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Original post can be found here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-lessons-leading-nerds-national-security-sector-mathieu-primeau/

“Nerds will rule the world” Jody Thomas

Today marks one year since I ended my Command of the Mapping and Charting Establishment (MCE) in the Canadian Armed Forces (#CAF). My experiences since and the new communities I joined have allowed me to reflect on what I did right and what I need to be better at as a Nerd leader. To distill these learnings, I am sharing 5 lessons.

1 – Its also “lonely at the top” for nerds

We all know the expression “it’s lonely at the top”. In the military, combat is obviously the greatest crucible for those hardest decisions that make Command a lonely affair. Deciding on risks – up to and including life and death – is terribly hard. It is the ultimate differentiator of what military leadership means.

But if we downgrade a bit to the actual realities of service in peacetime, leaders in nerd organizations also face significant loneliness. It is not because they like Dungeon and Dragons, Star Trek, or deep discussions on why Mappers have been doing Machine Learning 25 years before everybody else (we call it supervised and unsupervised land cover classification). The loneliness comes from uniquely understanding current capabilities and future needs in a way to integrate with other government systems, but not being enabled to be in the rooms where those discussions are happening. Wrong mandate, too low level or rank, too technical, wrong cap badge, etc. The CAF – as with many government departments – have created social systems where everyone is in a box and dis-incentivized to get out of it, making the nerd leader feel alone in delivering what’s needed in a vacuum of context and centralized resourcing.

But the good news is that much of this is a fallacy. The nerd leader may feel alone from the immediate realities of their environment, within their chain of command or department, but there are generally other communities facing the same problem or in a position to assist with understanding and facilitate growth. To leverage these communities and avoid loneliness, nerd leaders need to be exponentially better at convening, integrating, and partnering. Early in my Command I was so afraid of ethical concerns or to drown in the noise of external (and unrealistic) greatness that I most often avoided these roles. Particularly with Industry or other departments. I was wrong.

2 – A learning culture is key

The US Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) drilled it in my head long before Command that the role of the nerd leader is about change management. Its about building shared understanding along a compelling vision, enact a coalition of the willing (with Mission Command), encourage and assess quick wins as the prototypes that they are, etc. In my experience, we also need to add to this the critical importance of making sure that the resourcing needs are stubbornly looked after in the context in which they add value to the organization. “Kotter, please meet Moltke; Moltke, Kotter.”

The key for the latter is the Deputy Commanding Officer (DCO), or Deputy Director. Someone who will dedicate their time in the trenches of painfully long meetings, and willingly throw down the last of their energies in the hellish depths of poorly designed excel spreadsheets. In my Command I was blessed with the Superman of DCOs; TJ.

But even that was not enough. To be able to move in one direction when all our system diagrams seemingly pointed away from each other, we needed everyone – especially me – to be able to learn quickly. Not only of what works, but what doesn’t, and adjust on the fly without frictions.

This is the definition of a learning organization. There’s a whole lot of art and science to it that extends beyond this article, much of it rhyming with avoiding a toxic or static culture. But there’s one trick that changed the game for me.

Before my Command had even started I asked the DCO to systematically challenge my assumptions in open discussions. From day one, in front of everyone. I would also reiterate how I’d give bonus points (“des pieces de robot” in French) to everyone who would disagree with me. In other words, I wanted everyone to know that my opinion was only that, that disagreements were encouraged, and that most of the time “no” was still a start point for negotiation. I wanted to be wrong early so that I could be right more often. That is the second lesson, and it works.

3 – “Technical” is a third official language in a digital government.

This one is the simplest lesson. A nerd leader should never demonstrate empathy for other leaders who dismiss the technical roadblocks that hinder the progress of capabilities as details solely for their subordinates to solve. In other words, if the “anti-intellectualism” culture is dead or dying of its own slow death in the CAF, “anti-technical” cultures need to be shot at first sight.

I am not implying that every general or director-general should know how to code in Python. What I mean is that there is no excuse – in 2023 and in a digital government mindset – for leaders to systematically shut down discussions of a technical nature on the excuse that its too hard for them and/or without any interest in relating these problems into the realms they do control (like policy, governance, etc). The integration of technical capabilities invariably requires leaders at all levels to understand the value proposition that these capabilities bring and the barriers to their implementation – not only organizational or cultural – but technical. Speak French and English – sure, speak Technical? Yes!

4 – Beware of the Curse of Knowledge

If you are a nerd leader, you are likely very smart. In fact you are probably smarter than the average folk when it comes to understanding complicated things fast and making sense of them. Your sense of logic is well-honed. Its what makes you good at your job.

You are also likely very knowledgeable in technical domains. This comes from the position you hold and the context in which you work. Not everybody has teammates and/or subordinates at their fingertips to deep dive on issues and answer questions. Kubernetes? Piece of cake! API’s, SDK’s, data lakes and virtual machines…  child’s play.

But the reality is that those outside of the context in which you work, most notably your superiors, have little of the resources, time and exposure to comprehend a complicated problem or idea. They are likely to still be in the confused phase of an idea when you are expecting a final decision. Yet you need them to understand the value proposition and the technical roadblocks as they affect their Authorities, Roles and Accountabilities (ARAs). You need to build a rapport, centered around trust. You need them as allies.

The lesson here is therefore to be patient, and teach. A good nerd leader is a pedagogue! We need to go slow (without being patronizing). Iterate, not emphasize. Always draft short briefing notes prior to nerdy meetings, even if not asked for. Become the trusted learning partner, not a revered yet intimidating “know-it-all.”

5 –  Listening so hard it makes you sweat.

The COVID pandemic made it exponentially more difficult for me to be the leader I wanted to be. I consider myself skilled at many things, from creativity to synthesis and problem structuring. I knew enough of the context in which MCE operated to be the leader the unit needed in that moment. But I was and still am learning how to be an active listener, which is critical to be an empathetic leader. I could go into a bunch of excuses. But the facts are that little turns off followership faster than being perceived as the person who has the answers before the questions are asked. Why would they care how hard it is for you to listen to them fully as they clamber around a problem? Isn’t that your job?

The lesson here is best stated in the words of Marshall Goldsmith, in that success in referential leadership requires us “to listen so hard it makes us sweat”. This is the critical enabler to building a rapport with people, demonstrating empathy, building trust. Particularly if we are smart, or smarter. With COVID, fear and social survival was so top-of-mind for me that even the smallest social engagements were tiring. The lack of non-verbal cues from virtual meetings was also a tremendous brain drain. But now that COVID is over, many of us need to do better. We need to meet our communities where they are, in person, and actively listen. Get away from the screens. Catching COVID sucks, particularly long-COVID, but cowering behind a basement desk on the excuse of safety or productivity is absolutely deleterious to nerd leadership.

That’s it. That was 5 lessons I learned. Bonus points for those who disagree.

Live long and prosper (“ “)

Nerds rule.