8 Ways Military Leaders Build High-Performing Teams | Scott McCarthy | Episode 305

Scott McCarthy [00:00:08]:
Welcome 1. Welcome all to the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast. A weekly podcast series dedicated to helping you hit peak performance across the three domains of leadership. Those being leading yourself, leading your team, and leading your organization. This podcast couples my 20 years of military experience as a senior Canadian army officer with world class guests, bringing you the most complete podcast of leadership going. And for more, feel free to check out our website at movingforwardleadership.com. And with that, let’s get to the show. Yes.

Scott McCarthy [00:00:56]:
Welcome, 1. Welcome, all. It is your chief leadership officer, Scott McCarthy. And welcome to today’s Monday Military Leadership Insight, where I take my military leadership background and give it to you direct because you asked for it. So here it is. And today’s topic is kinda like a wrap up. Kinda I I thought with this, even have a blog post on the website if you wanna check that out. But nonetheless, today’s topic, sorry, is 8 ways military leaders build high performing teams.

Scott McCarthy [00:01:30]:
And we talk about this. You know, this is the peak performance leadership podcast. So that’s all what we’re all about. We’re here with building high performing teams, and being an effective leader is the number one way of how you’re going to build a high performing team. So gonna dive into these 8. They’re from my experience. I’m gonna give you some experience, you know, talk a little bit about stories or explanation about why these 8 as we go through them. But let’s dive in, shall we? Let’s hold nothing back.

Scott McCarthy [00:02:04]:
Alright. 1st and 4 nos, we establish a unified mission and vision. We always do this. We understand. So whenever we go through our training, whenever we run operations, we always understand what’s happening at the higher level, actually two levels above us in the organization. So if you think about it, if you’re like operating this branch and then so what you’re at your local level, you’re in charge of this branch of, let’s say, a bank or a fast food restaurant, what have you, okay, you get to understand what’s happening at the regional level maybe or the provincial slash state, okay, depending on how you’re structured. And then the next level up, which in regional context might be national or in the state one, it might be regional. However, you get the point.

Scott McCarthy [00:02:56]:
We learn about what’s happening multiple levels up. So we get the whole picture, and that enables that unified mission and then enables us to take the vision of what our superior and our superior’s superiors, commanders are trying to achieve and go after it at our level. So that is number 1, establishing a unified mission and vision. Number 2, we demonstrate strong ownership and leadership. You heard me say it. I don’t know how many times on the podcast. I am the reason for my teams. So or sorry.

Scott McCarthy [00:03:32]:
My team’s failures, they are the reason for our successes. I actually usually say the inverse. They’re the reason for its successes. I’m the reason for failures. Hence, why I was gonna tongue tied there for a second. But regardless, you get the point. Okay? Jocko Willing talks about this as extreme ownership. You hear me talk about it as extreme leadership regardless of the point you understand what we’re getting at, and that is you have to take ownership.

Scott McCarthy [00:03:57]:
You have to be that leader that is there taking ownership of what’s transpiring. Okay? And then what you do is actually praise in public your team for achieving the results because they’re the reasons why you’re achieving those results. They’re the ones that are out there on the front lines going after and getting things done as you’ve directed, but you have to take ownership when things go bad. K. Because end of the day, it does fall on your shoulders. Number 3, building personal relationships and understanding team members. When I was a brand new lieutenant, one of the first things that got told to us is get to know your team members, get to know who their spouses are, their children, what makes them tick, what they’re excited for, and all this stuff. Why? Because you get to know your people at a more deeper level.

Scott McCarthy [00:04:51]:
And when we know people at deeper level, we can leverage that, call upon that when we need them to go above and beyond. Sometimes we do that. It helps, 1, shows that we care. 2, we get to invest in them as people. And 3, we get to know what motivates them, what makes them tick, and how we might best utilize their skills, their passions, their motivations for achieving that higher level mission and vision. K. Number 4, blazing through here, Ensuring continuous communication and feedback. Communication, if you don’t have comms, you’re dead.

Scott McCarthy [00:05:32]:
That’s rule number 1 of army life. And that is so true in leadership. We need that constant communication. So often hear military leaders talk about, oh, open door policy. You can come talk to me anytime. But as well, we often refer to as closing the loop, which is closing the communications loop, ensuring people understand why you’ve made your decision, what it is, and why you’ve done it. Okay? And what that does is it gives them feedback to know, 1, how you think, 2, how you operate, and 3, most importantly shows to them that you’ve actually taken what they mentioned, asked, suggested, what have you into consideration. You actually thought about it, but for whatever reason or maybe for good reasons, you’ve accepted it or you’ve not.

Scott McCarthy [00:06:27]:
But regardless, you’ve closed that loop with them so that they have felt like they’re being heard. That’s all people want. They just want to feel like they’re being heard, man. That’s it. Number 5, training, training, training. If it ain’t raining, we ain’t training. God, I hate that saying. And then we, yes, we say it all the time, but militaries are famous for training.

Scott McCarthy [00:06:55]:
Why? Because we don’t rise to the occasion, but rather we fall back to a level of training we’ve received. And sometimes that’s formal training. Sometimes it’s not. We are constantly training. K? Because we want to be the best version our of ourselves as possible. And again, that could be formal. That could be through courses, professional development, formalized professional development. Or that could be informal, such as getting people to step up to the next level, taking on that challenge, giving them a project to work on.

Scott McCarthy [00:07:29]:
What have you? We are constantly trying to train and develop people for the next two levels, not just the next level, but even the one after that. So how might you achieve the same thing in your organization? How can you do that? K. Number 6, talk about this a number of times and that’s foster psychological safety within our teams. The special forces community is fantastic at doing this where when they do a planning session, they’ll sit there and they’ll look at a plan, and they’ll keep going through the plan until every single team member doesn’t have questions with about that plan. It doesn’t have reservations. They’ve thought through it, and they’ll go around and around and around until that plan, as far as they’re concerned, is the best it’s going to be. Whether that is the most senior person, the team commander, or the most brand new junior member of the team, everyone has the same right here to challenge that plan. And that, folks, is referred to as challenger safety level 4 of 4 within the whole psychological safety sphere.

Scott McCarthy [00:08:45]:
Number 7, second last one, practice flex of command and adaptability. We live in what’s referred to as a VUCA world or volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. And we need to adapt to the change in the situation. So we can’t be hamstrung by rigid organizational structures and policies and procedures. Yes. The military is famous for it, but we’re also famous for breaking it. Okay? And the reason for that is we overlay the current situation to the rules, to the structure, to the way of doing business. You know, what fits, what doesn’t fit.

Scott McCarthy [00:09:25]:
Whatever doesn’t fit, get rid of it. What fits, keep it. And where the gaps are, let’s close them up. Let’s amend whatever is there. Find new ways of doing things, what have you. But we are constantly trying to be flexible. Very agile like. Okay? And small organizations are very, have a high large or a large amount of agility built into them because they’re small, they’re nimble, they adapt fast.

Scott McCarthy [00:09:55]:
Okay? And that is something you need to consider. How might you incorporate this into your team, your organization? Alright. Flexible command and adaptability. And finally, number 8, recognizing and rewarding contributions. We have all kinds of things to recognize people from saying, hey, thanks to coins, medals, combinations, which are like basically certificates with usually a coin or a medal with them. K. The US forces are huge on this. My god.

Scott McCarthy [00:10:36]:
They have so many medals. Alright. Not so much in the Canadian Forces. The Brits are a little bit more, but regardless, we still go about our ways of trying to recognize and reward our people’s contributions because it makes them feel valued, and want to give them pride to showcase the things that they’ve done. How might you do that with your team? Are you even doing it right now? It’s a great question. Alright. So that’s it folks. Let’s dive.

Scott McCarthy [00:11:07]:
Let’s just do a quick recap of the 8. So number 1, establishing unified mission and vision. Number 2, demonstrating strong leadership and ownership. Remember, extreme leadership. K. Number 3, building those personal relationships and understanding your team members. Number 4, ensuring continuous communication and feedback. Let’s close that loop, shall we? Number 5, investing in training and development.

Scott McCarthy [00:11:35]:
Remember, one day you will need to be replaced. Number 6, foster that psychological safety. Reached level 4, which is challenger safety, enable your team to question. Number 7, practice flexible command and adaptability to ever changing situation. And then finally, number 8, recognize and reward your people. Those are 8 ways that military leaders build high performing teams. Hope you enjoy this. If you do, let me know.

Scott McCarthy [00:12:12]:
If you got questions, I’m here for you. And that is it, folks. Remember as always, lead. Don’t boss. Take care now. And that’s a wrap for this episode, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting the Peak Performance Leadership podcast.

Scott McCarthy [00:12:38]:
But you know what you could do to truly support the podcast and know that’s not leaving a rating and review. It’s simply helping a friend, and that is helping a friend by sharing this episode with them. If you think this would resonate with them and help them elevate their performance level, whether that’s within themselves, their teams, or their organization. So do that. Help me help a friend win win all around, and hey, you look like a great friend at the same time. So just hit that little share button on your app, and then feel free to fire this episode to anyone that you feel would benefit from it. Finally, there’s always more. There’s always more lessons around being the highest performing leader that you can possibly be, whether that’s for yourself, your team, or your organization.

Scott McCarthy [00:13:32]:
So why don’t you subscribe? Subscribe to the show via moving forward leadership.comforward/subscribe. Until next time, lead, don’t boss, and thanks for coming out. Take care now.