Tag: Leadership

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The Leader’s Playbook-12: “Start with Why…”

Many of you have reached out to me via DM over the last few weeks and asked “why” I am writing and posting more this year.  I really appreciate the questions. 

The “why” is quite simple.  At the end of each year, I purposefully take some quiet time write out what things in my life I want to personally improve over the coming year.  One of my major goals this year is to improve my writing effectiveness, my writing efficiency, and to support that goal, write daily.  Writing daily and hitting “send” allows this to become a habit for me and I am honored so many of you took time to let me know your thoughts.

Simon Sinek is an outstanding author and one book that had a profound impression on me is his “Start with Why.”  I first realized the value of this great book when serving as the COO of a tech startup whose primary employee base was younger professionals.  While it may take an extra minute or two, starting with why, and gaining alignment and support, while explaining the reason for doing something goes a long way with people understanding where you are coming from.

So, thank you for all your messages and kind words and to Simon Sinek, thank you for your inspiration to me and to the incredible support to the Military and the Fighter Pilot community in particular.  You are a great American doing important things to improve leadership across the country with your writing.

The Author is currently serving as an active duty military officer. Any comments or recommendations on this post or on this site are solely my personal views and do not represent the position of any branch of the United States Government.

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The Leader’s Playbook-9: Communication – “Listen, Process, Understand”

Earlier in my career I had the opportunity to attend the USAF Fighter Weapons School.  If you envision TOPGUN… but without the volleyball, the bar scenes, the motorcycles, and you make it longer… you’d get the idea.

The air combat phase is one of the toughest. It starts with 1v1 air combat and ultimately progress to 4 or 8 good guys (Blue) versus a lot of adversary aircraft (Red). One of our rides ended up with 8 Blue versus 24+ Red. The enemy can regenerate after flying back over their territory and coming back alive to give the blue side a very complex and dynamic problem testing both our tactics, weapons employment plans and discipline.. and our perhaps most importantly our communications skills.

As you can imagine the radios are very busy during a complex dynamic fight.  Pilots and weapons controllers must listen closely, process what they are hearing, and understand it… all while flying the jet, running the sensors, making decisions on whether to shoot or not… at night on night vision googles.  Everyone must make deliberate and thoughtful decisions to be clear, concise, and correct when we do key the microphone and say something on the radio. There is no room for error here… None. Oh by the way… be calm when you do key the microphone.

As complex as everything sounds in the scenario above, one could make the case that with the advent of advanced technologies and communications systems, today’s leaders are challenged with much of the same things we are.  Everyone, especially todays leaders must be able to communicate effectively, and efficiently in the fast-moving worlds of life and business.

Great communicators take the time to listen, process, and understand what it is they are hearing. They are intent on putting things aside when their team comes to them… and listening (and most importantly hearing) what is being said… processing the information by being present in the conversation and seeking to understand the perspectives of the team member who is communicating with them. They are also thoughtful and deliberate in what method they communicate with their team and what and how they say it.

I think about communications a lot.  I can always be a better communicator. 

As a technique I’d spend some time thinking about your approach to communication. Do you listen (hear), process, and understand what is being shared or said to you? Do you take the time to be thoughtful and deliberate in being clear, concise, and correct in your communication with those important stakeholders in your life?  Are you present?

BTW, to my Navy and TOPGUN buddies… you know I love you.

The Author is currently serving as an active duty military officer. Any comments or recommendations on this post or on this site are solely my personal views and do not represent the position of any branch of the United States Government.

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Case Study: WeWork and the finances behind the business.

Before, and after, becoming an entrepreneur I flew F-16’s for the US Military.

One of the things we did religiously after every mission was a non-emotional, fact-based debrief.

The debrief had one purpose… to dig for the facts and then from those facts derive concrete lessons learned that we could export to the rest of the Squadron in order to be more effective as warfighters. We debriefed after every mission both in peacetime and in combat focusing on our survivability and lethality. Debriefing is part of who I am now and I do it daily in both my military and civilian life.

I”ve watched with interest the events surrounding WeWork over the last year. Recently the WSJ published an article on the financing side of WeWork. The link to the WSJ article is here. I’m by no means rendering an opinion given that I was not in the board meetings, but one wonders what kind of debrief the team there is conducting and what lessons they will all learn from this experience.

I’m currently serving on an active duty tour with the US Military. This blog represents my personal views and does not represent the views of any element of the US Government or my views as a US Government employee.

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The Leader’s Playbook-6: “The Brotherhood of War”

They were waiting for him when he arrived. They had never met him before but despite their difference in service, he was unquestionably their Brother.

They were six US Navy SEAL Officers.  One, an O-6 US Navy Captain, the Commander.  A second, the operations officer, a Lieutenant Commander and the other four were brand new BUDS graduates… all on their first deployment.  All 1st LTs or JGs.

As he arrived, they met him at the ramp to the emergency room door.  They moved silently, three to a side, and they, not the medical team, carried him into the ER where they surrounded him as the Chaplain read him his last rights.

When the Chaplin was done the Operations Officer ordered a hand salute… then for the next sixteen hours in 120-degree heat the young, brand new BUDS graduates, on their first deployment, stood the watch over him until the C-130 came to bring him home to his Family for the final time… their lives changed forever.

There are no words to express how the Brotherhood of War really works. As a Nation, we could not be more lucky to have American’s who selfless leave their families to go to war to protect us all… and give it all… and the Brotherhood and Sisterhood that serves alongside them every step of the way.

God Bless you and your Family… and thank you all beyond words.

NSDQ! Long Live The Brotherhood.

 

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Sunday Thoughts: “Who is the owner of this problem?”

I’m overseas right now and the schedule is a 24/7 work schedule.  The hours are insane but we try hard to keep our schedule lite on Sundays to give the team (and us)  time to think, reset, and grab a few extra hours of sleep.

As I reflected on my horrible performance as a writer and blogger over the last few months, I found myself this morning thinking about my Mom.  (We lost her to cancer two years ago.)  She taught my Sister and me so much… and would often shut us both down when we were misbehaving with a single question…

“Who is the owner of this problem?”

My mom first asked me this when I was 10 years old.  I still remember where I was in our house in Alamogordo, NM.  I was whining about some issue… when BOOM.. she laid it on me.

“Dan, who is the owner of this problem?”  I was stopped dead in my tracks.

I have no idea where she pulled this most perfect question from…  but it was clear to her, and more importantly to me, that I had no way out.  It was and still is, one of the single biggest questions that has helped shape my life.  She used it on me many times to my dismay.. and I use it today to help lead great teams.

Great leaders, and their teams, own problems.  They work and think hard to understand the environment, the problem, the potential solutions, and they get at solving them – in business, the military, and life.

Mom, I own not blogging very much over the past few months.  I will do better.

Your Son

 

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The Leader’s Playbook-5: Taking the time to think

We live in an incredibly saturating world now.  Technology is wonderful, but at times can be overwhelming.

Literally, by the second we are faced with smartphones, cable TV, the internet, tablets etc.  The onslaught of available inputs is out of control.  It is impossible now to actually be bored – as long as you have a signal and battery life.

One of the things I’m working on now is trying to cut away from these things.  To turn off my cell phone, step away from the internet… and simply and purely find the time to think, focus, and concentrate.  To focus on the essential and the vital, and to understand what is really essential, and equally important what is not.  I’m blocking time each day to do this.

Time is the most valuable thing in life…  and for me, I certainly need to constantly remind myself to concentrate and focus on the most vital and essential things.  I have a lot of room for improvement!

Book recommendation: Greg McKeown’s book “Essentialism, The Disciplined Pursuit of Less”.

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Elements of National Power

There is a lot going on in the news these days.

The turbulence and drama range from the challenges our economy faces here at home, to the potential conflicts in North Korea, to the ongoing combat operations in the Middle East.

Leaders in both business and government must understand the various elements of national power often referred to as “DIME” and know how to drive them.

DIME is an easy to remember acronym for “Diplomatic”, “Informational”, “Military”, and “Economic”.

In the US Government, different Cabinet Departments and Agencies lead different elements of national power.  The US Department of State leads the “D”, DoD leads the “M”, while the Department of Treasury and Commerce each have parts of the “E”.

The informational “I” element of national power is critical but frankly, the US has not done a good job developing a well-coordinated interagency informational program designed to get the word out.  We need work.

Each element of national power can impact the other.  Great companies and great governments will take all elements of power into consideration and develop a solid strategy and a supporting set of plans to optimally design a gameplan that uses the right element of national power for the given situation.

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Requirements

I’ve been working on a few business projects recently which have highlighted again to me the value of taking the time to craft well-defined requirements.

Requirements are the road to solid end-states, and without them, a business or project will meander all over the place trying to find what it needs to get the job done.

So what does a well-defined requirement look like?

The requirement should lay out what the business needs in order to reach its strategic goals and/or end-states.  It should be clear, concise, understandable, and measurable.  The requirement should be “testable” and be nested within your business or corporate strategy.

The format varies, but the need to take some time to properly define, articulate, and communicate your requirements should be a key component of your business strategy and plans.  Don’t forget to take the time to craft some good ones.

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It’s all about the people

I have been incredibly blessed in my life to work with some of the best of the best.  Unfortunately a few times earlier in my career I took this incredible gift for granted.  You realize how important it is to work with great people when you have the opportunity to work with less than dedicated teammates (thankfully a very rare experience for me).

When Steve, Charles, and I started our first company we did not always agree on things.  In fact, there were times that we wanted to kill each other but one thing remained true, we had a deep respect for each other and realized that we each brought different things to the business.  By realizing that, even when it was hard, we powered through some incredibly difficult times and remain, great friends and collaborators, today.

As a leader the most important decisions you will make center on the team that you will build.   I’m most proud of the teams I have been a part of or have had a role in building.

Remember – leading well means driving hard to hire talent that is better than you and be ok with that.

Dan

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Mad Minute: Integration in your business

Integration in business, or lack thereof, is a significant problem in today’s fast-paced business world.  We see it all the time.

Good companies end up having departments operating in silos and occasionally compete against themselves for the same business.  I recently saw this when a major defense contractor had two specific business units competing for the same piece of work – neither aware of the other.  Needless to say, the EVP was not too happy when she realized how much time and energy they had burned.

CEOs, COOs, and other business leaders need to make it a priority to coordinate, synchronize, and integrate business operations throughout the company.  Establishing a normal meeting rhythm can help with this.

For example, at one of my manufacturing companies, we had a daily 15min standup where we talked about the major lessons learned from the previous 24 hours what was coming up each day.  We held this “standup” on the plant floor and all of our key leaders were present.  It went a long way to ensure that we never let things get too far out of sync.

Ensuring your business is integrated will go a long way towards improving your bottom line and improving senior leader communications.

Dan