FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (Jan. 29, 2015) -- "Leadership Through a Changing Environment" was the theme of the third Army Leader Exchange, a series of talks on leadership from national and local civilian and military leaders, Jan. 27 in Marshall Lecture Hall in the Lewis and Clark Center here.
The event's panel featured Maj. Gen. Jimmie Keenan, commanding general of the Southern Regional Medical Command and chief of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps; Matthew Whiat, director of outreach programs on the Organizational Empowerment team at manufacturing technology company Barry-Wehmiller in St. Louis; Dr. Neeli Bendapudi, dean and H.D. Price professor of business at the University of Kansas School of Business and scholar of marketing; and Mark Donovan, president of the Kansas City Chiefs.
Col. Christopher Croft, director of the Center of Army Leadership, Combined Arms Center - Leader Development and Education, said the panel was part of CAC and Fort Leavenworth Commander Lt. Gen. Robert Brown's vision to "get leaders to engage and communicate thoughts."
"Today I encourage you to be part of this discussion (and) engage," Croft told attendees. "It isn't just to listen to speakers. It's also to learn and develop yourself so we can better the Army and our nation."
Keenan spoke about the current health state of soldiers and the importance of their well being to the Army's mission. To address the soldiers' readiness, the Army has been promoting the Performance Triad, a comprehensive plan to improve readiness and increase resilience. The key messages of the plan are for soldiers to get quality sleep, engage in activity and improve their nutrition.
"Our soldiers have to be adaptable and agile," Keenan said. "They have to be physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually resilient."
Keenan said that 12 percent of the Army is clinically obese and 66 percent deemed overweight.
Through study, Keenan said 41 percent of soldiers get seven to eight hours of sleep each night.
"We found that if you get less than seven hours of sleep more than three consecutive days that you're cognitively deficient by 20 percent," Keenan said. "We also found that it would be equivalent to having a blood alcohol of .08."
In 2014, the Army reported 146 Class A accidents and 122 fatalities. Last year in Afghanistan, there were 69 reported fatalities.
Keenan said physical activity was also important to soldiers' overall health. She said 44 percent of civilians can meet the Army physical training standards and 63 percent of soldiers can meet them.
Keenan stressed the importance of a healthy diet. She said 34 percent of the average American diet comes from fruits and vegetables and the majority from sugar and fat.
"What we know is that prevention saves so much not only for soldiers and family members, but it also improves our readiness," Keenan said.
During his presentation, Whiat talked about the company he works for and how it defines leadership.
Barry-Wehmiller was founded in 1985 and produces capital goods machinery. It employs 8,500 team members across the world.
Whiat said there are no bosses, supervisors or managers, there are just leaders at Barry-Wehmiller, and they have a profound effect on their employees.
He said 80 percent of people quit their jobs because of their boss.
"We believe that leaders have the unique opportunity to shape lives," Whiat said. "We teach communication skills, leadership, service."
Whiat explained the company's vision: We measure success by the way we touch lives of people.
"Nowhere does it talk about what we build, make and mission," Whiat said. "We sell machines so we can create a future for our people. For us, it's less about our hierarchy."
Whiat asked those in the audience to write the name of their worst leader and put it in their left pocket and put the name of their best leader in their right pocket.
"Think about the person you put in your right pocket," Whiat said. "I bet they cared tremendously for you, your family and your career. I'll bet they gave you an opportunity to fail and it didn't kill you when they did. I'll bet they were demanding and yet they were very accommodating. I would place a thought into how they led and how you are going to lead."
Bendapudi focused on how branding and leadership are entwined. She studied leadership at convenience stores; she said Quick Trip is always in the top places on the Fortune 500 companies list to work for because the employers invest in their employees and their education. She said every employee was taught how to read a financial statement.
"The idea is we want you to be truly empowered," Bendapudi said. "Everybody wants to be a leader. As leaders you hear about empowerment. You cannot empower people if you really don't share information. You cannot have teamwork without empowering people because if you empower dummies, you get bad decisions faster. Know who you are, be authentic, be consistent, invest in your people, educate them the best that you can."
Donovan expanded on the different styles of leaders by giving examples of leadership that he's encountered within the National Football League.
Donovan said Lamar Hunt, the principal founder of the American Football League, was an innovative leader. He unsuccessfully tried to purchase NFL franchises and when denied, reached out to fellow businessmen and started a new league. Donovan said Paul Tagliabue, the commissioner of the NFL from 1989 to 2006, was a collaborative leader who was criticized for being too chummy with the players.
"Never underestimate the factor of peace or how powerful it is to have really good allies," Donovan said.
Donovan said the current commissioner, Roger Goodell, is a challenging and innovative leader who pushes people to aim for the best and want more.
"There are different styles of a leader," Donovan said. "I've had the good fortune in my career to be exposed to many great leaders. I've learned a little bit means more. The common trait of a leader is that they are never satisfied. They never said, 'OK, we're good.'"
During a question-and-answer session, Donovan was asked what the role of leadership was at a local level in maintaining and supporting the corporate brand in the face of scandals like former Baltimore Raven player Ray Rice's domestic violence case and off-season player drug and alcohol incidents.
"It is critical that us as the organization in Kansas City, we know our values and our operation," Donovan said. "We are going to think about what we do. It was a difficult time for the entire league. The responsibility of a team is to support the team. How can we have a positive effect on our culture?"
Brown added that with social media, every person's action is under heavier scrutiny.
"For years, the military said that discipline is doing the right thing when no one is watching," the CAC commanding general said. "Now certainly that hasn't changed. When we look at the complexity of the future, it's doing the right thing as the whole world is watching. It's a different way to educate and train. Years ago, they wouldn't be seen and now they're seen by everybody instantly. Folks almost thrived on it and certainly for us our enemies will exploit it."
Whiat expanded on the importance of being authentic as a leader.
"Leadership by example is leaving things to chance," Whiat said. "Who is your example? When you say lead by example, what example? If you're going to be an inspirational leader the first step in understanding that is to find out what inspires you. That's a whole personal journey. What have I done with my life? Where did I have great leadership? It begins with that pause and reflection."
Bendapudi was asked how leaders address branding as a promise if the company's identity is in flux like the Army when mission sets change.
"There's a big difference between brand identity and brand image," Bendapudi said. "You've got to make sure it's not too far different from what the image is because then you become the laughing stock. You cannot make promises that you are not able to deliver. At the same time, it is valuable. I would strongly suggest you have a lot of buy-in. I firmly believe you are better off investing in internal marketing, getting all of your people to really understand where you are going before you put it out there."
Keenan was asked how to recognize the Performance Triad when a leader or commander adds a new task at the end of the day.
She said that the leaders should be upfront about the circumstances on why that task was made and the true deadline.
"To build resiliency you have to remember that we're not doing a sprint, we're doing a marathon, Keenan said. "So we have to model that. I don't think General Brown or I would say, if you said, 'I have spin class and my son has a soccer game, is it alright to add those slides in the morning?' 'No.' We should empower our staff enough so they aren't afraid to come back and ask those questions. Any time we see this in health care, many times people look at the position and say, 'I'm afraid to ask that question.' We've got to empower our staff to be able to challenge us."
In conclusion, Brown said that the event was one of the best leadership talks he's attended.
"General (Ray) Odierno, our chief (of staff of the Army), talks about leader development being one of the most important things to do but, oftentimes, with everything else, somehow it gets pushed aside so for those who came, it was a tremendous decision," Brown said.
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