Lt. Gen. George Patton with the signal corps, July 11th 1943, Sicily. (General George Patton Museum)
Most people in business or in life, are familiar with the terms management and leadership and some even understand the difference. You know, leaders do the right things and mangers do things right. There is a good, short HBR article on this by Robert Sutton. However, unless you have served in the military or similar services, you may not be familiar with or understand the difference between leadership and command; which, is ironic as command is what most people in “leadership positions” actually exercise – not leadership.
For true leadership to occur, there needs to be an absence of ‘authority’. An example of this is Martin Luther King, who was able to lead a generation of African Americans, of whom he had absolutely no authority over. So, if you have authority over the people you lead, i.e. there are consequences to them not following your directions, you are effectively a commander! Maybe not in the military sense where insubordination is a summary offence and deserters are shot. Rather, failing to follow your direction could result in the offender being reprimanded or potentially fired.
In today’s world of Millenials and political correctness (PC), exercising command is seen as inappropriate; however, command is exactly what is needed. I’m not suggesting a dictatorial form of command such as Directive Control, where it’s “do as I say”, although the reality of business is that this type of command certainly still has a place. What I’m suggesting is the employment of Mission Command, also known as “workplace empowerment”, in the business world.
Mission Command provides direction by setting objectives (the Mission) and providing a set of parameters or ‘freedoms and constraints’ and a limit of exploitation.
So are you a manager, a leader or a commander. Now that you know the difference and what you are, will this help you to ‘lead’ your people better?
