Leadership – BTMJ.org

Adm. William H. McRaven: Life Lessons From Navy SEAL Training

When it comes to leadership, the US Special Operations Command is probably about as good as it gets. I had the privilege to see Gen. Stanley McChrystal speak once and was impressed not only by what he had to say, but also in how both practical and nuanced his points were.

This WSJ piece includes Adm. William McRaven’s recent commencement address at the University of Texas. Now as an Aggie, I won’t comment on the UT elements of his remarks but the lessons from SEAL training are worth hearing—summarized in his conclusion below (Source):

It will not be easy. But start each day with a task completed. Find someone to help you through life. Respect everyone. Know that life is not fair and that you will fail often, but if you take some risks, step up when the times are toughest, face down the bullies, lift up the downtrodden and never, ever give up—if you do these things, then the next generation and the generations that follow will live in a world far better than the one we have today. And what started here will indeed have changed the world, for the better.

Now I’m off to go make my bed.

Reading: Tribes

This weekend’s read was Seth Godin’s Tribes, essentially a collection of tidbits on leadership in today’s increasing connected world. The internet has eliminated geography and reduced the costs of communication to nil. Factor in the rise of social networking, and a space for highly leveraged leadership opens up.

Seth basically challenges the reader. While some portions seemed a little disjointed, I did appreciate his consistent theme of challenging the status quo and dog-eared this alliteration on leadership:

Leaders create culture around their goal and involve others in that culture.

Leaders have an extraordinary amount of curiosity about the world they’re trying to change.

Leaders use charisma (in a variety of forms) to attract and motivate followers.

Leaders communicate their vision of the future.

Leaders commit to a vision and make decisions based on that committment.

Leaders connect their followers to one another.

And in accordance with the author’s recommendation, it’s sitting ready if you’d like to borrow it.

Godin, Seth. Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us

Delta CEO on Subjects, Verbs and Objects

Quick NTY interview with the CEO of Delta Airlines, Richard Anderson, with good tidbits about leadership, (non-PowerPoint) communication and time management—including this little nugget… (Source)

Q. Are you a list keeper? A. I use Moleskines. It’s just lists of things. Sometimes I’ll just sit down and write what I’m thinking about things, because I’m not a PowerPoint person. I’ll start at the upper left corner of the page and start writing, in complete thoughts, what I think. I have a long paper that I’m writing about our marketing strategy.