Trust and doing the right thing

Trust and having a backbone are probably the two most important components of leadership.  This was illustrated plainly by the Obama – McChrystal incident that unfolded over the last couple of days.

For those of you that did not follow this on the news, General Stanley McChrystal and some of his staff publicly made disparaging remarks against President Obama and some of his staff and entourage.  The end result was that General McChrystal was removed from his command.

Do not confuse these events with politics; the issue here is loss of trust.  Students of history will know that this kind of situation has happened over the centuries both in the USA and in other democracies.  Typically the political leader of a democratic country is also the leader of the armed forces; this means that the President is the master of the General and that the General has to either follow his orders or resign.  Undermining his superior is not a option as it destroys trust for that superior all the way down the chain of command.  This most likely also undermines the person that questioned his superior, compounding the problem.

I’m certain General McChrystal understood that there could be only one outcome to the situation; his removal.  That’s why he offered to resign but he knew that the offer would be refused and that he would have to face the President because his dismissal could not be delegated to others.  The President had to show that he has a backbone and the General, being a leader, even if a mistaken one, had to show that he also has a backbone by facing the music.

How does this relate to project management?  Undermine your leader, betraying his trust and you can expect to have to fall on your sword.  That’s where the leader’s backbone becomes useful.

What do you think?  As always questions and comments are welcome.

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Comments

[Craig]

Good post.

It sounds like simple advice but can sometimes be hard.

I once had an immediate boss who was heading off on a different course to his bosses. And operating in a way that would cause certain failure for our project.

As the leader of the project team what was I to do?

I had stood by him and offered my advice as best I as could. I reported to the big boss facet o face once while my boss was on leave but basically had nothing to say about the issue. My job was to follow direction and work with what I had.

Eventually the situation resolved, but it was tough going for all of us.

[Patrick Richard]

Craig,

Thanks for the comment.

The situation you describe does not, in my view, constitute undermining of your leader. For one, you have to answer to your boss' boss when asked. And you did not undermine your boss in public; that's what really cost General McChrystal is command, not the underlying disagreement.

Thanks again,

Patrick