My blog last week M*A*S*H – A Vision for Leadership in Covid was one of my most popular posts. If you will bear with me, I would like to take the analogy a bit further to highlight a couple of Colonel Potter’s leadership traits.

Looking at the character of Colonel Sherman T. Potter on M*A*S*H we see some of the classic traits that are currently being idolised in popular media. He was intelligent, fearless, devoted and a commanding figure. He could hold his own in an argument and knew when to be decisive in a tough situation. Yet he also demonstrated a couple traits that are desperately needed as well for the challenging times we live in.

Wisdom:

Colonel Potter demonstrated wisdom when to use each of his leadership traits to deal with the impossible circumstances of being not far from the Korean War front lines. The problems we face today don’t just need rank, courage and the ability to shout louder than anyone else, but a level head steeped in wisdom in how to address very complex issues and challenges. He also knew when to lead and when to promote his younger team members shining in their leadership traits. Intelligence and management theory will only get you so far, but wisdom will take you the extra mile, putting out fires that you otherwise would have to fight by yourself with brute force.

Emotional Intelligence:

Colonel Potter knew how to mix when to be directive, when to teach, when to let stuff go, when play and even when to be vulnerable. On a few episodes he even uttered some of the most powerful words you can say as a leader… ‘I’m sorry’. People more than ever need to be able to see all the human elements of their leaders and relate beyond the positional authority of an ivory tower leadership style. He had great emotional intelligence to genuinely empathise, connect and feel where people were at. Another way to put this is he had ‘big arms’ to reach out and embrace a very diverse, and sometimes dysfunctional group of people. By doing so, in humility he identified with them not as just a team leader, but as a coworker which inspired them to walk together as one.

The Whole Package

Putting it together, wisdom and emotional intelligence, along with the other great leadership traits that Potter had, creates the possibility to build the deep bonds of community in whatever entity you are leading in. Just like the M*A*S*H team, it might even be fun and deeply rewarding, even in the hardest of times.

This year there have been a rash of business articles in reputable publications that have highlighted that community is more than important than ever before. A lot of leaders can build a profitable or professional engine that is soulless, but without wisdom and emotional intelligence, community is nearly impossible. The cool thing is that community and professionalism are not in conflict with each other, because a thriving team will be that ever bit more professional than it would be otherwise! And it is certainly the kind of place that I think most people want to work…