Every year I write a few posts on leadership. Much of my thinking on leadership is influenced by the writings of the U.S. military. This morning I am lecturing to the ROTC student body at FIU. This is a summary of what I plan to say.
The three functions of leadership are:
- Determine the mission
- Provide resources necessary to accomplish the mission
- Motivate people to perform effectively and efficiently
I plan to illustrate each point by an example from military history. Napoleon, Wedemeyer and Cortez respectively illustrate the three points. The common theme in each of their approaches is that they "redefined the problem" in order to properly perform one of the three functions of leadership.
My opinion of the best book on leadership is in this post from 2009, Team.