ARTICLE: Commitment over compliance brings out the best in those we lead. Every. Single. Time.
“In doing what we ought we deserve no praise, because it is our duty.”
- Saint Augustine
Introduction
This is an article about shifting and maintaining focus from compliance through to commitment, about investing time and taking the (nearly always) slow and sometimes difficult route. It’s not about developing soldiers; it’s about setting the conditions where soldiers can develop themselves. Why? Effective leaders foster and maintain genuine trust in order to nurture commitment… not mere compliance. Because committed followers begin (or continue) their shift from being your follower to a future leader.
The Task
Recently, I was tasked with developing a subordinate in order to deliver a presentation to senior management within the workplace which would qualify him as a competent tradesman. This thirty minute presentation is the culmination of twelve months of field army trade training as an electro-mechanical engineer. It allows the presenter to showcase theoretical and practical expertise and, once complete, enables the individual to work unsupervised on future workplace tasks on any British army vehicle in any global setting. This particular individual, not a subordinate of my own, delivered his presentation on a Supply Vehicle’s Load Handling System and primarily focused on the sophisticated hydraulics involved within. The presentation must be delivered at a high standard, with steadfast confidence and should showcase the presenter’s knowledge and ability — a daunting task for a new entrant into the army. The greatest chance of meaningful learning and success called for high influence, coupled with a committed student, to deliver such a presentation at such a level in front of such an audience.
The Incentive
I wanted the delivery of this presentation to be outstanding, not least because of the impression the presenter can leave on the audience but also because it was an opportunity to display the Department's technical ability to other Departments — including the Commanding Officer and his team from Headquarters. Additionally, ownership of the quality of his presentation-delivery gave me an opportunity to further develop myself as a leader. Furthermore, because I find subordinate development fulfilling and rewarding, it provided me an opportunity to demonstrate potential employability around the workplace with bespoke and effective subordinate development for others, i.e. I enjoy this stuff. On all accounts for all stakeholders it was a win-win.
An Early Barrier
Initially, we had to overcome the student’s early reluctance to strive for high performance. We focused on two dimensions: establishing goals and expectations, and exploring how supportive conditions could be met. The former promoted clarity and a joint unity of effort. The latter facilitated an adequate and appropriate support for the student in his increasingly self-motivated development. Both of which confirmed to the student that he was not alone and, importantly, they yielded the early trust that I sought.
I considered which leadership approach I could employ that would best suit the task; three approaches were: transactional, instructional or transformational. All of which are of importance and have their value in varying circumstances.
The Easy Way
To touch on them; transactional leadership, in this case, alludes to the appointed role (or position/rank) of the leader. People are managed as they carry out tasks and are consequently rewarded or disciplined based on actions and/or merit. It requires a give-and-take (reward and discipline) relationship between leader and follower, has its place and is useful in the daily routine both in and out of barracks. However, it relies on fear for it to work or you run the risk of having to deal with resistant soldiers — I’ll save that discussion for another blog. This is the easiest of approaches to employ whilst in a hierarchical system such as ours, but does it give rise to compliance over commitment?
Given that transactional leadership is present in the army, less so in recent years but still prevalent to warrant this reflection, the approach could have been chosen in order to achieve results. The thing about using this (especially by default) is, to me, pretty simple. One day you’ll get a soldier who gives a task 10/10. The next day you may get 2/10, the next 6/10, the next 4/10 and so on. This is the compliant soldier: does what’s necessary and then moves on. Not learning. Not developing. Not thinking. Not challenging. Just doing. This, of course, has its place… but leaves little space for truly finding individual strengths and weaknesses or to encourage thinking. A compliant soldier is not a thinking soldier. Great for the battlefield, no doubt. Necessary on the drill square? Absolutely. Is it challenging and rewarding, when we’re all too busy to invest time and effort, so use it by default? The all-too-common transactional response to tasks, or situations, merely exacerbates the compliance issue. Does it think to the future, given that it achieves results in the here and now, yet requires near-zero investment in the social constructs between the leader and the follower? Unsustainable and unfulfilling.
The Quick Way
Instructional leadership forms its basis on the instructional stance with an active focus and involvement in imparting knowledge quickly and directly. Although of high value in many cases, a criticism here leans towards the understanding that ownership is key if a student is to learn effectively and wholeheartedly — and retain knowledge. This approach tells the student what to say, how to say it, when to take pauses and ask stated questions and so on. Although this method takes skill and investment from a committed leader, there is little work to do for the student with this approach. Thus, the developmental opportunity is lost, both with the student and equally so for an already skilled instructional practitioner. It would achieve a pass, great. But is it inspiring and truly helpful for the student?
The Long, Slow, Challenging Way
Transformational leaders, however, are visionaries who nurture genuine likability and character in order to yield tangible and sustainable results. They are readily willing to take the long, slow and steady route in order to achieve an overall performance enhancement above and beyond. Importantly, they do so in a way that remains sustainable and beneficial for all stakeholders. Transformational leadership relies on nurturing relationships, the team, the culture, it aims to inspire, fosters loyalty and importantly holds a vision of the future. People, people, people. They are all about the people within the organisation. Bingo.
Choosing What I Ought To
If you can do more for a soldier in order for them to do well, then, you should. I sought high levels of performance and wanted genuine ownership from my student and not simply a ‘pass’ for him. I wanted him to learn and retain new knowledge for his future, more so that he went away after completing the task knowing he was able and capable of high-end delivery. I also wanted to influence a consistent 8/10 or more each day, every day. It was important to me that the student bought into the task wholeheartedly. I chose a decidedly transformational approach since I sought to cultivate and then exploit the capacity and commitment of the student, as an enabling style, to complete this task in order to get the best possible outcome.
In doing so, a learning ownership influenced him to draw upon knowledge and information independently, since good information-delivery is a product of well rehearsed and understood content after quality learning. Some scholarly articles conclude that transformational leadership is the 'most innovative, effective and sustainable form of leadership’ (Cartwright et al., 2013). The appropriateness of this style over the others suited both the requirements, needs of the student, and the context of the task.
The Outcome
Leadership approaches influence performance outcomes, and in this case we saw a significantly positive turnaround. With the nurturing of a mutual understanding and the level of both his and my engagement in total professionalism, the outcome was more than desirable. It was transformative. More importantly still, the display of character (from both leader and follower) developed a heightened level of trust in one-another — an evolution in our social construct that later paid dividends when tackling problems beyond this case study.
In Summary
If you want more from your people then personal investment is not a dirty phrase. It may be difficult to adopt a transformational approach all day every day - but if you can, you definitely should consider it. On the wider scale, everybody works smarter and the job gets easier because a committed workforce is a force-multiplying workforce.
The trust developed between my student and I was an enabler that I used to vastly improve the transfer of knowledge between us. Since efforts were invested in a transformational leadership approach, one of the vital outcomes of being more visionary here was the development of trust — an essential ingredient for all elements of human learning, especially where the aim is to heighten overall performance.
The approach, since his performance was one to be proud of, was decidedly effective and importantly of real long term value. The aims were succeeded and the presentation delivered above and beyond the normal expectations and accounts of a junior soldier with this same task. When compared to his start standard, the outcome of which derived from both of us being committed rather than compliant, his improvement was significant. Testament to the transformational style, our investment encouraged a stretch of his boundaries… helping him to move through that invisible barrier between follower and future leader.
