Applied Leadership Podcast

Brandon and Blayne discuss some practical ways that we can get curious about how we know when we need to listen to our intuitions or our mind. We can gain some awareness and ask curious questions about why we're feeling the way we are.

Blayne and Brandon reflect on some hard-earned wisdom and lessons learned from mistakes they made early on in their leadership journey, in the military, business and family life.

There is a very important difference between peacekeeping and peaceMAKING.

Quiet is not to be confused with Peace.

As leaders, it is our responsibility to embrace the discomfort and proactively work to address the wide range of challenges that can create disharmony within our teams. 

We know you don't want to "die on every hill", but it is critical to catch things while they are relatively small...because they won't stay that way. And when small resentments build up, they can lead to outright contempt.

It's important to note that disharmony can be both person and interpersonal. In both cases, it is your job to seek it out and address it. 

And for the things that simply cannot or will not change, then we make peace accepting it.

But we know that Accountability is really just applied Responsibility, and we can absolutely do it effectively.

In this episode, we discuss the core aspects of Accountability and how we can implement these to help make it part of our organization's culture.

This week, we dig into empowerment. We talk about what it IS, what it ISN'T, and most importantly, how you can effectively make it happen in your organization.

A lot of talented , driven people wrestle with the notion of "Impact". We feel compelled, even obligated, to leave our mark. Or as Steve Jobs said, "make a dent in the universe."

We think that for most people, it'd be health to re-frame the conversation and starting thinking instead about Contribution. 

By shifting our perspective to contribution, we can do more for others, lead without authority, and feel free to simply do our best.

Verbs > Nouns

This Thanksgiving, let's all strive to demonstrate our gratitude through our actions. Be it a hand-written note, a sincerely phone call, or just a warm hug. The gesture doesn't have to be grand, but it does have to be in earnest. 

It's not about being thankful or having an "attitude of gratitude", it's about truly GIVING Thanks.

There’s a reason why the Rangers, the Green Berets, and many other Special Operations Units use unknown distance ruck marches to assess candidates. The ruck is often called “the ultimate equalizer”. It can make a 250lbs linebacker fall by the wayside while a 140lbs teenager drives on. The ruck does not discriminate and it does not relent. 

But those who really know, know that the unknown distance march isn’t about the weight of the ruck or the number of miles covered.

It’s about the uncertainty – the ability to persevere through continuous hardship for however long it takes. It’s about learning to focus on the mission, not the moment. 

There is no inherent value in optionality. None. All of the value resides in the options themselves...and none of that value is captured until an option is exercised...and the optionality goes away. 

In this episode we discuss our desire to keep our options open and why it might be hurting us in the long run. 

You can read this at: https://www.appliedleadershippartners.com/blog/the-danger-in-keeping-our-options-open

Many of life's most important topics are very complex. It's natural for us, as humans, to try and make them simple. How we seek that simplicity is what makes all of the difference.

If we choose not to deeply engage with a complex subject, we settle for a simplistic view of it. And that's perfectly ok, so long as we recognize the limits of our understanding. 

However, we can also choose to really dig in and wrestle with complex topics, uncovering all of the nuance and difficulty. If we do that, then sometimes we can emerge on the other side able to clearly provide a simple explanation.