General Jack Sheehan on Strategic Leadership (SMEAC)

Effective organizational leadership requires a structured approach to transmitting orders, rooted in the military tradition of clear, mission-oriented communication. Leaders must provide subordinates with situational awareness—detailing the context two levels above and on adjacent flanks—to enable discretionary performance and prevent errors of omission. A successful directive must articulate the "in order to" behind a mission, ensuring teams can adapt when circumstances change. Furthermore, leaders must ruthlessly filter information, as roughly 80% of data reaching senior management is often irrelevant to daily execution. By focusing only on critical requirements and resisting the urge to micromanage through excessive reporting, leaders empower those at the "point of the spear." Ultimately, ownership of the mission, the resources, and the people involved is the primary determinant of whether a project succeeds or fails.