Category: Uncategorized

10 Success Principles We Often Forget

  1. You are the only person responsible for your success.   
  2. Success is a journey of countless baby steps.
  3. You don’t have to invent the wheel.  
  4. There is no progress without action.  
  5. Persistence always wins. 
  6. Focus is everything. 
  7. Failure is necessary. 
  8. Positivity fuels productivity.  
  9. You must believe you can.
  10. Helping others is a big part of being successful. 

The full details from “Marc and Angel Hack Life” are HERE.

You will shine as a Navy leader

“The essence of leadership is making people better. In most cases, people will sense what your expectations are and meet them. If you believe in your people, support them, and challenge them, they will almost always rise up to the occasion and perform superbly.

On the other hand, if you are suspicious, quick to criticize, and unsupportive, they will frequently perform poorly. believe in your people, let them know you trust them, listen to them, be biased toward change and improvement, and you will shine as a Navy leader. In a phrase, people will almost always be what you expect them to be. If one of your principle objectives is to develop those who work for you, success will be assured.”

Admiral James Stavridis, DIVISION OFFICER’S GUIDE

Leading with an open (but not bleeding) heart

Michael Hyatt over at Intentional Leadership shares the following…

The most important thing you can do as a leader is to keep your heart open. What do I mean? Think of it this way. When your heart is closed:

  • You are distant and aloof.
  • You don’t connect to people.
  • Communication shuts down.
  • You leave people to fend for themselves.
  • You focus on what people are doing wrong.
  • You are critical and demanding.
  • People feel oppressed.

The result? Possibility dries up and the organization begins to die.
Conversely, when your heart is open:

  • You are fully present and accessible.
  • You connect to people.
  • Communication is wide open.
  • You are a resource to your people.
  • You may focus on what is missing, but not on who is wrong.
  • You are affirming and encouraging.
  • People feel free.

The result? Possibility flows through the organization and the organization grows and develops.

Bill Campbell’s advice – "Don’t continue to suffer in a poor organization"

This is where you want to be
“Let me break it down for you. In good organizations, people can focus on their work and have confidence that if they get their work done, good things will happen for both the company and them personally. It is a true pleasure to work in an organization such as this. Every person can wake up knowing that the work they do will be efficient, effective and make a difference both for the organization and themselves. These things make their jobs both motivating and fulfilling.”

Avoid this at all costs
“In a poor organization, on the other hand, people spend much of their time fighting organizational boundaries, infighting and broken processes. They are not even clear on what their jobs are, so there is no way to know if they are getting the job done or not. In the miracle case that they work ridiculous hours and get the job done, they have no idea what it means for the company or their careers. To make it all much worse and rub salt in the wound, when they finally work up the courage to tell management how fucked up their situation is, management denies there is a problem, then defends the status quo, then ignores the problem.” 

Bill Campbell
CEO Intuit

More over at Ben’s blog HERE.  Hat tip to Liz Wiseman who retweeted from HERE.

Playing the numbers game

I posted a few days ago about Commander Mike Ward’s firing as CO of USS PITTSBURGH and pointed readers to a good article written by Captain Mark Light HERE.  Various Navy spokesmen have cited that there are over 1500 Navy COs at any given time and only the smallest percentage (cited as between 1% to 3%) are fired in any given year.  The Navy has fired 13 Commanding Officers so far this year and a lessor number of executive officers and senior enlisted leaders.  Some, including Galrahn over at Information Dissemination express their satisfaction that this percentage is acceptable and it reflects the Navy’s ‘pretty good job of evaluating people’ for command.  I think social media and information technology are helping the Navy do a better job of identifying misfit COs because Sailors have so many avenues now to report abhorrent behavior by their seniors to the proper authorities for action.
What we see in the CO firings is really a much smaller cross-section of the commanding officer domain than the reported “1500 individuals in command at any one time”.  The population we are really talking about are the COs in command of ships, submarines, aviation squadrons and significant shore commands.  That number is much smaller than 1500 and is certainly closer to 400 than 1500 and effectively triples the percentage of COs being fired annually.
So, while some in the Navy are reportedly content with the percentage of CO and other senior leader firings, I promise you that the Chief of Naval Operations is not content and feels the pain in a personal way when each Commanding Officer is relieved for cause (any cause).  Our CNO is a former VADM James Bond Stockdale Inspirational Leadership Award winner.  He knows what leadership is all about.  He expects more from his COs – and the majority are meeting his expectations.  But, is that enough?   It may not be.

I like this thought from LT Rob McFall on ‘innovation’ in small things

Through this constant movement of people from one command to another, we can refine our practices and improve our systems. Innovations do no have to be Revolutions in Military Affairs. Innovations can be a new way to hook up an IPOD to the 1MC, a better XO tickler, an easier way to clean a P-way, or a better way to execute the daily schedule. The little things add up.
This is about changing a mindset, which costs nothing. To be more efficient in how we proceed we need to cherry pick the best practices from every ship, squadron and boat. People are the best source of institutional knowledge that we have. By being more aware of our new arrivals, while taking advantage of the career paths that are already in place, we can harness the innovative nature of our people and our service.
His entire post is available HERE at the USNI Blog.