12, 300, or the damn few…

In the spirit of today’s rant posted a few moments ago, here is a reminder from a post I wrote a year and a half ago. Timely learning still today…

If you want to become a better leader please STOP reading more sugar coated, nonsense from Maxwell, Pink, Gladwell, Drucker, Collins, Lencioni, Buckingham, or any other popular proliferator of leadership lessons. Instead, read more history.

Leading the twelve, the 300, or the damn few, as SEAL Rorke Denver would conclude, hasn’t changed much in the history of humanity. The lessons Alexander learned during his brief occupation in Afghanistan a few thousand years ago are the same lessons the British learned a few hundred years ago, the Russians learned in the 80’s, and the U.S.A. are learning, regrettably, at the present moment. Here is the melody line we’re presently re-learning. The Afghani’s are tougher than we are. Fact. They respect warriors and are offended by occupiers. We did not integrate as Major Gant put forth in his paper, “One tribe at a Time.” We have made the mistake of staying a bit too long and fighting too conventionally.

Study, learn, and apply. Study history, most importantly the history of Y.O.U., your company, your industry, and those you’re attempting to serve. Learn more than you already think you know. Go deeper. Find the nuances and then a thousand more. Apply your learning before you think you’re ready. Productive action (PA) is the one you want. Make it a habit to choose PA today, embrace acute pain, study what happens, learn from the failures, and make new mistakes tomorrow. Get comfortable being uncomfortable.

The problem for most of us is we’re comfortable – we’ve been in the same place a bit too long…