A leader must always remember that people don’t normally make mistakes deliberately, no matter how much pressure they are under.
Even though you may have a lot of personal investment in a new company or be under other pressures, there is never a benefit to losing self-control as a leader. Leaders catch people doing things well and encourage them. They instruct, support and coach. Poor leaders foster an atmosphere of distrust and blame shifting. When you see somebody messing up within your company, think of Tom Kelly, a famous NASA engineer and act as he would.
I witnessed NASA’s first manned moon missions, and I’ve spent a lot of time learning about how both NASA and the corporate partnerships that assisted them worked. Every part of those corporations is an excellent example of business. I’ve heard a lot of interesting tales first hand from people who were there.
The Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) was constructed by Grumman in New York, and it had a single purpose, to take astronauts down to the lunar surface and back to the Command Module that had been left orbiting the Moon. Those of you who enjoyed the movie Apollo 13 will know that it functioned in excess of its specifications, acting as a ‘lifeboat’ to assist astronauts returning to earth in a damaged spacecraft.
The LEM was a new concept and Grumman wasn’t a start up. It had to be manufactured from the ideas of engineers, with no time or money to waste, and had to be invented. The entire Apollo programme was outsourced, and the rule was ‘lowest bidder wins’. I doubt that this policy was strictly followed, but the LEM was built over budget.
Without the help of Tom Kelly, the LEM’s lead project engineer, this piece of technology might not have functioned properly. He led a group of about 7,000 people as they constructed the LEM. Management and leadership skills were what made him so well-known during the seven years it took to get the first LEM into space and tested in manned flight. The eyes of the nation were on Tom’s team, and there is a famous story in which one leg of the LEM breaks during extended testing at a critical moment in the project.
Weeks before the test, an engineer made a calculation error that led to this happening. Tom displayed real leadership in handling this terrible incident, which had serious budget and time repercussions. The engineer realised his mistake the day after the test, after checking his numbers overnight, and he came to Tom expecting to be fired at the very least.
In a meeting with the engineer, Tom made it clear that the mistake was serious and would have serious consequences but instead of firing the engineer, he ordered him to go home and sleep. The team had been working around the clock for many weeks. Tom knew that it was crucial for his team to own up to their mistakes and move on. Although mistakes would keep happening, it was critical for the project that people took responsibility for their mistakes and did not try to cover them up. With that simple act, he bonded his team’s approach to operating, knowing that future errors, although bad, would not be penalised if they were admitted to and future efforts made to avoid them.
How many of us can honestly say that we operate as managers in that manner? Have you ever worked for or been managed by someone who did?
I have employed Tom’s method in several businesses I’ve led and worked for in the past. Furthermore, I haven’t always done so, and every time I give in to the emotions of the situation and lose control, it takes me weeks, months or even years to re-establish the relationships I’ve built with individuals.
There are many lessons to be learned as leaders. The incident of the broken LEM leg and how it was handled is an excellent example of a great leadership approach. People do not make mistakes on purpose, except in cases where they are truly working to undermine your and their fellow workers efforts, no matter how much pressure they are under. A mistake, after all, is defined as “an act or judgement that is mistaken or incorrect.”