Comments on: How to improve morale and confidence. http://www.badlanguage.net/how-to-improve-morale-and-confidence How to communicate Tue, 07 Oct 2008 08:33:54 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Bad Language / Patterns of conflict http://www.badlanguage.net/how-to-improve-morale-and-confidence#comment-424551 Bad Language / Patterns of conflict Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:46:25 +0000 http://www.badlanguage.net/how-to-improve-morale-and-confidence#comment-424551 [...] readers will know that I have an interest in military history.  (See How to improve morale and confidence and Interview with Stephen Bungay.) I’m reading an excellent biography of John Boyd (Boyd: [...] [...] readers will know that I have an interest in military history.  (See How to improve morale and confidence and Interview with Stephen Bungay.) I’m reading an excellent biography of John Boyd (Boyd: [...]

]]> By: Christopher C Dean http://www.badlanguage.net/how-to-improve-morale-and-confidence#comment-389244 Christopher C Dean Fri, 04 Apr 2008 03:33:07 +0000 http://www.badlanguage.net/how-to-improve-morale-and-confidence#comment-389244 Just found your blog through Visual Thesaurus and liked what you wrote. I downloaded Windows Live Writer to give it a try. I'll be checking back often to read what you have to say! Just found your blog through Visual Thesaurus and liked what you wrote. I downloaded Windows Live Writer to give it a try. I’ll be checking back often to read what you have to say!

]]> By: Richard Young http://www.badlanguage.net/how-to-improve-morale-and-confidence#comment-388626 Richard Young Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:56:31 +0000 http://www.badlanguage.net/how-to-improve-morale-and-confidence#comment-388626 Sorry, that should read Templer, not Templar. I blame Leslie Charteris. Sorry, that should read Templer, not Templar. I blame Leslie Charteris.

]]> By: Richard Young http://www.badlanguage.net/how-to-improve-morale-and-confidence#comment-388619 Richard Young Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:45:41 +0000 http://www.badlanguage.net/how-to-improve-morale-and-confidence#comment-388619 Interesting - and this mirrors a keynote given to the FDs' Forum last year by Col Tim Collins, he of the famous eve of war speech in Kuwait in 2003. Collins cited Sir Gerald Templar, our man in Malaya in 1952, as an example of how to get a job done. (Templar apparently coined the phrase "winning hearts and minds".) Templar had been given vague direction by the Churchill government to “make things better”. But he pestered his political masters until they delivered a definitive goal: ready Malaya for independence by 1960. That enabled Templar to set out the mission for his regiment – and allowed him to set the first of six key pillars of leadership: clarity of purpose. Once a clear goal was in place, everything else – pacification, establishment of civil institutions, sound administration – could flow through. Second was get the organisation right. Templar had a reputation for closing down departments that couldn’t explain why they existed – and only opening them again when someone else noticed their disappearance and said they couldn’t cope without them. Third, get in the right people. Collins conceded that in military life – and more so in business – it’s hard simply to remove “bad” people from the equation. But by understanding their characteristics, you can allocate them to the most appropriate – and sometimes least destructive – roles. The fourth key is getting the right spirit into the organisation – in the British army, with its regimental system, this means loyalty to the badge and to your colleagues. Fifth, get your day-to-day instructions right. “Your people have to know what they have to do,” said Collins. “Give your orders, then consult with the departments and get them to report back to you what they have understood they’ve been asked to do.” Finally, said the colonel, “let them get on with it.” Collins’s point was that once you have “a man and a plan” – the right leader, team, ethos and a clear mission – the job is done. Tinkering doesn’t help. Interesting - and this mirrors a keynote given to the FDs’ Forum last year by Col Tim Collins, he of the famous eve of war speech in Kuwait in 2003. Collins cited Sir Gerald Templar, our man in Malaya in 1952, as an example of how to get a job done. (Templar apparently coined the phrase “winning hearts and minds”.)

Templar had been given vague direction by the Churchill government to “make things better”. But he pestered his political masters until they delivered a definitive goal: ready Malaya for independence by 1960.

That enabled Templar to set out the mission for his regiment – and allowed him to set the first of six key pillars of leadership: clarity of purpose. Once a clear goal was in place, everything else – pacification, establishment of civil institutions, sound administration – could flow through.

Second was get the organisation right. Templar had a reputation for closing down departments that couldn’t explain why they existed – and only opening them again when someone else noticed their disappearance and said they couldn’t cope without them.

Third, get in the right people. Collins conceded that in military life – and more so in business – it’s hard simply to remove “bad” people from the equation. But by understanding their characteristics, you can allocate them to the most appropriate – and sometimes least destructive – roles.

The fourth key is getting the right spirit into the organisation – in the British army, with its regimental system, this means loyalty to the badge and to your colleagues.

Fifth, get your day-to-day instructions right. “Your people have to know what they have to do,” said Collins. “Give your orders, then consult with the departments and get them to report back to you what they have understood they’ve been asked to do.”

Finally, said the colonel, “let them get on with it.”

Collins’s point was that once you have “a man and a plan” – the right leader, team, ethos and a clear mission – the job is done. Tinkering doesn’t help.

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