Watching the Bears and Packers debacle last night, I was struck by how important the intangible skill of leadership is.  You had a pro-bowl quarterback throwing strikes to the wrong team, his receivers giving up on routes or just plain running the wrong ones.  Despite all that went wrong in the first half, the Bears were able to move the ball pretty well and were in great position to take control in the second half.  Instead of sprinting off the field, rallying and encouraging his new teammates – Jay Cutler moped and scowled as he walked off the field at halftime.

Not surprisingly, the team never found it’s rhythm and ended up loosing.  Cutler said after the game -

“It’s still a learning process, We haven’t been together that long in game situations, so we’re still learning. But that is no excuse for what happened out there.”

Wow, that sounds like you’re kind of blaming your entire team for your 4 interceptions.  Nice!  I hate that I’m going to do this (being a colts fan) but Tom Brady is a leader of men.  His teammates would go through a brick wall for him.  Their fear is that they’ll let him down.  That ‘fear of letting the team down’ is what all successful teams and organizations have.  They have it because they’ve got a leader that knows how to lead.  Now those are great words, but this all sounds pretty vague.  What makes leaders great?

• Resolution – the ‘will’ to make things happen.  Putting aside ego, pride, self-promotion to get something done- no matter the cost
• Know when to take risk – Sometimes you need to risk it all.  Sometimes you don’t.  Know how to quickly figure out which is needed.
• Share rewards with subordinates – When you succeed, funnel the praise and spoils of war to your subordinates.  SHOW them you care.
• Be one of the ‘guys’ – leaders who perch up on their high horse don’t get the type of relationships that those who live, eat, play with the team.
• Readiness to take blame – Take the blame for your team.  You need to be the shield of protection to them.
• Never dwell on success or failure – Celebrate wins, address failure.  MOVE ON afterwards.
• Confidence in yourself and peers – If you don’t trust your team members then you’ve got the wrong ones.
• Presence under pressure – Be the anchor in the storm.  As Gene Kranz (NASA – Apollo Flight director) said during the Apollo 13 rescue -’Settle down and work the problems.’
• Continuous Ambition – You’re always striving for more, for better results, bigger prizes.

Gene Kranz led by example.  Here is his address to NASA after the a fire swept through the Apollo 1 capsule during a test, killing all three astronauts Ed White, Roger Chaffee, and Gus Grissom:

”Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, and neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been in design, build, or test. Whatever it was, we should have caught it. We were too gung ho about the schedule and we locked out all of the problems we saw each day in our work. Every element of the program was in trouble and so were we. The simulators were not working, Mission Control was behind in virtually every area, and the flight and test procedures changed daily. Nothing we did had any shelf life. Not one of us stood up and said, ‘Dammit, stop!’ I don’t know what Thompson’s committee will find as the cause, but I know what I find. We are the cause! We were not ready! We did not do our job. We were rolling the dice, hoping that things would come together by launch day, when in our hearts we knew it would take a miracle. We were pushing the schedule and betting that the Cape would slip before we did.

From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: ‘Tough’ and ‘Competent.’Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into Mission Control we will know what we stand for. Competent means we will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. Mission Control will be perfect. When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write ‘Tough and Competent’ on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White, and Chaffee. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control.”

If you can harness the skill of leadership, there is almost no limit to what you can accomplish.  Time will tell if Cutler figures any of this out in Chicago.  Look to the Super Bowl for the quarterbacks and that have the skill of leadership-  you can’t get there if you don’t have it.  We couldn’t have landed on the moon in 1969 if men like Gene Kranz didn’t have it.  We wouldn’t have this great nation if the radical American revolutionaries didn’t have it in the late 1700s.  It’s not for the meek.  It’s not for the unsure.  It’s mantle is heavy, and unforgiving.

Leadership.  Its what’s for dinner.