Five Ways a Military Approach Can Help Every Non-Military Manager

http://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesleadershipforum/2013/01/07/five-ways-a-military-approach-can-help-every-non-military-manager/

This article is by John Esposito, a member of the board of the consultancy McKinney Rogers, formerly president and chief executive of Bacardi U.S.A., president and CEO of Moet Hennessy USA, and president and CEO of Shieffelin & Somerset.
D-Day: The Normandy Invasion

D-day: The leadership vision, organizational preparation, tactical planning, and broader strategy required were staggering.

When I was the U.S. chief executive at Moët Hennessy, I spearheaded the merger of three Moët Hennessy U.S. companies into one new one. The deal could easily have gone sour without full recognition of the countless challenges organizations face during a monumental merger of this kind. To avoid the potential pitfalls, our organization adopted a military ethos. This meant constantly evaluating tactics against strategy, and actively avoiding mission creep. I found that the military-inspired approach we took was a key factor in aligning Moët Hennessey USA as a global organization. Later, as President and CEO of Bacardi North America, I found that the military ethos remained a part of my thinking and managerial approach.

I have been a civilian my entire life, but ex-military business execution professionals have shown me the value that a military approach and the principles of commando training can bring to any organization. My advice to management anywhere is to be open to what your teams can learn from the military and apply the following five lessons.
Why Republicans Should Welcome Chuck Hagel To The Pentagon's Top Job Loren Thompson Loren Thompson Contributor
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf: Negotiator and Military Man Jim Camp Jim Camp Contributor

1. Insist on clear communication and alignment. Clear communication and alignment are hallmarks of the military. Don’t underestimate the importance of language in reinforcing or shifting an organization’s mindset. Words like “mission,” “vision,” and “tactics” empower people to think differently about what they’re doing. When you use terms like “interdependency” you force a conversation between people that can drastically improve outcomes.

2. Create high-performing teams. Military experience emphasizes organizing and defining your team’s goals and missions, your team’s members’ roles and responsibilities, and your action plans. This empowers people to become part of a high-performing team in an organizational setting. Everyone talks about leadership, but the successful business must be able to recruit people who want to be part of a team and are willing to be good followers. There is no substitute for putting the best people with the right skills in the right roles.  Like a commando team, they allow you to do more with fewer resources.

3. Get comfortable in dynamic environments.In today’s dynamic and uncertain business environment, the most successful firms are those that can act quickly and decisively in response to change. Strong self-efficacy, high achievement, autonomy, and the ability to take decisive action in the face of uncertainty and dynamic environments are critical capabilities. Preparing individuals to evalu

ate a dynamic environment and act in the face of uncertainty is a particular strength of the military, and it should be a priority for executive training programs. It all begins with having a clear vision and a specific mission that enables people to act in alignment with the company’s objectives.

4. Hire your replacement. In a combat setting, casualties of war require that junior officers assume the roles of their superiors at a moment’s notice. Because of that, the military trains people to function at least two levels above their rank. Imagine how much more effective employees are when they know how to do their boss’s job and understand the big-picture vision as well as their own immediate responsibilities.

5. Ask for help. Recognize that there’s no need to go it alone.  Even for a CEO it’s okay to ask for help. You owe it to yourself and your organization to assemble the best team possible. Don’t be distracted by the desire to get all the credit. From a commando perspective, you may have an efficient team and still need to bring in resources from another division, or outsource a function, to get the job done.

Hiring veterans can be a part of the solution, too. Today military presence at corporations is at a low, when we need it most.  According to researchers at Boston University and Harvard University, 59% of companies in 1980 were led by boardroom generals from the military. By 2009 that had dropped to 8%. Take it from a civilian CEO who has experienced the benefits of a military ethos first hand, and accelerate your organization’s performance by applying military knowhow to drive your organizational success.

Inertia, Inc. Holds Charity Fundraiser For Toys For Tots - toys for tots,inertia,inertia inc

Inertia, Inc. Holds Charity Fundraiser For Toys For Tots - toys for tots,inertia,inertia inc

Nine Ways Successful People Defeat Stress

We've made it through the holidays, and now everyone is busy creating and keeping their New Year's resolutions.  This post at HBR.org gives us relevant advice on reducing stress.  Whether in the middle of job searching or completing an endless to-do list, we hope these tips help you feel better about getting it all done.

1. Have self-compassion.

Self-compassion is, in essence, cutting yourself some slack. It's being willing to look at your mistakes or failures with kindness and understanding — without harsh criticism or defensiveness.  Studies show that people who are self-compassionate are happier, more optimistic, and less anxious and depressed. That's probably not surprising. But here's the kicker: they are moresuccessful, too.  So remember that to err is human, and give yourself a break.

2. Remember the "Big Picture."

Anything you need or want to do can be thought of in more than one way. For instance, "exercising" can be described in Big Picture terms, like "getting healthier" — the why of exercising — or it can be described in more concrete terms, like "running two miles" — the how of exercising. Thinking Big Picture about the work you do can be very energizing in the face of stress and challenge, because you are linking one particular, often small action to a greater meaning or purpose.

3. Rely on routines.

 Every time you make a decision — whether it's about hiring a new employee, about when to schedule a meeting with your supervisor, or about choosing rye or whole wheat for your egg salad sandwich — you create a state of mental tension that is, in fact, stressful. (This is why shopping is so exhausting — it's not the horrible concrete floors, it's all that deciding.)

The solution is to reduce the number of decisions you need to make by using routines. If there's something you need to do every day, do it at the same time every day. Have a routine for preparing for your day in the morning, and packing up to go home at night. Simple routines can dramatically reduce your experience of stress.

4. Take five (or ten) minutes to do something you find interesting.

If there were something you could add to your car's engine, so that after driving it a hundred miles, you'd end up with more gas in the tank than you started with, wouldn't you use it? Even if nothing like that exists for your car just yet, there is something you can do for yourself that will have the same effect... doing something interesting. It doesn't matter what it is, so long as it interests you. Recent research shows that interest doesn't just keep you going despite fatigue, it actually replenishes your energy. And then that replenished energy flows into whatever you do next.

Keep these two very important points in mind: First, interesting is not the same thing as pleasant, fun, or relaxing (though they are certainly not mutually exclusive.)

Second, interesting does not have to mean effortless. The same studies that showed that interest replenished energy showed that it did so even when the interesting task was difficult and required effort. So you actually don't have to "take it easy" to refill your tank.

5. Add where and when to your to-do list.

Do you have a to-do list?  And do you find that a day or a week (or sometimes longer) will frequently pass by without a single item getting checked off? Stressful, isn't it? What you need is a way to get the things done that you set out to do in a timely manner. What you need is if-then planning (or what psychologists call "implementation intentions").

This particular form of planning is a really powerful way to help you achieve any goal. Nearly 200 studies, on everything from diet and exercise to negotiation and time management, have shown that deciding in advance when and where you will complete a task (e.g., "If it is 4pm, then I will return any phone calls I should return today") can double or triple your chances of actually doing it.

So take the tasks on your to-do list, and add a specific when and where to each. For example, "Remember to call Bob" becomes "If it is Tuesday after lunch, then I'll call Bob."

6. Use if-thens for positive self-talk.

Another way to combat stress using if-then plans is to direct them at the experience of stress itself, rather than at its causes. Recent studies show that if-then plans can help us to control our emotional responses to situations in which we feel fear, sadness, fatigue, self-doubt, or even disgust. Simply decide what kind of response you would like to have instead of feeling stress, and make a plan that links your desired response to the situations that tend to raise your blood pressure. For instance, "If I see lots of emails in my Inbox, then I will stay calm and relaxed," or, "If a deadline is approaching, then I will keep a cool head."

7. See your work in terms of progress, not perfection

We all approach the goals we pursue with one of two mindsets: what I call the Be-Good mindset, where the focus is on proving that you have a lot of ability and that you already know what you're doing, and the Get-Better mindset, where the focus is on developing your ability and learning new skills. You can think of it as the difference between wanting to show that you are smart versus wanting to get smarter.

When you have a Be-Good mindset, you expect to be able to do everything perfectly right out of the gate, and you constantly (often unconsciously) compare yourself to other people, to see how you "size up." You quickly start to doubt your ability when things don't go smoothly, and this creates a lot of stress and anxiety. Ironically, worrying about your ability makes you much more likely to ultimately fail.

A Get-Better mindset, on the other hand, leads instead to self-comparison and a concern with making progress — how well are you doing today, compared with how you did yesterday, last month, or last year? When you think about what you are doing in terms of learning and improving, accepting that you may make some mistakes along the way, you experience far less stress, and you stay motivated despite the setbacks that might occur.

8. Think about the progress that you've already made.

"Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work." This is what Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer refer to as the Progress Principle — the idea is that it's the "small wins" that keep us going, particularly in the face of stressors.

Psychologically, it's often not whether we've reached our goal, but the rate at which we are closing the gap between where we are now and where we want to end up that determines how we feel. It can be enormously helpful to take a moment and reflect on what you've accomplished so far before turning your attention to the challenges that remain ahead.

9. Know whether optimism or defensive pessimism works for you.

For many of us, it's hard to stay positive when we've got assignments up to our eyeballs. For others, it isn't just hard — it feels wrong. And as it turns out, they are perfectly correct — optimism doesn't work for them.

It is stressful enough to try to juggle as many projects and goals as we do, but we add a layer of stress without realizing it when we try to reach them using strategies that don't feel right — that don't mesh with our own motivational style. So what's your motivational style, and is "staying positive" right for you?

Some people think of their jobs as opportunities for achievement and accomplishment — they have what psychologists call a promotion focus. In the language of economics, promotion focus is all about maximizing gains and avoiding missed opportunities. For others, doing a job well is about security, about not losing the positions they've worked so hard for. This prevention focus places the emphasis on avoiding danger, fulfilling responsibilities, and doing what feel you ought to do. In economic terms, it's about minimizing losses, trying to hang on to what you've got.

Understanding promotion and prevention motivation helps us understand why people can work so differently to reach the same goal. Promotion motivation feels like eagerness — the desire to really go for it — and this eagerness is sustained and enhanced by optimism. Believing that everything is going to work out great is essential for promotion-focused performance. Prevention motivation, on the other hand, feels like vigilance — the need to keep danger at bay — and it is sustained not by optimism, but by a kind of defensive pessimism. In other words, the prevention-minded actually work best when they think about what might go wrong, and what they can do to keep that from happening.

Inertia, Inc.'s photostream

Inertia, Inc.'s photostream on Flickr.

The Power of People Skills

John C. Maxwell, a leadership expert and executive coach, recognizes the value of people skills below.  We couldn't agree more! 

"By far the greatest obstacle to success that I see in others is a poor understanding of people. A while back the Wall Street Journal published an article on the reasons that executives fail. At the top of the list was a person’s inability to effectively relate to others.

One day I was talking to someone who was complaining about not winning a business contract that he had bid on. “It wasn’t fair,” he told me. “All the people involved knew each other, and we didn’t have a chance. It’s all politics.” But then what he went on to describe wasn’t politics. It was relationships.

Authors Carole Hyatt and Linda Gottlieb indicate that people who fail on the job commonly cite “office politics” as the reason for their failures, but the reality is that what they call politics is often nothing more than regular interaction with other people.

If you haven’t learned how to get along with people, you will always be fighting a battle to succeed. On the other hand, making people skills a strength will take you farther than any other skill you develop. People like to do business with people they like. Or to put it the way President Theodore Roosevelt did: “The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.”

You can view the originial blog post by John here.  For more on the author and his leadership advice, visit http://johnmaxwellonleadership.com/.

Attitude

Attitude:

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

--Charles R. Swindoll

7 Habits of Extraordinary People!

Dumb Little Man suggests seven straightforward ingredients for life success.  For more in depth explanation, visit the original article here.

1. The Habit of Awareness
Don’t close your eyes to problems you have, but be aware of them and act accordingly.

2. The Habit of Self-Investment
Invest time in yourself by reading books, fictional or not, searching the internet for specific information about time-management, personal growth, productivity and other important areas of your life.

3. The Habit of Early Rising
Not only does it give you many more hours in your week, but it also opens your mind and gives you room to think, feel and be.

4. The Habit of Exercising
Not only does it give you many more hours in your week, but it also opens your mind and gives you room to think, feel and be.

5. The Habit of Self-Love
Practice self-care on a daily basis by journaling, eating well, unplugging, playing and resting.

6. The Habit of Gratefulness
Create a Top 10 list of things you’re grateful for and update it constantly to never get out of touch with the abundance that surrounds you.

7. The Habit of Relationships
There’s so much to be learned in this world and what better way to do that than from those who share your attitude of self-empowerment?