Commanders,!Communication,!

Context,!and Convoys

12 Leadership Lessons from the Marine Corps applied to the Real World

@gwaldo@CommerceHub

I'm Waldo from CommerceHub, and I'm an Ex-Marine. We have a lot of problems in Tech. The one I want to speak to today is Leadership. If I had 4.5 min to teach you about leadership, this is what I'd want you to know.

SAY “THOUGHT LEADERSHIP”

ONE MORE TIME. I DARE YOU.

No, not this kind of leadership; There will be no Cheslocking today… Seriously, we take Engineers and make them Managers because they're good at tech. But that's a completely different set of skills.

But we're doing them & everyone around them a disservice by not providing them tools to succeed. We're using the Peter Principle as a feature, instead of a bug. That hurts productivity as well as credibility.

Marine Corps Leadership Objectives:

1. Mission Accomplishment!2. Troop Welfare

These are in order. Do the job. Then take care of your people. We deal with the former, but we need help on the latter. Sometimes your people have to come at the expense of the job. This is very heavily caveated & should be rare. People are not expendable.

When the Job is finished, Take Care of your People

Take care of your people. Reward them appropriately. Gratitude is the easiest reward you can give your People. And most overlooked. Congratulate them & celebrate their wins.

Gratitude!and

Rewards

Trust them, & tell them that you appreciate them. Sometimes you send them home early; there will always be more work. This is nice, because...

There will be Bad Days. There will be harsh demands. Or ridiculous deadlines. It's also important to keep perspective on what a "bad day" is.

But you can't send them home early all the time. For obvious reasons. Coddling can have disastrous effects on morale and productivity.

“Troop Welfare” !

also means !

“Sweating Now!so you don’t!Bleed Later”

Run Disaster Drills. You cannot have a highly-functioning operational team without doing this. Dylan Richard gave a great keynote “Gamedays on the Obama Campaign”

This doesn't just happen. Drill. Refine. Repeat. If this sounds familiar, we've been talking about OODA Loop. (Observe Orient Decide Act)

Details!Matter

Try to Instill Attention to Detail. How many config details go into each of our apps? How many of them don't matter? Sometimes it only takes one mistake. Ensure that testing is realistic & useful.

Clear and !Concise Communication

You won't always have time to say it twice. Be as clear and explicit as possible, as briefly as possible. Say it once well. Even if it takes longer. (Strive for unambiguous communication)

Encourage!Initiative

Part of your job is to Grow your people. If someone shows an interest, you must encourage that! They're telling you that they care! Try to guide that interest to something you need.

Commander’s Intent

Commander's Intent is the idea that along with most orders, everyone knows where their job fits within the scope of the whole. Allows decentralized decisions while still aligning at goal. Another word for this is...

Context

Everyone in your org has the potential to see pitfalls and solve problems. Provide them with context to their role so they can all make better decisions.

Failure is a Team Event

You may have gaps or weaknesses in your team. You must prop them up. You still have to find a way to win. You go to Prod with the team you have...

Camaraderie

A shared experience - especially diversity - will bring a group together. But don't create unnecessary problems. Sabotage has a smell.

Have a Confidant

This is someone that you can be candid with. Don't mean your Significant Other. Someone with context of the problem space, but isn't directly involved.

Humility != Timidity

Know your strengths and weaknesses. You don't know everything. You can't. But you can still be confident. "This is the right thing to do. Now." When proven wrong, you Change.

@gwaldo

Finally, don't forget that you are a part of your people. Take care of your people. Thank you very much.