If leadership were simple, we wouldn’t need models, training, or leaders at all. Here’s what makes leadership so hard.

Recently, I was teaching a crisis management course at the University of Lucerne. In contrast to a normal lecture, the course consisted of a five-day crisis simulation, during which participants had to address multiple problems simultaneously: flooding, migration, energy shortages, and a pandemic. They did so as a crisis response team that was constantly bombarded with new situations, an overwhelming amount of information, and a plethora of conflicts and dilemmas.

The course was jointly held with the Swiss Armed Forces and used its recently reworked leadership model. The model is 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.

The Model: Command – Leadership – Management

Whatever business you are in, you have to fulfill a mission. This can be a combat mission in the military, running a crisis response team, 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 the 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 help you accomplish your mission.

If you have a great team focused on its mission but acting 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 and to crises.

The Right Dose

At the end of the crisis management course I was teaching, each participant had to wrap up their learning in a short presentation.

One participant summed up the command-management-leadership model perfectly by using this visualization:

Even though command, leadership, and management are equally important, the importance of each aspect can vary over time. Sometimes, you have to take care of an urgent new mission, shortcutting existing processes and cultural norms. Sometimes, uniting the team before embarking on a new mission is essential. And sometimes, setting up processes and structures to employ your team effectively is more important than fast results.

Conclusion

Leadership is difficult. If it were simple, we wouldn’t need leadership models, leadership training, and in the end, leaders at all.

But why is leadership so difficult? Because despite all the beautiful leadership models, the world isn’t black-and-white. Reality doesn’t always adhere to models, and people don’t always behave as expected. That’s why leaders should always strive to apply the right dose of command, leadership, and management. 

Does this still sound too theoretical? We have illustrated the command-leadership-management model in a book using Lucas, a fictitious persona, who battles all sorts of challenges. Maybe you discover part of yourself when you read it.