Invested Leadership · Chapter 02
02Eat Last
What the military understands about serving the people you lead.
“Trust is the coin of the realm.”General James Mattis, USMC
The problem
What the military understands about serving the people you lead.
Most organizational charts are a pyramid with the leader on top and everyone else arranged beneath, holding the weight. It is drawn that way so often that nobody questions which direction the support is supposed to flow.
In a business with no chain of command, rank alone buys you compliance and nothing else. People will follow instructions from someone they do not respect. They will not bring that person a problem early, tell them an uncomfortable truth, or stay when a better offer arrives.
The inversion
At every military base there is an officer of the day, responsible for the operation and security of the installation. The role is a duty, not a privilege, and it rotates. The chapter uses it to make a point that translates badly into business and matters more there: authority is something you are lent in order to serve, not something you are given to enjoy.
From there the chapter walks the classic traits — integrity, communication, work ethic, adaptability, respect, positivity, empathy, humor, kindness and appreciation, self-awareness, detail orientation, fairness, responsibility, courage. None of them are new. The move is to look at each one through the lens of service rather than performance, which changes what each looks like in practice.
Then it asks the harder question. Both authors put their own answer on the page: Eric’s Why and Stacie’s Why, in their own words. The argument is that if you do not determine your Why deliberately, selfishness will determine it for you, quietly, and you will not notice until your people have.
Key takeaways
The authors’ own summary, from the end of the chapter.
- Invert the pyramid: think about how you can serve those in your charge.
- The classic traits of effective leadership still apply, but you can take them a step further by viewing them through the lenses of service and caring.
- Determine your Why, or selfishness may determine it for you.
- When you have genuinely earned the trust and respect of those in your charge, your organization will be bulletproof.
The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.
Go further
Have them teach this
to your team.
This chapter is one talk in the keynote. The seminar is where your leadership team actually does the work.