Our military was founded on a “Can Do” spirit. Heck, our Nation was founded on the same. We proudly find ways to do more with less and we feel a bit lesser when we fall short. At the same time, we have books of regulations that tell us exactly what […]
Category: Leadership
The Worrier
Last week, my wife and I took advantage of the free time created by a lack swim practice since our son was at the Olympic Training Center with his teammates. Not having the tether that is daily trips to and from the pool, we enjoyed a few days of adventure […]
Valued and Dispensable
I have found that the best leaders with whom I serve find a way to make themselves simultaneously valued and dispensable. A dichotomy indeed. The people and things we value most are not what we think of as easily replaceable or superfluous, the definition of dispensable. It is logical to […]
Sharing a Profession
Earlier this week I had the privilege of presenting at Steelcase’s Curious Minds guest speaker series. A longtime friend of mine (We served together as Ensigns at our first duty station) invited me in an effort to give a Veteran’s Day theme to it all. Though it was easy for […]
Meaningful Differentiation
As a family and though not as leisurely as any of us would have liked, we spent the last week driving across our beautiful country. We started in Chesapeake, Virginia and finished in Mountain View, California. It was my 7th cross country trek, my wife’s 3rd, and the first for […]
Closing a Chapter
August 02, 2017, may very well go down in my memory bank as the most significant day in my career as a leader. It was the day we turned the Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command Change of Command ceremony into a celebration of an amazing team and the culmination of […]
Responsible Friction
The health of an organization can often time be measured by the friction within. Friction is defined as (a) the rubbing of one body against another, (b) the force that resists relative motion between two bodies in contact, and (c) the clashing between two persons or parties of opposed views. Earlier this […]
Doing Voids: Responding and Preventing
Earlier this year I wrote about outcomes a team is able to generate because of effective leaders and value a team is able to deliver despite ineffective leaders. Committed leaders can inspire a team to accomplish things they never even dreamt of and a committed team can sometimes deliver amazing results […]
Betting on Horses
I am not a gambler, but some of my proudest moments as a leader come when I bet on the right horse. By “bet on” I mean position or advocate for. And by “horse” I mean teammate. Some horses are sure bets, but some of the best bets are the dark […]
Degrees of Gratitude
Think about the number of times you had reason to say, “You are welcome” over the last week. Would you say that it was 1 time, 10 times, 50 times, more? Now, think about what prompted you to say it each time? Next, think about what you did to earn […]
Unfinished By Design
There are few things in life that are as satisfying as finishing something that you started. In my life, the two feats I am most proud of finishing were graduating the US Naval Academy and completing Ironman Austria. I don’t confuse those two things with the most significant milestones or […]
Doing the Opposite
The order of things: the way that life and the world currently are. I have been giving a great deal of thought to the order of things of late. No, that’s not true. I have been giving a great deal of thought to the order of things for the majority […]
Make it Personal
Over the last couple of days, I have been tracking the National Football League’s (NFL) Draft from afar. It’s not that I am fanatical about any particular team or the NFL as a whole, I am always intrigued by the strategies and tactics involved in building teams. The draft model […]
Asking for Directions
Those of us who remember life before our smartphones can recall a day when we didn’t have the answers to most of our questions at our fingertips. We couldn’t ask Siri, Cortana, Alexa, or Google. We would either attempt to figure things out on our own or enlist the help […]
Environment and the Norm
Today marks my 591st day as a proud member and the Commanding Officer of Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command. When I joined this team I committed to helping them write an especially meaningful chapter of what continues to be a story worth telling. I emphasize helping them because it isn’t my […]
Capturing Value
No matter our profession or our role within a team, we have a shared responsibly: deliver or create value for the customer. And whether we see it or not, the fact is we all have customers. The teams of which I have been a part over the course of my […]
Prioritized Success and Equitable Failure
We are taught early on in life to treat people as we want to be treated. We also have the good fortune of living in a country where we believe that all people are created equal and have certain inalienable rights. Over time, I have learned it is far better to […]
Engaging “The Others”
People who are truly committed to their profession, their team, and their potential tend to have little trouble bouncing out of bed, giving their best, and end the day satisfied with the effort. We may not always be thrilled about the outcome, but we don’t control that. However, we do […]
Raising the Floor
I am a big fan of John Maxwell’s teachings. One of my favorite of the ‘laws’ of leadership he espouses is that of the ‘Law of the Lid.’ For those who are not familiar with the ‘Law of the Lid’, simply put, leadership ability is the lid that determines a […]
The Tenured Team
I am not an academic, but I feel as though I long ago reached the point of having tenure as a Naval Officer. Generally speaking, tenure is the right to hold a position for as long as you want to have it after meeting a longevity and performance standard requirement. […]