Our practical book on leadership puts three aspects of leadership on the same level: The mission, the people, and the organization.

There are thousands of leadership books out there. Nevertheless, two colleagues and I co-authored yet another book on leadership.

Why then did the three of us think that the new book would meet a market need?

First of all, we wrote the book from our perspective as active reserve officers in the Swiss Armed Forces. Currently, the Swiss Armed Forces is reworking its leadership model. One of my colleagues is leading the discussion, as he is a lecturer at Switzerland’s military academy.

Second, as Switzerland maintains an active reserve army composed of many ordinary citizens, we wanted to make the book’s content understandable for everyone.

And third, we wanted to show that there isn’t such a thing as military or civilian leadership. There is just leadership, and you can learn it in different places, with the military being one of them. And if you learned leadership in the military, you can also apply it in your civilian life.

Who would be better suited to write this book than three active reserve officers who learned leadership in the military and pursued three completely different civilian careers?

The Model: Command — Leadership — Management

Let’s start with the reworked leadership model of the Swiss Armed Forces. It’s not fundamentally different from what it was before. It doesn’t require a new leadership style or a novel leadership theory. However, it put three aspects on the same level: The mission, the people, and the organization.

Whatever business you are in, you have to fulfill a mission. This can be a combat mission in the military, or adding value for your customers in business. Irrespective of the product you are offering, fulfilling a mission is easier said than done: That’s because the mission is not always clearly stated, so very often (but not always!) leaders have to define their own mission. If you are a leader and you define missions for your teams, that’s even harder than defining your own mission. Defining challenging but executable missions is a core component of what we call command.

A leader without a team cannot do anything. Leaders are generalists — they don’t know anything but can connect the dots between different areas of expertise. Leaders are completely lost without a network of people who can help them. So leadership requires putting people at the center stage. If you don’t, they won’t be able to accomplish their missions.

If you have a great team that is focused on its mission but acts without any coordination, you will never win the battle. Somebody needs to set the beat and make the rules for everyone to work efficiently. That’s what companies call management, and it also applies to the military.

So, what is a good leader in our view? It’s a person who puts his or her mission first and the people in his or her team at the center stage. All the time, no ifs and whens.

That was theoretical. That’s exactly the opposite of what we wanted. Yet every practical leadership book needs some theoretical foundation.

The Style: Practical, Persona-Based

To make the book practical and actionable, we introduced Lucas, a fictitious persona that guides the reader through the book.

Lucas is an IT guy by training, founded a startup a couple of years ago, shares a flat with his girlfriend, plays the guitar in a punk band, and is an active reserve officer in the Swiss Armed Forces.

Lucas could be called Patricia, he could be married and have kids, be a stand-up comedian instead of a punk guitarist, or operate a food truck instead of a tech startup. At the end, it doesn’t matter. Lucas is a symbol for all those people who aim to do great things for their countries and societies — and who sometimes struggle with all the problems life throws at them.

The different aspects of command, leadership, and management are illuminated in the book through a consecutive set of stories from Lucas’ busy life, and then underpinned by the leadership tools we originally learned in the Swiss Armed Forces, but have applied them in a wide field of civilian activities over the last 20 years.

Where Can I Get The Book?

Does this sound compelling to you? The book is available right now, both in paper form, as EPUB or PDF, and as a Kindle download.

But… only in German for the moment. We’re working on an English version — stay tuned!