Commanding Leadership

Have you ever considered that loving your enemy might be more beneficial to you than inserting distance between the two you? When someone causes you pain, suffering, or prevents you from reaching an objective, in today's episode, I propose that they are actually offering you an opportunity to become a stronger person. 

When our enemies get in the way of our objectives, our pursuit of happiness, we have a choice to make: do we give in to the hate and quit or do we take their hate and use it to fuel our desire for greatness?

Tune in today to hear more!

It was Vince Lombardi who said, “Individual commitment to a group effort – that’s what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” And this couldn’t be more true.

Nothing is more polarizing within a company culture than someone saying “That’s not my job.” Today’s episode digs into why establishing a culture of teamwork is the key to victory.

Yesterday, in Episode 14, towards the end of the episode, I touched on something that I’d like to go deeper into today. What I had said was that Curiosity is your weapon… use it to your advantage.

I cannot even begin to tell you how incredibly important it is to remain curious in life. Life has so much to offer and we would be doing ourselves a great disservice by accepting things only as they were given to us. I’m talking about education, career opportunities, military service, love, relationships-- anything. If you’re interested in something, you must pursue it.

Coming from a guy who used to see things in strictly black and white, I used to define my life by boundaries that I established-- kind of like a box that I placed myself in. I realized that this concept was actually hurting my ability to grow. Please tune in to hear more about this realization and how you can leverage curiosity to achieve your goals.

“The most dangerous phrase in the language is ‘We’ve always done it this way’.” Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper.

Want to make more sales? Want to increase warehouse throughput? Want to develop a more agile company? There’s no way to do any of those without CHANGE and KILLING the mantra of “we’ve always done it that way.”

Tune in today to see why challenging the status quo is so important.

I thought it would be interesting to run a series of Friday’s on Commanding Leadership, called Fundamental Friday’s, where I talk about

leadership fundamentals that I have learned from others and want to pay forward. These fundamentals have guided me along my leadership journey and I hope they can do the same for you.

Today’s fundamental is “Extreme Ownership”. For those of you that know me, I’m a huge proponent of this principle coined by Jocko Willink.

There are so many benefits to taking this approach towards leadership. If you want to hear a few of them, please tune in to the podcast.

So today, I’d like to talk to you about something the military calls the one-third two-thirds rule. The one-third two-thirds rule is essentially a time management guide that directs how leader should allocate his time.

When first learning of this principle, it sounds like it will be easy to implement, but let’s be real, most principles in life SOUND EASY in theory but they’re typically much more difficult to implement in reality.

This episode dives into an example of that.

“As I look back on my life, I realize that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being redirected to something better.” - Dr. Steve Maraboli

I’ve got a great story to tell you today about a time when I was rejected. Please tune in to see how I transformed rejection into something exponentially better.

Kobe Bryant once said, “Reality gives nothing back and nor should you.” And he’s right. Life is not infinite… at least while we’re still in reality. Life gives nothing back to us once it’s gone. That, is the harsh truth that we experience when we lose something-- whether the loss is of a life, a war, a customer, a game. When we lose it, it’s gone.

So how can we make the most of what we have, when we still have it? If you will allow me, I’d like to share with you the three ways that I think we can accomplish just that.

Today, I’d like to talk to you about what I believe is one of the most defining things about any leader. And this thing is: the team that the leader surrounds himself with.

There’s that saying from Jim Rohn that goes something like you are the average of the 5 people that you spend the most time with.

And I totally believe that to be true. In my case, I have been blessed with a brilliant wife who encourages me to be a better human every day, a team of managers and employees who motivate me to never stop learning, and an incredible community of soldiers and leaders in the military who have taught me to never give up no matter what the stakes. These teams have impacted me more ways that they even know and are the reason why I’m even on this podcast talking about the lessons I’ve learned.

I thought it would be interesting to run a series called Fundamental Friday’s, where I talk about personal beliefs of mine that have guided me along my leadership journey through life.

This Friday, I’m talking about a prioritization principle called “The Mission, The Men, and Me”. Come check it out!