Background reading
I recently read the above story about an Afghan Army hospital and the abysmal care its patients receive. Now, the hospital does have American advisors, but I fail to see how that makes them responsible for how the Afghan Army runs its hospital.
Granted, I think the actions and policies suck … big time … but that happens when you delegate authority and responsibility to someone else.
First of all, when you delegate some task, remember first, foremost and always: You are not doing it and because you are not doing it, whoever is doing WILL in most cases do it differently than you would have done it.
This is a fact of life. They might do it somewhat the way you would have done it, but there will be differences. The biggest problem in leadership is recognizing this fact and accepting it. This is something Americans have a big problem dealing with when we are in other lands. We seem to think that a) we know best, so everybody should do everything the way we do it and b) there is no other way to do things. We are stupid, and, in that sense, lousy leaders. Sorry, my fellow Americans, but we are.
So, when you let someone else take over doing whatever, then you damn well better be ready to accept the outcome and hope and pray it accomplishes the mission/job. By that I mean, you have to be ready to accept that what they are doing is the best way they think it should be done and, despite that, you have to respect that, even if you think it is awful. If it accomplished the job satisfactorily, then all the better; if not, then it is a “teaching moment” for you. Otherwise, you might as well try to do it yourself … and you never will go home.
I learned this lesson in both my civilian and military careers. When I was the news editor at a mid-sized daily newspaper it was my job to see that the paper got out each night. I had several subordinates who would stand in for me on my days off or when I got sick and I learned fast that I had to accept how the paper looked when one of them had the job of getting it to the press on time and it was really bad form to be a Monday-morning quarterback the next day. I hadn’t been there, so I really couldn’t be a critic. All I could do is use it as a teaching moment and explain what I might have done different and how I would have done it. No, you don’t jump up and down on your desk, yelling and screaming, because that rarely works as people will just turn off and tune you out.
I quickly learned the same lesson in my National Guard role as a platoon sergeant. Unless I wanted to run everything (which is impossible), I had to trust my squad leaders to do their assigned tasks as they were trained to do. Often, they would try new ways of doing tasks. Some worked and some didn’t. But in all cases it was a learning experience.
Another leadership tip: Praise in public; criticize in private. To do otherwise is a morale killer. My workers and troops soon learned that if their fearless leader called them into a private conference, it was a bit – as one former school teacher told me – a bit like being sent to the principal’s office. Which I told him was exactly how he should have felt because what I was chewing him out for was really beneath what I expected him as a professional.
I had one of my soldiers look at me and say, honestly to me one day as I drew him off to the side with the words “we need to have a chat”: “Sarge, I really screwed up this time, didn’t I.” He knew he had done wrong, and it was bad enough that I wasn’t going to be able to use as an example of a teaching moment for the rest of the troops. He also knew I wasn't going to embarrass him in front of his friends just for the sake of making a point.
These are hard lessons to learn, and are lessons that nations as well as people of all shapes, stripes and colors would be well to learn in my humble opinion.
So, what happens in the Afghan Army, or what happens in Iraq, is not the fault of NATO or the Americans. The Afghans (or the Iraqis) are the ones dropping the ball and it is time for people to step back and hold them accountable.
In this case, the Pottery Shack Rule (you break it, you own it), doesn’t really apply.
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