"War & Women" - Leadership and Sailing

A writer starting a post: "Patrolling Iraq's Route Lincoln, the major east-west highway between Baghdad and Ramadi, is no picnic." (War and Women - Lady Killer) based on first hand experience has my attention. The author, Alexander Martin, has a post about sailing and leadership:

I have taken liberty of cutting and pasting excerpts from the post The Culture of Excellence:

Leadership is about listening. I learned that racing sail boats as a Midshipman. Sailing puts you outside of your comfort zone and forces you to make decisions under pressure, and act quickly and decisively. Sailing requires intellect and teamwork and heart.

During a race the skipper is like the platoon commander, section leader, or flight lead.

In my time as a sailor, I’ve noticed two methods of calling tactics. Some skippers observe all that goes on around him – the shifting winds, the opposition, his own crew – and makes a call: tack, jibe, come into the wind, fall off...

Other skippers observe these same conditions, and ask... “Portside, how’s the trim?” “Mastman, how’s the tension?” “Helmsman, what do you see?” He gets input for what each professional at that position is feeling – and demands this participation from each level – and then calls his tactics based on his determinations and the observations of his crew.

I prefer to lead a platoon by the second method.

Commander’s intent is critical in small unit leadership because it expresses what you must accomplish, but does not dictate how it must be accomplished.

The small unit commander must deliver a crystal clear task, purpose and end-state with all orders he gives. “Here’s what you are to do, here’s why I need you to do it, and here’s what I need it all to look like when you’re finished.” Notice the small unit commander must avoid dictating HOW the mission is to be accomplished; he must leave that aspect, as much as his senior commander and the situation permit, to his subordinate leaders.

The blog is War and Women. I learned about it from Modern Day Pirate Tales.

K.C.