Soldier, Soldier

Greetings, amici.

And, yes, our TSSB lift problem persists. Indeed they worsen. And in past week your State workers have been reduced to one lift. I know you worry about these things.

However since Cicero is here yet again this week, no doubt to your dismay, you can rest assured that this news does not seem to breach some State secrecy rule. It must be covered by Freedom of Information.

Cicero would like to thank those of you taking advantage of the capability to post comments. It is good to know you are awake and thinking. Cicero would however like to point out that when he mentioned last week that he was using the facilities to relieve himself, it was a totally natural bodily function of which he spoke.

Moving swiftly on.

Last week Cicero had an MBA lesson from a chat with a soldier and I felt this was so enlightening that I thought I should immediately share and disseminate the insight and learning with my devoted followers.

This soldier had just returned from Afghanistan, fortunately with all his limbs intact, where he led a troop of our finest warriors. As all real warriors do he was reluctant to speak about what was going on out there and what it was like, and in any event could someone like me ever really comprehend where the worst wound I am ever going to get is a paper cut and even public servants don’t get medals for that. But I digress.

I was talking to my soldier friend about leadership and the applicability of leadership under fire to my environment, and yours too I would guess, where the only fire we are ever likely to be under will come from the health and safety gauleiters.

And then he said something that struck me.

In a mere 7 words, in nearly as many steps as I was taught last week to wash my hands, he said everything you need to know about leadership-‘it’s about your men and the mission’.

And there you have it. Look after your people and keep yourself and those around you focused on the mission, the task you have been given, and success will surely follow.

Now Cicero has done an MBA. He has done leadership development courses. He has built rafts from sticky back plastic and washing up liquid bottles and ferried colleagues across lakes and shark infested lawns. All designed o teach me leadership skills. I need not have bothered. I could have saved myself a whole lot of time and money. All I needed was the price of a cup of coffee and 5 minutes with Colonel Blimp and I would have learnt everything I need to know about effective leadership.

Looking after you men, and I guess might even include women, does not mean being nice to them. It means making sure that they have everything they need to do their job to the best of their ability. It means working with them to identify and remove their interferences. It means listening to them and their input. Looking after them when wounded from a paper cut or staple wound. And most of all it means ensuring you show that you appreciate their efforts.

And by being clear about your mission you and your people know exactly what they have to do, where they are heading, and the measures of success. Take your mission, your objectives, break these down and ensure your people know what their mission is, where they fit in the bigger scheme of things.

‘It’s about your mission and your men’ is this week’s mantra. If it works in the searing and parched heat of Afghanistan and when under fire, why can’t it work where we fight our battles? I doubt we will win any medals but our jobs have just become a whole lot easier.

Is it only me?

I was travelling home the other night from my TSSB for a well deserved rest after another day of toil protecting the citizenry that they might sleep easy in their beds. On train were four youths with ASBO-esque tendencies and with photo-fit features creating all kind of anti social mayhem and disruption while the decent folk on the train, and they outnumbered the ASBO-ites, cowered behind papers, books or somehow found something interesting to look at out of the window.

The last straw for Cicero was when one of the photo-fits lit up a cigarette. Cicero decided to challenge and confront. After a brief confrontation the photo fit backed down, no doubt baffled by my use of Latin, exquisite sentence construction and finely honed rhetoric.

Now it might only be me but I was astounded by the lack of support offered to Cicero by those suited and booted around me. We must remember that we are the majority, silent or otherwise, and if we look away the ASBO-ites win. There is safety in numbers and that applies to us too. And so the next time you see someone in rhetorical and reasoned debate with an ASBO, please don’t look away, please render help and support and back up, it might just be Cicero.

And let me know. Did Cicero do the right thing? Was he reckless? What would you do?

Have a great week.

Sit felix. Et sit fortunatus.