When I was a young officer, my battery commander and our staff were preparing for a couple of weeks training out in the field. In the Army, one of our axioms is "train as you fight". The more realistic training, the better. Yet our commander took this rule and tried to argue that we should use signals and radio channels the way we would really fight. The problem is that those channels are restricted use in peace time, and really not something we should be using. I remember watching as he refused to accept 'no' for an answer and insisted that there had to be a way. (I didn't envy the young soldier who had to tell him it couldn't be done.)
The thing is, our commander was doing what our entire culture says a leader should do. He was driven. A hard charger. No excuses. Take no prisoners. (And it was utterly stupid. Of all things to be driven over, this?!?)
I brought this up because we, as leaders, are responsible for creating the work environment. We put pressure on our subordinates to get things done, or find a way, or make it happen. Which is all well and good, in that it can push people out of their ruts and lead to some truly amazing and creative things. The dark side of this, however, is that if you're not careful you will pressure people to do things that are illegal, immoral, unethical...or just plain shortsighted because in pursuing your stated goal they may make choices that undermine your ultimate vision.
My company recently did it's annual ethics training, and I kind of liked a couple of the scenarios. In one the boss set a goal (meet a sales target) and said find a way. The boss refused to accept no for an answer and put considerable pressure on the employees to make it happen. In order to do so, the employees started considering some pretty shady things. Like calling up customers to ask them to purchase enough material to make their sales goal, with the understanding that they would return it. This distorts the true picture of how that product is selling, all to meet an (often arbitrary) goal.
I brought this all up because I felt I needed to explain a few more things from my previous post. I don't know what the FBI investigation will find, but I don't honestly expect them to say that Hillary knowingly released classified information. What I expect is that they'll find some staffer who got told to give her information (which happened to be classified, and had to be sent to her private e-mail on her private server so she could access it on her blackberry), who knew it was classified, and got told to find a way. Given the training we all go through when handling classified material, I expect that staffer should have known better. And I expect they felt stuck between what their class said to do and what their boss wanted. So they made it happen.
This is part of the concern I have when I say she, and the Establishment, lives in a bubble. When you don't know what you are asking of your people, when you accept no excuses and refuse to hear people out in an attempt to drive them further, when you don't set limits or necessarily even try to understand what they will do when you say find a way, you create an environment that is rife with the potential for illegal, immoral, and unethical behavior.
The thing is, our commander was doing what our entire culture says a leader should do. He was driven. A hard charger. No excuses. Take no prisoners. (And it was utterly stupid. Of all things to be driven over, this?!?)
I brought this up because we, as leaders, are responsible for creating the work environment. We put pressure on our subordinates to get things done, or find a way, or make it happen. Which is all well and good, in that it can push people out of their ruts and lead to some truly amazing and creative things. The dark side of this, however, is that if you're not careful you will pressure people to do things that are illegal, immoral, unethical...or just plain shortsighted because in pursuing your stated goal they may make choices that undermine your ultimate vision.
My company recently did it's annual ethics training, and I kind of liked a couple of the scenarios. In one the boss set a goal (meet a sales target) and said find a way. The boss refused to accept no for an answer and put considerable pressure on the employees to make it happen. In order to do so, the employees started considering some pretty shady things. Like calling up customers to ask them to purchase enough material to make their sales goal, with the understanding that they would return it. This distorts the true picture of how that product is selling, all to meet an (often arbitrary) goal.
I brought this all up because I felt I needed to explain a few more things from my previous post. I don't know what the FBI investigation will find, but I don't honestly expect them to say that Hillary knowingly released classified information. What I expect is that they'll find some staffer who got told to give her information (which happened to be classified, and had to be sent to her private e-mail on her private server so she could access it on her blackberry), who knew it was classified, and got told to find a way. Given the training we all go through when handling classified material, I expect that staffer should have known better. And I expect they felt stuck between what their class said to do and what their boss wanted. So they made it happen.
This is part of the concern I have when I say she, and the Establishment, lives in a bubble. When you don't know what you are asking of your people, when you accept no excuses and refuse to hear people out in an attempt to drive them further, when you don't set limits or necessarily even try to understand what they will do when you say find a way, you create an environment that is rife with the potential for illegal, immoral, and unethical behavior.
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