Posted 15 January 2010 - 10:52 AM
Despite my own negative experiences and the occasional need to "vent", I am reminded how important it is to stay focused on reform and offer real solutions. While this recommendation cannot be easily implemented I have recognized (for many years now) what the agency truly needs. In simple terms, ATF needs effective, charismatic and inspiring leaders, especially at the top. Everyone needs to be held accountable, from the Director to the filing clerks, but real servant oriented leadership cannot be delegated to the first line supervisor while SACs avoid (and often run from) town hall meetings at the division level. There is a great passage from "Band of Brothers" where a front line officer tells a terrified trooper "You're problem is that you are afraid to die--if you consider yourself dead already, then you can focus on the mission...and get the job done...so we can all go home". That, ladies and gentlemen, is stellar advice and not limited to the battlefield. We are plagued with management and executive careerism. If our leaders could just consider their careers dead, maybe they could set aside their resume building and make effective and aggressive decisions so that the mission, THE MISSION, could be carried out to the best of all our abilities. It takes courage and skill to be leader. Moreover it takes various sorts of balance--the balance between compassion and accountability--the balance between swift punishment and immediate praise--the balance between motivating your people and providing resources--the balance between "hands on" presence and allowing your employees to carryout the task, etc.
If you do not think a respected and proven executive leader makes a difference, consider this historical allegory: in 1942 an understaffed, ill-equipped, ill-fed Marine Division was dumped on Guadalcanal Island to fight a ruthless, determined and battle-hardened enemy. Due to a shortage of ships and air cover, cautious Naval leaders temporarily abandoned the Marines to fend for themselves. The Marines weren't just fighting formidable Japanese troops, but also poisonous snakes, alligators, intense heat, hunger, dehydration, malaria and dysentery. The Commanding General of the Marine Division was with his troops and so was the Commander of the Marine Air Wing (note, the aging Brigadier General of the Air Wing flew direct action missions purely to inspire his young pilots). The Commanding General remained determined and resolute...and when we couldn't provide resources he did everything he could to bolster morale. Yet the real Theater Commander, the man at the top of the pyramid, was a Navy Admiral and his leadership was sorely lacking. Regardless of the Admiral's good intentions to protect the weakened fleet, the Marines felt abandoned by their Naval overlords. Due to excellent training and leadership at all levels, the Marines fought many engagements with the Japanese with great success, but with great vulnerability as well. Most of the troops were sick with one malady or the other and there were never enough "beans, bullets or bandages". High command eventually relieved the Naval Task Force Commander and replaced him with Admiral William "Bull" Halsey, a real "fighting admiral" and a genuine "troops man" (he told his officers to take off those damn neckties...and he broke Naval rules by keeping whiskey on board his carriers because he believed a Naval Aviator deserved a "stiff belt" after landing an airplane on a moving, pitching deck). Marine historians wrote that when troops were notified of the appointment of Bull Halsey as the NEW Theater Commander, morale soared--men shaking with malaria and fever or recovering from the wounds of intense battle found the resolve to press on. And then Bull Halsey did something that none of the Marines expected--he put on a pair of green BDUs and he visited the troops on that God-forsaken island right in the midst of the campaign. They knew they had a fighting admiral, literally, watching their backs...and Marines definatively kicked the enemy off the island. If you don't get the meaning of the story and how it may apply to our agency...well...you just don't get it. Nevertheless, I'll say it bluntly--we need effective leaders at all levels, but we are in desperate need of a "Bull Halsey". We need effective leaders from the very top on down.
