ly it will make all the difference.

The third and most important element a leader can engage is a person’s heart, their passion. This can’t be bought, it must be led. In the early days of Compaq, or any start up for that matter, the hearts of the people are engaged from the excitement of the start up. Great leaders keep the engagement of the hearts because of their leadership, not because of the start up. But during times of change you tend to lose their hearts, their passion because eve

Leadership is a lost art especially when it comes to leading organizational change. Go on Amazon and there are a ton of books written about leadership. I could write one maybe ‘Everything I know about leadership I learned in the Marine Corps in Vietnam’. It’s true! And nothing changes faster than the battlefield. But leaders today don’t get it. They think leadership is a position. I’m in charge so you follow. It’s not happening, especially during times of change. I’ve learned a few things that have worked and a few that don’t in my thirty plus years leading people. The one thing I know for sure is that you must engage the ‘whole’ person. Each one of us brings three things to the party, our hands, our head and our heart. Let me explain.

For starters, each one of us brings our hands; that is our skills to the job. If we work at McDonalds they have pretty much idiot proofed their processes and the skill required is to show up. If you’re a builder you hire people with carpentry skills, a trucker and you hire truck driver skills and so on. For us in Vietnam, as a Marine sniper, it was our shooting skills. Many leaders and organizations don’t get this at all. During times of change understanding true leadership is important. You need the skills of your people, that’s for sure, but oftentimes you make changes that render the current skills useless.

The next part of the person a leader must engage is the head. The head represents a person’s intellect; their engagement to think and problem solve and bring more to the job than just skills. When I worked at Compaq Computer in the mid-nineties they hired a lot of intellectual people who brought their heads to work because that is the business we were in. Engaging the head is of the utmost importance during times of change. You need all the help we can get. But as leaders, do we engage their heads in their work or allow them to just be involved to the minimum? It’s a choice but during times of change especially it will make all the difference.

The third and most important element a leader can engage is a person’s heart, their passion. This can’t be bought, it must be led. In the early days of Compaq, or any start up for that matter, the hearts of the people are engaged from the excitement of the start up. Great leaders keep the engagement of the hearts because of their leadership, not because of the start up. But during times of change you tend to lose their hearts, their passion because eve

have worked and a few that don’t in my thirty plus years leading people. The one thing I know for sure is that you must engage the ‘whole’ person. Each one of us brings three things to the party, our hands, our head and our heart. Let me explain.

For starters, each one of us brings our hands; that is our skills to the job. If we work at McDonalds they have pretty much idiot proofed their processes and the skill required is to show up. If you’re a builder you hire people with carpentry skills, a trucker and you hire truck driver skills and so on. For us in Vietnam, as a Marine sniper, it was our shooting skills. Many leaders and organizations don’t get this at all. During times of change understanding true leadership is important. You need the skills of your people, that’s for sure, but oftentimes you make changes that render the current skills useless.

The next part of the person a leader must engage is the head. The head represents a person’s intellect; their engagement to think and problem solve and bring more to the job than just skills. When I worked at Compaq Computer in the mid-nineties they hired a lot of intellectual people who brought their heads to work because that is the business we were in. Engaging the head is of the utmost importance during times of change. You need all the help we can get. But as leaders, do we engage their heads in their work or allow them to just be involved to the minimum? It’s a choice but during times of change especially it will make all the difference.

The third and most important element a leader can engage is a person’s heart, their passion. This can’t be bought, it must be led. In the early days of Compaq, or any start up for that matter, the hearts of the people are engaged from the excitement of the start up. Great leaders keep the engagement of the hearts because of their leadership, not because of the start up. But during times of change you tend to lose their hearts, their passion because eve

kills, a trucker and you hire truck driver skills and so on. For us in Vietnam, as a Marine sniper, it was our shooting skills. Many leaders and organizations don’t get this at all. During times of change understanding true leadership is important. You need the skills of your people, that’s for sure, but oftentimes you make changes that render the current skills useless.

The next part of the person a leader must engage is the head. The head represents a person’s intellect; their engagement to think and problem solve and bring more to the job than just skills. When I worked at Compaq Computer in the mid-nineties they hired a lot of intellectual people who brought their heads to work because that is the business we were in. Engaging the head is of the utmost importance during times of change. You need all the help we can get. But as leaders, do we engage their heads in their work or allow them to just be involved to the minimum? It’s a choice but during times of change especially it will make all the difference.

The third and most important element a leader can engage is a person’s heart, their passion. This can’t be bought, it must be led. In the early days of Compaq, or any start up for that matter, the hearts of the people are engaged from the excitement of the start up. Great leaders keep the engagement of the hearts because of their leadership, not because of the start up. But during times of change you tend to lose their hearts, their passion because eve

nt to think and problem solve and bring more to the job than just skills. When I worked at Compaq Computer in the mid-nineties they hired a lot of intellectual people who brought their heads to work because that is the business we were in. Engaging the head is of the utmost importance during times of change. You need all the help we can get. But as leaders, do we engage their heads in their work or allow them to just be involved to the minimum? It’s a choice but during times of change especially it will make all the difference.

The third and most important element a leader can engage is a person’s heart, their passion. This can’t be bought, it must be led. In the early days of Compaq, or any start up for that matter, the hearts of the people are engaged from the excitement of the start up. Great leaders keep the engagement of the hearts because of their leadership, not because of the start up. But during times of change you tend to lose their hearts, their passion because eve

ly it will make all the difference.

The third and most important element a leader can engage is a person’s heart, their passion. This can’t be bought, it must be led. In the early days of Compaq, or any start up for that matter, the hearts of the people are engaged from the excitement of the start up. Great leaders keep the engagement of the hearts because of their leadership, not because of the start up. But during times of change you tend to lose their hearts, their passion because everything is different. Be aware … this is a big deal.

During the Vietnam War came the world’s first massive use of helicopters. With the advent of the helicopter came leaders who now commanded from above instead of on the ground. The fact that your commander was in a chopper and not hooking it out next to you brought about a lot of distrust and anger, resentment over the fact that your leader didn’t know the same thing you knew about the battle. They often commanded our hands and demanded our heads but were far from our hearts.

Yet we had one Colonel, his name was Masterpool, who we would do anything for. Why? Because Masterpool tapped our hearts and our passion, he didn’t just command. Once while out on a long operation where the fighting was heavy we were forced to march, at night, to a nearby base because helicopters were unavailable. Colonel Masterpool was on the ground the whole time, marching with us, encouraging us by walking up and down the column of weary Marines telling us we’d have steaks at the mess hall when we returned. And at 0100 when we arrived he rousted the mess crews from a deep sleep and demanded steaks for his troops. We would have followed him anywhere because he tapped our very being with his leadership. He tapped our hearts.

The three parts representing the whole person must be engaged to get the most out of your organization and to successfully drive change in a reasonable amount of time. Think about Gandhi for instance. He inspired an entire country with his leadership although he never held an elected position. Gandhi’s leadership brought down the British Empire and he never held an official position. Why, because he engaged the whole person, not just one or two of the parts. He led by example and people knew they were important to him.

The foundation of this concept was borne on the battlefields of Vietnam as a Marine sniper, with two consecutive years in the Vietnam War, and is still applicable today. We w