So, in the 1980s the Army adapted its planning process, inventing a concept called Commander’s Intent (CI).

CI is a crisp, plain-talk statement that appears at the top of every order, specifying the plan’s goal, the desired end-state of an operation. At high levels of the Army, the CI may be relatively abstract: “Break the will of the enemy in the Southeast region.” At the tactical level, for colonels and captains, it is much more concrete: “My intent is to have Third Battalion on Hill 4305, to have the hill cleared of enemy, with only ineffective remnants remaining, so we can protect the flank of Third Brigade as they pass through the lines.”

The CI never specifies so much detail that it risks being rendered obsolete by unpredictable events. “You can lose the ability to execute the original plan, but you never lose the responsibility of executing the intent,” says Kolditz. In other words, if there’s one soldier left in the Third Battalion on Hill 4305, he’d better be doing something to protect the flank of the Third Brigade.

Lee realizes that serving food is a job, but improving morale is a mission. Improving morale involves creativity and experimentation and mastery. Serving food involves a ladle.

One of the soldiers who commute to Pegasus for Sunday dinner said, “The time you are in here, you forget you’re in Iraq.” Lee is tapping into Maslow’s forgotten categories—the Aesthetic, Learning, and Transcendence needs. In redefining the mission of his mess hall, he has inspired his co-workers to create an oasis in the desert.

The first thing you ought to do if you’re the new person in charge is nothing,” says Schacht. “I have learned this over and over again. Resist the temptation to ‘hit the ground running.’ It is absolutely almost certain to be wrong.” He stresses this is even true in a crisis situation.

I suggested she use a tactic I learned from training in nonviolent communications: OFNR. O, for observation of undeniable fact. F, for feeling and assumptions about motivation and other interpretations of facts. N, for needs—individual as well as collective needs. R, for request . . . a request for an alternate way of behaving.

‘Start with the facts,’ I told her. He left the office earlier than expected and he did so without telling anyone. ‘Then,’ I explained further, ‘share how his doing so made you feel’ —in this case, disrespected. ‘Then share with him the collective need . . . that everyone in the company has a need to feel respected. Then,’ I told her, ‘make a request. If he needs to leave early, ask that he let you know in advance.

If you’ve ever been on the inside of a business where employees can't take action until everything is approved by their boss, you’re seeing what happens without commander’s intent. There’s a single point of failure. If something happens to the boss, the business and mission fail.

Commander’s intent empowers each person on a team to initiate and improvise as they’re executing the plan. It stops you from being the bottleneck, and it enables the team to keep each other accountable to the goal without your presence.

Commander’s intent has four components: formulate, communicate, interpret, and implement. The first two components— formulate and communicate— are the responsibility of the senior commander. You must communicate the strategy, rationale, and the operational limits to them team. Tell them not just what to do but why to do it, how you arrived at your decision, so they understand the context, as well as the boundaries for effective action— what is completely off the table.

• Who needs to know my goals and the outcomes I’m working toward?

• Do they know what the most important objective is?

• Do they know the positive and negative signs to look for and what trip wire are attached to them?

One sign you’ve failed to empower your team is that you can't be away from the office for a week without things falling apart.