Example of a great leader: Gen Todd Semonite, US Army Corps of Engineers

[Jon L]

@Andy Black asked me to move this into a new thread. I ran across this General on google and thought he was an amazing leader. One of my favorite things he said, and I paraphrase:

"This is a complex situation, and we need to not create complex solutions to it. Anything we do has to be dead simple so that it can be repeated across the country."

View: https://youtu.be/xCsidYDqWo0?t=44


Discuss!

 

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[Andy Black]

Thanks for sharing this @Jon L.

Now is the time for leaders to lead.

After my first viewing my over-riding takeaways are that:

1. He has absolute "clarity of purpose".
2. He communicates clearly and quickly.
3. He imparts the urgency of the situation while being calm and measured.
4. He has trust and faith in delegating down to the guys on the ground.
5. The combination of the above instills me with confidence.
6. He's not panicking so I'm not panicking.
7. I'm inclined to want to emulate how he's acting.
8. I'm already asking myself "What can I do to similarly lead my team and clients?"

What's everyone's main takeaways?

 

[Jon L]

Another thing he did was give credit where credit was due.

He could easily have made the US Army Corps of Engineers look like it was the saving grace of everyone. Instead, he pointed out multiple times how other leaders were coming together to make things happen.

Specifically:

• His group was participating in FEMA's system that they already have in place. (FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, gets a really bad rap in the media, so his support of them would have been nice to hear if you were an employee of theirs)
• Governors of various states were leading the effort in their states
• Other types of local leaders were participating and stepping up
• His lower level commanders were being trusted on the ground to do a good job with a clear directive "Meet the April 15th deadline"
• He was offering his services as a service, not a directive. "Here's how we can help. Let me know if that's useful to you."

 

[Andy Black]

Another thing he did was give credit where credit was due.

He could easily have made the US Army Corps of Engineers look like it was the saving grace of everyone. Instead, he pointed out multiple times how other leaders were coming together to make things happen.

Specifically:

• His group was participating in FEMA's system that they already have in place. (FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, gets a really bad rap in the media, so his support of them would have been nice to hear if you were an employee of theirs)
• Governors of various states were leading the effort in their states
• Other types of local leaders were participating and stepping up
• His lower level commanders were being trusted on the ground to do a good job with a clear directive "Meet the April 15th deadline"
• He was offering his services as a service, not a directive. "Here's how we can help. Let me know if that's useful to you."

Ah yes, another sign of a great leader: talk other people up and not yourself.

 

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[WillHurtDontCare]

What's everyone's main takeaways?

His point on complex problems requiring simple solutions was fantastic. It's a big problem - doing something that mitigates the damage quickly and can be replicated across the country is huge.

 

[Andy Black]

His point on complex problems requiring simple solutions was fantastic. It's a big problem - doing something that mitigates the damage quickly and can be replicated across the country is huge.

Agreed. I’d go so far as saying that ALL problems require simple solutions.