Lessons
Lesson Info
Leading From the Front
So, the next lesson I'm gonna talk about is leading from the front and being an exemplary leader. And then we're gonna wrap it up with the lesson on goal setting. So leading from the front. Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. That's a Peter Drucker quote, which I like. Anybody have good examples, situations they've seen where somebody is a good leader? And it's the famous meme that's out there where it's the difference between a boss and a leader. And the boss is on the cart, whipping the employees and the leader is out front, dragging it along with the rest of the team. Does anyone have any? Yeah. Yeah. I serve at my church and I'm a volunteer but I work with the staff. I think one of the reasons that I stick around and hang out and work there, volunteer there, is because everybody is on the ground doing everybody's work. As soon as they see a need, they fill it. Our pastor is there. He was sweeping floors last week and I walk around, what are you...
doing, bro? We have people dedicated to doing that, but he just grabbed it from somebody, and I wanna be with people like that and learn from them. So it's huge for me. That's a great example. And something I always try and just embody in myself. I can remember we had our bi-annual team meeting a few weeks back and it was time to clean up and it was like everybody pitched in. I wasn't above that. I mean, grabbing people's plates and that's, it was nice to see everybody pitching in to make it happen. Yes, it's communal. At this point I'd been in organizations where it's like I'm here now and I'm not gonna do that. Yeah, you had a good example? Well, I used to work in the restaurant industry and I know that some of the management programs have the managers starting off cleaning bathrooms. And really doing every single job that they're going to be managing. And it really teaches, I think, people in leadership positions to be more understanding, more humble, knowing where the team is coming from. Being able to pitch in where they need to. I think that's one of the most valuable things a company, any company can do. Even swapping roles. A media guy in my company can get an idea of what's it like to do performance marketing for a week. And realize how tough that is and vice versa. It's one of the great things about the company I built. I've done everything from selling ads to writing to content to filming. It just gives you such a great perspective and appreciation for the work everybody else does. Anybody have anything else? Okay, so we actually covered one of these topics. I already talked about this video in the prior lesson about adversity. I wanna talk about mission. Cause to your point about communication, everybody needs to understand what the mission is. If they don't, that's a big problem. I can think of, I always go back to the state department. The U.S. foreign policy. You see it a lot in politics where the mission is foggy and that scares me as somebody that leads a business. When you don't have a clear path in the world, what are we doing? Alright, so that's super important to have a clear mission. Everybody has to know the mission. That's bottom up. The lowest person to the CEO. Communicate with your team. Do it well, do it often. I have a story here. I was on a aircraft carrier. Has anyone been on an aircraft carrier before? Okay, so you know how massive it is. I think it's something like 5000 people at sea. You've got planes landing on the decks and all sorts of stuff happening. The first, before I was a Navy Seal, I was a search and rescue swimmer in this helicopter squad and so we deployed on the USS Lincoln, which was in Alameda, out of Alameda. Yeah. It was one of the most modern carriers. We were on top of the nuclear carrier. We did the deployment. Our squadron had a great deployment, but the ship had a bunch of safety issues. They collided with a ship at sea. Just a bunch of safety stuff happened. And we never heard from the captain. I think I heard the captain come over the speaker once. I remember our next deployment was going to be on the USS Kittihawk and all's I could think of, and the Kittihawk was old, it was conventional aircraft carrier, and I just had this picture in my mind, we went from the state of the art, which wasn't that good, and now we're going to this Kittihawk place. It's gonna be way worse. And I was blown away. That ship was way cleaner, nicer, and it was, I don't know how many, probably 50 years plus older than the Lincoln. And one thing that stood out to me was that everyday the captain would come on the loud speaker, and it doesn't matter where you are on the boat, boom, they boom the announcement in, and he would talk to everybody about what was happening for the day, what our plan was, what our objective was, and just that from a moral stand point, everybody was like yeah, we know what we're doing. Impeccable safety record. And to me it stood out as two different styles of leadership. One guy was just like I'm the boss, listen to what I say. And he didn't say anything. The other one was communicating with the entire crew of 5000. Everyday you knew he would come over, sometimes twice a day, and talk to the crew. And the difference in moral, upkeep of the ship and we had an incredible safety record. You're operating that, I think the aircraft carrier is one of the most dangerous jobs and places to work on the planet, but it was something that really stood out for me. Was something I really get into in the book. And like I said earlier, there's a huge difference between just being a boss and actually being a leader that people look up to and respect. This is something, earn your title everyday. It's something we had on the Seal teams that we'd call it earning your Tridan everyday. It's the seal, this gold seal pin. And I can give you a handful of examples of guys that got on the Seal team then just kinda slacked off. In a training scenario, we train a lot with live ammunition. If you sweep somebody with a barrel with live bullets that's grounds for dismissal. You can get thrown out. I've seen seasoned guys let off a bit and have a really bad day and they'll pull the pin and send you somewhere else. What that taught me was, okay, it is and another saying we have on the Seal team is that the only easy day is yesterday. You can't rest on your past, you have to keep up. It's like the habit of excellence I talked about in the lesson earlier. You just gotta earn it everyday. You can't have a good day and then slack off. I see it all the time. People show up at work and they'll put in this massive effort in the first month and then they think they can slack off. It just doesn't work. Doesn't work. You gotta earn it everyday. And like we said, don't be afraid to get your hands dirty. I'll take out the trash, just like anyone else.
Ratings and Reviews
user-1af93d
I had the pleasure of being in the live audience for this course, SO much content, I actually got the book as well and took lots of notes. With Brandon there is no fluff, it's all real actionable steps and strategies to get you focused in very specific ways. we talked about goal setting, team work, vision statement, and that's just a taste, there are so many different categories that we got into. I'll have to go and study my copious notes.. I'm glad CreativeLive added a course on FOCUS! Man I need it as a small business owner it's so helpful to have an expert help me Focus! Brandon was a high level Navy Seal but he's really down to earth, funny, smart and packed this course with massive content. Thanks Brandon
Brad Aylor
I thought that the course had a lot of helpful and interesting information. If your a person that relies on the presenter to excite you with presentation and not listen for the content, you may have some challenges. He should be applauded for what he has accomplished. We should all celebrate that.