Key lessons in leadership from The Lieutenant Don't Know: One Marine's Story of Warfare and Combat Logistics in Afghanistan by Captain Jeff Clement.
"Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics." - Gen. Robert H. Barrow, USMC (Former Commandant of the Marine Corps) noted in 1980
Most of the books that seem to be coming out about the experiences of veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq seem to be from members of the Special Operation community (USMC Force Recon's Nathaniel Fick's One Bullet Away and one of the main characters in Generation Kill; Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's American Sniper; US Army Sean Parnell's Outlaw Platoon). In most cases these are really excellent personal narratives, but their stories are limited in their point of view and tend to focus on direct action.
Jeffrey Clement comes along with something different - a Marine logistician's tale of his tour of duty in Afghanistan with his platoon that was part of Combat Logistics Battalion 6 (CLB 6). He talks about the often thankless, but critical job of running convoys to deliver the necessary supplies (fuel, food, ammunition) to outposts and recover the vehicles that had either broken down or that had been damaged by enemy contact.
The title came from a conversation that Lieutenant Clement overheard. A well-seasoned staff sergeant was yelling at a lance corporal over why he performed a certain task in a certain manner. The lance corporal replied that he was told to do it in that fashion by the new 2nd lieutenant. This caused the staff sergeant to explode and say "I don't care what the lieutenant said. THE LIEUTENT DON'T KNOW." The point is that while the new leader had the title and the position, the training and the education, he had no actual experience and it was their job to help teach the new leader how to do the job correctly.
Ten key lessons that can be taken from this excellent book are applicable to a myriad of other professions:
- Ask - Ask those that are junior in position, peers, and those that are senior to you. Each can provide a different perspective and having a sounding board is vital. A good tip is to find a sounding board outside your chain of command as this allows for fewer potential conflicts of interest. Clement's had a platoon sergeant that worked for him, but who turned into a great mentor and teacher.
Where ever you work: be it in an office, a factory, in sales, or even a library, we all were the new person at some point in our career. Fortunately, most of us didn't need to learn our profession under hostile fire like Lieutenant Clement did. Weathering out a tough situation is never a comfortable proposition, but it is part of the human condition. The realization that learning is still an option is applicable for everyone at all stages of any career. Jeff Clement wrote an interesting and honest account of his failure and victories, I hope we can all learn from it.