45th President of the United States

Today the media (inclusive of social media) is sorely reminded of just how wrong they were, as Donald Trump gets sworn in as the 45th President of the United States.

What I personally take away from the events leading up to his inauguration is to not under estimate just how unhappy the American people really are with the current state of politics. Many are masking their unhappiness by glamorizing the past eight years and our outgoing President. I understand.

But recognize that many voted for Trump (and against Hillary) because he represents the polar opposite of what is our current political system - the good, the bad and the ugly. Well today America inaugurates into office "an experiment" that many hope will usher in significant change to our political system.

Will it happen? I have no idea, but I have hope.

On Trump's agenda is a health care strategy better than ObamaCare, taking a tougher stance on illegal immigration, a constitutional amendment to set term limits on members of Congress, removing restrictions on American energy production to increase self-sufficiency, and carving better deals on trade to restore jobs here in the US.

As a country I hope we can focus on the issues we face and how best to develop solutions to address them, not the man taking the oath today. He was elected, just as other past presidents were, and has a lot of work to do to restore our country's waning faith in our political system. He is imperfect in a multitude of ways, just as all past presidents are and have been, perhaps even more so. I collectively share the disgust for many of his actions and words.

But I don't hope Donald Trump fails. In fact, I hope for exactly the opposite. He needs knowledge, facts, understanding, support, wisdom, empathy and compromise. He needs that from all of us.

In these unprecedented times I pray now more than ever that God Bless the United States of America.

Motivation and other leadership miscellany

My study of leadership began around 2001 when I started duty as a facilitator in the Navy leadership continuum (as it was known then; it doesn’t exist anymore).  I enjoyed it enough to do my Master’s degree from Liberty University in Christian Leadership.  I’ve always had somewhat of an interest in it, but I will be the first to admit that after a few years, it all seemed to be the same kind of stuff.  The “new” leadership theory was just the old stuff repackaged in a slightly different form, just like they do with candy in the grocery store.  More on that in a minute...

One of my classes during this term is “Leadership and Management in the Intelligence Community.”  My professor is Dr. Mike Mears, and he’s a pretty amazing guy.  I love his class.  It’s not really about leadership in the intel community, but leadership in general.  I can’t believe how smart the guy is.  He can quote from studies and books like he read them yesterday, and he is loaded with personal stories from his consultations with so many well-known leaders, both government and commercial.  But what impresses me most is how he boils down so much leadership theory to “being a good person,” or as he sometimes likes to say in class, “Don’t be a dick.”

We had an assignment for a class discussion to watch this video by Dan Pink called, “The Puzzle of Motivation.”  I admit that my first thought was, “Yeah yeah yeah, they always say that money doesn’t motivate people but…”  As I mentioned earlier, I thought this was going to be another “repackage” job.  But I will admit that I was blown away.  The science and research part of it is just crazy.  And when it was all done, I started thinking about the stuff in my leadership bag that I use to try to motivate Sailors, and was embarrassed to find that it was completely extrinsic stuff.  Time off work, awards, recognition, Starbucks cards, promotions - these are the things that I’ve assumed people want the most.  I’m not saying that they don’t ever want those things, but they don’t get to the core to build a culture that makes people want to stay and work with or without those other things.  I feel like I’ve been missing the mark for years.  I’ll be taking a hard look in the next couple of weeks to see what I can change to give people autonomy, mastery, and purpose (see the video - it’s a TED talk so it’s not too long).  It’s certainly no easy task, but I feel like I need to make a change to some of my personal leadership philosophy.

This class is causing me to do a lot of introspection about myself and my strengths, weaknesses, etc.  I’ve done a couple of assessments that I had not done before.  I did Marston’s DISC assessment which I thought was very interesting because it gives you two results: how you view yourself and how you probably actually act.  I wasn’t too surprised that my own perception was very balanced across the board.  Dominance was a little lower than the others, but influence, steadiness, and conscientiousness were all equal.  But how I actually act was completely different.  Dominance, influence, and conscientiousness practically disappeared, and I was extremely high in steadiness.  I read the description of a high “S” in the DISC assessment, and it was pretty spot on for me.

I also did the StrengthsFinder 2.0 through Gallup.  That one cost a bit of money, but my professor loves it and highly recommended it.  My top five traits from 1-5 were: developer, connectedness, communication, positivity, and input.  I need to do some more reading (I took it today so have only done a cursory look) to see how I can apply an understanding of those strengths.  

If I’m honest with you guys, I’ve suspected for years that I’m not really gifted with the strengths to be the guy at the top.  I’m really more suited to be a supporter and helper - kind of a right hand man.  It’s what I do best, and I actually enjoy that aspect of my work now.  I like lightening the burden for those that I work with by handling mundane or “lighter” tasks.  Thinking of a few years down the road, I don’t know how that translates to a resume or job interviews.  The military focuses so much on leadership and being the leader that saying, “Hey, I’m better suited to be a helper” wouldn’t be viewed as such a great things and I suspect it may be the same when I am applying for civilian employment.

As a side note, one of the things we’ve discussed in class is that the bottom 15% of leaders (the worst leaders) think that they are in the top 25%.  They are clueless and have no self-awareness.  I’m consoling myself with the thought that because I tend to be introspective about how I’m doing as a leader, hopefully I’m not in the bottom 15%!

You guys have a LOT of experience leading and developing people.  I’d love to hear your thoughts on motivation and the value of these assessment tools that supposedly help you identify strengths and weaknesses.  I still have a lot to learn.

Out with the old, in with the new

“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.’”  - Alfred Lord Tennyson

For you Ed, and for all of us, I hope that it is happier.  

2016 had some fairly big events for me.  I decided to go back to school (and did!), made a commitment to RAGBRAI (and did it!), got a dog, started going to counseling, bought TWO new bikes, and started a new job.  I guess when I line it all up like that, it seems pretty significant.  As usual, there were weeks I found myself saying, “I just need to get through this week,” but then there were other times when I felt like I must be missing something, just because I had a lot of time to choose what I wanted to do.  

I’m not sure how I’ll feel about 2017 next January.  The monumental task that I have before me in this new year is a thesis.  I need to identify a topic soon and start my research.  My goal is to graduate in the summer of 2018 when my classes are finished.  I don’t want to have to ask for more time to finish my thesis.  

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t think about my Navy retirement.  Most of the feedback I get from the people that have retired before me is that it’s never too early to start preparing, so that’s what I’m doing.  I am scheduled for a retirement brief in February, which is a requirement to attend the one-week retirement preparation class, which I will hopefully attend sometime this year as well.  It’s a little bit scary to me to think I could be retiring as early as Spring/Summer of 2018 if the Navy decides that they won’t let me finish out my 30 years in Maryland.  Regardless of whether it’s 2018 or 2020, the planning has started.  I’m dreading things like LinkedIn, resumes, etc.  But it must be done.

My social calendar for 2017 is probably a bit ambitious.  I’m hoping to make it to Colorado and San Diego/LA at some point this year.  I’d love to squeeze in some time in Monterey, CA (we have some friends there and I haven’t been back since 1989), and I have an old Navy friend in Louisiana that I’ve been hoping to see for years.  The last two are doubtful considering I am definitely taking a week to ride from Pittsburgh to DC, and I may have to use two weeks of vacation for college (if the Navy won’t give me that time) this summer.  First world problems.

I know we aren’t very consistent with this blog, but I do enjoy the shared history that it writes for us, regardless of where any of us lives.  Happy New Year guys, I love you both very much.

Ringing in the New Year

Well, 2016 sucked!

It was the worst year that I can remember for lots of reasons not worth gushing about because it's over ... thankfully.

Because 2016 sucked so bad, I'm so grateful for the support I received from my family over the past year.  My beautiful wife and continual supporter; my inspiring and loving kids; and my extended family for their love, guidance and support.

I learned a lot about humility in 2016, and I hope that will serve me well in the coming year.

So what's ahead for my family and me in 2017 to get excited and be optimistic about?

Oh, a few small things (tongue firmly in cheek) ...

• Me making a 'career pivot' and diversifying professionally beyond just being an HR guy.
• Holly dipping her toes back into the working world, continuing her role as SuperMom in the family.
• Haley becoming increasingly grown up and finding her way as a college student; finding the college major and career she wants to pursue.
• Alex closing out his high school days, deciding where he will go to college and venturing out as a young adult to bigger and better things.
• Luke growing out of those awkward teenage years and thriving in high school as an upperclassman; recognizing that he will have three bedrooms to choose from since he'll be the only one of our kids "stuck" living with Mom and Dad.
• Our family contemplating whether to remain in Denver, move back to Iowa, or split the difference and move back to Kansas City.
• All of our kids continuing to 'make us proud'.

I'm optimistic and hopeful that we'll make the right choices with these life decisions and 2017 will be much improved from 2016 for us.  It's going to be, it has to be.

Wishing you and yours the very best in 2017!