5 Lessons I Learned About Human Behavior From 4 Nights in the Field

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Once again, my desire to implement a more consistent posting schedule on TCF took a backseat to my military obligations (I hope you all understand). Fortunately, my highly analytical mind couldn’t help but retrieve a great deal of life lessons from the recent 4 night U.S. Army field training exercise that I did. Commissioned as an officer in late 2009, this training exercise represented the capstone exercise of my four months attending the basic officer leadership course down in Fort Lee, Virginia. This training exercise wasn’t the longest exercise I’ve spent in the field in my 10+ years in the military, nor were these lessons necessarily “new”: this was, though, the first time I tried my hardest to document them for readers of TCF.

I encourage you to think about these things, and how you can apply these to your own life and online businesses.

1) People need to be continually motivated – Outside of the occasional Billy Blanks (of Old-school Tae-bo fame) or Tony Horton (of recent P90X fame), or perhaps elite special forces soldiers, most people just simply don’t possess the luxury of having self-sustaining motivation that runs on overdrive 24 hours a day/7 days a week. The truth of the matter is that most people need to be continually motivated. There is no shame in this. Much like the lull or awkward silence of a comedian whose jokes have gone bland, people inherently rely on occasional injections of humor or entertainment or some sort of incentive to keep them going. When constructing my online business, it has really helped me to put myself in the shoes of others by asking questions such as:

• What creative approaches can I take to motivate and incentivize my readers and/or customers?
• What can I personally do to help people take action?
• Can I be more clear in my delivery or approach to giving information?
• If I were my reader/customer, what would keep me coming back for more?
• What do other bloggers do that keep their readers interested and salivating for more?
• Can I implement systems and policies that promote a continual, automated, sense of fulfillment?

2) People want leadership who suffer with them – “Suffer” is a powerful word, I know. What leader would actually want (or be expected to) suffer alongside their people? With a massive fleet of hundreds of limos, a documentary I had watched recently about the governance and culture of North Korea depicted a leader (Kim Jon-il) who appears to be extremely disattached from the tens of thousands of people in his country who are suffering. Many barely even have food or water to sustain them. I have a problem with this. While this blog isn’t a political blog, there are blurry intersecting lines of leadership and management styles that are clearly applicable to online business and marketing.

Upon reflection of my recent U.S. Army training exercise out in the field, the brutal weather presented itself in such a way that it would have been very easy to succumb to personal comfort and withdraw back to a warm and comfy building in the rear. By virtue of my rank, I could have easily done this. I didn’t. Where I had expected my mixed platoon of 25 privates, specialists, and non-commissioned officers (NCO’s) to remain dedicated to the mission at hand and brave the staggering elements outside, there wasn’t a chance I would leave their side. True caring, like social media and internet marketing gurus like Gary Vaynerchuk speak of, will be the purest driving force behind reader and customer loyalty, in my honest and humble opinion.

3) People will “embrace the suck”, if you guide them – Not all of life’s situations are pleasant. For 4 days, below freezing conditions, with 5” of snow accumulation and tent heaters that consistently didn’t work, many people had a legitimate reason to complain or be grumpy. Much is expected of soldiers in terms of operating in a highly motivated fashion in the worst of conditions. The inability to see fruits of your online labor can make things generally “suck”. Afterall, we all want to earn and be successful. With the proper guidance, mentorship, and leadership by example, I truly believe that people will embrace their current situation and strive their hardest to become something better.

4) A simple recognition can go a long way – Leadership, as I know and define it, is the art of influencing. Beyond empathizing with an audience, this point falls right in line with the first point I made in this article. Great motivation and overwhelming sense of purpose can be derived from simply recognizing the positive actions of others. In most organizations and sub-cultures, like the military that I know, awards and recognitions are a fundamental “built-in” aspect of this culture. Tactical and controlled giving can have a tremendous impact on an organization, as well as, the willingness of others to continually follow your lead with high levels of motivation. When someone goes above and beyond, don’t be afraid to display recognition. This can take the form of:

• A Handshake
• A “Thank You”
• A Public Recognition, in front of peers
• A gift, such as a plaque, or a month of premiere parking much closer to the building

5) People follow those who speak with confidence – During this field exercise, I was expected to operate and lead soldiers under very unpleasant conditions. While doing this, I was fortunate enough to receive tremendous mentorship from higher ranking officers. Just prior to conducting one mission, my major had pulled a small pack of lieutenants to the side, including myself, and began to tell a story that was akin to something you would see in a major Hollywood production. In his story, he detailed how himself, a group full of Colonels, a General, and several other officers came under intense sniper fire as soon as they left their compound in Iraq. To complicate matters, he detailed how several of his soldier’s lives were lost because of additional unforeseen hardships like IED (Improvised Explosive Device) that ravaged his convoy’s vehicles.

This story was complete BS. After telling the story, he admitted to this fact. Despite how utterly unlikely it would ever be to find such high ranking officers all co-located in the same convoy, our jaws collectively dropped as we could help but buy his story ‘hook, line, and sinker’.

While lost lives are certainly no laughing matter, the major underlying principle behind his story was to demonstrate that people will follow and believe what you say if you speak with confidence. Now, he further went on to say that a “good” leader is ultimately differentiated from a “bad” leader when they actually KNOW what they are talking about. Unfortunately, online, you will find many who speak with great confidence yet have absolutely no idea what they are talking about. Fundamental to online thought leadership should be such a deep-founded desire to see others succeed that you will conduct the analysis and research required to substantiate the courses of action that you recommend to others. More oftentimes than not, I will come across those online who highly recommend that others do something, yet, they haven’t even done the leg work to prove that it is a viable course of action.

What other things have you noticed about human behavior that you can apply to your online business?

This entry was written by Howie and posted on January 29, 2011 at 1:02 pm and filed under Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.

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