In an earlier article I explored the path to rapid decision making. I will now take that further and propose how it can be put into practice. It is here that I turn again to my hard-won experiences in the Army.  An Army commander, no matter at what level, needs to be confident that he or she can move forward knowing that their soldiers are following. It is not the result of that myth of military leadership – blind obedience – but is achieved by bringing together a number of complementary factors:

• Knowing your team: their individual circumstances, personalities, likes, dislikes, fears, motivating factors – in other words, what makes them the people they are.
• Setting a clear strategy with clear objectives, which is well-understood by all.
• Ensuring that your team knows you, how you operate, the standards you require and how you react in different circumstances.
• Equipping your team with the right tools for the job, whether it is the skills they need or the resources they require.
• Trusting people to do their jobs and conduct themselves without constant, time-consuming and stifling supervision.

With these elements well-known, understood and practised, a successful leader can use people in the most cost effective way, which in military language is termed ‘Mission Command‘. In essence this can be characterised by:

• Setting a clear strategy, communicated and understood by all – the campaign plan.
• Clearly and simply defining objectives – the mission.
• Defining operational boundaries.
• Giving people the freedom to achieve those objectives, operating within the set boundaries and only seeking agreement if circumstances change to such an extent that the boundaries or the means of achieving the objectives are likely to be breached or radically altered. It is about assessing and managing risk, seizing the initiative and taking positive action.

Translating this into the business environment gives you:

• Well-understood mission and objective – researched and intelligent understanding of client needs and project requirements.
• Established boundaries – client and internal project budgetary limits, delegated authority.
• Clear timelines – client time scales for project delivery and internal process requirements.
• Regular reporting of progress – report progress internally to manage perceptions and to the client to demonstrate intent and progress towards achieving client goals.
• Seize the initiative – client executive and project leader use initiative to enable successful delivery within the established boundaries and time lines.
• Manage risk – assess and manage risk at project level and only seek guidance if boundaries are likely to be breached.
• Seek agreement for action only if boundaries likely to be crossed or the situation changes radically enough to jeopardise the mission – client executive and project leader operate within boundaries and drive forward unless there is an issue which cannot be resolved at that level.

Achieving this situation will require the training of your team in this different culture, giving your people the confidence to act in this way and trusting you to support them. Some will fail the first time but persevere.

You should accept failure and ensure people learn from it – not penalise them to such an extent that confidence and trust is eroded. Too often I find that team leaders are quick to condemn the weakest without giving them the benefit of the doubt, and training and guiding them to develop the skills they need to be as capable and successful as they can be. People are key to any business and successful leaders will nurture and expose the talents they possess.

I accept that at times the culture in a business might not favour this approach. Such businesses are stifled by unnecessary bureaucracy, over-supervision, reporting and centralised control. Such businesses are ponderous and often beaten by their competitors – the cycle of decision making is slow.  This is where we need the courage of leadership to come to the fore: the courage to trust team members to work towards the objectives or targets, to take the right decisions, knowing that they can rely on their leader to provide cover and support if needed. Do this and people become energised, dynamic and successful. Without it they spend too much of their time looking over their shoulders, waiting for the accusation of failure and losing the winning momentum so vital to success.