Nathan Strife was on top of the world. Three months ago, he’d landed his dream job, a leadership position he’d coveted for years. Now, he’s hit rock bottom. The pressure and disillusionment that have surfaced with his leadership style have become unbearable. A sudden turn of events necessitates a trip back to his native Ireland, where fate throws him a curveball.
Thrust into a high-stakes situation, Nathan is forced to confront his leadership failures head-on. Witnessing a different kind of leader in action – one forged in the crucible of mountain rescue –Nathan starts to question everything he thought he knew about leadership. Will the unforgiving mountain terrain become the stage for Nathan’s personal transformation? Can he rediscover the true meaning of leadership and find the courage to climb out of his professional despair? Read on for a short extract:
‘What’s up? How’s the knee?’
Fionn drove through the darkness. The narrow road was lit up only fifty or so metres ahead of them.
‘Nothing really, just tired,’ Nathan replied.
‘I’m not surprised. You must still be jet-lagged from arriving only a few days ago.’
‘What an arsehole!’ Nathan blurted out.
‘Who? What do you mean?’
‘Ciara! I’m the one who spotted Stephen. He could still be lying out there if it wasn’t for me. Who the hell is she to say that I shouldn’t have come along on the rescue?’ Nathan was furious.
‘So you heard that, huh?’
‘Yeah, I heard it. How the hell could you take it? How old is she, twelve!’
Fionn couldn’t help but laugh.
‘How could you take that kinda criticism? Isn’t she new to this and here she is telling you that you were wrong. And you took it!’
‘Okay! Okay!’ said Fionn as he tried to calm things down. ‘Clearly you’re upset.’ Fionn paused. ‘She was right. I didn’t like it that she was right, but she was. You’re not trained in mountain rescue. If anything had happened to you out there we’d have been screwed. An investigation would have ensued and I’d probably get my arse handed to me.’
‘Okay, so maybe she had a point, but she’s got some balls calling out a superior like that.’
Fionn was silent for a moment. ‘That’s not how we operate as a team. Each person has different responsibilities; mine just happens to be team leader. It doesn’t mean I get a pass when I mess up. If you don’t mind me saying so, that’s your ego talking. Anyone in the team should be able to call anyone else out. Not in a mean way, but they should be able to point out when they’ve done something wrong, so it can be corrected and not repeated.’
Nathan was quiet. Fionn let him mull over his thoughts for a while until eventually he picked up the conversation.
‘Look, we always debrief after a rescue, whether we’re successful or not. That way we keep improving and we don’t make the same mistakes; new mistakes, sure. But not the same ones. It’s based on the same model used by the Navy Seals.’
This grabbed Nathan’s attention so Fionn continued.
‘The Navy SEALs have a powerful three-question method to learn from any event to boost performance. Imagine the power of analysing projects or important tasks in a way that goes beyond just pointing out mistakes; that’s the power of After-Action Reviews (AARs). They’re different from negative critiques because they focus on learning from experience. I use them with the team on every rescue or training session and I use them with my teams at work. Here’s how they work:
- Celebrate Wins: We start by asking, ‘What new, positive things did we learn from what went well?’ Our brains tend to dwell on negatives, so it’s crucial to highlight successes we can build on.
- Turn Challenges into Lessons: After celebrating wins, we move to constructive feedback. But instead of simply asking ‘What went wrong?’ We ask, ‘What new lessons can we learn from what didn’t go well?’ This approach focuses on future improvement.
- Setting the Standard for Excellence: Once we’ve learnt from both successes and challenges, we look ahead. We combine the insights from the first two steps and ask, ‘Based on what we learnt, how can we improve our processes to consistently achieve excellence?’ This reinforces the idea that excellence is the goal, and clear processes are the tools to get there.
‘Those debriefs are a huge part of the Democratic Leadership Style.’ Fionn glanced at Nathan who was still in a sulk, so he decided to keep on talking with the hope of loosening him up.
‘The purpose of the Democratic Leadership Style is to ensure that everyone has a voice. Everyone, regardless of their position in the team, feels heard. This way, everyone is likely to buy into a decision, even if they don’t fully agree with it initially. Of course, not every team conversation is going to be fun and laughter, we have to discuss the difficult things too. Those debriefs can be uncomfortable, but everyone knows it’s a safe space to debate the issues; ego is left at the metaphorical door.’
Extract from Now, Lead Others by Cillín Hearns, Results Coaching, RRP $35.00