I recently stumbled across the music video for Twisted Sister’s song, “I Wanna Rock”. It had been quite some time since I had seen it and watching the preamble to the song where the teacher asks one of the students, “What do you wanna do with your life?” took me […]
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Glaciers, Fjords, and Teambuilding
Many of us are surrounded by dichotomies and some of us live in more than one, I find myself a uniformed military officer living in Silicon Valley – two very different cultures (at least on the surface). I also find myself as part of a team moving fast, yet maturing […]
A Culture of Understanding
One of the things I find most challenging as leader of teams is developing a culture of understanding. Most of the people with whom I have served are wired to execute. They like to get things done. Some slow down to deliberately think about desired effects and unintended consequences before […]
Hard Right Rudder
I sincerely appreciate mentors who have and continue to invest in me. Even more than that, I appreciate the opportunity to invest in protégés. As I continue to provide counsel to others, I have ceased being surprised when a protégé tells me that the advice I give them is very […]
Defining Ourselves
Last month, I shared a post about an experiment that I had undertaken to crowdsource the development of the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental Strategic Guidance. I was pleased, though not surprised by the final product. What did surprise me, however, was the uncovering of what I believe to be the […]
Big Rocks, Little Rocks, and Broken Windows
Odds are that if you are reading this, you are familiar with the term Big Rocks. If you are not, I recommend you watch this video from Stephen Covey. Dr. Covey does a great job of reminding us that it’s important to ensure we make time for what is most important, or […]
Crowdsourcing Strategy
There are many definitions of strategy. Having served in the military for 25 years and counting, I have seen strategy take many shapes. Of late, I have read the National Security Strategy and the National Defense Strategy. There is a great deal to unpack in both of those complementary strategies […]
Bread Sunday
Our military housing community enjoys a tradition that is called Bread Sunday. Each week the same gracious volunteer gets up early Sunday morning and makes her way to a local supermarket chain where she picks up baked goods donated for the benefit of neighborhood military members. Sometimes it is heavy […]
Process
Many a coach is known to have said, “Trust the Process.” The utterance of such a phrase is heard with greater frequency when the outcomes are not favorable. That is to say, a team can be putting forth an optimal effort, making all of the right decisions, and executing on the best of […]
(It’s The) Work That Matters
I’ve had many jobs over the course of my career. I may not have enjoyed them all, but I am glad to have had the opportunity to execute the responsibilities associated with each. Each and every job made me feel as though I was doing work that mattered. In nearly […]
Thanks for the Lessons…
I am far from fanatical about Christmas and I have never been overly excited about ringing in the New Year at the strike of midnight. But, I do thoroughly enjoy the tradition of winding down and reconnecting with family and friends that accompanies year end traditions. This year has been […]
Drawing Inspiration
Today is the 30th of the month and as part of my commitment to myself, it marks one of the three days each month I publish a blogpost. I have so many things that I want to write about, but find myself totally uninspired. My wife picked up on it […]
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 […]
The Fray
The fray is where the real work takes place. The fray is where action happens. The fray is the part of the organization that the Doers call home. Early in my career I operated in the fray and enjoyed it immensely. At times I thrived in it and at times […]
Missing Career Milestones
Last month, the Information Warfare Community, to which I have been a proud member for 25 years and counting, convened a board to screen officers for their next career milestone. As is true with the posting of the results after each board, there were people who were excited to read […]
The New Guy
I thoroughly enjoy being the new guy on the team. There are zero expectations that you know anything and there is every expectation that you soon will. There are people to meet, things to learn, and opportunities to grow. I love all of that. I love being the one asking […]
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 […]
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 […]