LtGen Wissler Leadership Lessons 170429

US Marine LtGen. Wissler is a man I look up to and a leader of Marines. 

When I was in Iraq, I had the privilege to provide briefings to him on a daily basis.  He was always very thorough in his comments and questions following our briefings.  We knew right where we stood and how we could improve our position with him. 

He would go on key leader engagements on a regular basis and provide us what he could from the meetings, many times updating our briefings with newly gleaned information. 

Later on in our careers, he would move on to be a Deputy Commandant and I would be recognized as a member of the National Military Family Association's Marine Corps' Family of the Year in 2010.  He would represent the Commandant in presenting us the award.  In so doing, he took the time to mentor us and just poor into our lives a little bit. 

He is a very wise and experienced leader. 

As we are both getting set to move on, I had an opportunity to receive 15 leadership lessons from him.  I won't editorialize on here; everyone could learn from the application from the below just as they are. 

1.  Treat everyone with dignity and respect.
2.  Provide environment to excel.
3.  Be forthright, honest and direct with everyone.
4.  Improve effectiveness to gain efficiency.
5.  Cherish your time and those of others.
6.  Find ways to make your organization better.
7.  Describe problems simply.
8.  Never stop learning.
9.  Encourage constructive criticism.
10.  Once you delegate a task, get out of the way and let your people do it.
11.  Make ethical standards more important than legal regulations.
12.  The team wins; it should not be about individual success.
13.  Emphasize capability versus organization.
14.  Find metrics to determine how well you are doing.
15.  Core functions equals balanced excellence.  Focus on the basics and what is truly important.

Semper Fi,
m

170128 Be, Do, Have

I really like who I am becoming in 2017. 

I have always heard that you Be, Do, Have. 

Set SMART goals for yourself... and I will just talk about two of the attributes from the below as I see them.  The goals should be measurable so you know when you have achieved them and should have a timeline.  You never achieve a goal you cannot measure.  Goals without a timeline are wishes. 

Most of the goals we have revolve around possessing things; let’s face it, having things is measurable.  Having things is also a way to measure ourselves against other people.  Things can be positions, or titles, or objects.  You know, all those nouns that are not people or places.  Some of our goals revolve around running faster or lifting more or walking longer. 

Conversely, most Americans also look to lose things as goals.  Especially around the first of a year, we are trying to lose pounds of fat!  Again, this is measurable and you can certainly assign a timeline to it.

Ok, back to Be, Do, Have…. 

If you want to have the thing that your goal revolves around, you need to be the person who would have those things.  Being the person means being disciplined, being responsible, being accountable, being faithful.  It means changing your habits to become a person that would achieve that goal.  These things that you be are not necessarily measurable or noticeable on the outside without the Do.

What you do is the fruit of what you be!  (To all those critiquing my grammar, I apologize…).  The apple a tree produces is evidence that it be an apple tree!  That you walk for 45 min every day is fruit of your discipline!  That you get to the gym and lift and sweat and cry and strain under increasing amounts of lead and steel is fruit of your persistence.  That you give to charity is fruit that you be generous. 

As you do, repeatedly, you develop habits.  Habits take you where you end up.  Habits are the reason you achieve or don’t achieve your goals. 

My bride and I have developed some healthy habits of eating cleaner, limiting our calories, exercising daily and drinking more water.  We weigh ourselves daily.  As you can see, I am writing about what we did.  We are disciplining ourselves to these habits. 

These are not obsessions.  We allow ourselves sweets now and again, and after we reach our goals, we will continue the above with the goal maintaining a healthy weight.  We are simply disciplining ourselves into a healthy lifestyle. 

As of today, these habits have us losing 35 pounds (combined) since Jan 1, 2017.  We plan on maintaining these habits for the rest of our lives.  I will let you know how it goes!

Semper Fi,

m