Of Gautam Mukunda

To Anna Karenina, Tolstoy wrote that “Happy families are the same, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Tolstoy may have been right about families, but leaders are just the opposite. There are many ways to become a great leader, but the worst are usually very similar.

Last Tuesday, Defense Minister Pitt Hegschet provided a masterclass to the failed leadership. Speaking before almost every American general and admiral, while carrying his vision of the recently renamed Ministry of War, Hegschez embodied three of the most common failures of leaders who, both from temperament and skills, are not in the skills.

The first indication: Leaders who are out of their water often give priority to the surface over the actual substance. In the worst case, this may mean that they hurt their service by sacrificing the performance in favor of the view. The way things look, after all, is easy to control. Reforming your business to face its biggest challenges is difficult. It is no coincidence that Theranos Founded Founder Elizabeth Holmes always wore a black turtleneck and deeply her voice. She could control her appearance – and therefore the company – even when her technology was a failure.

The US Army faces serious challenges. The war in Ukraine, for example, has shown that the 21st century war will include rapidly evolving unmanned aircraft. The soldiers of Ukraine’s 34th Coastal Defense Brigade have used such devices to become “among the deadliest fighters in the history of war”. There is no corresponding US unit and the creation of one is a challenge that the US military seems unprepared to face.

So, when Hegschez spoke to the concentrated senior officers, did they cause them to re -examine their operation and develop the technologies that would win the next war? No, he told them “The era of unprofessional appearance is over. Finally the beards. “ Continued, “It’s tiring to look at battle formations, or really any formation, and to see thick soldiers. Similarly, it is completely unacceptable to see thick generals and admirals. “

This focus on aesthetics is worse than it seems. It will harm the recruitment and maintenance of the military in their positions. Consider that up to 60% of black men are affected by Barbae pseudo -follicle, a skin condition caused by hair that, when they are reclaimed after shaving, curve, penetrate the skin and continue to grow internally. For some, shaving can lead to important scars on the face. It is not difficult to imagine that many black soldiers will choose to abandon an institution that obliges them to harm themselves to serve the vanity of their head.

A second feature The feature of bad leaders is their tendency to use their body and its people for their own self-esteem. There is no better example than Wework’s co -founder, Adam Neiman, who used the start -up company to develop a near -Messianic position, managing corporate resources to fly with private jets, fund his drug -powered parties and even pay for him.

Hegschez’s demonstration was just as magnificent. He ordered 800 senior soldiers to fly from all over the world for a speech that could have been easily spoken by teleconference or even sent as an email. They were welcomed by Hegsheth, placed in front of a giant American flag, a clear reference to the inaugural scene of the film Patton.

The audience – which, overall, had more than 25,000 years of military experience – was transformed into a setting aimed at providing visual elements for Hegsheth’s social media and his rumored campaign for Tennessee’s candidate.

Finally, there is no more consistent failure of the worst leaders than their disrespect to those who refer to them. Al -Danlap, the notorious chief executive of Scott Paper and Sunbeam, is a classic example. Danlap had given himself the nickname “chainsaw al” for the way he ruthlessly dismissed his employees. The administration style was summarized in an incident included in the biography of John A. Bern, in which Danlaz ordered the head of the Human Resources Department to enter his office, threw a chair to him, and then he threw him out.

Hegschez did not fly chairs, but everything about his military rally showed similar disrespect. From ordering participants to attend without any explanation, to lectures on the basics of military success, when everyone has a much greater military experience than him, to criticizing, nominally, three retired four -star generals, he had no chance of showing him any opportunity to show them.

Hegschez, a product of the University of Princeton, Kennedy School of Harvard and the United States Army – three of the world’s leading institutions to develop leaders – unfortunately he seems to have taken all the wrong lessons from his education. However, leaders looking for a lesson on how to be great is enough to see his example this week – And to do the opposite.

* Gautam Mukunda writes for corporate administration and innovation. He teaches leadership at the Yale School of Management and is the author of the book “Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter”.