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Leadership Series

Teach Your Children (and Your Leaders) Well

General Anthony Zinni on Leadership

Lessons on leadership come from many different places. In this issue, Editor-in-Chief Laura Biddle-Bruckman talks with General Anthony Zinni, United States Marine Corps (Retired), to discuss his thoughts on leadership. General Zinni serves on the boards of several corporations, universities and other organizations, and offers NAMIC members his insight gained from his more than 40 years of experience as a proven and decorated leader in the U.S. military. General Zinni recently co-authored Tom Clancy’s latest book, Battle Ready, which was released in the spring of 2004.

General Zinni believes that there are critical elements that good leaders have in common. The first is the ability to make decisions, a skill that can be developed, and should be rewarded, early in life. According to Zinni, we must “train and educate people on how to make decisions through exercises and real world experiences” and give them room to make mistakes. A great leader, he says, “Is willing to make decisions, is clear and decisive, and builds up a bank of experiences that make the decisions sound.” In teaching people how to make good decisions, he says, “Most decisions are made through pattern recognition. For example, in the military, you may not have ‘real war’ experiences, but you have field exercises, computer simulations, map exercises and you read a lot about combat. This can relate to business as well. In business, you should create scenarios or exercises that simulate your environment and education.” Zinni believes this can also begin at a young age. “In teaching children, they need to be given room to make decisions and then understand the consequences of the decision. Afterwards, go over what was right and wrong about the decisions they made.” This early teaching can pay off well into the future.

A second important area is what Zinni calls “values development.” According to Zinni, the values that we respect in a leader such as a high degree of integrity and a genuine caring for and about people, doesn’t just happen. “That has to be cultivated, instilled and rewarded. Leaders who don’t demonstrate those characteristics need to understand that it’s not enough to just be ‘good’ and ‘confident.’ You will not be a great leader if you don’t care about the welfare of your subordinates.” Zinni remarks that often leaders are rewarded “who abuse subordinates or who don’t care about the welfare of others because the ‘bottom line’ becomes the issue. I think in the long run that’s counter-productive and won’t work.”

A third critical ingredient in Zinni’s leadership mix is confidence. Simply put, says Zinni, “No one will follow someone who doesn’t know what he/she is doing.” But confidence has to be built on the first two attributes – good judgment and sound decision making and good values.

When Good Leaders Fail

What about when good leaders fail? When you look at someone who, on the outside, has everything that would make a good leader – and yet they fail, what do you think most often leads to that?

“In the end,” says Zinni, “what usually defeats good people with a lot of ambition, is over-ambition.” Zinni says that many times, when people are extremely talented and good, they know it. “On top of that,” he says, “they often get told that they are ahead of their peers. They are told that they’re on the fast track and they begin to believe their own press clippings and they begin to try to manipulate their own career or make decisions based on their own personal ambition.” Zinni acknowledges that ambition is a necessary ingredient; that is, “you don’t want someone in a leadership position with no ambition,” but he cautions that ambition can very easily turn into obsession.

“I think if people are told so many times that they are good, then they begin to worry. The expectation from them is to deliver so high so that it pressures them too much. I think we can do a disservice to some people by constantly telling them how good they are. Then they feel like they have to live up to it, and that can creates insecurity, or they begin to ‘try too hard,’ or move too fast. They think they are ‘there’ when they really are not – they just have the potential.”

Looking for Ways to Improve

Zinni acknowledges that it can be hard to give bad news. Mistakes happen, though, when people are not given specific areas for improvement. “I think we have to be careful with not offering candid feedback, because in order for people to continue to develop, they have to understand where they can improve. It doesn’t necessarily mean they have a deficiency – but even if they are extraordinarily talented, there are always areas for improvement.”

Going hand in hand with that is the idea that you never stop learning. Says Zinni, “You should never feel like you’ve arrived that there are no more qualities and skills that you need to attain. If you get to that point, you’re useless. Then you sort of stop in time – you aren’t growing anymore.” Zinni painted the picture of the kid in high school who was the conference star, got the letter jacket and the awards, and then never leaves that point in time. “In the mill town that I grew up in,” he said, “you see those guys hanging out at the firehouse in their old ratty letter jackets. They were heroes in the past but they never went on from there. They wanted to live in that moment so long that they never grew; they never developed beyond that.” People have to always understand that there’s still more to learn. There should be no doubt that “there is still a part of me that needs to develop and grow. I can still be better – a better person and a better leader. The most successful people always feel that they learn more, do better and accept a new challenge.”

Words on the Wall

When you bring someone new into an organization, how do you bring someone on board and teach them the “culture” of the organization?

The first step, Zinni says, is to articulate and communicate the core values, the mission and the vision of the organization. But more importantly, ensure that the organization lives the values. “I’ve seen organizations that have the words on the wall, but that’s all that they are. Words. You look at the culture, it’s not what the words say. The words are just put out there as some kind of lofty ideal for public relations, but the organization itself doesn’t walk the walk. Make sure everybody knows the mission, vision and values. It shouldn’t be something they stumble into or see on a poster. It needs to be brought into their socialization process when they come into the organization. All around them they have to see everybody believing it and living it. “In addition,” he continues, “I think it’s important for the leadership to keep testing that – to keep seeing if everyone is in tune with it.”

One way to ensure that the organization is meeting expectations is to do what he called a “climate” survey, similar to one they did when he was a director at USCentcom. “We asked about everything,” he said. “From leadership issues to the basic satisfaction with the facilities. We asked how it was this year compared to last year, and whether they thought it was going to get better, stay the same or get worse.” It’s important to constantly take the pulse of the organization. You want to know – do they think that you’re talking about things but not actually living it? To make leadership more effective, you have to have the feedback mechanism in place.

And don’t expect that all the communication will yield negative results. According to Zinni, there are often surprise positives. “There may be something happening that you don’t know about that’s positive and you can capitalize on it.” He was on the board of a company that did a satisfaction survey and the company was overwhelmed with the positive responses. The attitude afterward was, “We’ve always said that serving the customer is our goal – and we’re accomplishing it!” When that happens, you need to find a way to let your employees know, because that’s their feedback!

Succession Planning

Similar in the military to a “change of command,” how does a leader effectively transition leadership?

To successfully transition from one leader to the next, you have to test it along the way. “I always worry about a unit where the leader never takes time off. Before the actual change, it’s good to see how the organization functions without the leader. A former Commandant of the USMC required general officers to take a two week block of time off – for their own benefit – but in addition, to see if the organization can function if the leader isn’t there.”

Another important factor is to standardize some elements of turnover and succession. “There should be elements that the company wants to ensure are carried on. Things like the core values. The message should always be, these are our values – we live them, we breathe them and this is how we do it. These things will not change no matter who’s in charge.”

Letting the World Know

How do you think that leaders best communicate their goals and objectives? Is there a formula?

A good leader will use all means available, and take every opportunity, to communicate goals and objectives. It’s very important that the goals and objectives are heard directly from the mouth of the leader. “At any gathering, meeting, convention or site visit, the theme should be the same – everyone in the organization should identify you with the core values of the organization.

“I’m on the board of a company where the CEO sends a personal leadership letter out to everybody in the company. He constantly reemphasizes the core values and brings them into play in everything he talks about. I think you also reward those who live up to those core values and you deal with those who don’t.” You will be able to recognize those who are bringing value to the organization.

Zinni cautions, “Never confuse hard work with good work. If someone wants to ‘prove’ his or her worth by saying, I put in ‘x’ number of hours, that does not impress me. What impresses me is the environment and the atmosphere and the leadership environment you’ve created. The productivity, the sense of spirit – you don’t measure it by hours on the job. Actually, at some point, the law of diminishing returns factors in and you become less effective if too many hours are spent on the job.” Again, it’s all about caring, says Zinni, which includes caring about the mission and caring about the people.

He recounted a story when he was stationed in Stuttgart, Germany. He and his senior officers were invited to a German company for the evening to talk about managment philosophies. “Now this was a number of years ago but they were ahead of the curve. They had a daycare center for their employees. They had a cafeteria and in the cafeteria, if you purchased a healthy meal, it cost a dollar. They had a fitness center and if you used the fitness center and the personal trainer, you could do it during company time.” What it said, according to Zinni, was that they cared about their employees. They encouraged them to lead healthy lifestyles which demonstrated that they cared about their employees.

“Every organization has a climate or environment and everybody feels it more than they can articulate it. It isn’t just the words that go around, it’s what you feel. If you have people getting up in the morning and they feel happy to be going to work and about the organization, then I think it doesn’t take long for new people coming in to get a sense of that.”

And learn along the way, he says. “You pick up little things along the way that touch you and then you put them into your little leadership folder.” Zinni said that he once worked for a boss that sent a little letter of appreciation to every employee the day before his/her birthday. The letter wished them a happy birthday and told them to take their birthday off. “Those are the little touches you learn that send the right messages and it doesn’t take much. When someone does something well, send them a little note or stop and tell them you are proud of them. People pick up on that.”

General Anthony Zinni

GENERAL ANTHONY ZINNI joined the Marine Corps in 1961 and was commissioned an infantry second lieutenant in 1965 upon graduation from Villanova University. He has held numerous command and staff assignments that include platoon, company, battalion, regimental, Marine expeditionary unit, and Marine expeditionary force command. His staff assignments included service in operations, training, special operations, counter-terrorism and manpower billets. He has also been a tactics and operations instructor at several Marine Corps schools and was selected as a fellow on the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group. General Zinni’s joint assignments include command of a joint task force and a unified command. He has also had several joint and combined staff billets at task force and unified command levels. General Zinni’s awards include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster; the Distinguished Service Medal; the Defense Superior Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters; the Bronze Star with Combat “V” and gold star, the Purple Heart; the Meritorious Service Medal with gold star-, the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat “V” and gold star; the Navy Achievement Medal with gold star; the Combat Action Ribbon; and personal decorations from South Vietnam, France, Italy, Egypt, Kuwait, Yemen, and Bahrain. He also holds 37 unit, service, and campaign awards. His civilian awards include the Papal Gold Cross of Honor, the Union League’s Abraham Lincoln Award, the Italic Studies Institute’s Global Peace Award, the Distinguished Sea Service Award from the Naval Order of the United States, the Eisenhower Distinguished Service Award from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, The Chapman Award from the Marine Corps University Foundation, the Penn Club Award, the Marconi Award from the Order Sons of Italy of America, the St. Thomas of Villanova Alumni Medal, and the George P. Shultz Award for Public Service from the U.S. State Department.

Posted: Friday, January 14, 2005 12:00:00 AM. Modified: Monday, January 17, 2005 2:19:26 PM.

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