Leaders must Challenge, Support and then have Trust if they want to inspire us to be the Best we can be.

In the early 1960s NASA was struggling with its space program. Beset with early technical difficulties and labouring under lingering uncertainties about the project's cost, America was trailing significantly behind the USSR in its ambition to develop space technology. The notion of taking a man to the moon was a pipe dream for many and an expensive folly for others. The organisation was rudderless and struggling without clear ambition or purpose.?

John F Kennedy was not a man to take second best lightly. This outstanding leader realised the program had a huge potential value to his country in many aspects, but it could not carry on the way it was. His solution was inspiration and vision. backed up by resilience and resource commitment. He threw his gauntlet down to the nation. In one of the most brilliant speeches ever at Rice University in September 1962 he captured the hearts of not only NASA but his fellow citizens. He told his audience. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard..... because that goal will organise and measure the best of our abilities and our skills. Because that goal is a challenge we are willing to accept .... and one we intend to win.”

Intelligent and passionate challenge will make us strive – Kennedy’s great achievement was he made everybody feel that they were somebody in the pursuit of this goal – all had a part to play, whether you were an astronaut, sat on top of the mighty Saturn V or the janitor ensuring that the mission control offices was kept in good order – all were important, all related to his challenge. All could celebrate its achievement. The challenge for all leaders is to ensure that the challenges that are made are something that all feel that by striving a little more they can contribute to an overall delivery. That is the true definition of intelligent challenge.

To be credible leaders must work to the following principles. For this to happen the greatest challenges are delivered

-??????With authenticity, a sense of personal commitment and a joint ownership of deliverance

-??????With empathy and an understanding of the impact and sacrifices that others have to make to achieve their ambition.

-??????With a commitment to resources to ensure they are achievable.

-??????A will to invest personal time in their pursuit.

-??????With clarity and precision and with tangible outcomes.

-??????From a position that means all can relate to it and can contribute to its deliverancein whatever small way they can.

Yet – challenge on its own is not acceptable – it must be backed up…..

The culmination of Kennedy’s challenge was about to be materialised 8 years later as the sun rose on the 20th July 1969.?Apollo 11 entered its final phase of its incredible mission, the untried lunar descent phase, when the crew had to be detached from their command module and dropped to the moon service. This high-risk phase was to be overseen on earth by Gene Kranz and his legendary white shift of mission controllers. This team were very talented and highly capable, they had already delivered incredible feats in their shifts to get the crew to where they were. They had been given this opportunity precisely because of their skill and expertise. Yet this day was another level of pressure and expectation, the whole world was watching, the anticipation and expectation was colossal. They were 40 minutes from either absolute triumph or utter desolation, there were no other possibilities, It was quite simply as stark as that.

Kranz describes the moment beautifully in his own book “failure is not an option.” his absolute pride in his team, but also his need to apply reassurance. He spoke to his colleagues over a private channel “Today is our day and the hopes of the entire world lie with us…..in the next hour we will do something never done before. The risk are high….. that is the nature of our work. You are a good team, one I feel privileged to lead. Whatever happens, I will stand behind every call that you make.”

The final 17 minutes of the lunar descent phase of Apollo 11 is pure theatre, it is simply electrifying in terms of excitement even today. It is also one of the greatest examples of what a team can achieve under immense pressure and stress when they feel they have the absolute support and confidence of their leader. They have no fear, they confront and overcome the most difficult choices imaginable, because they know have absolute support in the moment of the most critical need.

The outcome was there for all to see as Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the moon. Still, perhaps the greatest achievement of the human race, before or after.

Support is the great movable platform that enables delivery – getting its level right is critical. Too much and we feel smothered, not enough and we feel isolated and alone. Either condition will stop us reaching our full potential. It also should not be dictated but an outcome of mutual engagement. How a leader decides the level of support they offer should be a process of careful consideration, assessing many factors, both tangible and intangible. It requires presence and empathy. They should ensure they

-??????Cover both emotional and resources requirements

-??????Be aligned with what is required in the absolute moment – never fixed or dictated

-??????Given without the request of return

-??????Offered on an individual basis, so colleagues can sense its presence

-??????Provided in the form of reassurance

-??????Be absolute and und authentic in its offer.

-??????Never offered as a cover for inadequacy but a boost towards achievement.

Yet – we can be supported and still not feel compelled. There is another crucial ingredient…..

All had not been always so triumphant on the Apollo program. Just over 2 years previously to that extraordinary high in human history, there had been another episode that plunged the project to the depths of despair and tragedy. In January 1967, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee tragically lost their lives in a horrific fire whilst testing Apollo 1 on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral. At that point landing a man on the moon seemed a million years away, simply ensuring the program would not cost anybody else their lives was a far more pressing priority.

Things had to change, and many things did change to prevent such a re-occurrence in the following months as the difficult questions were asked. Yet what did not change was the team responsible for the delivery of the project on the ground. The mission controllers stayed; the astronauts team remained. NASA trusted their team to be open and honest about their own deficiencies and work the problem……. and that is what they did. With relentless effort and energy, they were trusted to regrow the program – under the “Tough and Competent” cultural mind set shift, a phoenix was literally reborn from the flames of utter desolation.

Trust provides us with the mandate and responsibility to helps us all grow – we all experience setbacks, nobody is perfect (including leaders.). What is critical is not the response of those involved in failure, but those that lead the group. Trust, when all is well, is easy to offer, it is not so easy when there are setbacks. Yet it is precisely in that condition where it is at its most powerful. It is also the case that blaming people for failure ignores the reality that it is far more probable that it is a consequence of poor management or leadership creating complacency and/or poor practices. Leaders must look at the edifices they create firstly before they blame the people they expect to operate within them.

Certainly those that push the boundaries of performance cannot be expected to do so without occasional errors and issues. If we want to explore the absolute reaches of what is achievable then leaders must invest trust in colleagues to do this without fear of castigation or blame. Trust requires us to have inner confidence and inner assurance that those it is given to will reciprocate through commitment and pursuit of objectives – and those that it is imparted to have an appetite to get better and better.

Trust must also be applied with an acceptance of responsibility, we must be prepared to take the load when things happen and accept one step back can ultimately lead to 2 or 3 steps forward. We must also accept that if trust is occasionally breached then that does not mean the principle is wrong, we must have faith to give it again in the future. Leaders must

-??????Take the first steps in providing trust

-??????Exercise it with good judgement

-??????Be prepared to accept responsibility when things go wrong

-??????Ensure measures are put in place to ensure that progress is monitored

-??????Support the development of growth with on and off line programs

-??????Be reflective on the areas it is applied and how it is delivered.

-??????Accept it sometimes is breached, but that does not stop us giving it again.

The great three-way equation of challenge, support and trust is the complex conundrum that all leaders must balance if they want to inspire us to believe. All three need to be understood, all three need to be embraced and all three need to be applied. All three need to be assessed against the complexity of human spirit. Not easy…. yet, when it is achieved….. we do believe…. and, as the incredible journey of the NASA Apollo program showed, we can achieve the extraordinary.

If we are challenged intelligently, supported appropriately and trusted to do what is asked, then our leaders have found the formula to maximise what should be the most important thing to them of all – the capability and potential of those who work tirelessly around them.

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