Copyright 2020 – The Caine Group, LLC – All rights reserved
Over the past few years, I’ve enjoyed doing some personal writing here on my companies website, but the time has come to make a shift.
I hope you will join me at http://dancaine.net.
We will still do some Caine Group related writing here and look forward to sharing that with you.
Thanks,
Dan
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.
Success in life is so much about essential choices, timing, and good fortune – especially when it comes to the people we surround ourselves with.
I have been so blessed through these choices, some great timing, and good fortune in my life to have incredible wingmen, friends, and family. They have made my life so much richer. I remain so grateful for each of them and I have trusted many of them with my life multiple times.
I have also made incorrect choices, had to adjust to bad timing and embrace misfortune. Simply recovering from misjudged situations, motivations, or the intentions of others has contributed equally to my personal growth.
Every time I’ve had a less than optimum experience with a person or a relationship, I’ve learned something from the experience. I didn’t ask the right questions, didn’t ask enough questions, didn’t check references, trust my gut, or I let emotions get in the way. In retrospect, the clues were there and while these are frequently deep and painful lessons, I am wiser now and they happen with significantly less frequency.
I now think clearly and deliberately about the “wingmen” in my life. These are without a doubt some of the most important decisions you will ever make. Time is your most precious gift in life and choosing wisely with whom you will spend that time will make all the difference in your life. It absolutely has for me.
Most importantly, do not ever forget that “wingmanship” is a two-way street. Deliver on your end every time – and if you don’t, own it and fix it.
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.
I spend a lot of time with the teams I get to be a part of talking about the various ways to both approach, and solve, complex and wicked problems. Remaining focused on the issue at hand versus the emotions that can surround an issue is a lot of our focus.
As a teenager I remember first reading a book about Apollo 13. Apollo 13, Commanded by legendary Astronaut Jim Lovell, was the supposed to be the second moon landing. Not long after beginning the long journey to the Moon, Apollo 13 had a major in-flight emergency which immediately put the crews lives at risk. At that time, this was the most significant challenge NASA had ever faced during a flight.
Mission Control in Houston was instantly thrown into a confusing and chaotic situation which required immediate, and precise decisions, in order to save the crew. In what became a seminal learning point for me, legendary Flight Director Gene Kranz, while leading his team through the chaos of the initial reactions, paused, thought, and told his team… “work the problem people… work the problem.” And they did… and over the next few days managed to make thousands of correct decisions which resulted in Apollo 13 safely looping around the back side of the Moon and returning safely to Earth with all three crew members aboard.
I’ve adapted the concept that Flight Director Kranz took, as well as many other famous leaders in our history, and boiled it down to two simple words.. “Stay Frosty”.
I hope this approach helps you as much as it has helped me and others in our business.
Also check out Mr. Kranz’s book “Failure is not an option”. It is a great read.
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.
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.
Earlier in my life, I was all over the place in terms of deliberately developing what a successful and sustainable daily ritual might look like.
Three years ago while serving in a very high-tempo military job I made the decision to change this. I set out to put some deep and deliberate thought and design into what works for me and what would sustain my optimal level of performance over time. I wish I’d done this in my teens. It has sustained me while in very high-pressure jobs both at home and while deployed.
So here it is:
I work out 6 days a week and take Sunday’s off.
I wish I’d done this years ago and hope that you will develop a Daily Ritual that works for you.
I also recommend you check out the book “Daily Rituals: How artists work” by Mason Currey. It was an entertaining read.
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.
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.
I spend a lot of time every day reading and consuming information.
For years I have followed Fred Wilson’s “AVC” blog. Fred has been a VC since 1987 and is a Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures in NYC. I’ve learned a lot from Fred over the years and sincerely enjoy his writing.
I loved his blog today on “Butter” and the associated piece from his colleague Nick Grossman known as “The Butter Thesis” and wanted to pass it on. I highly recommend that you both read this blog and subscribe to both Fred’s blog and Nicks.
You can subscribe to Fred’s blog here: https://avc.com/subscribe/
You can read Fred’s blog from today here: https://avc.com/2019/12/butter/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AVc+%28A+VC%29
I’m currently on active duty as a US Military Officer. 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.
I am fortunate enough to be spending a few days at the Kennedy School at Harvard as part of the Kennedy School’s program for Senior Executives for National and International Security.
One of the lectures we listened to today was on the role of energy in our national security policy and how energy transitions from carbon-based approaches to more sustainable energy will impact both global economies as well as the underlying fabric of global security
The US and our allies and partners need to think strongly about what a world looks like where oil is not a baseline power source.
What happens when that political and policy lever is not in play for global decision-makers. What does that look like, and what investments are leaders making now to ensure decision space in that new market?
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.
I have been so fortunate in my life to have met and worked with so many amazing people.. but when I think about true lifelong friends the list is a bit shorter.
At the top of that list is Charles “Skammer” Skoda.
Skammer, Steve McShea, and I started our first company together. Skammer was brilliant and had an incredible impact on everyone around him – most of all his Family and friends.
Today is Skammer’s birthday.
We lost him this past year with another great friend Steve DeWolf. This picture was taken shortly before they passed away.
What I always will remember about Skammer is that no matter what was going on his life… whatever troubles he might be having… he always… always… was checking on other people.
Skammer you were a giant of a man… a loving Husband, Father, Brother, and
Happy Birthday buddy.
