What should business leaders learn from Vladimir Putin’s failed war?

in this month Foreign affairsOne of Britain’s greatest strategic thinkers, Sir Laurence Friedman, criticized Vladimir Putin’s ill-conceived invasion of Ukraine in the title “Why War Fails.”

It might as well have been titled “Why Businesses Fail.”

Friedman, a professor of war studies at King’s College London, says top military leaders are not that different from leaders in any milieu, including business. And like any other millionaire leaders, the way they lead has a huge impact on the success or failure of their organization.

Do not lead like a dictator

“Dictators can certainly make bold decisions about war, but these cannot be based on their own misperceptions and challenged in a careful decision-making process,” Friedman said. “Dictators tend to surround themselves with like-minded advisers and value loyalty more than they value.

The same can be said of autocratic business leaders. And whether in the boardroom or on the battlefield, this inability to challenge their own assumptions and encourage healthy debate often leads to bad decisions – decisions that, once made, are difficult to reach.

Friedman says this puts field officers, the military equivalent of middle managers, in a difficult position.

Sometimes orders are irrelevant, perhaps they are based on dated and incomplete information and therefore can be ignored by even the most diligent field officer. In other cases, their implementation may be feasible but unwise, perhaps because there is a better way to achieve the same objectives. When faced with orders they do not like or believe in, subordinates may seek the option of total disobedience. They may delay, follow orders half-heartedly, or interpret them in a way that suits their situation.

Western military forces have tried to solve this inevitable problem by making decisions at the lowest possible level – this procedure is variously called “mission command” or “”.Mission Strategies”.

Encourage distributed decision making

“(T)he West is trying to encourage subordinates to take the initiative in dealing with situations; commanders trust those closest to the action to make critical decisions, but are ready to step in if things go wrong. This is the approach adopted by the Ukrainian forces,” Friedman noted. “The Russian command philosophy is more hierarchical.” In principle, Russian doctrine allows for local initiative, but the command structures in place do not encourage subordinates to risk disobeying their orders.

Or ask them. Putin’s autocratic style of leadership makes it too dangerous for lower-level leaders to speak up, let alone think for themselves, he said.

“In autocratic systems like Russia, officials and officers should think twice before challenging their superiors,” Friedman said. “Life is easy when you do the leader’s will without question.”

Does it sound familiar?

I guess it works if you work for or have worked for a large corporation. Most large companies operate the same way, even if they don’t. And that is a big problem – not only for employees, but also for shareholders.

Again, the solution is to enable and encourage decentralized decision-making.

“The value of delegation and local initiatives will be one of the other key lessons from this war,” concludes Friedman, “only if certain conditions are met.” “There must be mutual trust between those at higher and lower levels. At the highest levels of authority, subordinates must trust that their subordinates have the intelligence and ability to do the right thing in difficult situations, while their subordinates must trust that the superior commander will provide the support they can.

Effective leadership is a two-way street. Senior management should entrust the people at the coal face with decision-making authority so that they have the cognitive skills to make good decisions. Those frontline leaders need to inform those at the top of the house exactly what is happening so that they can get the support they need to adapt to the situation on the ground.

This is also true in the corporation and the combat zone.