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Telling people what you want them to do is important. Telling them why you want them to do it is essential. I find many leaders miss this when crafting and delivering their intent to others. “Jack, I’d like you to install cameras in the warehouse entrance and loading dock.” Jack, the dutiful employee will indeed take on this task but if he fails to understand why, he may not meet your intent.

I was an aide to a U.S. Army General years ago. We traveled quite a bit meeting with other Army senior leaders and visiting soldiers. At one particular base we frequented, there was an older man, Mr. Wallace who worked the front desk at the military guest house. I never knew his first name. He had a plastic gold plate at the counter with, “Mr. Wallace” engraved on it. He was there in the quiet, late evening darkness every time we arrived.

Talk is cheap. “I’m on it!” “Got it boss!” ‘Thumbs up’ emoji. How often have you heard or seen these things but not the follow up? Daily, in organizations, people – leaders and subordinates alike spout these phrases or send symbols which indicate they will act on what is being asked of them. Not all of them follow up. Phrases and symbols such as these are easy to say or send. Give the boss a thumbs up but forget or ignore what you’ve been asked to do, and you may get away with it.

My first experience with a hurricane was the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana in 2005. I was a U.S. Army Major serving in the famed 82nd Airborne Division and part of a response force to rescue people, restore order, and assist in recovery. I’ll never forget entering the city for the first time, days after the storm in a military vehicle near midnight. New Orleans, a city of nearly 500,000 people with skyscrapers, parking decks, and a giant football stadium was eerily lifeless - dark and vacant. Sunrise the following morning would expose a city landscape of despair and destruction. I was humbled by the power of nature and saddened by the loss of life.

I’m thinking of everyone affected by Hurricane Helene as I type this. This storm really packed a punch, and its full effects are yet to be felt as the storm travels inland. Times like this call for leadership. For a comprehensive collection of my thoughts and experience with crises, pick up a copy of my book, “Left and Right of the Boom. The Art of Leadership, Before During and After Crisis.” When crisis visits us, whether before it, during it, or after it, people look upward toward leadership. Whether it is the local and federal government, or the boss at work, times like this call for leadership. Here are my thoughts as I watch Helene do her thing.

Super Bowl coming up for your team? A company version of a Super Bowl can come in many forms. Sometimes it’s a large project with a deadline and an unveiling which demands the focus and effort of the entire team. Or it can be a time of the year such as the Annual or Open Enrollment Period (AEP or OEP) where consumers can sign up or make changes to medical coverage. These periods represent significant revenue for many organizations – where they strengthen and or expand their offerings and achieve substantial revenue growth which allows them to survive and thrive in an ever competitive market.

The more time I spend helping organizations and coaching leaders the greater the alarm bells ring signaling the epidemic of poor leadership we have in organizations today. Look no further than Gallup’s global research and reporting on employee disengagement for proof. And all arrows point to poor leadership as the cause. This is not at all the fault of those who lead in the contemporary organization. Indeed, there are bad apples, but most leaders struggle to lead because of a complete void of leadership training and education all through one’s public and private education experience. My training came from the U.S. Army. I did have a good upbringing with a fairly normal childhood with a father who set a good example, but the Army gets most of the credit for my leadership tutelage. From day one, I was a leader in training and from that day forward the Army provided daily leadership opportunities for me. It allowed me to lead, fail, and try again. Countless mentors showed me leadership – both good and bad. I’m a leader, therefore I lead.

The chain of command is a military term which translates to direct report in a private business. “Direct" or "Command" being the operative words, it is the direct reporting and responsibility (command) between two individuals – leader and led. We used chain of command in the military to establish crystal clear lines of authority and communication. Ambiguity surrounding who had authority and where orders came from was taboo in the military – get it wrong and mission failure and human life were at stake. I’ve carried this into my small businesses, and I preach it in my leadership practice. Who works for who and who orders what? Achieve clarity here. People want that.

If hard conversations were easy, they would call them easy conversations. Duh! Is there such a thing as easy conversations? Are there conversations at all anymore? Have we all moved to texts, emails, and office chat applications? Some days I wonder. I’m not on a rant here. I too value the ease of modern technology. I was pleasantly surprised and advantaged when applications such as Microsoft Teams and Slack appeared. But I’m old enough and wise enough to know the downsides. I’ve done a ton of coaching on communication. I’ve developed a course on it. In the course I ask participants where certain messages belong – especially ones which would qualify as hard.