Leading with Purpose

Aligning Vision and Unity of Effort Amidst Disunity

The study of the art of war has fascinated historians and thinkers for about as long as there have been wars.  Strategists from Sun Tzu to Carl von Clausewitz to John Boyd studied and wrote various theories and principles as they applied to various political, strategic and operational concerns for leaders and commanders. 

The US Army in Field Manual (FM) 3-0, Operations, describes nine Principles of War: Objective, Mass, Economy of Force, Maneuver, Security, Surprise, Simplicity, and Unity of Command. In his Modern War Institute article, Unity of Command or Unity of Effort? Rethinking a Fundamental Principle of War, author Garrett Chandler notes that eight of those principles are what we would like to achieve against our adversary while one principle, unity of command, leads to achieving something else.[1]

Appendix A of FM 3-0 addresses the Principles of War. It states “Unity of command means that a single commander coordinates the actions of all forces toward a common objective. Cooperation may produce coordination, but giving a single commander the required authority is the most effective way to achieve unity of effort.” [2].

In other words, no matter how big the organization, or how many stakeholders are involved in an enterprise, somebody must be in charge. Further, the Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms defines “unity of effort” as the “coordination and cooperation toward common objectives, even if the participants are not necessarily part of the same command or organization, which is the product of successful unified action. [3]

This of course all makes sense for a military commander. Yet, disunity of command or effort can instead lead to mission failure, unnecessary casualties and/or senseless death, missed opportunities and wasted resources.

Leaders at all levels must have the authority, autonomy, and responsibility to lead their teams, units, and organizations with minimal interference. Unity of command and unity of effort are essential principles in both military and non-military organizations. Unity of command ensures that every team member reports to one leader, avoiding confusion and ensuring clear direction.

Unity of effort, on the other hand, aligns the actions of all individuals and teams toward a common goal, even if they report to different leaders.

In non-military organizations, leaders need the authority and autonomy to guide their teams effectively while ensuring that their actions align with the organization’s overall mission, values, and goals. Establishing clear performance metrics and goals is important to define the space within which the organization will operate. Certainly missions, goals, performance metrics, productivity levels should be established in accordance with organization’s overall mission, values, vision, policy, procedures, etc., defining the space within which it will operate.

However, even with unity of command in place, disunity of effort can still arise due to internal friction—be it personality conflicts, differing motives, or competition for resources. In such situations, a leader's role is to unify their team towards a common goal by fostering clear communication, resolving conflicts, aligning individual motives with organizational objectives, and ensuring that resources are allocated in a way that supports the collective mission. Strong leadership that emphasizes collaboration, shared vision, and accountability can mitigate disunity and keep the team moving forward cohesively.

So, what is a leader to do when after establishing unity of command they are faced with disunity of effort? In every organization there will be internal friction. Sometimes it is a clash of personalities, or motives, or resources.

What can a leader do to unify his people toward a common goal?

James Kouzes and Barry Posner in their classic work The Leadership Challenge, identify Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership: Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act, and Encourage the Heart. Each of these practices play a key role in a leader’s success but for shaping unity of effort we need to focus on Inspire a Shared Vision. In a recent article for The RF Factor Substack,

Ray Guidetti

and I broke leadership up into six components or aspects describing how leaders can use these components to build vision-driven, empowered, and proactive teams. Our first component is Share Your Vision.  Again, formulating and sharing the leader’s vision is crucial with establishing unity of effort.

Leaders develop vision by imagining the future. They “see” the organization of the future as their motivator. Leaders know the way things are, but they also see the possibilities and focus on them. Leaders are thinkers, idealists and possibility thinkers.

To envision the future, leaders must have the capability to see the big picture; recognize trends and patterns and not just one-off occurrences.  Leaders like the best “playmakers” in sports develop an uncanny knack for knowing what will happen before it does. They use a combination of knowledge, education, training, professional development, and intuition to guide their actions and decisions.

Leaders are passionate about their work.  When people are passionate about their work they are deeply interested and attentive to it. When we talk about something we are passionate about we are more animated and excited than when discussing other things.  Leaders strive to make that passion contagious. Leaders are self-starters and intrinsically motivated. Leaders share their vision by writing and talking about it. They do it repeatedly and tie everything they can into moving the vision forward. They establish a common purpose by getting everyone involved. They seek out and pay attention to what their teams tell them.

Leaders can build stronger teams by understanding their team members, listening to them, and valuing their input. By taking the time to recognize what is important to individuals and acting on their advice, leaders ensure that the team’s feelings and needs are acknowledged and addressed.

People stay with organizations for a variety of reasons, some personal others more pragmatic, but one major reason is they like the work they are doing; they find it challenging, meaningful and purposeful.  People commit to causes not just a plan. When a leader enthusiastically shares their vision, and their team can see how they fit into that vision, it gives focus to their energy.

Leaders build strong teams. They educate, train, inspire, coach, mentor, guide others. They create organizational climates and cultures where their people both take pride and are passionate about what they are doing. The result is a high-performing team/organization.  Vision is about ideals, hopes, and aspirations. We enjoy being unique, it’s why we develop personal styles, join certain organizations. When people feel what they do or the organization to which they belong is unique, that fosters pride. When people are proud of what they do they do it well.

By animating and bringing their vision to life leaders can enlist others in both sharing their vision and helping them to internalize it as well. Animate the vision by talking about it with its own symbology and language.  Reinforce the future image by practicing positive communication and speaking with sincerity.

Leaders use their influence, a combination of their character, courage, trust and competence to share their vision.  In many instances, this will be more than enough to inspire folks to not just get on board but to internalize the vision and move towards it. However sometimes influence is not enough.

Leaders may encounter malcontents, laggards, and even saboteurs’ intent on not just watching the leader fail but hampering any progress. For whatever reasons, their goal to sow disunity of effort and team discord. Leaders should make every reasonable effort to sway and influence these individuals.  They should enlist co-workers and peers to help influence them and bring them into the fold.  There are times when leadership is a battle of wills.

Two quotes apply in these situations. The first is from the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi, “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”  The second came from a class I was teaching on organizational change, and I solicited from the class how to deal with folks in their agencies who refused or stood in the way of change. A sheriff said, “Sometimes the only way to change people is to change people.” 

To be clear, this is not a “my way or the highway” approach and removing folks from their position or the organization is a serious matter, and it should not be undertaken lightly but after using influence, training, education, and communication someone cannot or will not adjust to the new vision, maybe their commitment and worth to the organization has concluded.

References:

[1] Modern War Institute at West Point: “Unity of Command or Unity of Effort? Rethinking a Fundamental Principle of War”, Garrett Chandler, October 5, 2023.                                                   (https://mwi.westpoint.edu/unity-of-command-or-unity-of-effort-rethinking-a-fundamental-principle-of-war/)

[2] US Army Field Manual (FM) 3-0, Operations. Headquarters Department of the Army, October 2022.

[3] DOD-Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, 2017, p.246

[4] Kouzes, James and Posner, Barry: The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations, (7^th ed.), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2023