As an active Navy reservist, I watched with interest late in 2020 as the Department of Defence took seven sets of intra-Defence organisational Values (Navy, Army, RAAF, Special Ops Command, Australian Public Service, Australian Defence Force Academy and Cadets), poured them into a big values magi-mix and produced a new set of Defence Values…a sort of ‘one size fits all’. There was very sound strategic reason for this, specifically the ongoing push for “better alignment in support of a stronger, more capable, Joint and integrated Force”.

One way a leader can murder team performance is to selfishly place themselves in the middle of everything, right in the hub. Picture an old sailing ship helm. Hub in the middle, spokes and a rim at the outer limit. This is hardly original thinking but in my mind if the leader is in the hub, team members sit on the handles that protrude from the outer rim and the spokes are lines of communication.

Being the captain of a warship can be a lonely existence. Eating, chilling out, watching tv and resting in isolation will impact different people in different ways. Regardless of where a captain sits on the intro-extravert spectrum however, s/he needs some sort of trusted sounding board to ‘download’ on.

During the 1990s I served at sea in the Navy under a ‘Leader in Service’ who I now commonly refer to as Captain-my-Hero. One day a ship with a significantly junior Captain was to rendezvous with us to start several days of training manoeuvres. On joining us, this ship got its final approach horribly wrong and put both ships in danger of collision. After a simultaneous reversing of engines, we were both stopped in the water, much like two charging thoroughbreds skidding to a stop in a cloud of dust. As we slowly backed out of trouble Captain-my-Hero quietly called for his Signals Yeoman and I managed to hear him dictate a message to be dispatched by flashing light:

When I was a teenager my sisters introduced me to Crosby, Stills & Nash. Nash, the smooth, Welsh ex-Hollies musician was a terrific songwriter and these words from ‘Wounded Bird’ (Songs for Beginners, 1971) always struck a chord:

Leaders whose overwhelming desire is to serve their people reside, I believe, where humility meets generosity. They create constructive cultures where brilliant ideas, creativity and innovation are bountiful, and mistakes tolerated. These ‘Leaders in Service’, exceptionally comfortable in their own skin, personify the words of the great Robert Greenleaf, who pioneered Servant Leadership in the 70s. He said that “Leadership must, first and foremost, meet the needs of others”.