A New Paradigm
by John Scherer
Many leaders view change as an enemy. General Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff, sees the on-going process of change as the new normal. He has overseen a major transformation in the two years since he took command of the Canadian Forces. The Forces have a new sense of pride in what they do, an attitude that is shared more and more by Canadians.
General Hillier takes a “systems view” of leadership. Rather than separate pieces, he sees a unified whole, with various segments interacting within a culture that determines how well everything gets done. And he operates as if the whole nation is part of his system.
He is as comfortable giving difficult orders as standing in the background while two soldiers receive a standing ovation from a grateful audience of 600 government leaders. He has come to grips with one of leadership’s toughest challenges: managing the polarity between humility (necessary for trust) and assertiveness (necessary for focused action).
We’ve come to a new paradigm here. In the mid-1990s, we had a revolution in military affairs. Along with our allies, we did some good work, especially on the three-week rush from Kuwait to Baghdad. We didn’t plan on what to do after that, how success could be realized and maintained, how to build a nation, how to turn military power into domestic power. But after September 11, we’ve had to change our tune, big time.
Because of our tendency to want to get back to September 10, we had a bit of head-in-the-sand approach. But we soon realized that it’s an extremely different world now, one that demands a different approach from us, building on our strengths but differently. It’s proving to be an exciting trip for everyone engaged – and those are not my words, they’re the words from the people in the organization.
How do you lead change?
The first thing and the main thing is communication – face-to-face.
But how do you do that in an organization as large as yours?
You have to make it your priority. You cannot be an unknown, faceless entity, an “Ottawa Bureaucrat,” who only talks with peers or “the important people.” You have to get out there and look your people in the eye.
That’s a real commitment of your time and focus.
Yes, but it’s hugely important. I consider communicating with my organization to be so fundamental that it takes about 40% of my time. I have personally spoken with – and listened to – about 70% of the people I serve, from the troops on the ground in Kandahar, to sailors on a ship in the Persian Gulf, to the men and women here in Canada who support them. They need to see and know and trust who I am in order to be willing to follow where we need to go.
You can’t communicate with your people unless you have something to bring that they value and can hold dear. For me, that means a vision of a possibility, something truly important and necessary that we could accomplish together, one goal for all of us. Not one goal for me and another one for them. We’re all on the same team.
Then you have to “put a face on that vision,” portray it in terms that everyone is going to be able to understand and take as their vision, their objective, their possibility. Only when you have that powerful, compelling vision simply stated can you communicate with your people. Only face-to-face contact and personal communication of the vision creates the kind of trust you need to move everyone forward together. You can’t lead with memos and e-mails.
Your people have to really get the what and the why of that vision. The logic has got to be sound. Both you and the vision both have to “ring true” to them. If you and the vision don’t show pragmatism and common sense, you will be seen as the emperor wearing no clothes and you will either never gain peoples’ confidence or you will lose it quickly.
We are one
You have over 100,000 civilian and uniformed staff. How have you gone about communicating the vision to so many people?
Relative to other nation’s armed forces, we’re comparatively small, and we have thought about how to take advantage of that. I’ve communicated in a variety of ways: face-to-face, with CDs, web-based pieces, TV, print media, speeches to organizations. It has been good to have people, like Rick Mercer, take up our cause and help with getting the vision out there to people.
Most important to me personally are things like sitting on the ground with soldiers, riding ships with our sailors and aircraft with our aircrews. Last December I held town hall meetings, with about 7,000 people. I did the same thing in each of the first two years after I took this job. I spent Christmas Eve on the HMCS Ottawa, a frigate in the Persian Gulf, then with the 2,500 folks we have deployed in Afghanistan. I’ve given up to ten talks in one day. Sure, it takes time, but what else is there that’s more important. That’s what leaders have to do.
What do you say when you are with them?
Mostly I listen. I state the vision and then I listen. I am feeling the pulse of my organization, just as they are feeling my pulse, to see if I am being true to that vision. Then I shake their hands – every one – and tell them how much I appreciate their work, why what they are doing is so important to their nation, why their nation is so grateful to them, and why it is a privilege for me to be working for them to help them do what they are there to do.
I explain the global context we work in, the threats we face, and why we need to do what we do in this particular way – that I will be asking their commanders to give them a handful of important tasks and objectives – nothing fancy, just real basic stuff – and make sure we all do them well.
I tell them that working together as a single entity, under one commander, we will build an effective organization – air, land and sea – that can do those things effectively. We need to be a single force pursuing a single goal for our country. Our young people pile on to that.
As an example, I spent an evening out in a forward position in Afghanistan that was truly Taliban country, with a platoon (about 40) of our soldiers in a mud-walled fort – a kind of “Beau Geste” place. I was just listening and talking with whoever was available.
Three different times, young soldiers, 20-21 years old, said, “Sir, what are you going to do to make sure all these great things that we’ve been doing to change our Canadian Forces will continue past you?” I realized then that we’ve had an impact. The most junior members of the Forces, in the middle of the most far-flung operation in our history, are thinking through what we are trying to do long-term. I was astounded, and delighted. Another NCO with 17 years in told me, “Sir, I was looking forward to retirement in three years, but now I don’t ever want to leave.”
I visited HMCS Ottawa in the Gulf, with CDR Darin Hawco and his people, spending time with the sailors on and off watch, having a cigar with one group, participating in a couple of boarding exercises. I got a chance to see everyone of those men and women. They were happy, focused, professional, doing a great job for their country and for the world. It all comes back to great people, which we have lots of, but even great people can’t come together as an effective team without great leadership. CDR Hawco was clearly that. I thought, “we’re in pretty good shape if we’ve got leaders like this in our organization.”
Learning leadership
As powerful and transformational as this approach is, only a few leaders have the wisdom to follow these principles. How did you get this way?
I would say, the School of Hard Knocks. If there’s a mistake to be made, I’ve made it – maybe even two or three times – but I try to learn from them. When I first joined the Forces, I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay. There was little communication, we were never sure what leadership was doing, never sure what our part was. If you didn’t do something exactly right you got verbally beat up. We never heard words of appreciation.
Then we got a new commander, Col. Bob Billings, who came in and changed the whole environment. He was a leader as opposed to a manager. By communicating his vision, within a few months he had convinced me that I wanted to be in this unit and a part of the Forces. I watched how he did his job; I watched the results he got; I watched how he talked with the soldiers – as opposed to talking at them; how he looked after the families; how he brought everybody in that human system together, and got us fired up about being part of one team with one mission. I have tried to emulate his example all my life.
Recruiting the nation
What we call Operation Connection is not about getting military recruits in the door. It’s about “recruiting the nation.” Getting young men and women to join the Forces is a tactical outcome that will come when we have the nation on side. We had lost our connection with Canadians, so when some not-so-good things happened, they did not see us as their armed forces.
We decided to go proactive: with outreach to the community, and by taking advantage of challenges like Afghanistan to show who we are and what we’re about. We decided to put the spotlight on what our young Forces members are doing, because they are our greatest sales force. The Rallies in Red and the great support from our nation’s sports teams are all signs that it is working. The country is once again proud of its forces. If we can’t sell Canada’s sons and daughters to Canada’s moms and dads, somebody else needs to be manning the store.
Speaking truth
Each of us must confront what we are going to do when it comes time to “speak truth to power,” especially when that truth may not be well received.
When I have to deliver a tough message to the minister, even if it may be something that he – being human – doesn’t want to hear, and I – being human – don’t really want to give him, I remember that I represent the people in uniform, and that moves me to speak the truth. If I don’t, who else do the men and women in uniform have to do it for them?
Some leaders make it very “costly” to give them negative feedback. What do you do to make sure your people speak the truth to you?
I ask for it. Now, sometimes I go hard at people coming to me, but it’s not that I don’t want or like the feedback. It’s to make sure they’ve got their line of logic so thoroughly thought through that I can buy into what they are saying to me. Without honest and frequent feedback, I couldn’t lead. Sometimes I’m impatient; I want to get a certain thing done, and someone will come up to me and say, “Sir, this is dumb as dirt.” When that happens we reassess.
What happens then?
Well, we have what I would call “an intense conversation.” I never yell at people when they come to me like that. If I did, that’d be the last time they would tell me the truth that I need to hear. If they can’t feel safe to speak their minds, they won’t get on side. Plus, I can’t be going at things with blinkers on; I need to have the widest possible view of what is happening and of what they are telling me.
Humility and assertiveness
Here’s where I start: No one in uniform gets out of bed in the morning and decides to fail that day. Every one of them wants to succeed, and to succeed wildly. When we help them by communicating with them and working with them as human beings, then our institutions succeed.
Our leaders at every level need to help folks walk through what they have to achieve. We need to set up people for success: “Here’s the mission, here’s your responsibility, here’s the authority to get it done. We will articulate that as clearly as possible, with input and guidance from you, and then you go off and do your job. None of us above you will tell you how to do it; that’s why you are here. Let us know how it’s going and what you need to succeed.”
We are one Canadian Forces, not silos. It’s not, “I’m an infantryman and you’re a sailor.” We all have one mission: with our actions to secure Canada and Canadians for now and for generations to come. My every waking moment is dedicated to that vision and I believe we are achieving it.
John Scherer is a consultant in leadership and organizational change and author of Work and the Human Spirit. He was an officer in the United States Navy (www.scherercenter.com).
