Soldiers and safety are not a contradiction in terms, General The Lord Dannatt, the former Chief of the General Staff in the British Army, argued this morning at IOSH 2014.
Speaking to a packed audience on the first day of IOSH’s conference, Lord Dannatt gave a unique insight into inspirational leadership and told delegates that soldiers and safety were the key partners to success through effective leadership.
The former chief outlined the traditional ways of understanding and developing leadership and identified two key strands — the quality and functional approaches. However, in an era of increasing turbulence, he added that this was no longer enough.
“I think in today’s more complex environment, in the business space, the community space and the battle space, I believe that there needs to be more,” he said.
Lord Dannatt explained the strategic, the operational and the tactical levels of activity and said that each made different demands on the leader. It was up to the leader in question to know this and to understand the differences.
The leader, he continued, needed to have done their own homework and be crystal clear what they wanted to achieve so that they could very clearly articulate their intent.
“It is that statement of intent that provides the focus for the sensible delegation of tasks and the framework for appropriate supervision,” he argued
He then asked the question — what gives a leader his or her authority or right to lead? The answer he added lay with the individual person but they needed to make sure that they had the right character and degree of integrity.
“In my book, as far as I am concerned, character defines the person and answers the question as to whether this is someone to emulate or to follow and with what degree of enthusiasm,” he said.
“However, integrity establishes the moral baseline to lead. Is this someone who can be trusted? Is this someone whose instructions are honourable? Is this someone to commit to? Do they really have legitimate interests at heart or, is this person simply a self seeker or purely interested in the bottom line?”
Lord Dannatt told delegates that these were all judgements for the subordinates, the employees, the followers to make.
“Their judgements I submit, will ultimately define the success or failure in the enterprise — perhaps not in the short term, but certainly in the medium-to-long term.”
Summing up, he asked delegates — do we leave it to the employees to make up their own minds and to “muddle” through or do we really get our heads around the leadership challenge, take charge, form and drive the plan and lead with confidence and conviction?
“It is my belief, based on my experience as a soldier, that effective leadership will get the job done well,” he concluded. “It will look after the best interests of the team and the individuals within it and most critically it means creating a safe and secure environment in which to work. So, soldiers and safety as far as I am concerned, are not a contradiction in terms, more like the key partners to success through effective leadership.”
