Fire and forget, I learned this morning, is a familiar term if you happen to operate in military flying circles. The term refers to modern fighter jet warfare. In the old day’s, a pilot would have to train his eyes and his aircraft on the target, and keep them there for as long as he fired the machine gun or the missile. I guess that might have been termed, “aim and fire” but I don’t know much about fighter jet language. I’m not a pilot and I’ve only got a couple clients that are. Moving on.
Today, pilots can fire and forget. The missile has the intelligence to remember where it’s going. The pilot can now fire and train his eyes on the next mission or on enemy aircraft.
My client was not using this term in the military sense but instead was referring to a new associate as “fire and forget.” In other words they came pre-loaded with all the experience needed to hit their target. He would simply hire them and hand them the reins.
Target hit’s would simply follow.
This would be great, if it were, in fact, TRUE. Sadly, this doesn’t work so well with humans. Here’s some truth about us human misters and misses.
Humans are NOT like missiles.
Humans are NOT fire and forget.
Humans always require that some leaders’ eyes are trained on them.
We want to know that we belong. Not some of us, but all of us. We want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves. We never bring our best when we are left ALONE. We all want to feel included, needed, and, oddly, claim our independence in the same breath. Yes indeed, we’ve got issues. We are not machines and we do not perform well when we are left unattended. Fire and forget, with humans, will NOT work.
Remember, a collection of individuals, teams, and leaders do not become ONE with common knowledge, common experience, and enough time together. They become ONE, only on rare occasion. They become ONE, only if someone has the clarity, conviction, confidence, and the competence to transform them.
They become ONE, only when one is willing to lead the charge and build toward this purpose. Transformational leaders understand this truth. AND, they lead us, actually they transform us into the “point of the spear.” This is where the heart of performance lives for any and all human systems.
Want a team of heat seeking missiles?
Forget the notion of fire and forget and buy, actually, sell out completely, to the notion of becoming BUILT TO LEAD. AND, together we will work to transform a collection of individuals, teams, and leaders into ONE. ONE, that is BUILT TO LEAD.
Am I speaking your language or am I talking French?
Tell me more, my friend. Tell me more…
BUILT TO LEAD 