James Laughlin, a multi-time pipe band world champion, criticizes the RSPBA for removing a judge's results from the World Pipe Band Championships without clear explanation. He argues the decision shows poor leadership and communication, using a military friendly-fire story to show what happens when people don't understand why decisions are made.
What is crucial in leadership? Well, that's communication. That's transparency, accuracy, timeliness. So, so crucial. Many of you will know that a large portion of my life was focused on pipe bands and particularly pipe band drumming passion of mine, something I spent a lot of time committed to. I was very fortunate over the years to win seven different world titles with various different bands and as a juvenile soloist. But look, something I wanted to share with you and whether you're in the pipeline world or whether you're a leader or whether you want to think about leadership, there's an example, very recent example, of why I think leadership needs to be looked at. The World Pipe Band Championships was this past weekend and hundreds and thousands of people head to Glasgow, Scotland for this event. Means a lot to a lot of people. Now, there's different grades, but the very premier grade is grade one. And the amazing Ball Call and Bathgate, they were titled world Champions this year. Incredible. Absolutely amazing. However, there's such a big question mark over process and leadership because the rspba, the Royal Scottish Pipe Band association, removed one judge's results. So it's a bit like figure skating where judges get to say, I like that, I don't like that. This is why I like it, this is why I don't. They write a sheet to describe what they liked and didn't like. They give a ranking, a placing. Right. One judge was fully removed. There's four different events and that could obviously, well, clearly would shift the results for everybody involved. Not only does it tarnish this amazing accomplishment for Ball Call and Bathgate, but also it puts question marks for everybody else involved as to, well, where do we sit? So my question is, how do we lead such huge responsibilities in terms of associations? You look at the Royal Scottish Pipeline association, they've got a massive commitment to all of their members worldwide. But here is a fundamental example of they just removed the place things. They didn't communicate, why they didn't communicate, the process of how they did it, to me, it fully undermines the leadership. And whether we're talking pipe bands, tiddlywinks, politics, multinational corporates, it doesn't matter. It's how we communicate. And that is so crucial. So my big question here is, what do you think needs to be done when critical decisions are made that can change the face of the event, change the face of the marketplace? Do you think explanation and communication is important? Look, we're all still waiting for communication on this front. You know, I think back to a friend of mine who's a Navy SEAL and they were out on a mission, a very important mission to take down a top terrorist. And at one point their communication broke down. And what happens when communication breaks down for elite military forces is they can break up and move in different directions, particularly at night. Now if the enemy's in the middle and they start firing, it's friendly on friendly fire. It's the biggest potential risk. And that's because communication broke down. And this actually happened to him in Fallujah, Iraq. Here to me is a real life example that's not on the battlefield where communication is severely lacking. There's so many question marks. This adjudicator, who has been judging for a long time is world renowned as a performer and an adjudicator and a teacher, you know, put such a question mark, excuse me, over their reputation as well. And we have no idea what the context is. And again, I'm just going to challenge everyone, whether I say you're in pipe runs or not, how important is clear communication? I think it's crucial and I'm going to wait and see what comes from this. But it's so interesting to see a case study unfolding from my old career, my old hobby and passion, and how I can look at it through this lens now with all the different opportunities where I sit with world leaders, sit with Formula one teams, and I look back to this and I go, wow, this is the absolute opposite of high performance leadership. So my hope is that this will all come together with clarity, explanation, due process. But there's a lot of question marks, so I'd love you to comment below. What do you believe is important when it comes to communication around leadership and large groups or associations? And what do you believe is important around leading people with integrity and leading them with a very clear vision?
