About a month or so ago, I finally got around to watching “We were Soldiers” The epic story of the first major battle of the Vietnam war that the United States engaged in. The main character was Lt. Colonel Hal Moore (played brilliantly by Mel Gibson) and he is the leader that takes a group of 450 soldiers into battle and he exhorts his men to be all they can be. The movie is based on a true story and is recounted in a book by Lt. Colonel Hal Moore. From the start, they are facing an uphill battle given the fact that they are 450 strong and are up against a Vietnamese force of 2000 plus.

The one thing that Lt. Colonel Hal Moore tells his troops is that he will always be the first one on the battle field, and he will be the last one to step foot off the battlefield. He goes on to say that not only will he be the last one off, he will not leave any of his soldiers behind. This is a testament to his character as a man of war, but more importantly to his strength as a leader.

As a leader, it is your responsibility to take the brunt of whatever comes at your organization, and disseminate the appropriate information down to you people so they can get done what they need to do and not be bothered by all the other noise that is swirling around you. Being the leader of an organization means that you are going to have people coming at you from every angle, they are going to either want to give you something (ex: sell you something) or they are going to want something from you. You need to stay focused and weed out the important from the unimportant, and pass along the important to those that need it to perform their jobs. By allowing them to stay focused on their task at hand, the net result is that the overall team will be able to accomplish the team goal (whatever that may be).

Equally important is the fact that as a leader it is your responsibility to be the last to leave the battlefield. You never want to give the impression that your time or you interests are more valuable than those that are on your team, therefore you should be the last one off the battlefield (or maybe in your case, you should be the last one standing putting all the final touches on things). You employees look up to you as their leader, they put their complete trust in you so it is your responsibility to ensure them that you will do whatever it takes to protect them and to make the team succeed. Trust goes a long way with a team, it takes time to build that trust up, but it could take one small slip up and that trust is gone.

Leading by example will build that trust and it will go along way, so try to set the example of being the first one on the battlefield and the last one of.