Leadership Lessons of a Tracker

Having spent 5 years as the lead Tactical Advisor to one of the most operationally tested and deployed tracking units in the world, I have wanted to highlight the synergies between tracking and leadership for a while. 

🌲 Trackers don't guess. They observe…

🌲 Trackers are masters of strategic patience.

🌲 Trackers will always read the terrain before they move. 

🌲 Trackers understand the power of stillness and silence. 

🌲 Trackers determine which trail to follow and which are ‘red herrings’. 

🌲 When Trackers act, it is a deliberate and calculated move full of intention. 

A Tracker uses empirical evidence (changes in regularity, signs of flattening, disturbance, transfer, colour variation, discard) to inform their analysis of the terrain. 

The difference between a novice and competent Tracker is never clearer than when they lose their quarry: a novice will lose composure, second guess their decisions and defer responsibility / accountability / control.

A seasoned Tracker will cast wide and without judgement. Rather than making assumptions, they test multiple hypothesise working backwards from the last confirmed facts (sign).  They will review the information asymmetrically casting in each direction and challenging their own biases, schemas and heuristics. 

More than situational awareness, the Tracker demonstrates complex metacognition (thinking about their own thinking). 

Just in case the synergies are not jumping off the page for you I will summarise: Leadership requires the same traits as expert tracking… there you go. Article done. 

No – only kidding 😆 

🦄 As a leader, (and for me quite literally a leader of Trackers) clarity lives in the space between stimulus and response that we call: self-awareness. 

🦄 As a leader if you lose track of what you are doing, return to the place where you were last sure. Don’t guess – that’s the fastest way to get lost.

🦄 As a leader you cannot trust guilelessly, you must constantly scan for deception and risks and be prepared to deal with both ruthlessly and unapologetically.

🦄 As a leader you must have the confidence of your convictions. If you don’t trust your gut, why should anyone else?

🦄 As a leader you must do more than observe change, you must notice it and seek to understand the causality in order to deduce second and third order effects. 

Leadership is rarely about charging ahead. It’s about reading your environment, adapting to the conditions, staying close to what matters, and never losing the trail. Trackers don't follow blindly. They read. They adapt. They listen to the land. Great leaders do the same.