Military Leadership Lessons for Today’s Leaders: 5 Hard-Earned Truths That Will Transform Your Team

Scott McCarthy [00:00:00]:
For almost twenty four years now, I’ve been an officer in the Canadian army and essentially leading teams in every single one of those years. And let me tell you, I’ve had my ups, I’ve had my downs, and I’ve made my mistakes. But most importantly, there are a number of lessons which I’ve taken from my time serving in the army, and that’s what we’re gonna hit on today, ladies and gentlemen. Today, we’re gonna be talking about five hard earned truths that will transform your team. Are you ready for this? Alright. Let’s do it. Welcome one. 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.

Scott McCarthy [00:00:52]:
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 bringing you the most complete podcast on 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. Welcome and welcome all to the peak performance leadership podcast. It is your host and founder Scott McCarthy. Thanks for tuning in to today’s solo episode where I go into my military career and giving you some of those hard lessons that I’ve learned, through serving in the Canadian army for you and enable you to take those and use them, you know, freely without having to go through the tough times and learning the lessons the hard way.

Scott McCarthy [00:01:58]:
Because let me tell you, I have learned them the hard way quite regularly. Before we dive into today’s episode, this is the last call for the leader growth mastermind, and the coupon code that we are going on right now, it is reopened. The doors are reopened waiting for you. A community way that is dedicated to you to help you with your leadership journey. So that you feel empowered, you feel supported, you feel no longer alone, you feel confident in yourself, you have a community that has your back, and you have its back. And that is exactly what the leader growth mastermind gives you along with so much more. I’ve talked about the leader growth mastermind. It is our elite mastermind community for our members.

Scott McCarthy [00:02:55]:
And, you know, it’s for you. It’s built for you, the listener that’s listening to the show right now. K? There are not high level executives in this mastermind. There are not, you know, billion dollar fortune 500 companies, CEOs in there. There are you, the leaders at the ground level, running the show, getting the job done. It is made for you, so that you have somewhere to go. Because, you know, all those big CEO types, they they get access to the high level coaches. They get access to the resources because they have the resources to get access to those things.

Scott McCarthy [00:03:34]:
But I wanted to make a community for the everyday leader so that they have somewhere to go. They have access to resources. And you know what? It is super affordable for you. And I’m going to make it even more affordable for the length of your time that you’re with us. And that is use the coupon code l g m, as in leader growth mastermind, 33, and you’re gonna get $30 off per month. That’s right. $30 off per month for the time being. And that is for as long as you’re a member.

Scott McCarthy [00:04:13]:
That doesn’t change. It’s never going to increase. You get locked into that rate. And let me tell you, know, this mastermind started off a number of years ago at a much lesser rate, and people are still locked in at that extremely low rate, because they’ve stayed, and they’ve stuck it out. And they’ve stuck it out because they love the community. And that’s what’s most important is the community that is behind us. So, again, check us out at leaddumpboss.com/mastermind. Sign up.

Scott McCarthy [00:04:46]:
Use the coupon code LG m 30, get that $30 off per month for the rest of your life, and, you know, come be with us, come do life with us, and start elevating your leadership journey today, right now. But we’re not talking about just the mastermind today. We are talking about five different lessons that I have learned through my leadership, journey within my career within KN forces. And the first one is, it’s lead by example even when it’s hard. I used to hear the saying, do as I say, not as I do, and I’ve always hated that saying. It drove me nuts. Why? Because that is not leadership. That’s not leadership at its core.

Scott McCarthy [00:05:33]:
And us as leaders, we have to do better. We have to do better. And I’ve, you know, I’ve been saying for a number of times, now, I’m the reason for our failures, and our people are the reason for our successes. And that’s the mantra I’ve kinda used in every single role I’ve had, within the army now, ever since I’ve come to that realization quite some time ago. But you you have to lead by example. I’ll tell you, I’ve made mistakes in the past. I’ve I’ve made mistakes, and I fessed up. I’ve owned up to my team.

Scott McCarthy [00:06:06]:
Or I looked at them in in the face, and I said, you know what, guys? We didn’t get this right, and that’s on me. That’s on me as the leader. I made the wrong call here. I didn’t do the right thing. And I told them exactly what I made a mistake of. And it isn’t oh, boohoo me, but it’s rather for the team to learn. And most importantly, for me to set the example of why it’s important to own up and admit our mistakes. So it doesn’t matter whether that was me, you know, leading that 20 that 80 person platoon when I was 24, or running my $13,000,000 operating budget right now for a organization that holds over 4,000,000,000 worth of supplies.

Scott McCarthy [00:06:54]:
It doesn’t matter. The principle is still the same. It’s that we got to lead by example even when it’s hard because what it all boils down to, it boils down to integrity, you as the leader. Your integrity matters so much more. So you’ve got to keep it up. You have to know that every second, eyeballs are on you. They’re they are judging you, hopefully in a good way. But, you know, if you start not doing things, then your people are going to start not doing them as well.

Scott McCarthy [00:07:31]:
K? So lead by example. Integrity is everything. And if, you know, if your team sees you owning it, and and investing into them, they’re gonna follow suit. And that’s the basis of how you start building psychological safety. Alright? So that’s number one. Number two is mission clarity isn’t optional. It’s leadership one zero one. Your team needs to know what you’re trying to achieve.

Scott McCarthy [00:07:59]:
We call this in the army your desired end state. You have to let them know where you’re going, where you want to go, what you want to achieve. Because without that, it’s essentially a boat without a rudder. You’re just going to be spinning in circles. It’s a car without a steering column, just kinda drifting around in circles, going in donuts. Alright. I’ll tell you, I was leading a small team, an advanced party, a rec reconnaissance team once upon a time. We had a a mission that we were going out on.

Scott McCarthy [00:08:34]:
I can’t get into the details of that mission specifically, but I can tell you the principles behind it. And I was in charge of this team, and I that was the first thing I did was explain to them the desired end state, what it is we were going to go in and to achieve. And that team was filled with various specialists. K. We had a logistics specialist in there. We had a medical specialist in there. We had operation specialist in there, communication specialist in there. And what it enabled was for them from their perspective, their lens to know, okay, this is where we need to get to.

Scott McCarthy [00:09:12]:
Now what piece of that do I own? And what piece of that, you know, can I affect? What can I get after? So, you know, ensure your team understands that. They understand the desired end state and what the mission truly is. And from there, they can go ahead and connect their dots from the start to the end and figure out that messy middle. And your team are gonna be the ones to figure that out best, not necessarily you. Alright? And you know what? If you’re not a % sure if your team isn’t, you know, up on what the mission is or what the desired end state is and they’re not a % sure, just get them to repeat it back to you. Okay? And if they don’t, you’ll know that you need clarity. You need work in establishing clarity with your team. That’s a little pro tip for you.

Scott McCarthy [00:10:07]:
Okay? Number three, trust isn’t given. It’s built one conversation at a time. Okay? I always say trust is the cornerstone of leadership, but at the same time, you have to understand that you have to, basically earn the trust of your team. But in order to do so, you have to trust them first. It starts with you. Okay? It starts with you. And, you know, I trust my team completely until they prove to me that, you know, they can’t be trusted, which generally doesn’t happen. K? You know, trust is one community one conversation at a time.

Scott McCarthy [00:10:59]:
You are always either increasing your trust level or removing from it. So constantly be on the lookout. Think of that. Prioritize your people and connection with them from a non work perspective because that’s actually how you’re going to build trust with them. You build trust through that connection. You build trust through your competency as a leader. So make sure that you are, you know, making the right calls, giving them the direction, enabling that feedback because trust is crucial. Right? And those things build trust.

Scott McCarthy [00:11:40]:
Everything. K. Either adds to trust or takes away trust. You gotta think about it in drops in buckets. K. Trust is either being a drop going into the bucket or a drop coming out of the bucket. So quick pro tip for you here in building trust is, you know, establish routine, do some agenda free break check ins with them, make it personal with your team members, and basically work on connecting with them at a deeper level so you build that trust with them every single day. Alright.

Scott McCarthy [00:12:18]:
That was number three. Lesson number four, embrace extreme leadership. Okay. Own the outcomes, share the credit. Basically, what I mean by extreme leadership is that knowing that you, 95, perhaps even more percent of the time, are the reason why your team fails. It’s on you. You have to take ownership. You have to take ownership of it.

Scott McCarthy [00:12:49]:
Alright? I remember one time, I had a training exercise and it just fell apart. It did. I was, pretty junior, I was a captain at the time, and I was in charge of a, you know, just a regular training exercise. It was nothing nothing spectacular, nothing complex. But, you know, I took that for granted, those things for granted. And I didn’t take the exercise, as seriously as I should, and, it fell apart. And I looked at my team afterwards, and after we realized that things were, going off the rails and don’t get me wrong, in the end, we got it done, but we all everyone knew it was it was not pretty. And I looked at my team afterwards, and I said, you know what, guys? This one’s on me.

Scott McCarthy [00:13:34]:
This isn’t my fault. I didn’t give enough direction. I didn’t help enough with the planning. I didn’t, you know, look into this deep enough. I kinda looked at it and said, alright. Let’s just do the same thing as last time, And, you know, go with it and realize that I didn’t really follow-up. I didn’t double check things. I didn’t look at it from that lens of that particular moment.

Scott McCarthy [00:13:57]:
And, you know, look at the desired end state. Again, back to what I said earlier and communicate that effectively. K. I owned it. And you have to do the same thing as a leader. So, you know, if you don’t get the outcomes you’re looking for, what could have you done differently to ensure your team had the resources, the skills, the time, the whatever to achieve whatever it is that you’re looking to achieve. And I guarantee you most of the time, almost all the time, you’re gonna realize it was something you could have done, and that you could have done differently. So embrace extreme leadership.

Scott McCarthy [00:14:37]:
Take ownership of it all. Again, say tell your team they’re the reasons for your success, and you’re the reason for the failure. And you know what? That level of ownership is actually gonna ripple through your team. Every level of you, lead a multi level team, I e, different more more than one level of supervision. Okay? You’re going to find your subordinate supervisors are gonna take the same mentality. They’re gonna start owning it. And then suddenly, you have positive accountability where people are checking in, people are making sure everyone is taking you know, everything is taken care of. If they need help, you know, someone’s willing to help them.

Scott McCarthy [00:15:18]:
K? This is what it’s all about. Again, embrace extremely leadership on the outcome, share the credit. It’s all but your team and making sure you’ve done everything you could. And finally, the last lesson that was hard for me to learn, but I embrace it now, and that is make mistakes safe. Because that’s where the real growth lives. You know, for so long, we had this ideology that if you made a mistake, your career was done. And, you know, okay. Extreme mistakes at the character level, breaking values and stuff, absolutely.

Scott McCarthy [00:16:01]:
But, you know, like I said about the last example, where I made a mistake with an exercise. Okay? I made a mistake, and it felt the exercise fell apart. But if we are afraid of making mistakes, if we live in a world where we don’t have the psychological safety to learn from our mistakes, it’s going to kill innovation. People will never try something new because they are afraid to fail. And in failure, that is where we learn. And in the army, we have a great tool to actually go through this. We call it the after action review or ARs, and these things, don’t get enough credit as far as I’m concerned. And, basically, what you’re trying to do through the AR is take all these lessons learned and everyone to learn from them.

Scott McCarthy [00:16:57]:
We ask ourselves three questions. We ask ourselves what happened and everyone’s perspective on what happened. K? What went right so that we can double down on those things and make sure we do them again in the future. And finally, what went wrong and what we need to do to fix those going forward in the future. K. And that’s it. It is simple. It is super simple yet effective.

Scott McCarthy [00:17:26]:
But it requires psychological safety. If your team don’t feel safe to bring it up, to bring up their ideas, to talk about the mistakes, because they’re fair of reprisal, it will never succeed. So you have to establish that psychological safety where mistakes are normalized, and learning is priority, and that’s how your elite team evolves. This is how special operating forces operate. They are constantly learning. They’re constantly learn trying new things and learning from their mistakes in a very safe environment, as odd as that may sound. Okay. So those are the five lessons.

Scott McCarthy [00:18:08]:
Again, recap them for you. They are lead by example, even when it’s hard. Mission clarity isn’t optional. It’s leadership one zero one. Trust isn’t given. It’s built one conversation at a time. Embrace extreme leadership, own the outcomes, share the credit, and then finally, make mistakes safe where that’s where real growth lives. K? These are just five lessons, no doubt.

Scott McCarthy [00:18:34]:
I’ll have more for you in the future. I’m trying to bring a little bit more of this military flare to you, to you, the listener, because I think you get a lot out of it. If you do, let me know. If you don’t, let me know. And let me know if you have any, any suggestions. I’m always open to it. Again, check us out. Check out the mastermind.

Scott McCarthy [00:18:54]:
Join today. You will not regret it. And simply, it’s zero risk because of our thirty day double your money back guarantee. You sign up, you become a member of the mastermind, you can double your money back if you decide it’s not for you. No joke. That’s how much I believe in this community. Again, that code is LGM30, Leader Growth Mastermind 30. Use that at checkout, and we’ll see you there.

Scott McCarthy [00:19:23]:
Till next time, ladies and gentlemen. Remember as always, lead. Don’t boss. Take care now.