No military leader would downplay the importance of personal presence in leadership. It’s a vital attribute, particularly in a combat setting. In The Face of Battle, a book written about soldiers experiences in war, John Keegan writes how “the personal bond between leader and follower lies at the root of all explanations of what does and does not happen in battle.” In Keegan’s view, the best example was Henry V, who inspired his “band of brothers” by fighting in their midst during the Battle of Agincourt.

Now, advancements in technology may have helped move some leaders off the actual battlefield, but it does not negate the importance of the “Go and See,” “Seek to Understand,” and “Show Respect” principles that have helped develop such a successful team-based problem solving culture in the US military.

Even today, a military leader is expected to go to the soldier on the line and sample to see if plan information has been shared correctly and understood. In the US military, this is called a ‘back brief.’

Back briefs serve a few very important purposes.

1. If people know they may be called on to provide a synopsis of the plan, they are more likely to pay attention and take notes.
2. Everyone walks away with the same understanding of the plan.
3. The team hears the plan twice. Repetition helps retention.
4. The back brief reduces waste by preventing rework when a plan is misinterpreted.
5. The back brief provides leaders with a chance to hear their plan out loud. They can critique their own ideas in a way that is harder to do in their head.
6. The back brief can spur a catchball process to improve problems with the plan.

So how does this relate to the corporate world?

Doesn’t a standard work audit seem very similar to a back brief? Or…couldn’t a mid-level leader conduct a gemba walk like a back brief? And do you think military leaders simply hope they will remember to conduct a back brief? Absolutely not. These are part of a management system with very specific planned outcomes.

Like the US military, your organization should have structured activities built into a management system that help encourage the right leadership behaviors.

The performance of your leaders is directly correlated to where they are spending their time and when.

Leader standard work is a tool that can help leaders spend their time in the right place and at the right time. So where should your team and mid-level leader be spending most of their time? The answer is…at the place for the value-creating work for your organization is happening.

I once worked with a client whose team leaders were spending the majority of their time in meetings. Once we moved them out of meetings, we began to see them in their offices. Why was this happening? Their management system was structured this way. All the information they needed to make decisions was either in the computer or dependent on someone else. This is a serious problem. Leaders should be empowered to make decisions with their teams; and the only way to make this happen is to ensure those leaders have the information they need where the value-add work is happening. After we made some changes to the systems and started visually tracking safety, quality, productivity, etc. at the place where the value-creating work was being done, the leaders could see how they were doing at a glance and could make the necessary decisions to ensure they has a successful day…without the use of a computer report or meetings.

Team and mid-level leader should have 80% or more of their work standardized. What is keeping your leaders from spending time where you want them to be? Take the steps necessary to ensure they are spending the majority of their time where the value-creating work is being done.