Students get out-of-this-world leadership advice from Col. Chris Hadfield

One of Canada’s best-known leadership role models, who is commonly referred to as “the most famous astronaut since Neil Armstrong”, Col. Chris Hadfield, was the guest speaker at the Canadian Centre for Advanced Leadership in Business’s (CCAL) Launch your Leadership event on September 26. He addressed students on a broad range of leadership roles that supported the concept that leadership involves “preparation, simulation and focused execution.”

“Leadership is almost, by definition, someone making a choice to do something differently than we have been doing in the past,” Hadfield remarked. He emphasized that the most critical part of leadership is changing yourself. “The other thing that really matters as a leader is what are you going to do next? It doesn’t matter what you said you are going to do. Or what you hoped you were going to do. Or even what you planned to do. The only thing that matters is what do you do next.”

At the age of 14, Col. Hadfield attended a junior leadership program where he was told that “leadership is the art of influencing human behaviour to accomplish a mission in a manner desired by the leader.” This has shaped his leadership style and showed that leadership is not scientific, it is delicate, it is an art form. Hadfield remarked that as a leader you need to be able to influence your team and all work towards a collective goal to celebrate successes and victories.

As a leader an “important first step is to agree on what does victory look like. What is success?” remarked Hadfield. “Most of the decisions made by your team are made individually so, if they don’t have a clear understanding of your collective definition of success, then how are they going to make the right little decisions along the way?” It is important that as a leader you discuss the long-term, medium-term and short-term goals with your team. “Any success from an individual on your team is also a success for you as a leader. That collective mentoring and support of each other to be as good together as a group of people as you can, makes you a successful leader.”

Following the presentation there was a Q&A period for students to ask Col. Hadfield questions. One student asked if there was ever a time where he had to deal with a challenging situation while leading a team. Hadfield responded with an anecdote about a time where he was leading three different men on his team, with different backgrounds, from different areas of the world. The team was not cohesive, and he needed to find out why. He used his strong communication skills to figure out the underlying issue and concluded that there was a trust issue among the team. Once he determined this he worked with the group and together they came up with collective goals for success. This improved the trust as they were now all working towards the same final goal and “success is contagious”. Hadfield’s response demonstrated to the audience that problem-solving, good communication skills, celebrating small victories and challenging yourself as a leader are all important factors to be a successful leader.