Welcome to THE CAREER ACCELERATOR, the podcast where corporate managers will find tips and tools to deliver results through others.
Today I will provide three lessons to help you accelerate your career growth.
I’m your host, Percy Cannon.
In our last episode I gave you four tips that can help your team maximize the power of healthy conflict:
- Agree on a set of ground rules for how to debate.
- Ensure there is 100% participation in the discussion.
- Listen to and summarize what you heard to confirm your understanding.
- Beware of the emotions in the room, and manage them, starting with your own.
Switching to today’s topic, I want to share the top three leaderships lessons I took from the book The Wisdom of the Bullfrog, recently written by retired U.S. Navy Admiral William McRaven.
Before I dig into these leadership lessons, I want to explain what the term “bullfrog” means: It’s not a breed of bull, a special variety of frog, or an ancient species of a paleontological animal… It’s the name given to the longest-serving frogman and Navy SEAL on active duty.
Now that we got the book title straight, let’s start with the top leadership lessons I took away.
1. The first and most basic message I took was Admiral’s McRaven’s definition of leadership: “Leadership is accomplishing a task with the people and resources you have, while maintaining the integrity of your institution.” There are three key elements in this statement that I want to highlight:
a. Delivering results is probably a no-brainer for you. A good leader needs to deliver results. Nothing new here.
b. The second element may not be a no-brainer for you: Deliver the expected results with the people and resources available to you. There’s no whining if you need more resources. Bottomline, you must deliver with what you have available to you NOW.
c. The third element gets into the HOW you deliver the results. It has to be accomplished within the law. It has to be congruent with the values and principles of your organization. And it has to be consistent with your personal values and beliefs. I interpreted this as zero tolerance for deviating from any of these principles.
This brought to mind a key takeaway I had previously shared from the Extreme Ownership book, written by ex-Navy SEALs Jocko Willink and Leif Babin: “It’s not what you preach, it’s what you tolerate.” I have shared this principle with several of my coaching clients to emphasize the importance of NOT tolerating behaviors in their team members that do not reflect their organization’s values.
2. The second lesson I took was: “When in command, command.” When you have a leadership responsibility, lead. Do NOT abdicate this responsibility to others. Do NOT shy away from making tough decisions. Do NOT hide in your office and leave your team alone. Show your face, interact frequently with your team, and communicate broadly and frequently to your organization. Make your strategy, priorities and values clear and understandable through both your decisions and, importantly, through your behaviors.
3. And the third leadership lesson was: “Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.” Regardless of where you stand in your company hierarchy, you should feel empowered to make certain important decisions without asking for permission. It would be a good idea to discuss this principle with your boss so you know your boundaries.
Likewise, you should empower and promote this behavior in your employees so they know you expect them to act when a specific business or people decision needs to be dealt with in real time.
In a previous episode I shared the contrast between the first two bosses I had in my early days inside the corporate world. The first one didn’t encourage me to take risks and make decisions on my own. The second one was extremely vocal and intentional in motivating and empowering me to make increasingly relevant decisions by myself. It wasn’t always pretty. I made a few wrong decisions, for which I was appropriately scolded, but I learned from those mistakes and moved on.
Is there any room for you to increase your level of initiative and do the same for your team?
Summarizing, I have shared three lessons today that can help you become a better leader:
1. The first one was Admiral’s McRaven’s definition of leadership: “Leadership is accomplishing a task with the people and resources you have, while maintaining the integrity of your institution.” I like how this definition combines delivering results, using available resources, and completing the task within the construct of your personal and organization’s values and principles. All three elements have got to be there to excel as a leader.
2. The second lesson I shared was: “When in command, command.” If you are in a leadership position, lead. Don’t delegate the key decisions.
3. And the third leadership lesson was: “Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.” Become the leader who takes the initiative and motivates and expects this type of behavior from their team.
In our next episode I will provide more tips on how to accelerate your career growth.
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This is Percy Cannon, working to help you make the rest of your life…the best of your life®.