Iron Sharpens Iron

Imagine you’re Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You’re hellbent on defeating Earth’s mightiest foes. Your weapon? Building the most badass team of elite superheroes.

Now evaluate how successful Nick was — both early on and over time. Ask yourself how well he “kept it real” with the Avengers crew. The thoughts traversing your mind are the same ones I have. They capture what authentic leadership demands of us.

Over the course of my 24 years in the California Air National Guard, the single most important thing I’ve learned is that the iron I become is only as sharp as the iron I choose to stand beside.

Leaders need to surround themselves with talented people who embody five attributes: extreme curiosity, cognitive synthesis, grit, coachability and emotional intelligence. Each is an iron-forging tool that holds leaders accountable to their authentic self.

Extreme curiosity

This is an insatiable drive to know more. It means asking “why,” challenging the status quo and exploring adjacent topics. It is the foundational attribute from which the others grow.

Extreme curiosity prevents obsolescence, drives initiative-taking problem discovery, and fuels novel solutions. You cannot synthesize data from disparate fields without gumption. You must look beyond what you think you know.

Leaders who surround themselves with the incurious will find their organizations stagnating. Our world demands constant adaptation.

Cognitive synthesis

This is making sense of unstructured, complex and superficially unrelated data. It means deriving actionable insights and strategies from ambiguity.

Teammates who connect seemingly unconnected trends are indispensable. They translate ambiguity into action plans and strategic direction. They are my go-to folks for my most wicked problems.

People who display a high degree of cognitive synthesis signal also possess equal amounts of grit. Cognitive synthesis clarifies and solidifies compelling goals. Grit then takes over in pursuit of achieving them.

Grit

We all want to be known as gritty, and we want our teammates to be gritty. But what is grit? I offer it is simply as the will and endurance to never quit.

I’m most inspired by the grittiest characters around me. They consistently get up and move forward when knocked down. Life will knock you down at every phase. We need folks with the stamina and doggedness to keep getting up. We all have moments when we don’t want to or think we can’t rise ourselves.

Gritty people are the absolute teammates you want in your work and personal trenches. However, you might ask whether there exists a line between grit and stubbornness. There is, and it is called coachability.

Whether you command 20 or 2,000, build a team that sharpens you daily.

Coachability

This is one’s capacity to seek, receive and implement feedback. Grit without coachability veers toward stubbornness, where one inefficiently grinds away using a flawed approach.

I seek folks who eagerly harness and channel their grit when provided external course corrections. Coachability dramatically compresses learning curves. Those who possess it outpace more naturally gifted but defensive peers. They view feedback as a tool to improve, not a personal attack.

Feedback triggers threats to our ego, which all of us feel. But what is the antidote to that threat? Emotional intelligence.

Emotional intelligence

The capacity to identify, characterize, and leverage your emotions and those of others is invaluable. It is foundational to conflict resolution, authentic leadership, cross-functional collaboration and persuasive influence without authority.

Within coachability, emotional intelligence allows us to identify and regulate defensive reactions. This matters most when receiving less-than-positive feedback. You cannot have enough teammates with this core attribute.

Assembling your team

Nick Fury knew Earth’s survival depended on assembling individuals who complemented and challenged one another. Leaders must grasp the same truth.

Their authenticity is forged by the collective fire of those around them. They must hold themselves accountable by surrounding themselves with talented disruptors who embody these five attributes. Even further, they must seek and invest in them. Every leader reading this owes it to their people and mission.

Whether you command 20 or 2,000, build a team that sharpens you daily.

The author is commander of the California Air National Guard’s 195th Wing.

NATIONAL GUARD welcomes commentaries on any subject of interest to Guard officers. Submissions of no longer than 750 words should be sent to [email protected].