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Leading is FUNdamental!

James Naugle

I think one of the problems we have with teaching leadership is that we use it as an umbrella term for all the things a guy in charge has to do. That has made "Leadership" this big magical nebulous concept that cannot be taught, and must be placed on a pedestal and worshiped. Because of this, I want to break Leadership down to its component parts and see if cadets can understand them better that way.

First we have to figure out what "leadership" is.

California Wing uses a definition of leadership that I always liked:
"The art of influencing and directing people in a way which will win their obedience, confidence, respect, and loyal cooperation in achieving a common objective."

But even that is too complicated for me. At its most basic level, leading is simply convincing someone else to do what you want them to do. Well, there are lots of ways to do that. You can ask them, you can tell them, you can force them, you can convince them, you can bribe them. The most effective leaders I know use all of those ways (and others) to convince people and tailor their approach for the situation and the person they are trying to lead.

You have to motivate the person you are trying to lead. That gets tricky because every person is motivated by something different. Some people are motivated by money, some by professional gain, some by recognition, some by fear of embarrassment or punishment. Fortunately for us, most cadets are motivated by bling. Some people start motivated and only need to be pointed in the direction you want them to go. If you are leading correctly you should find yourself having to motivate your people less and less as they find their own internal motivation.

To motivate a person you have to understand their needs. That is where that Maslow's hierarchy comes into play.


As you can see, this is where analyzing your subordinates and their situation comes in. They aren't going to care about social needs like being part of the team, if their basic physiological needs aren't being metÂ… once those are met, they will want whatever is on the next level. Maybe that's your approval. Maybe that's a promotion to a higher staff job. Maybe that's feeling they have made an impact in their unit.


But there is another way to look at convincing people to do stuff, and that is in the form of "influencing" their behavior. The master of influencing behavior was a guy named B.F. Skinner. Skinner was a psychologist who studied Behaviorism. He took the concept of Pavlov's Dogs one step further. He explored how animals associate behaviors with rewards and punishments and will change their behavior to gain reward or avoid punishment. Well we can use this to train people to do what we want them to do, and that is called Operant Conditioning. Wikipedia has a very good article on this and I am going to steal it and use it here.

Wikipedia.org explains that there are 4 key factors in Operant Conditioning:

1. Positive reinforcement occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by a favorable stimulus (commonly seen as pleasant) that increases the frequency of that behavior. In the Skinner box experiment, a stimulus such as food or sugar solution can be delivered when the rat engages in a target behavior, such as pressing a lever.
2. Negative reinforcement occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus (commonly seen as unpleasant) thereby increasing that behavior's frequency. In the Skinner box experiment, negative reinforcement can be a loud noise continuously sounding inside the rat's cage until it engages in the target behavior, such as pressing a lever, upon which the loud noise is removed.
3. Positive punishment (also called "Punishment by contingent stimulation") occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by an aversive stimulus, such as introducing a shock or loud noise, resulting in a decrease in that behavior.
4. Negative punishment (also called "Punishment by contingent withdrawal") occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by the removal of a favorable stimulus, such as taking away a child's toy following an undesired behavior, resulting in a decrease in that behavior.
Those are different types of consequences that an animal (person) will adapt their behavior for.

Operant conditioning. (2007, April 27). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:25, May 1, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operant_conditioning&oldid=126393999

Wikipedia.org further explains that those consequences can be more or less influential based on these factors:

1. Satiation: The effectiveness of a consequence will be reduced if the individual's "appetite" for that source of stimulation has been satisfied. Inversely, the effectiveness of a consequence will increase as the individual becomes deprived of that stimulus. If someone is not hungry, food will not be an effective reinforcer for behavior.
2. Immediacy: After a response, how immediately a consequence is then felt determines the effectiveness of the consequence. More immediate feedback will be more effective than less immediate feedback. If someone's license plate is caught by a traffic camera for speeding and they receive a speeding ticket in the mail a week later, this consequence will not be very effective against speeding. But if someone is speeding and is caught in the act by an officer who pulls them over, then their speeding behavior is more likely to be affected.
3. Contingency: If a consequence does not contingently (reliably, or consistently) follow the target response, its effectiveness upon the response is reduced. But if a consequence follows the response reliably after successive instances, its ability to modify the response is increased. If someone has a habit of getting to work late, but is only occasionally reprimanded for their lateness, the reprimand will not be a very effective punishment.
4. Size: This is a "cost-benefit" determinant of whether a consequence will be effective. If the size, or amount, of the consequence is large enough to be worth the effort, the consequence will be more effective upon the behavior. An unusually large lottery jackpot, for example, might be enough to get someone to buy a one-dollar lottery ticket (or even buying multiple tickets). But if a lottery jackpot is small, the same person might not feel it to be worth the effort of driving out and finding a place to buy a ticket. In this example, it's also useful to note that "effort" is a punishing consequence. How these opposing expected consequences (reinforcing and punishing) balance out will determine whether the behavior is performed or not.

Operant conditioning. (2007, April 27). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:25, May 1, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Operant_conditioning&oldid=126393999

Pretty heavy stuff, but if you can get your head around that and apply it, you will be pretty set for knowing how to get people to do what you want them to do.


So now we know how to motivate a person, and we know what leads a person to change their behavior. But there is something missing, what some would call the "X-Factor" that makes a leader a leader and not just "behavior modifier." The final component of leadership we need to look at is charisma. Charisma is that personal magnetism that makes people like, respect, and look up to you as a person. Charisma isn't about being everyone's friend or winning any popularity contests. It is about being a strong personality and having personal qualities people respect and want to emulate.

This is where leading by example comes in.
This is where "Alpha Dog" behavior comes in.
This is where confidence comes in.
This is where showing your people that you care for them and that you are willing to fight for them comes in.
This is where keeping your integrity above reproach comes in.
This is where being "in control" but not "controlling" comes in.
This is where being assertive and taking charge comes in.
This is where self awareness comes in.

Next time around: Long Term Leadership

Capt. James Naugle is an Active Duty Air Force officer who graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2003. He travels the country spreading "truthiness" to CAP squadrons about Air Force careers and commissioning sources. He has been active in Civil Air Patrol since he was 13.

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