Too Much Cost Reduction?

There are many things a leader has to think about and provide in order to have the opportunity to be a great leader. Without some of these requirements, the only other way to achieve success is through creativity.

In AIT, I was the one guy who went around and made sure everyone else was doing what they were suppose to during "working hours", which was for the most part cleaning, raking, sweeping, etc. I like getting my hands dirty, but if I was caught cleaning and not supervising, I would have gotten in trouble myself.

There was one day the Seargants wanted our area to look good because there was a chance that a Colonel was going to walk through. They had everyone working outside, and they wanted us to mostly focus on the sidewalks. I don't think the Colonel ever came, but that's not the point.

Out of about 350 people that were suppose to be cleaning, we had 1 push broom. All of our other brooms were destroyed somehow, where the only other somewhat working brooms we had didn't have a handle, so to use these would require a lot of kneeling and sweeping with your hands, which isn't very practical.

This got me to realize one thing about being in any kind of leadership position: you are suppose to ensure your workers have the resources necessary to do their job. Before this experience, that concept seemed too practical that I didn't really think about it, and after this experience I realized just how important it is.

If you can't provide the proper resources for your workers, you better find an alternative to fixing the problem. I wasn't about to make the poor soldiers go through any kind of trouble to clean the sidewalks, so I had almost anyone incapable of doing any real work filter out the dirty rocks to make it appear they were doing something. Maybe this wasn't the best solution, but it got everyone who participated out of getting into any kind of trouble. (There were, however, people who didn't listen very well, and they were caught and taught some lessons, but not by me.)

Do you have any examples of where leadership failed to supply you with the right tools and still expect a big job to get done? Did you do anything creative to solve the seemingly impossible task?