I am a fan of military history and wargaming. The stories of veterans and the high stakes of combat have informed my worldview. This blog even featured an article on how Dungeons & Dragons helped me become a better scrum master. A fascinating thing about military history is the stories of personal heroism and leadership which occur when everything is on the line. Stories of grace under pressure are an inspiration for me, considering I work in the intense world of technology. Earlier this month, one of my heroes died from complications from COVID-19, Colin Powell. His legacy is complicated in American history, but his insights on leadership are something people in the agile community should emulate.
Powell did not have an impressive pedigree when he became an officer in 1958. He spent the early years of his career learning his trade, and it was only in Vietnam that Powell’s career took off. The young officer had a knack for solving problems and turning around dysfunctional units. His superiors considered him competent, hard-working, and loyal. Powell’s superiors fast-tracked his career.
Where Powell distinguished himself, he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush. Taking lessons he learned throughout his career, Powell innovated warfighting by toppling Manuel Noriega’s Panamanian government in 1990 and leading the Pentagon during the First Persian Gulf War. I remember his collaboration with theater commander Norman Schwarzkopf and his declaration that the allies in the first gulf war would “…cut off and then kill.” Saddam Hussein’s forces in Kuwait.
When he retired from the military, Powell wrote a best-selling memoir and spent his time public speaking. Before being named Secretary of State by George W. Bush, he was a best-selling author and gave numerous workshops on leadership. During the intermission in his public career, he continued to provide leadership speeches, and one of my favorites was in 1996, where he outlined some observations of a lifetime career. The most important was, “Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.”
To Powell, getting the job done is more important than being popular. Building consensus and attempting to please everyone is a sure-fire way to mediocrity. Often there are too many cooks in the metaphorical kitchen, and someone needs to make a decision. When someone is in charge and makes a choice, it is going to get second-guessed. Others will be unhappy with the decision because they will exert themselves more than they usually would. Finally, a decision might expose someone as unable to do the work to the level of quality demanded. Someone will always be pissed off with a person showing leadership.
Agile makes this doubly accurate as the rapid cycle times and demand for working solutions are required. People who get by on charm and a smile can no longer hide in plain sight. Items missed are visible for everyone to see. Technical debt which is missing during a demo shows up in testing or production environments. All of these things are great at pissing people off.
So as a leader and agilist, pissing people off is a natural consequence of the job. It is asking why a deadline promised ninety days ago was missed. A coach will ask powerful questions about server configurations and testing plans. Leadership can be such a lonely job because if you are doing it properly, some portion of the people you serve will be pissed about a decision you make. Once I internalized that message, I found leadership to be less lonely.
I do not want to make Powell into some demi-god. He has a complicated legacy which includes involvement in stonewalling the investigation of the My Lai massacre. He also tarnished his reputation with his advocacy of the Second Persian Gulf war. It is why biographer Jeffrey J. Mathews calls his biography of Powell “Colin Powell: Imperfect Patriot.” We can learn from this imperfect man the principles of his leadership style, which served him well over his career. The most important to me is that a leader pisses people off.
Until next time.
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