WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s new software modernization strategy calls for establishing an enterprise-level software factory ecosystem to make the tools and applications used by its development hubs a more regular part of doing business.
The document, released late last week, says the 29 software factories that exist today across the military services have made significant progress, but the Department of Defense needs to better take advantage of that innovation. Danielle Metz, deputy chief information officer for the information enterprise, told reporters on Monday the goal is to harness the success of those factories and “inculcate that into the DNA of the department.”
Today’s software factories serve as centralized teams that provide software development services to various program offices. Well-known hubs include the Air Force’s Kessel Run, the Navy’s Overmatch Software Armory and the Army’s Coding Resources and Transformation Ecosystem.
Metz and Pentagon Chief Software Officer Jason Weiss told reporters the department doesn’t necessarily want to make changes to how the factories operate, but instead wants to hear from those organizations about what policy changes and standardization might be most helpful.
Weiss said the department expects to gain efficiencies and cost savings by being more strategic about how the factories operate and ensuring any redundancies aren’t inhibiting economies of scale.
“If we can achieve that, then that allows the software factory ecosystem to continue to grow, but to operate with higher degrees of scale and precision without having to start from scratch at every point,” he said.
Beyond establishing an enterprise-wide development ecosystem, the strategy identifies two other goals: accelerating the DoD enterprise cloud environment and transforming processes to enable resilience and speed.
As part of the cloud acceleration focus, the strategy calls for an “innovative portfolio of cloud contracts” to offer better access to cloud services. It also emphasizes the need to secure data in the cloud and improve infrastructure outside the continental United States to ensure those installations can take advantage of cloud capabilities.
To improve its software development and acquisition processes, the department must reevaluate its policies and guidance to make sure they’re not overly restrictive and continue to support flexibility in the way it acquires and funds software, the strategy says.
A memo accompanying the strategy, signed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, says the department will develop an implementation plan over the next six months. A newly formed Software Modernization Senior Steering Group will coordinate and prioritize efforts under the strategy and will develop a yearly action plan. The group will also create a software capability portfolio to inform budget decisions and make sure efforts are integrated across DoD.
Courtney Albon is C4ISRNET’s space and emerging technology reporter. She previously covered the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force for Inside Defense.
The Defense Department released a broad plan to expand and ensure its technological edge on the shifting global conflict stage—equipped with a list of more than a dozen technologies it is prioritizing in the near term—via a six-page memorandum published on Thursday.
Penned by Defense Undersecretary for Research and Engineering and DOD Chief Technology Officer Heidi Shyu, the USD(R&E) Technology Vision for an Era of Competitionpreviews the impending National Defense Science and Technology Strategy and its development. Shyu’s office will also steer the making of that future-facing blueprint.
President Joe Biden’s administration is placing a sharp focus on strategic competition, particularly with Russia and China, as it crafts the latest National Defense Strategy that’s expected to be released early this year.
The Defense Department released a broad plan to expand and ensure its technological edge on the shifting global conflict stage—equipped with a list of more than a dozen technologies it is prioritizing in the near term—via a six-page memorandum published on Thursday.
President Joe Biden’s administration is placing a sharp focus on strategic competition, particularly with Russia and China, as it crafts the latest National Defense Strategy that’s expected to be released early this year.
A DOD spokesperson told Nextgov on Thursday that the S&T strategy’s release will depend on that of the National Defense Strategy, as the latter is considered the “guiding document.”
In the new memo, Shyu wrote that the United States’ “strategic competitors” have greater access to ultramodern commercial technologies “than ever before,” which can be used to disrupt America.
“The challenges facing our country are both diverse and complex, ranging from sophisticated cyber-attacks to supply chain risks, and from defending against hypersonic missiles to responding to biological threats,” she wrote, later adding that it’s “imperative for the department to nurture early research and discover new scientific breakthroughs to prevent technological surprise.”
Three pillars that will “anchor” the Pentagon’s forthcoming technology strategy are detailed in this memo. They are listed as:
Mission Focus: Leverage the United States’ incredible technology innovation potential to solve the department’s tough operational, engineering and mission-focused challenges.
Foundation Building: Set the foundation to attract and build a strong, talented future technical workforce that works in modernized laboratories and test facilities.
Succeed through Teamwork: Maximize asymmetric advantages by partnering with the larger innovation ecosystem, from industry to universities and to laboratories, allies and partners.
The undersecretary further emphasized that this “era of strategic competition demands collective cooperation.” Among others, DOD will need to work with the defense industrial base, academia, startups, international partners and “even with our competitors,” she wrote, to confront the challenges of this century.
Also in the memo are 14 “critical technology areas,” that DOD considers “vital to maintaining” U.S. national security. They are spread across three categories. The list will be updated as capabilities and the defense strategies evolve, but for now, it includes:
Seed areas of emerging opportunity: biotechnology, quantum science, future generation wireless tech—or FutureG—and advanced materials;
Effective adoption areas: trusted artificial intelligence and autonomy, integrated network system-of-systems, microelectronics, space technology, renewable generation and storage, advanced computing and software, and human-machine interfaces;
Defense-specific areas: directed energy weapons and systems, hypersonics, and integrated sensing and cyber.
“Successful competition requires imagining our military capability as an ever-evolving collective, not a static inventory of weapons in development or sustainment,” Shyu wrote. “In many cases, effective competition benefits from sidestepping symmetric arms races and instead comes from the creative application of new concepts with emerging science and technology.”
In a wide-ranging report published Tuesday, the watchdog found that the department failed to sufficiently monitor the accessibility, accuracy and appropriateness of clinical information as it was transferred in segments from one system to another.
GAO recommended that the department establish performance measures for migrated data and that it use a stakeholder register.
“Although VA performed data testing activities identified in its plans, the department did not ensure that the quality of data migrated to the new EHR system sufficiently met clinicians’ quality needs,” GAO said in the report. In some interviews conducted by the watchdog, clinicians reported being unable to access patient information such as allergies, medications and immunizations, and also reported data errors.
The concerns were raised in relation to a staging environment used as data was transferred from the VA’s National Data Center in Austin, Texas, to a data center operated by contractor Cerner in Kansas City, Missouri. GAO’s performance audit was conducted over the period August 2019 to February 2022.
A greater-than-required volume of certain patient data, such as medication data, was also selected for initial migration, according to the watchdog. It found also that while VA implemented a feedback system to address concerns, it did not use a stakeholder register to help identify and engage all relevant stakeholders for reporting continuity.
“A stakeholder register is intended to help identify and engage all relevant stakeholders. Until VA uses such a tool, the department risks overlooking EHRM stakeholder needs for reporting on patient care, operations, and research functions,” the watchdog said.
The Office of Management and Budget’s Federal Data Strategy highlights the importance of validating data quality, including their accessibility, accuracy and appropriateness.
The new findings come after sustained criticism from lawmakers late last year following the department’s decision to push ahead with the rollout of the EHR platform at a new location despite safety concerns from frontline staff.
Last month, the VA announced a further delay to the rollout of the program, citing surging COVID-19 cases at its medical network in central Ohio. The system will now go live at the location April 30 instead of the previously set date of March 5.
In a statement, VA said that it concurred with the recommendations in GAO’s report: “The Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) Integration Office will establish and use performance measures and goals, aligned with and integrated into the VA Data Strategy, to ensure the quality of migrated data meets stakeholder needs for accessibility, accuracy and appropriateness prior to future system deployments.
“This aspect of EHRM will meet enterprise data quality and reliability standards. The EHRM Integration Office will also use a stakeholder register to improve the identification and engagement of all relevant EHRM stakeholders and address their reporting needs,” the agency added.
In a statement, general manager of Cerner Government Services Brian Sandager said: “Supporting the VA in its efforts to provide veterans with safe, effective, holistic care is our top priority.” He added: “We are committed to working with our VA partners to quickly identify and aggressively address any concerns, as they implement a new electronic health record system that will give veterans and their providers a single record to support a lifetime of seamless care.”
The writer George Saunders has a fitting analogy for the current Covid-19 moment: We’ve slipped on ice but haven’t hit the pavement yet. We’re caught in a suspended state between losing control and feeling the full impact.
The comparison points to a paradoxical tension that leaders must manage: providing direction, guidance, and reassurance while acknowledging that the path ahead isn’t clear. Doing one thing without the other doesn’t work. Both are needed to help people find the clarity and strength to move forward.
Balancing this tension requires leaders to lead with humanity and do a few important things.
Put People First
Hard-charging cost savings and profit motives that may have previously served an organization well could backfire in the current environment. In a recent survey by the public relations firm Edelman, 71% of respondents said they would lose trust in a brand forever if they believed it was putting profit over people. The reaction to companies perceived as having done so has been punishing and swift:
Within 24 hours of cutting staff members’ pay, the owners of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers admitted they had a mistake, apologized, and reversed course, largely avoiding a backlash. The owners of the NHL’s Boston Bruins and their home arena, TD Garden, were slower to react and got brutalized in the media as a result.
When the food delivery service GrubHub rolled out a discount for customers ordering online, supposedly to support restaurants struggling in the pandemic, it forced restaurants to bear the discount’s brunt, drawing ire from restaurants and customers and sparking calls for a boycott.
Other organizations are putting people first. The Las Vegas Sands has said it will pay its nearly 10,000 employees as if they were still working even though its properties have been closed. The Dallas Mavericks has kept on all its hourly workers.
And consider VillageMD, which partners with and employs some 2,700 physicians across the United States. I spoke with CEO Tim Barry last week about his company’s strategy. With patient volume in many medical practices down by 50% to 75% and providers laying off and furloughing clinical and nonclinical staff, VillageMD is finding creative ways to keep people on. It’s scaling back office visits, now reserved for the most medically needy, and ramping up telehealth services.
“We are resisting cuts, because it’s the right thing to do for both patients and staff,” Barry told me. “Instead of laying off our medical assistants, we have asked them to stay in virtual contact with our sicker patients. The patients love the extra attention during this confusing and often lonely time, and our staff is thrilled to continue engaging with them. While we can’t guarantee no layoffs, we are being transparent about the situation and our desire to avoid them. And we are asking people to be flexible in terms of what is being asked of them.”
Be Up-Front and Vulnerable
Everyone is having bad moments, bad days, and bad weeks. It’s OK to let the struggles show. Several years ago I wrote about the idea that good leaders get emotional. That’s never been more true.
After seeing Marriott’s revenue fall by nearly 75% in most markets because of Covid-19, CEO Arne Sorenson wanted to deliver a video message to employees. His team advised against it because of his appearance: He had been undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer, and chemotherapy had left him bald. Sorenson made the video nonetheless. In it he announced that he and the company’s chairman would forgo their salaries in 2020 and that the executive team’s compensation would be halved. He choked up at the end, while talking about supporting Marriott associates around the world. The video has inspired other leaders to give up their salaries too.
Openness and vulnerability were also exemplified by Dan Price, the CEO of the credit card processor Gravity Payments, whose monthly revenue had been cut in half by the pandemic. He calculated that the company would be bankrupt in several months. Wanting to avoid layoffs but facing a grim financial reality, he decided to share the situation with his staffand get people’s input about how to proceed. Over the course of four days he and his COO held 40 hours of meetings with small groups of employees. “We just put all our cards on the table,” Price says. “And we listened.”
Following the meetings, company leaders decided to reduce salaries rather than lay people off, but their plan had an important twist. Instead of cutting everyone’s pay by a certain percentage across the board, they asked each employee to say privately how much he or she could sacrifice. The strategy worked because Price had built a strong culture of trust. ”CEOs: please, consider talking with your employees before laying them off,” he tweeted. ”We lost half our $4M monthly revenue & had 4-6 months until bankruptcy. When we told employees this, they volunteered pay cuts that will get us through 8-12 months, with no layoffs.”
Support and Connect
The pandemic is having a vastly different personal impact from previous crises. People are getting sick; some are dying. Amid our existential anxiety, we’re doing our best to carry on. We’re working from home, if we’re lucky; we may be unemployed, or we may be out on the front lines. Our children are trying to learn online and are missing their friends. We’re worried about our elderly loved ones. We’re worried about rent, mortgages, and the other day-to-day needs we took for granted just weeks ago. Compassion and opportunities for sustained connection are critical.
For leaders, this means, at a minimum, slowing down, being flexible, and giving employees leeway to deal with these new challenges. It also means an opportunity to connect more deeply.
Last week I spoke with the U.S. CEO of a global professional services firm about the importance of making time for personal connections. “We’re learning a lot about what works and what doesn’t in connecting the organization virtually,” he said. “One of the most valuable lessons is the importance of making more room for informal, face-to-face, unstructured time. In a culture that is usually all business, we’ve been hitting the pause button to just listen and support one another.”
He shared an example of a town hall call that went over by an hour as colleagues in some of the hardest-hit areas of the world shared their stories. “As leaders, we recognized that the need to hear and support one another was more important than the transactional needs at that moment. That simple insight can be easily missed among a bunch of Type-A professionals. But it’s crucial. The former supports the latter over the long term.”
Connecting on a personal level has also been a priority for Neil Sprackling, president of U.S. Life & Health at the reinsurer Swiss Re. “I start and finish every employee and client interaction on a personal note,” he says. “We tell stories, and I ask if they need any specific support. It seems small, but taking the time to consciously do this has been tremendously helpful in strengthening relationships and maintaining our sanity.”
That personal approach has been extended to group gatherings. When one of Sprackling’s senior direct reports retired last week after 40 years with Swiss Re, his team organized a surprise virtual farewell. “The retiree thought she was dialing into a call with her direct reports.Then over 30 colleagues and I joined a Skype video chat. We made time for each person to share a tribute. It was a very poignant moment. Kleenex all around.”
It could be argued that the suggestions outlined above are just good leadership, no matter what the circumstances. That may be true, but it misses an important point: Understanding good leadership and practicing it are two different things, especially in the face of uncertainty and one’s own anxiety.
In the weeks and months ahead, leaders need to move beyond themselves and stand in other people’s shoes. Endure challenges on others’ behalf. Be open and vulnerable. Experiment with ways of offering communication and support. Trust that caring and open-hearted leadership will not only pay off now but also reap rewards well into the future.
The annual index ranks countries based on 42 indicators.
The U.S. federal government is the most prepared among 160 nations to use artificial intelligence in the public services they provide, according to a report released this week by London-based consultancy Oxford Insights.
The annual report, called the 2021 Government AI Readiness Index, rates countries based on 42 indicators—including software spending and industry investment in emerging technologies—across three pillars: government, technology sector, and data and infrastructure.
Buoyed by the unrivaled maturity of its technology sector, the U.S. topped the rankings, followed by Singapore, which topped the government pillar due to its digital capacity. The United Kingdom, Finland and the Netherlands finished third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
“Governments stand to gain from the vast applications of recent developments in AI,” said Richard Stirling, CEO and co-founder of Oxford Insights. “Those governments who take a strategic approach to harnessing AI within government and promoting their national AI sector are likely to see the greatest benefits. Our 2021 AI Readiness Index results demonstrate a growing understanding of this amongst governments.”
According to the report, the U.S. scored the highest among all nations in several indicators, including investment in software and emerging technologies. The U.S. is also home to numerous major tech firms, which equates to the largest collection of potential AI suppliers of any country. Further, the report states AI technologies are “being commercialized and adopted across the economy,” a key barometer for government AI readiness.
“This is important for government AI readiness. It indicates that: the pool of suppliers will have genuinely useful tools for government, and the country’s workforce will be developing the skills required for the use of AI, which is likely to spillover into the government’s internal capacity,” the report states.
According to the report, the U.S. is among 40% of nations that have either published or are in the process of publishing national AI strategies. The U.S. has published and updated its own AI strategy, and several federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, have published their own AI strategies.
OpenAI has built a new version of GPT-3, its game-changing language model, that it says does away with some of the most toxic issues that plagued its predecessor. The San Francisco-based lab says the updated model, called InstructGPT, is better at following the instructions of people using it—known as “alignment” in AI jargon—and thus produces less offensive language, less misinformation, and fewer mistakes overall—unless explicitly told not to do so.
FY2022 Budget $715 billion. The budget funds five branches of the U.S. military: the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force. In May 2021, the President’s defense budget request for fiscal year 2022 (FY2022) is $715 billion, up $10 billion, from FY2021’s $705 billion.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was one of the great people of the 20th century. Born in Texas in 1890 to pacifist parents and raised in Kansas, he attended West Point where he played football. As an infantry officer in the Army, Ike, as he was known to his friends, was an excellent planner and staff officer, serving under Generals John J. Pershing, Fox Conner, and Douglas MacArthur. After Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall called him to Washington where he developed the war plans for the United States Army in World War II. He did such a good job as a planner he was selected to command the Allied Forces during the amphibious assault in North Africa in November 1942, the amphibious assault of Sicily on July 9, 1943, and the amphibious assault of the Italian mainland on September 3, 1943. Due to his experience conducting joint operations, his ability to maintain the Allied coalition, his team building skills, and his relationship with both President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill, he was selected as the Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces to lead the Overlord Operation on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
After the war, he retired from the Army and became President of Columbia University. Recalled to active duty, he assumed command over the new NATO forces being assembled in 1951. At the age of 62, he decided to pursue a political career. In 1952, he ran for and was elected as the 34th President of the United States. His campaign slogan was “I Like Ike.” During his eight years in office, he pursued a centrist approach while maintaining a balanced budget. Amongst his administrations’ many accomplishments include ending the Korean War, starting the Interstate Highway System, supporting the desegregation of schools, passing civil rights legislation, and formalizing the National Security Council.
When he left office, he retired to his farm near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. In 1965, the Reader’s Digest magazine asked him to write an article entitled “What is Leadership?” Here is the essence of General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s concept of leadership:
General Dwight Eisenhower’s 8 Characteristics of Leadership
Selfless Dedication. Perhaps the greatest of the leadership qualities is single-minded and selfless dedication to the task at hand. Any leader worth his salt must of course possess a certain amount of ego, a justifiable pride in his own accomplishments. But if he or she is a truly great leader, the cause must predominate over self. An old and respected commander of mine used to say, “Always take your job seriously, never yourself.”
Courage and Conviction. Real leaders are firm in the support of their convictions. Most important of all, real leaders never deviate from their higher purpose and don’t allow personal ambition to cloud their view. (If you’d like more on how to enhance your personal purpose (Post #96) or organization’s purpose (Post #104) click on the links.)
Fortitude. Closely related to dedication is another vital ingredient of leadership: fortitude of spirit – the capacity to stand strong under reverses, to rise from defeat and do battle again, to learn from one’s mistakes and push on to the ultimate goal. (I call this resilience. Here is a great post on Dan Gable and Resilience if you want to learn some ideas on how to improve your resilience.)
Humility. A sense of humility is a quality I have observed in every leader whom I have deeply admired. My own conviction is that every leader should have enough humility to accept, publicly, the responsibility for the mistakes of the subordinates he has himself selected and, likewise, to give them credit, publicly, for their triumphs.
Thorough Homework. Another quality common to leaders is their willingness to work hard, to prepare themselves, and to know their field of activity thoroughly.
Power of Persuasion. A trait always noticeable in a successful leader is his (or her) ability to persuade others. There are times, of course, when every leader must make a decision and see that it is carried out regardless of what others may think. But whenever men (and women) can be persuaded rather than ordered – when they can be made to feel that they have participated in developing the plan – they approach their tasks with understanding and enthusiasm.
Heart and Mind. The qualities of leadership wear no single outward badge. Each leader is different and can bring about exceptional results using their heart, mind, and personality in their own unique way.
At Every Level. I have been talking here about leadership in military and government service, but the same fundamentals apply at every level, in every walk of life. In the Army, good leadership must go down through the ranks to the youngest corporal; in business there is always need of men (and women) who can direct others effectively; in community life we need men and women who, by right thinking and sound deeds, influence others. This is the way leadership works in a democracy. And from the ranks of little leaders eventually come big leaders.
Conclusion
“What is Leadership” by General Eisenhower entire article is here. If you want to learn more about Eisenhower and how to improve the visits you make to parts of your business, check out Post #177.
If you’d like some more ideas on how to improve yourself take a look at my book, Grow Your Grit, available for sale at Amazon. Or reach out to me here to start the discussion about how to use these lessons and others from Dwight D. Eisenhower to develop your team.
Pope Francis has not tried to hide his desire to radically reform the administrative structures of the Catholic Church, which he sees as imperious and insular. The Church is, essentially, a bureaucracy, full of good-hearted but imperfect people – not much different than any organization, making the Pope’s counsel relevant for leaders everywhere. Pope Francis’s 2014 address of the Roman Curia can be translated into corporate-speak. It identifies 15 “diseases” of leadership that can weaken the effectiveness of any organization. These diseases include excessive busyness that neglects the need for rest, and mental and emotional “petrification” that prevents compassion and humility. The Pope also warns against poor coordination, losing a sense of community by failing to work together. A set of questions corresponding to the 15 diseases can help you determine if you are a “healthy” leader.close
Pope Francis has made no secret of his intention to radically reform the administrative structures of the Catholic church, which he regards as insular, imperious, and bureaucratic. He understands that in a hyper-kinetic world, inward-looking and self-obsessed leaders are a liability.
Last year, just before Christmas, the Pope addressed the leaders of the Roman Curia — the Cardinals and other officials who are charged with running the church’s byzantine network of administrative bodies. The Pope’s message to his colleagues was blunt. Leaders are susceptible to an array of debilitating maladies, including arrogance, intolerance, myopia, and pettiness. When those diseases go untreated, the organization itself is enfeebled. To have a healthy church, we need healthy leaders.
Through the years, I’ve heard dozens of management experts enumerate the qualities of great leaders. Seldom, though, do they speak plainly about the “diseases” of leadership. The Pope is more forthright. He understands that as human beings we have certain proclivities — not all of them noble. Nevertheless, leaders should be held to a high standard, since their scope of influence makes their ailments particularly infectious.
The Catholic Church is a bureaucracy: a hierarchy populated by good-hearted, but less-than-perfect souls. In that sense, it’s not much different than your organization. That’s why the Pope’s counsel is relevant to leaders everywhere.
With that in mind, I spent a couple of hours translating the Pope’s address into something a little closer to corporate-speak. (I don’t know if there’s a prohibition on paraphrasing Papal pronouncements, but since I’m not Catholic, I’m willing to take the risk.)
Herewith, then, the Pope (more or less):
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The leadership team is called constantly to improve and to grow in rapport and wisdom, in order to carry out fully its mission. And yet, like any body, like any human body, it is also exposed to diseases, malfunctioning, infirmity. Here I would like to mention some of these “[leadership] diseases.” They are diseases and temptations which can dangerously weaken the effectiveness of any organization.
The disease of thinking we are immortal, immune, or downright indispensable, [and therefore] neglecting the need for regular check-ups. A leadership team which is not self-critical, which does not keep up with things, which does not seek to be more fit, is a sick body. A simple visit to the cemetery might help us see the names of many people who thought they were immortal, immune, and indispensable! It is the disease of those who turn into lords and masters, who think of themselves as above others and not at their service. It is the pathology of power and comes from a superiority complex, from a narcissism which passionately gazes at its own image and does not see the face of others, especially the weakest and those most in need. The antidote to this plague is humility; to say heartily, “I am merely a servant. I have only done what was my duty.”
Another disease is excessive busyness. It is found in those who immerse themselves in work and inevitably neglect to “rest a while.” Neglecting needed rest leads to stress and agitation. A time of rest, for those who have completed their work, is necessary, obligatory and should be taken seriously: by spending time with one’s family and respecting holidays as moments for recharging.
Then there is the disease of mental and [emotional] “petrification.” It is found in leaders who have a heart of stone, the “stiff-necked;” in those who in the course of time lose their interior serenity, alertness and daring, and hide under a pile of papers, turning into paper pushers and not men and women of compassion. It is dangerous to lose the human sensitivity that enables us to weep with those who weep and to rejoice with those who rejoice! Because as time goes on, our hearts grow hard and become incapable of loving all those around us. Being a humane leader means having the sentiments of humility and unselfishness, of detachment and generosity.
The disease of excessive planning and of functionalism. When a leader plans everything down to the last detail and believes that with perfect planning things will fall into place, he or she becomes an accountant or an office manager. Things need to be prepared well, but without ever falling into the temptation of trying to eliminate spontaneity and serendipity, which is always more flexible than any human planning. We contract this disease because it is easy and comfortable to settle in our own sedentary and unchanging ways.
The disease of poor coordination. Once leaders lose a sense of community among themselves, the body loses its harmonious functioning and its equilibrium; it then becomes an orchestra that produces noise: its members do not work together and lose the spirit of camaraderie and teamwork. When the foot says to the arm: ‘I don’t need you,’ or the hand says to the head, ‘I’m in charge,’ they create discomfort and parochialism.
There is also a sort of “leadership Alzheimer’s disease.” It consists in losing the memory of those who nurtured, mentored and supported us in our own journeys. We see this in those who have lost the memory of their encounters with the great leaders who inspired them; in those who are completely caught up in the present moment, in their passions, whims and obsessions; in those who build walls and routines around themselves, and thus become more and more the slaves of idols carved by their own hands.
The disease of rivalry and vainglory. When appearances, our perks, and our titles become the primary object in life, we forget our fundamental duty as leaders—to “do nothing from selfishness or conceit but in humility count others better than ourselves.” [As leaders, we must] look not only to [our] own interests, but also to the interests of others.
The disease of existential schizophrenia. This is the disease of those who live a double life, the fruit of that hypocrisy typical of the mediocre and of a progressive emotional emptiness which no [accomplishment or] title can fill. It is a disease which often strikes those who are no longer directly in touch with customers and “ordinary” employees, and restrict themselves to bureaucratic matters, thus losing contact with reality, with concrete people.
The disease of gossiping, grumbling, and back-biting.This is a grave illness which begins simply, perhaps even in small talk, and takes over a person, making him become a “sower of weeds” and in many cases, a cold-blooded killer of the good name of colleagues. It is the disease of cowardly persons who lack the courage to speak out directly, but instead speak behind other people’s backs. Let us be on our guard against the terrorism of gossip!
The disease of idolizing superiors. This is the disease of those who court their superiors in the hope of gaining their favor. They are victims of careerism and opportunism; they honor persons [rather than the larger mission of the organization]. They think only of what they can get and not of what they should give; small-minded persons, unhappy and inspired only by their own lethal selfishness. Superiors themselves can be affected by this disease, when they try to obtain the submission, loyalty and psychological dependency of their subordinates, but the end result is unhealthy complicity.
The disease of indifference to others. This is where each leader thinks only of himself or herself, and loses the sincerity and warmth of [genuine] human relationships. This can happen in many ways: When the most knowledgeable person does not put that knowledge at the service of less knowledgeable colleagues, when you learn something and then keep it to yourself rather than sharing it in a helpful way with others; when out of jealousy or deceit you take joy in seeing others fall instead of helping them up and encouraging them.
The disease of a downcast face. You see this disease in those glum and dour persons who think that to be serious you have to put on a face of melancholy and severity, and treat others—especially those we consider our inferiors—with rigor, brusqueness and arrogance. In fact, a show of severity and sterile pessimism are frequently symptoms of fear and insecurity. A leader must make an effort to be courteous, serene, enthusiastic and joyful, a person who transmits joy everywhere he goes. A happy heart radiates an infectious joy: it is immediately evident! So a leader should never lose that joyful, humorous and even self-deprecating spirit which makes people amiable even in difficult situations. How beneficial is a good dose of humor! …
The disease of hoarding. This occurs when a leader tries to fill an existential void in his or her heart by accumulating material goods, not out of need but only in order to feel secure. The fact is that we are not able to bring material goods with us when we leave this life, since “the winding sheet does not have pockets” and all our treasures will never be able to fill that void; instead, they will only make it deeper and more demanding. Accumulating goods only burdens and inexorably slows down the journey!
The disease of closed circles, where belonging to a clique becomes more powerful than our shared identity. This disease too always begins with good intentions, but with the passing of time it enslaves its members and becomes a cancer which threatens the harmony of the organization and causes immense evil, especially to those we treat as outsiders. “Friendly fire” from our fellow soldiers, is the most insidious danger. It is the evil which strikes from within. As it says in the bible, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste.”
Lastly: the disease of extravagance and self-exhibition. This happens when a leader turns his or her service into power, and uses that power for material gain, or to acquire even greater power. This is the disease of persons who insatiably try to accumulate power and to this end are ready to slander, defame and discredit others; who put themselves on display to show that they are more capable than others. This disease does great harm because it leads people to justify the use of any means whatsoever to attain their goal, often in the name of justice and transparency! Here I remember a leader who used to call journalists to tell and invent private and confidential matters involving his colleagues. The only thing he was concerned about was being able to see himself on the front page, since this made him feel powerful and glamorous, while causing great harm to others and to the organization.
Friends, these diseases are a danger for every leader and every organization, and they can strike at the individual and the community levels.
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So, are you a healthy leader? Use the Pope’s inventory of leadership maladies to find out. Ask yourself, on a scale of 1 to 5, to what extent do I . . .
Feel superior to those who work for me?
Demonstrate an imbalance between work and other areas of life?
Substitute formality for true human intimacy?
Rely too much on plans and not enough on intuition and improvisation?
Spend too little time breaking silos and building bridges?
Fail to regularly acknowledge the debt I owe to my mentors and to others?
Take too much satisfaction in my perks and privileges?
Isolate myself from customers and first-level employees?
Denigrate the motives and accomplishments of others?
Exhibit or encourage undue deference and servility?
Put my own success ahead of the success of others?
Fail to cultivate a fun and joy-filled work environment?
Exhibit selfishness when it comes to sharing rewards and praise?
Encourage parochialism rather than community?
Behave in ways that seem egocentric to those around me?
As in all health matters, it’s good to get a second or third opinion. Ask your colleagues to score you on the same fifteen items. Don’t be surprised if they say, “Gee boss, you’re not looking too good today.” Like a battery of medical tests, these questions can help you zero in on opportunities to prevent disease and improve your health. A Papal leadership assessment may seem like a bit of a stretch. But remember: the responsibilities you hold as a leader, and the influence you have over others’ lives, can be profound. Why not turn to the Pope — a spiritual leader of leaders — for wisdom and advice?
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