12/05/2026
If I could have a do-over of my career, I would definitely have loved to be a Spy during World War 2.
I have been rewatching the series: Churchill's Secret Agents,
and realised the reason I LOVE doing work with teams and leaders, and seeing all of the soft skills & problem-solving skills that are required for those roles.
Besides the weapon and explosives and fitness training, sabotage, and even making locks training that were needed to train the SOE agents, they also needed to stay under the radar, have cover-identities, and be able to lead their team.
Some of the agents who were the most gifted struggled with leading a team. When they were chosen to lead a team with a mission, they became irritated or lost control of the team quickly. Some moved away from the team and didn't establish a line of communication. Some of the leaders allowed the team to take over, didn't take control and make the team feel safe and suddenly everything was chaotic. When they had to remain hidden, the leaders were often the ones who broke protocol and were so scared of failure that they did very little.
One of the gents that I thought would do well was so charismatic that his personality would become a problem in the field.
We don't always look at all of the characteristics and skills needed for leaders hip including things like: gritt, flexibility, willingness to fail and experiment, ability to motivate a team, clear communication, calmness and emotional intelligence, problemsolving skills, the ability to delegate and manage a team, ability to stay calm and drive the team towards a clear outcome, while having a sense of urgency.
On Saturday last week, we ran a teambuild for a leadership group, looking at the ways they can get their teams over the finish line without crashing and burning. What skills would you say is the most important for leaders to nurture?
hashtag hashtag
