Sadly, and in a negative way, the American electorate is learning that experience matters.
Regardless of one's politics, most agree the rollout, if not the entire implementation, of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, has been disastrous. The center point of this blog is neither identify nor debate the wisdom of this legislation. It is to underscore the imperative of experience, as illustrated by recent events and acknowledgments, including the President's remarks on Thursday 14 November.
What becomes all too apparent, in crystalline clarity, is the lack of leadership, supervisory, and managerial experience severely hinders and limits this President. Experience in campaigning, professing (aka teaching Constitutional law), and oration do not provide the foundation experience necessary to govern. Specifically, such experience does not provide the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to lead government at the highest possible level as President of the United States.
If tasked with authoring the job posting for the position of President of the United States, it is certain one would include specific knowledge, skills, and abilities gained from direct (if not lengthy) experience in leadership, supervision, and management. It is far less certain that campaigning and other capabilities would be equally addressed. Because it is from leadership, supervisory, and managerial experience that the key knowledge, skills, and abilities would be acquired.
I have commented recently that a good young Marine NCO might do a better job as a leader than I have witnessed by many elected officials, particularly POTUS. Though partially fanciful, the supposition isn't too far off the mark, if we take a look at some fundamental elements. Had POTUS the knowledge, skills, and abilities born from leadership experience as a Marine NCO, it is likely much would be different today. For example, let's begin with the Marine Corps Leadership Principles, which are taught to all Marines, enlisted and officer.
Marine Corps Leadership Principles
• Know
yourself and seek self-improvement.
• Be
technically and tactically proficient.
• Develop
a sense of responsibility among your subordinates.
• Make
sound and timely decisions.
• Set
the example.
• Know
your Marines and look out for their welfare.
• Keep
your Marines informed.
• Seek
responsibility and take responsibility for your actions.
• Ensure
assigned tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished.
• Train
your Marines as a team.
• Employ
your command in accordance with its capabilities.
These, and the Marine Corps Leadership Traits, are the bedrock upon which the Corps teaches and requires leadership from all Marines, from Private to General. In the following, some of the Principles will be used to highlight current and recent inadequacies demonstrated by POTUS.
Develop a sense of responsibility among your subordinates. Just as he does, the major and minor players of the administration avoid personal responsibility at every turn. Each desire to hold and wield the authority that comes with their positions, but do so without accepting responsibility. Take for example the recent testimony from Secretary Sebelius or that of Secretary Clinton. Had POTUS instilled this principle within the members of his White House staff, cabinet, and the broader membership of his administration, it is arguable many of the issues coming to light would be addressed and resolved quite differently. It is also arguable that certain members of the cabinet would not have been put into place.
Keep your Marines informed. It is apparent the "right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing" within this administration. In applying this principle, keeping the boss informed is also required. When POTUS claims ignorance of critical information, when POTUS asserts having learned of critical matters from the morning press, when cabinet members assert lack of knowledge, it displays an endemic problem regarding keeping folks informed. Certainly, the administration and executive branch are very, very large and no one person can personally know everything. But it is the requirement of the leader to "develop a sense of responsibility among your subordinates" to keep the next person in the chain of command, up and down the chain, informed about critical matters. This administration thus far has displayed a glaring failure in applying this principle.
Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions. Some will likely assert that POTUS did just this in his 14 November comments regarding the Affordable Care Act. To such assertions, we can state balderdash! When the insurance cancellation letters hit the news, POTUS first sought to distance himself from the "if you like it you can keep" comments from years past. Then he attempted to qualify the comments, by adding narrowing stipulations and qualifications not contained in the oft repeated original comments. Finally, he offered some comments stating he'd "fumbled." In expounding upon the "fumble" commentary, it became clear the principle of being "technically and tactically proficient" was not met. Equivocation, verbal maneuvering, and parsing of words soon overcame any pursuit of actual acceptance of responsibility. POTUS sought to distance himself from responsibility, not embrace it. And when embracing personal responsibility, ownership of the final result ensues. As this ensues, personal engagement in leading and supervising the outcome exist.
Ensure assigned tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished. It is perhaps here that POTUS's lack of experience is most apparent and glaring. The failure to supervise the implementation of what is touted as the "signature domestic policy" has been epic in its scale and thunderous in its impact. The failure of accomplishment stands as testimony to this failure. Surely the website debacle and millions of insurance cancellations are the most visible components receiving current media attention attesting to the failure of accomplishment. But on the horizon are even more severe revelations (hospitals and doctors newly excluded from the updated plans, higher insurance rates/deductibles, smaller risk pools, negative financial impact, adverse economic ramifications for insurance companies). Aside from the ACA, other examples abound in this administration, including the IRS scandal, Benghazi, NSA, Syria, Iran,and Fast and Furious to name but a few. Even the main stream media are beginning to intone the multiple examples POTUS's failure, and that of his subordinates, to supervise. Incompetence is the word most often used. Lack of clarity for assigned tasks, confusing and conflicting objectives, supervisory failures, and unclear lines of communication all are evident.
Train your Marines as a team. No doubt about it, the administration isn't a team. Doesn't even come close to being a team. While the subject areas of the cabinet positions obviously differ, collectively the cabinet is supposed to lead the executive departments as the administrative implements the laws passed by Congress. Of particular importance is where major issues require overlapping responsibility of two or more cabinet departments. It's all too apparent that the departments are more competitors than team mates. At the least, teamwork is rightfully questioned. For example, look at the Departments of State and Defense in last summer's Syrian policy development. In this competitive arena we must add the White House staff, who act mainly as surrogates and petty "warlords," with many attempting to assume levels of authority and direction no where provided in law. One experience they have not gained is that as staff members, they can speak for POTUS but not as POTUS.
Continuing, there are also Marine Corps Leadership Traits, 14 to be specific. Rather than listing all 14, I will focus on one. Integrity. Uprightness of character and soundness
of moral principles; includes the qualities of truthfulness and honesty. (Emphasis added.)
In viewing this trait with POTUS in mind, doubtful much debate could ensue. Recently there have been dueling commentaries as to whether POTUS "lied" to the American people when stating "if you like it, you can keep it." Similarly, recent polls indicate declining numbers as to the trustworthiness os POTUS. Regardless of one's political leanings, it must be acknowledged that truthfulness and honesty are now being openly questioned.
Finally, the Marine Corps also provides six troop leading steps (see the below). It is the final and most important of these that I use in closing. Supervise. As one civilian site (http://quizlet.com/25314258/usmc-bamcis-flash-cards/#) defines it, "Supervise is the most important troop leading step. During this step, the leader ensures the order is carried out as intended." Again, political views aside, it is glaringly apparent this POTUS fails miserably in supervising. Either that, or he fails in ensuring "tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished." Or both. Perhaps with previous leadership, supervisory, and/or managerial experience, POTUS would have acquired the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for leading the largest bureaucracy in the world. Many of the recent comments critical of POTUS point to the lack of supervision leading up to the rollout of the ACA website. Paraphrasing one commentator, at every staff meeting POTUS should have asked probing and detailed questions about the website, plus demanding a full scale demonstration. He did neither. (Hell, when my team successfully worked to move a major public university scholarship program from paper applications to an on line system, I met weekly with them, asking hard questions. Then we did multiple levels of internal testing, deliberately attempting to crash the system, which we did. And then we fixed the uncovered errors before "going live.") Lack of supervision identifies a disengaged leader. A disengaged leader exudes lack of interest. Lack of interest creates lack of personal responsibility. Lack of personal responsibility ultimately leads to dismal accomplishment. Dismal accomplishment equals failure.
Alas, the American people did not author a job description with mandatory and preferred experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities for the position of President of the United States. Had they done so, different election outcomes would have been realized. Instead, political machinery and speeches obfuscated the importance of experience. Charisma took the place of substance. Utopian hyperbole replaced integrity. Political gain superseded moral principles.
Now the American people are learning that experience matters and, all too sadly, they elected an individual deficient in the experience necessary to be POTUS.
Perhaps in the next election cycle, as the American people decide who to hire to be POTUS, they should demand the individual have the experience of a good Marine Corps Corporal. (By the way, the most egregious thing to a Marine is letting another Marine down.) Because experience matters.
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BAMCIS is an acronym for: Begin planning, Arrange for reconnaissance, Make reconnaissance, Complete the plan, Issue the order, and SUPERVISE. This article will provide a closer look at these “troop leading steps” and how they relate to business management.
BEGIN PLANNING: At this point a situation has presented itself that requires action. Whether it is an employee who is habitually late that hasn’t showed up for work yet again or a major customer has announced that they are looking for a solution your company can provide them, the first thing you need to do is develop a plan of action. Begin planning is a sort of brainstorming phase. You’ll identify one or more actions you may want to take. You will want to get a general idea of the costs involved, resources required, and people you will need to involve. During this phase you’ll come up with an idea of some of the risks involved with your course(s) of action.
ARRANGE FOR RECONNAISSANCE: BAMCIS was developed with the infantry leader in mind, so the steps are titled towards the conduct of an attack. But they apply just as well to the business world. Arranging for reconnaissance is nothing more than identifying the things you don’t know from the first step, figuring out what you need to know to take appropriate action, and taking whatever steps you need to take to gather your information.
In our example of the prospective client, you’ll likely want to know more about them. You can arrange for reconnaissance by planning to consult their corporate website, or using other Web resources. You might want to know if any of your people has dealt with the company in the past—as a customer, an employee, or in a sales call to them. You might want to use a social networking site like LinkedIn to see if you have any connections to their senior staff or you may want to call them and arrange for a lunch or to meet for coffee or drinks. Maybe there are trade publications, press releases, or white pages that need to be read.
MAKE RECONNAISSANCE: In combat, it is vitally important for a leader to get “eyes on the target”—to see what is going on for himself. In business, you may not find yourself in the middle of a jungle with a map and a compass, but the thing to remember about this step is that you are the decision maker and it is up to you to stay engaged.
Before your salesman heads off to try to land the big contract, you need to know what they found out—Will the product meet the needs? Did all your questions get answered? And what were those answers? There’s an old saying, “you can delegate work, but you can’t delegate responsibility,” so you’d better be sure your information-gathering needs were met.
COMPLETE THE PLAN: Here’s where you return to your initial brainstorming and “fill in the blanks”. It’s possible that your “reconnaissance” has ruled out a plan that looked good initially. Or it may have caused you to make major changes to it. Information-gathering may have even shown you a completely different direction that you want to take. This, like reconnaissance, is a step that you can and probably should delegate to subordinates most of the time, but you will ultimately approve, deny, or ask for further work on the plan before executing it.
ISSUE THE ORDER: Again, in the military this can be as involved as an order several hundreds of pages long, with exhibits and attachments, or it can be as simple as “Bad guys coming up the trail. Set up an ambush on this side of the trail, with the machine guns on the flanks. Hold your fire until I fire first.”
SUPERVISE: This step is referred to as “the most important troop-leading step.” By now you’ve probably realized this supervision is continuous throughout the process. As a leader you’re not going to have the time to do everything yourself. You may not even have the skills or information needed for the earlier steps, but ultimately it is you who is responsible, so you need to supervise continuously. “How’d the lunch go?” “What did we find out?” “Did we get the shipment that was supposed to come in this morning?” “Why isn’t this set up the way we agreed on?”
