"Fearless Leadership" is about knowing your value, speaking up, and not flying under the radar!

Carey Lohrenz, née Dunai is one of the first two female naval aviators in the U.S. Navy to train as pilots in a Grumman F-14 Tomcat strike fighter, also known affectionately by its nickname “Bombcat.” By the mid 90s, Lohrenz is based at the Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California, aka Fightertown USA - also home of the legendary action movie “Top Gun” with Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise). Her book “Fearless Leadership”, published 15 years after completing her military service, reflects on the experiences landing a 30-ton fighter jet at 250 km/h on a 100 m long carrier runway in seesaw motion – at night! The fundamentals of fearless leadership – courage, tenacity, integrity – are converted into business actions (vision, culture, process, resilience) illustrated by various examples of Lohrenz’ consultant work with a wide range of companies.  

Lohrenz describes the fundamental traits of every fearless leader as a “secret sauce”, a combination of courage, tenacity and integrity (CDL, p.15) – all three need to be equally present. Courage includes “recognizing the risk of doing the right thing, and then going forward” (CDL, p.24), “involves the display of candor: being willing to have tough conversations, to give hard feedback”, and “work through difficult situations and accept both responsibility and personal accountability for the outcomes” (CDL, p.23). “Courage means breaking out of your comfort zone, … confront uncertainty, doubt, and the possibility of failure” (CDL, p. 34).

“Courage is about going for it when you feel doubt and discomfort, tenacity adds a new dimension: the persistence it takes to keep going after your goal” (CDL, p.47). “Courage is the twenty-second sprint; tenacity is the five-hour marathon” (CDL, p.48). Lohrenz references Karl E. Weick, an American organizational theorist, who tells a remarkable story of endurance and perseverance in “Sensemaking in Organizations.” During World War II a group of Hungarian soldiers got lost in a three-day snowstorm in the Alps and had given up all remaining hope of survival. Surpisingly, one of them found a map among their gear and used it to guide them back to base, where their lieutenant recognized that the map was not for the Alps, but for the Pyrenees. “When you are lost, any old map will do” (KEW, p.54) or as Lohrenz puts it: “During uncertain or tumultuous times, …focus and think about where you want to be…, map a course of action and take steps every day toward achieving that goal” (CDL, p. 65).

The third element, aside from courage and tenacity, is leading with integrity. It means “constantly putting the mission before the self” (CDL, p.75), “even in times of crisis or at great personal risk” (CDL, p.77). Integer leadership deliberately includes the willingness to engage with vulnerability and admitting personal shortcomings and potential failures. “Fearlessly following your moral compass is absolutely vital to earning your team’s trust and leading effectively” (CDL, p.96).   

“If you don’t have the courage to set the vision, the tenacity to keep after it, and the integrity to pursue it authentically, your team is going to be dead in the water.” “It’s a chart to your destination, providing a steady compass to orient your team. And when the seas get rough, the vision allows you to navigate the challenges and come out ahead” (CDL, p.108). ”It doesn’t have to say how you’re going to get there; it just has to say what it’ll look like when you do” (CDL, p.112). The vision needs a deliberate and disciplined focus, serving as “a decision-making filter”, and providing a “guardrail keeping a team from going off course” (CDL, p. 116). “If you lose sight, you lose the fight” (CDL, p. 113).  

Second to a visionary leadership is the importance of a supporting team culture, “defined by strong working relationships between truly dedicated professionals who operate with a mission-first mentality” (CDL, p.140). “Especially in fast-paced, high-risk environments, everyone needs a wingman”, someone who “has your back” (CDL, p.146 p.). A fearless leader holds the team accountable – “not through micromanaging, but by illustrating as often as you can the power of supporting one another” (CDL, p.147). Besides providing mutual support, Lohrenz advocates for encouraging trust and accountability, inspiring a winning attitude, celebrating success, communicating like you care (“communication has not occurred until both sides understand the message”, CDL, p. 173), building a deep bench, leading by walking around and creating a mentoring program – as every organizational success is hinged on strong teamwork.

The core of Lohrenz’ book describes a “fool proof process for high performance”, applicable to any kind of organization (CDL, p.185 p.):  

·       Prepare (Phase 1): bringing people together and crafting a plan

·       Perform (Phase 2): briefing everyone involved and executing the plan

·       Prevail (Phase 3): coming together for debrief, analyzing, considering improvements  

The preparation phase is mission critical, “the importance of good well-thought-out standard operating procedures (SOPs) cannot be underestimated” (CDL, p.199). ”If you’ve taken the time beforehand to think through all possible scenarios – the potential threats and obstacles – your chances of responding successfully to change are greatly improved.” A “good enough” plan, an “80 percent solution” is sufficient, as “things change.” They always do” (CDL, p.189 p.). Briefing the team, achieving the buy-in, planning for contingencies and keeping the channels of personal communication open at all times will ensure a concerted team approach.

”As necessary as planning is, we can’t extend that phase of the process, overthinking things and getting stuck in analysis paralysis” (CDL, p. 201). In the performance phase it is vital to make decisions quickly, to understand potential task overloads, to accept making mistakes, particularly in stressful context and to mitigate risks. This can be best addressed by applying one of the golden rules of flying: aviate, navigate, and communicate. Once aviating, leaders need to ensure the team is stable, safe, operational. “Observe, listen, and ask questions. Focus on what matters” (CDL, p.206). Based on that, the course of action is developed as leaders resume navigating forward. And relentlessly communicate the intended measures to the team.

The heart of the prevailing phase is the debrief, ideally in an “emotion-free zone” focused on learning and continuous improvement: What was supposed to happen?, What actually happened?, Why where there differences?, What can we learn?, How can we incorporate that lesson into execution next time? (CDL, p.210).

“Resilience is the ability to withstand, recover, adapt, and grow in the face of stressors and changing demands” (CDL, p.223). As research by Dr. Paul G. Stoltz, the originator of the Adversity Quotient (AQ) shows, only 5% of people and teams harness or leverage adversity and use it to their advantage. In order to strengthen their resilience, leaders need to shift from “reflective, cause-oriented thinking to active, response-oriented thinking” (Margolis/Stoltz, p.91). This includes: rejecting victimhood, embracing change, zooming in on what really matters, finding a wingman, understanding your span of control, learning from adversity and finally taking action on the things you do have control over (CDL, p. 239 pp.).

Lohrenz concludes: “Fearless leadership is a people business. Continue that cycle of Prepare-Perform-Prevail, even on the fly. Adjust and adapt, adjust and adapt, adjust and adapt – over and over, even while navigating the choppy waters of a crisis” (CDL, p. 253).   

References:

Lohrenz, Carey D. (CDL): Fearless Leadership: High-Performance Lessons from the Flight Deck, Minneapolis 2014

Margolis, Joshua D.; Stoltz, Paul G.: How to Bounce Back from Adversity, in: Harvard Business Review, 88/1-2 (2010): 86-92

Weick, Karl E. (KEW): Sensemaking in Organizations, Thousand Oaks 1995