101 Leadership Ideas

By John DiNapoli

This handbook is based on more than thirty-five years of John DiNapoli's leadership experience in the US Army, the US Army National Guard, and the corporate world. The tenets discussed are in alphabetical order because there is no particular order for these principles. It has been the author's experience that good leaders need to understand and follow them all if they want to be effective. To be sure, we are all stronger in some areas than others, and you may find that because of these strengths, you are more comfortable with select ideas. That is a good thing. We should all look to maximize opportunities to display our strengths. DiNapoli challenges you to read those pages that cover skills where you are less comfortable. In addition to maximizing our strengths, we should all look for areas to stretch or capabilities and improve. DiNapoli says this as someone who, on occasion, has delayed focusing on improving specific skills outside of his comfort zone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 23, 2020
• ISBN: 9781645841944

Book preview

A Word of Introduction

This handbook is based on more than thirty-five years of leadership experience in the US Army, the US Army National Guard, and the corporate world. The tenets discussed are in alphabetical order because there is no particular order for these principles. It has been my experience that good leaders need to understand and follow them all if they want to be effective.

Throughout the book, John shares examples from experiences in the military, the corporate world and as a consultant at his leadership development company, Spencer Ryan, LLC. Often, names have been changed. Occasionally, a story will be referenced under more than one topic because of the importance of the lesson and the fact that many of the leadership ideas have overlapping principles. To be sure, we are all stronger in some areas than others, and you may find that, because of these strengths, you are more comfortable with select ideas. That is a good thing. We should all look to maximize opportunities to display our strengths. I challenge you to read those pages that cover skills where you are less comfortable. In addition to maximizing our strengths, we should all look for areas to stretch our capabilities and improve. I say this as someone who, on occasion, has delayed focusing on improving specific skills outside of my comfort zone.

Listening is one example where I had the ability to multitask, or so I thought, while carrying on a conversation with a colleague, my wife, or one of my kids. Over the years, I discovered that I was not multitasking but, for brief periods, ignoring the speaker, often to the detriment of good conversation. I could parrot the words spoken, but that is far different from active listening. I have made some progress in this area, but opportunities continue. You may have identified areas requiring a strong commitment to make meaningful change. I hope you take on the challenge to improve.

I have worked with some tremendous leaders in the military and the civilian sector. I have also had the privilege of leading some great Americans and heroes as a military officer and commander. Every great leader continues to look for opportunities to develop his/her skills. There is no destination where one can say that he/she has arrived at good leadership; there is only the journey. Those who think they have reached the pinnacle of leadership capacity are never truly great leaders. Great leaders understand that we must continually develop our skills. Unfortunately, I have also worked with some extremely weak leaders in both the military and corporate sectors. The good news is that if you are paying attention, you often learn more from these folks about how not to lead.

Great leaders help to create great organizations where those on the team are committed to success and continually strive to achieve the vision. There are leaders who believe that they can achieve great things for the organization and that people will follow them because they have a title or are in a certain position. This is nonsense, as anyone who has ever worked for one of these leaders can attest.

It is also far too common to find companies that provide little or no training for their leaders and future leaders. In many cases, companies do provide training, but it is all created and delivered internally where all participants are steeped in the same culture. We have yet to find companies where internal employees can deliver leadership training that challenges the current operation. Leadership is about change whereas management is about efficiency. Too often, this distinction is ignored and companies that are very efficient with yesterday’s business model ultimately fail to compete when change is required. Look outside for ideas to help leaders develop. I hope you find this book a valuable tool in this endeavor.

John DiNapoli, US Army, Retired

Accountability

Make direct reports responsible for following up

It is probably useful to discuss a bit about what we mean by this before moving on. Every manager and every employee should sit down at least once each year and agree on expectations for the job. These expectations should include the What expectations. One can define these as the actions that need to get done, such as reaching a sales goal or a level of profitability. This agreement should also include the How expectations. These could cover issues like how you will interact with customers, responsiveness, timeliness of reporting, interactions with internal employees, and a host of other expectations.

The setting of expectations, including How and What, is the most powerful action that can be taken by a manager to drive performance in a company. It is also one of the most underused. We often see goals that include only the What with no attention to the How, and yet employees are often evaluated on these ill-defined goals. We hear, These are longtime employees. They know what they are supposed to be doing. After ignoring the important step of setting expectations, company executives are then surprised that their evaluation system is broken or weak. Should companies be surprised when leaders have allowed managers to skip the initial step of setting expectations then require conversations around how well direct reports are meeting these never-defined expectations?

Once we agree that expectations are a good idea, there must be follow-up and continual feedback to compare performance to these expectations. This continuous feedback is the responsibility of the manager, but the person held accountable must be the direct report. It is the individual’s performance, and therefore, he/she must have a plan to demonstrate how well he/she is tracking to meet or exceed these expectations.

This is a concept that is often difficult to grasp as a manager or leader because in so many organizations, accountability has been accepted by the first-line supervisor. This is often true at every level of the organization, even reaching the C suite. There is no argument that the supervisor must provide the feedback, but the direct report should also schedule this time and have her/his own documentation relative to the agreed-upon expectations.

We worked with one organization that was so shocked by this concept that many of the managers suggested that their human resource department would not allow employees to set up and help track their own development plans. If this were the case, how could anyone be expected to improve? If you are not willing to participate in your own development, no one can force you to develop. If your boss is accountable for your development, you are absolved of taking the effort required. Fortunately, we invited human resources into the training, and they agreed that individuals could be involved in planning their own development and performance.

As with so many areas of leadership, the more involved we can get individuals with the planning and execution, the higher we can raise the bar on potential results. Only with ownership can leaders expect the best effort from their people. Empower each individual to be accountable for his/her own development plan and expectations to achieve. Help him/her with feedback and watch the growth.

Actions Speak Loudly

Your actions speak so loudly I cannot hear what you are saying. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

How often have you worked for someone who is busy espousing the virtues of hard work or loyalty while personally demonstrating their disdain for hard work or loyalty? We live at a time where most of us have choices on where we will work. This is particularly true of those with the most talent. Clearly, every valuable worker has options. Workers at every level of the organization are too well educated, informed, and skilled to think that we can fool them with words.

For decades, possibly centuries, we have heard that you need to practice what you preach. Or one must walk the walk and not just talk the talk. There are probably hundreds of these statements, and they all make sense; yet there are many leaders who are not following this sage advice. I don’t know if these leaders believe that they are too smart for people to figure out who they really are and what they are really like, but in my experience, leaders are rarely fooling anyone.

I worked with a company that hired a new president for North America, and this new leader, as is usually the case, replaced most of the senior executives with those whom she was more familiar and, therefore, more comfortable with. One of the senior vice presidents whom she hired spoke to the entire division in a speech, discussing how the company had been barely keeping its head above water and the new executives were going to instill values in the company. It turned out that the values they tried to instill allegedly included violating some government policies in an attempt to increase profits. The result, as expected, was that many of the good people decided to leave the company. Good people, it seems, always have other options. The company profits did not improve, and the stock price lagged its competitors by about 20 percent per year for the eight years of the president’s tenure. Though it took far too long, she was eventually replaced. Only time will tell if the new president has learned this lesson.

I have also seen similar scenarios play out in the military where senior officers were holding people to a standard that they themselves refused to meet. This was often the case with the requirement to successfully complete an annual fitness test. As a junior officer, I often wondered why there were some senior officers absent from the physical fitness test formation. As I progressed through the ranks, I could hold more leaders accountable, but there were still those occasional peers and superiors who refused to meet the standard. Eventually, these so-called leaders were held to account and often released from the military. Without fail, those who worked for them lost respect and his/her commands were never successful.

In every walk of life, one must lead by example when put in charge. If the leader does not uphold the standards that are set, everyone will look to cut corners. This is a recipe for failure individually but also for one’s team. It is really a rather simple concept. There is one standard that everyone must meet, and they are all looking to the leader to see if meeting the standard is actually important. Once a leader stops modeling correct behavior, the organization will begin to fail. For leaders, actions are far more important than words because they are always on display.

Advocate for Your People

If you have their backs, they will have yours.

Often, leaders are asked to recommend someone who reports to them for a promotion, an increase in pay, recognition for a job well done, or some other honor or accolade. As a leader, if you have not been in this position, you will be. Though we do not always realize the impact of this situation, I have found that advocating for your people has a large impact that is more far-reaching than one may understand.

When you have a deserving individual who reports to you, it is critical that you make the best case for his/her selection. Let’s use a promotion as an example, though almost any type of recognition demands the same attention. When one of your direct reports has gone above and beyond the call of duty to contribute to the success of your team, they deserve your best effort to be recognized in an appropriate fashion. If a team member has demonstrated the capability for greater responsibility, you must take up his/her case for promotion.

As a leader rises in the ranks of the company, his/her assessment is based more on the ability to recognize and cultivate talent than skills at the operational level. Amazingly, many leaders fail to see this and short-circuit their own success. Whether it is due to personal dislike, envy, fear that someone reporting to them will appear more capable, or the inability to recognize potential, when leaders fail to step up, their senior leadership takes notice. The alternative is also true. When your direct reports are selected for higher positions and excel, in good organizations, you are also rewarded. The best leaders surround themselves with talent, develop that talent, and reward it with additional responsibility.

In addition to gaining the trust of your superiors by presenting them with more good managers who can accept additional responsibility and achieve success, leaders who advocate for their people gain the added advantage of increasing loyalty from their team. The best of the best in any company want to work for leaders who are their advocates and will assist them in gaining recognition and promotions. This becomes a virtuous cycle when you surround yourself with great potential then develop that potential. As more people get promoted from your team, more good people gravitate to your team. Have you ever been in a company where a large portion of the managers seem to have been cultivated by a single leader? That is no coincidence.

A few years ago, I had a sergeant first class (SFC) who worked for me and was on the list for a promotion to first sergeant (1SG). SFC Bones had had a hip replaced due to an accident while working. After some rehabilitation, this presented no limitations. There were a few administrators who were trying to promote a different individual and tried to use SFC Bones’s medical issue to block his advancement. After great debate, including negotiating with medical personnel and the commanding general, I was able to get SFC Bones to be considered and, ultimately, selected for promotion.

These efforts, though at points causing me to ruffle some feathers, proved immensely important to my success as a commander. Once SFC Bones was promoted, the entire battalion realized that if they did a good job for me, I was willing to put myself on the line for them to receive everything they had earned. This resonated not only within the battalion but also inspired others to want to transfer to our units.

Advocating for your people, even when you must challenge others, is critical to a leader’s success. Good leaders will want to work for you when they know you have their backs.

Appearances Matter

Watch what you say and how you act because you are always on display.

We are in an age where many people believe that it does not matter how you look, dress, groom, or act. Optimistically, they believe that your performance should be judged without considering these other extraneous factors. In an ideal world, perhaps that is true. But we do not yet live in an ideal world, and I have very little confidence I will see such a world in my lifetime.

We all bring bias into our interaction with people. Some biases are more blatant and far-reaching while others are more subtle. One only has to pay attention to individual reactions to people to realize that everyone has internal likes and dislikes that color our interactions. As a quick example, those with very short hair are often thought of as military while those with long hair are often seen as free spirits. This may be far from the truth, but our initial reactions often do not allow for further analysis. People react to suits differently than jeans and torn clothes and differently than natty dress. When a leader considers his/her appearance, it is helpful to realize the effects and to understand how these may influence perception.

Many years ago, as a pharmaceutical sales representative, I was accompanying a cardiologist on his hospital rounds. He allowed me to do this to gain a better understanding of a specialty physician’s practice. During the day, we stopped into a few doctors’ lounges for coffee, and the cardiologist would put on a yarmulke before drinking coffee then remove it and store it in the breast pocket of his suit. Later in the day, at our third hospital, we stopped for another cup of coffee. I said to the doctor, Dr. Klein, I am not Jewish, but I thought that Orthodoxy required you to keep that on your head at all times. He responded, That is true, but as a physician dealing with cardiac patients, I do not want to introduce one more thing that may make people uncomfortable. I put on the yarmulke when I eat or drink but do not want it to influence how patients feel about me as a doctor when I visit their hospital bed.

These many years later, I am still impressed that Dr. Klein was aware of the potential for prejudice that would accompany his wearing of a religious headgear. I believe today people are more tolerant, in some ways, of religious diversity; but with many, there is still an underlying discomfort of those that are different. In Dr. Klein’s view, it was not worth making it an issue. Though some may choose a different path to handle these potential bias situations, we should all understand that they still exist.

Words, too, can have an unanticipated impact. I was coaching a manager who would occasionally joke with a few of his people that managing would be great, if it were not for the people. He thought this was said in jest and would be taken lightly by those around him. Interestingly, when he received anonymous feedback, James was shocked to learn that some of those who reported to him thought he did not like people and would not work to achieve results in their best interests. They believed that James was doing the job not to develop his people but to better himself with no regard for his people.

This perception took months to change because his words had been taken literally. Perceptions are difficult to alter once they have taken hold. It helps to realize that when we choose to dress differently, act differently, or make statements that are not consistent with managerial expectations, we have set up the potential for people to generate opinions that we may not recognize. This does not imply that you cannot go against the grain and be different, but as a manager, you should understand that this may impact impressions of you and your leadership capabilities.

Attitude Determines Outcome

Upbeat people accomplish more.

This is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful of all concepts for leaders and nonleaders alike. There is nothing that one can accomplish without first believing it is possible. The power of the mind to overcome almost any obstacle has been proven throughout history. Life’s battle doesn’t always go to the stronger or faster one. But sooner or later, the one who wins is the person who thinks they can (anonymous poem).

Examples abound from many of our early military leaders and politicians to scientists and athletes. Their accomplishments are astonishing. George Washington led a ragtag army with almost no supplies, no weapons, no shoes, and no uniforms and was able to defeat the greatest military in the world. This he accomplished despite the fact that half of the barely established country did not support the