Off With Their Heads

90.

As good as my memory was in traveling backwards in review, one idealogical tenant stood like a granite statue above the others. It was this: As a coach, leader or political appointee, one must perform the due diligence necessary to reach a workable solution and then act upon it. The three steps being to: 1) Identify, 2) Decide and 3) Act. Any credible form of management or leadership relies on this formula like fish rely on water. As much as I respected Drysdale’s quick assessment of our team weakness and his bold decision to inform me of his opinion, his courageous determination to act was the paradoxical cup of hemlock tea. Simply put, the very thing he intended to strengthen - the unit’s combined power - he weakened by questioning the chain of command. He had found the weak link of that chain - and it was us. 

With this as preface I allowed my mind to float into an exploration of the area between the clear and shallow waters and the wine-dark sea bottom. I remembered the days in Hawaii when we would free-dive in sporting competition, with the contest a simple one of how deep for how long. I recalled my days as a player-coach tasked with the successful motivation of twenty-one like-minded others as I selected certain strategies, some of them, upon further review, questionable, but absolutely perfect as long as their execution was impeccable. I saw in my minds eye field decisions that might have, that did, impact the very lives of the men and women under my leadership. The central question in these three quick examples was the one pointing to the issue of confidence. Do I? Did I? Will I? use my experience, the body of work, my collected acumen in appropriate response to the dynamic real-time circumstances that our jobs require? Or will I succumb to the second-guessing weakness that separates those that lead from those that follow. It all renders to one’s ability to make the best decision possible under often impossible situations with lives at stake. As I walk, these images and their associated lessons follow as my shadow. They are with me now as surely as my heartbeat and peripheral vision. They seem to be hiding the fact that every one of those decisions I have played out a hundred different ways in a form of analysis, a tactic to make better choices, to improve, to take the lesson and leave the remnants of doubt, fear and failure behind. If there is any characteristic common to the storied and successful leaders of history, it is the fact that they each, when pressed, put tough love into play. 

I was en route to visit Satriano after her procedure. I needed to ensure her readiness to resume the final stages of our, now abbreviated, intensive. TOM had informed me last night that the latest intel showed The Axis to be active in another campaign, this details of which remained sketchy. We needed to make initial contact with them and initiate the infiltration process, pronto, or as the Queen of Hearts might put it, ‘like now.’ 

The plan was to launch a three step, initiate contact with a text message, offer services and lastly to meet face to face to discuss terms and conditions. 

This I outlined to Satriano, the Queen, after the brief with the medical staff and communications officer. The bug was implanted under the stunning tattoo of the infamous titular character from Alice in Wonderland. 

As I gazed at the combined artistry and technology framed by her left shoulder I couldn’t help but consider that we had identified (the foe) decided (a strategy) and were now ready to act, to play our hand. I look at Maria, nee Violet, and now the Queen of Hearts. She returns my look and proclaims,

“Off with their heads.”