioneer, Army Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell was one of the most controversial figures in American air power history. His passionate and outspoken advocacy for air power separate from ground forces in the 1920s resulted in his facing court-martial for insubordination. With a strong belief in Gen. Mitchell’s ideas, and in spite of the warnings of his superiors, Maj. Hap Arnold, Mitchell’s Washington liaison, testified in Mitchell’s defense. As a result, he was “exiled” to Fort Riley in Kansas and was told his professional military career was over. Soon after the court-martial hearing, and at a time when it was pretty evident that commercial aviation was taking off in this country, Hap got a job offer from the upstart commercial airline Pan Am ... not as a pilot, but as president of the airline. What a tough decision: Stay in the service with little chance for any further promotion or take the helm of an airline company in a rising new industry. Shame, exile and no more pay raises, or respect, leadership and financial security.

Well, I’ve already told you the rest of the story. Hap Arnold stayed in uniform because he was committed to Gen. Mitchell’s vision for the role of air power in the defense of our nation. Hap went on to become the leading airman during the Second World War. Hap Arnold was a leader with values and ethics that influenced the very core of the Air Force. In fact, one of the Air Force’s stated core values is, Service Before Self.

Leaders like Hap Arnold gave us that heritage, and we strive to maintain it today. Now to tie it all together, rather than rehashing the list, allow me to relate one more story from military history that illustrates how these traits complement each other to produce great leadership. For those of you who have seen the movie or read Stephen Ambrose’s wonderful book “Band of Brothers,” you’ll recall a compelling scene that takes place on D-Day during the World War II Allied invasion of Normandy.

After parachuting in, in advance of the mass amphibious landing by the Allies, Army Lt. Richard Winters ran into Easy Company Lt. “Buck” Compton, who told him 90 percent of the company was unaccounted for, including their commander. Lt. Winters, now in charge of a company of only 12 men, was tasked to lead an attack on an entrenched cluster of German 105mm artillery that was firing onto the seaborne infantry trying to take Utah Beach. The artillery battery was defended by a 50-man platoon of elite German paratroopers and gun crews.

Putting his excellent training and leadership to work, he quickly assessed the circumstances to establish situational awareness, developed an innovative plan of attack and communicated it to his men. Knowing each man’s strengths and weaknesses, he assigned each a specific task for the assault.

Lt. Winters gave the order and then personally led the charge against this heavily fortified position. Easy Company’s superb success has become a textbook example of how a small, well-led assault force can overcome and rout a much larger defending force in prepared positions.

It’s also a great example of how a trusted and competent leader, Lt. Richard Winters, with a vision of how to achieve an objective, can inspire those around him to achieve greatness. For his actions on that day, Lt. Winters was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

If you want to improve as a leader, I encourage you to concentrate on enhancing your character, situational awareness, credibility, interpersonal skills, and values and ethics. I don’t think you can go wrong with these.

Accountability

As my final point, let me hit a topic that has affects all of us in positions of leadership — accountability and the answer to the question, “Are good intentions good enough?”

While plenty of leaders are willing to take credit for the success of their organizations, I’m concerned that some are all too willing to avoid the blame that also comes with failure.

In my mind, there is no such thing as “no fault” leadership. Leaders should be rewarded for success and held accountable for failing to accomplish appointed outcomes. It comes with the territory. But how many of you have seen no fault leadership in practice in either your seniors or contemporaries? Is it enough just to have good intentions for success or is a change in leadership sometimes the appropriate path for an organization failing to achieve objectives?

As a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, I’ve had a close eye on the recent Air Force inquiry into sexual assaults at my alma mater. As an institution whose mission is to educate, train and inspire young people to become leaders of character and officers in the Air Force, reports of sexual assault posed a direct threat to institutional values. Air Force leadership rightly commissioned a thorough investigation into the matter.

The resulting report indicated no systemic acceptance of sexual assault, no institutional avoidance of responsibility or systemic maltreatment of cadets who report sexual assault. The report did identify a series of recommended reforms, which Air Force leadership is aggressively addressing. But in short, there was no smoking gun pointing at any specific academy leader.

Nonetheless, Secretary of the Air Force Roche and Chief of Staff Gen. Jumper replaced four top leaders at this prestigious institution. It does not appear to me they were reassigned because of any overtly incorrect actions they did or didn’t take. Rather, as appointed leaders they were held accountable for organizational shortcomings. As I said earlier, it comes with the territory.

In the U.S. military, accountability is critical to maintaining a moral force and the shared values of the profession of arms. While we are certainly accountable to our country’s elected leaders and laws, we also, as a profession, have an obligation to police our own in order to maintain the values of the profession. It seems to me that’s true for any profession, including those that primarily deal with other people’s money.

What comes to mind is the recent rash of scandals that have rocked the corporate world and directly contributed to stock market losses for millions of investors. These have run the gamut of questionable accounting procedures, insider trading and allegations of outright fraud.

As a direct result, several corporations have failed or are failing right now. Are they failing because they don’t have enough Harvard MBAs? No, it is not a lack of talent; they’ve got enough smart people to be very successful. They failed because their leaders lacked integrity; engendering an organizational culture in which questionable and even criminal practices were acceptable.

As you know, prosecutors are seeking to hold dozens of leaders accountable for alleged crimes they may have committed. And some corporations have filed lawsuits seeking to recoup monies from these leaders.

As finance and treasury officials, do you also consider this a threat to your profession’s values? If so, what actions are required to police your own? How many in this room knew Enron’s Andrew Fastow, Worldcom’s Scott Sullivan? If you knew them, what did you say to them?

Make no mistake, leader professionalism influences organizational performance. My boss, Gen. Myers, says that in his time traveling to many Air Force bases as an inspector general, he could smell immediately whether a unit was good or bad. He also observed that the good ones were always due to good leadership at the top.

As I told you to start with, my views on successful leadership aren’t rocket science. While there are many great “how to” books on successful leadership, the real stuff of effective, even inspirational leadership comes down to the more basic chemistry of leaders — who and what they are.

We need great leaders in public service — military and civilian. Harry S. Truman once said that, “Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”

If you’re going to lead your organization through the tough challenges of increased security costs, or any other challenges for that matter, develop and refine those key personal qualities that make up your character. Strive for maximum professional competence to maintain that credibility within your profession. Finally, have a vision for where you want to go and define a path to the future. Then ... go for it.

I thank you again for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you this morning. Thank you for supporting the dedicated men and women and their families who are serving our great country. Thanks especially for your continued support for our deployed Guard and reserve members.

Welcome to Washington, and I wish you all the best during the rest of your conference and in the leadership challenges you face in the future.