In today’s episode, we delve into a critical yet often overlooked aspect of leadership: the importance of preparing for moments when a leader cannot perform their duties and the subsequent role of a second-in-command. This concept, rooted in military practices, offers valuable insights for leaders in any domain. By ensuring readiness and empowering others, leaders can maintain stability and continuity, even in their absence. Today’s discussion breaks down when and why leaders should step back and how to effectively prepare their teams for such scenarios to ensure peak performance at all times.
Timestamped Overview
[00:00:01] Introduction: The inevitability of not being able to go into work
[00:00:48] Welcome to Peak Performance Leadership
[00:02:05] Background: Scott’s personal experience with illness
[00:03:47] Military Perspective: Resilience and hierarchy
[00:05:09] Civilian Organizations: Challenges and differences
[00:05:48] Importance of Communication: Keeping your team informed
[00:07:15] Training and Experience: Developing your team
[00:09:07] Ego and Letting Go: Supporting your team in your absence
[00:10:29] Closing Thoughts: Preparing for the unexpected
[00:11:35] Clarity Call: How to get help preparing your team
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Scott McCarthy
Transcript
The following is an AI generated transcript which should be used for reference purposes only. It has not been verified or edited to reflect what was actually said in the podcast episode.
Scott McCarthy [00:00:01]:
It happened to me, and it’ll happen to you 1 day. Suddenly, you just can’t do it. You cannot do it. And you know what that is? That is going into work. And that’s where the old military saying, 2 I see, take over. Today, we’re gonna tackle how and when and why sometimes you just shouldn’t go into work, and how to ensure you’re actually ready for that.
Scott McCarthy [00:00:34]:
So are you ready for this?
Scott McCarthy [00:00:37]:
Alright. Let’s do it.
Scott McCarthy [00:00:48]:
Welcome 1. Welcome all to the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast, a weekly podcast series dedicated to helping you hit peak performance across the 3 domains of leadership. Those being leading yourself, leading your team, and leading your organization. This podcast couples my twenty years of military experience as a senior Canadian army officer with world class guests to bring 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.
Scott McCarthy [00:01:35]:
Yes. It is your chief leadership officer, Scott McCarthy, and thanks for tuning in to today’s episode. Whether you are a long time listener or it’s your first episode, don’t care. I love you all. You are all rock stars. And today, we’re gonna be talking about, hey, 2, take over. And the quick background of this episode is, well, last week, I got sick. And you can probably hear it in my voice still, but hey, the show must go on.
Scott McCarthy [00:02:05]:
So what happened? Let’s so let’s dive in. Alright? Let’s just, you know, I’ll play this kind of by off the off the hoof per se, because I want to be natural for you so that this story actually provides you some great leadership lessons. And I’m not patting myself on the back per se saying, oh, you did such a great job here, Scott, but it’s kind of embedded in us in the military and how to deal with these scenarios. And when I talk to business leaders and entrepreneurs out there, it’s it’s not so bright and new. So I want you to take these lessons and learn from it and how we deal with it from a military perspective. So Tuesday, I go to bed. And through that night and into Wednesday morning, I just have a terrible night’s sleep. I mean, terrible.
Scott McCarthy [00:03:03]:
And, of course, the reason for it is, as you can tell and as I said, I was getting sick. A cold, you know, came and hit me like a ton of bricks. Had, chills a little bit, you know, a little bit of super, sore voice. Couldn’t really think. No energy. You know, the gambit. Right? And it took me out Wednesday, and then it took me out Thursday too, where I was like, you know what? I was maybe 50% effective. And then Friday, I was probably sitting at around the 70 to 75% effective range.
Scott McCarthy [00:03:47]:
And we all know this. Right? I’m sure you’ve done this before. So, what did I do? I I, you know, told my team, I said, hey, I’m down. I’m out. And, you know, deputy take over. So in the military, the whole hierarchical chain is built on resilience and the ability for someone else to step into a higher level role. That is the whole premise of the chain of command. That’s how it’s built.
Scott McCarthy [00:04:26]:
It’s built to give, you know, command and control, guidance and direction, and all this other stuff. But it’s also built so that the chain stays with it stays intact. So when 1 leader goes down, whether that’s for illness or wartime, potentially injury or death, someone else can take their place and carry on the mission. K. You don’t necessarily see this a lot in the civilian world as much, but you may. Especially for you, team leads out there or managers out there, you may have an assistant team lead or assistant, manager. So that is definitely what we would call your 2. Right? Your second in command.
Scott McCarthy [00:05:09]:
The person who is in charge while, you’re not around. And that’s great. Okay. But for a lot of other civilian organizations, these roles don’t really exist. Okay. Especially when you once you get up to the very senior levels. And, you know, I’m not here to say whether or not that’s good or bad, but I’m gonna talk to you, you know, and the benefits, obviously, that come and how you can develop that person. So, as I, you know, informed my team, like, hey, twoIC take over, and told my team, you know, that I was down and out, I didn’t need to go into a whole lot of detail.
Scott McCarthy [00:05:48]:
Because 1 of the first things, that you need to do with your 2 IC is to make sure that they’re up to speed on everything that’s going on in your world. Okay? They need to be up to speed. You need to keep them in the loop per se. And that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. I’ve been keeping mine in the loop, through my whole tenor per se. We meet, on the daily, and we keep we talk to each other about the files that we’re working on, the problems that we’re we’re we’re tackling and our viewpoints and stuff like this, he gets through a guidance and direction from me, and I let him know where my thoughts are with the things that I’m working on. And that helps to keep that continuity and keep really, that same flow moving. So 1 of the first things I want you to think about now as you listen to this podcast and you reflect on it is, you know, how are you communicating with your team and your your second in command or whoever you have working with you? Are you communicating with them? Are you letting them in on your thought processes, your thoughts, feelings about different files that you’re working on, different decisions that are upcoming that are upcoming that are gonna have to be made, different situations that you have to deal with, or are you keeping them out of the dark until you actually make the decision? K.
Scott McCarthy [00:07:15]:
I would say the latter is probably not the best way to go forward. K. Now, I also know that, you know, my 2 is also obviously highly experienced, highly qualified. And that’s 1 of the things that the military does great. We make sure people get a great breadth of experience and we also make sure they get a lot of training. So look at your training for your team and experience. Are you giving them the experience to help develop them? Or you’re just keeping them in a stove piped area? Are you helping train them so that they develop their skills further? Or are you trying to chain them to their current role and their current position? Not enabling them to see other things and grow. Because at the end of the day, if you don’t allow these things, what’s gonna happen is they’re gonna walk.
Scott McCarthy [00:08:13]:
They’re gonna walk out the door because they’re gonna find what they’re looking for elsewhere. So keep that in mind. And not to mention, all that experience, all that training, okay, enables you flexibility because there are people there who are able to fill in the void for you and take your role on. Okay. So consider that and reflect on that. And are you actually, you know, enabling, or are you attempting to chain down? And the final thing which I’ll talk about here on this episode regarding whole 2 IC takeover is ego. And when you have to take a knee, or you have to, take a step back for some time, you have to let your ego. Let it go.
Scott McCarthy [00:09:07]:
And know that, you know, things are going to get done. Are they going to get done exactly as you would have done them? Absolutely not. They might have done better. Who knows? But it’s not going to be exactly the same way, and that’s okay. You’re not the best thing out there. You’re not the best at every single job. Maybe they’re going to do it better. And if they don’t do it better, who cares? Because it’s still better than what you would have done if you were sick or if you were tied up all day and you were exhausted when you came back and had deal with this.
Scott McCarthy [00:09:41]:
Or maybe you have family things that you had to deal with, but instead your mind was on your work. K. Either way, just drop the ego and support your team member as they take over for you and enable them and you support them and enable them by not criticizing them once you get back and accepting what they have done. And if there’s something blatantly wrong, okay, well, fix it. But you don’t have to chastise them unless it was really out of their way, and the reality is they should have known better. But there are a few and far between examples of that. Alright. So anyway, folks, that’s pretty much it for today.
Scott McCarthy [00:10:29]:
As you can tell, still not 100%, have taken breaks in between, different sections of this episode to kind of wrap it up here today. But, I did want to leave you with this episode today because I feel like, the, you know, the the premise of the story is real because too many leaders out there simply do not empower, do not prepare, or do not even plan for these events happening. And if you’re doing that, or not doing that, I should say, you’re setting yourself yourself up for failure, and that’s not what we want. That’s not why you’re here. So take these lessons and think about it. How can you prepare your team to step up for you when you need them to? How can you empower them to do so? How do you plan for it? K. These are all things. And if you’re not sure about that and you need some help, reach out to me.
Scott McCarthy [00:11:35]:
And we’ll sit down together and we’ll go through that. We’ll make a plan for you and how you’re going to take care of that. And you can simply book a call with me at lead dump boss dot com forward slash clarity. Let’s grab a clarity call and get you moving in the right direction. And that’s it. Till next time as always, remember, lead, don’t boss. Take care now.
Scott McCarthy [00:12:03]:
And that’s a wrap for this episode, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting the Peak Performance Leadership Podcast. 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.
Scott McCarthy [00:12:42]:
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. So why don’t you subscribe? Subscribe to the show via movingforwardleadership.com forward slash subscribe. Until next time, lead, don’t boss, and thanks for coming out. Take care now.