Lost Leadship Techniques

Scott, this really is "Leadership by Walking Around" and is one of the best ways for leaders to get to know their people, and for their people to get to know their leaders. I made a point of spending part of my day, every day, going to one area of my organization and just checking in with folks. I'd ask about family, see how they felt, what was on their mind, what were they working on, what bothered them, what did they feel good about. One on one, or in the "modern office furniture" arrangements, one on two or three sometimes. Casual, informal chats. Didn't take too long, but I got to know my people better and learned more about what was going on in the organization than I ever would have sitting in my office reading the official reports or through staff meetings.

I always made sure to back-brief the Division Chiefs (civilian) or Platoon Sergeants/Leaders or First Sergeants if I learned anything I thought would be important for them. One other thing I did that got more positive comments than this (which got many) was I bought a ton of blank cards, all American-themed (flags, mostly). For every person's birthday I would send a card with a hand-written Happy Birthday note. Every year to every person. It got to be a lot when I had the CI(Security) Battalion at the 902nd (now the 308th?), but Soldiers and later my civilians really seemed to appreciate just a simple, handwritten note.

This also was the reason I got my doctorate and why I chose the dissertation topic I did: Emotional Intelligence and its relationship to Transformational Leadership. I'll tell you more about that later!