From Battlefields to Boardrooms: Leadership Lessons from a Green Beret

It was a special treat to have Jay Powers join CMO Coffee Talk last Friday. The 26-year Army veteran has led combat deployments 10 times in his career, and his stories of leadership had plenty of implications and lessons for leaders everywhere.

Jay led us through several interactive exercises to highlight the most successful leadership attributes, traits and values deployed by leaders across numerous situations. Highlights from the exercise and other comments/contributions from participating CMOs are in the chat highlights below.

If you are in the CMO Coffee Talk community, don't miss Jay's leadership checklist in the #swipefile Slack channel.

If you are a B2B CMO or head of marketing and want to join a community of 2,200+ of your peers, let me know or click here to learn more and sign up.

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People thing too much about themselves

I'm impressed that someone recognized that kind of problem in a team. I think too often people don't recognize cultural issues like that.

You have to be courageous. That's what makes it difficult

Influencing behaviors of others is hard work

I often say there are people who would be great neighbors but bad co-workers.

Can we talk about documentation? How important is it to write down goals, processes, etc.

1:1s are critical

Encourage a culture of psychological safety

Match communication and language when possible

Knowing team members feedback style is important. Some people will share in public, others will keep quiet but can be drawn out 1:1

Active presenteeism is something I am constantly trying to extract in every remote meeting. Who’s participating, how do you get others to participate, watch for body language and distractions in the room. It’s hard but extra energy is needed - especially if you are the new person in the room!

When receiving feedback, don’t be defensive…

I like the one comment idea. -- Set the expectation early in the meeting.

Don’t forget that you ask for feedback, they expect action.

you need to deliver.

I try to do a quick regroup with folks immediately after and offer up something I think I could have done better first — and then ask for other feedback of what could have been better and what went well. If you are first to call out what you personally could have done better they feel safe to share more and often become self aware too.

When you act on the feedback — ensure that you report back on it — I often would say (sometimes 2-3 months later) ‘we heard from the team XYZ’ and some of the changes you see this quarter are a direct result of your ideas and input … keep ‘em coming’

Team members became even more open

Close the loop is important

Be a role model and protect them as much as possible

I’d add how do you navigate that situation when the leadership above you has little to no competency in your area of expertise?

I’m certainly guilty of relaying my frustrations at times with my marketing leadership team

Leading high-performing teams means you have to continually assess whether you have the right people on the team. In your combat experience, where decisions on team membership can literally be a matter of life and death, how do you decide when to go from "This person can perform better with more training and experience" to "I need to replace this person?"

Sleep is the best. But oof does hustle culture not want us to have it.

https://a.co/d/4NFzqgr This book will change your view on sleep and how to take care of yourself to sustain high performance^^^^^

What we are doing is not saving lives. Take a minute to breathe and think of those who are!

Have a catch phrase in your mind that helps you in that moment "Come back to reality" when you really want to mentally check out : )

A leader helps others realize their full potential.

As a leader my job is to make sure my team has the tools they need to succeed

Put people in a position to be successful

Coach and orchestrator. Removing obstacles.

Getting the best out of the team that you lead

Protect and defend

listening, setting direction, creating the right culture

be a force multiplier

leaders clarify goals

set goals/objectives, then do what it takes to help the team succeed (as individuals and as a team) - remove obstacles, train, encourage, etc.

install confidence, vision, and hope

My job as a leader is to mentor, teach, help people on my team prepare and learn to one day be in my role.

Giving abundantly so that others can be their best and do their best work

Achieve the goal

Lead people to be their best.

Inspire people’s potential towards a common goal

Collaboration cooperation and results

Guide and direct towards something

Outcomes through others

Help people perform better

Results on whatever the outcome is.

Hit the goals/results

Collaboration cooperation and results

Engaging your team in problem-solving. Leaders often aren’t close enough to the problem to have the best ideas - bring your team to the table.

Love that - leaving an org better than it was

Training the next batch of leaders

Most people have never had real training

There’s not a lot of training on how to be a good leader

It’s a harder task

Some people learn from bad leaders but never translate that into how to be a better leader

To be a multiplier so that the efforts of others have more impact and satisfaction

I'm amazed how many times I've had interviews for leadership positions and never been asked a single question about my leadership style. All I'm asked is about my marketing skills and strategies and experience

definitely. I always ask to meet with the team to counter that if the CEO didn’t do there.

So true, hard to earn trust without giving it.

Ethics/not cutting corners

1. Character

2. Leadership Competence

3. Focus

True leadership is definitely heart-centered.

I’ve always felt that leaders need to truly love their people - agape love.

Strategic and willing do the work too.

Transparency, reliability ,empathy, loyalty

Humility, vision, authenticity, growth. mindset

Being able to see the big picture and what's right in front of you at the same time

Respect and listening to people

calm under pressure

Ethics, communication, etc.

Trust your people

Ability to drive alignment

Direct and understood communication

I love your point about not even cutting the slightest corner.

Simplify complexity and enable feasibility of goals in that context

You also have complicated goals as a leader.

I asked ChatGPT to take those comments on what are important traits, de-duplicate them, and categorize. Here you go:

Leadership qualities:

Heart-centered leadership with agape love for people

Empathy

Compassion

Clear communication

Inspiring and motivating

Trust in people

Humility

Authenticity

Growth mindset

Respect for and listening to people

Focused listening and inclusion

Skills and abilities:

Vision

Decisiveness

Empowerment

Clarity

Setting a standard or model

Ability to drive alignment

Simplifying complexity and enabling feasibility of goals in that context

Influential

Being able to see the big picture and what's right in front of you at the same time

Values:

Ethics

Loyalty

Transparency

Seeing others

How do you build an effective feedback loop?

How do you set up a feedback look where people can really be honest? Part of it is having the trust to have the conversation, but how else?

Treat people how they WISH they were treated.

Who would you have considered a mentor/leader for you? And what did they do to make you feel that way?And do they continue to be one for you even long after you are serving under them?

What I’ve learned about the “golden rule” is that some people don’t know how to treat people based on past life.

Never get defensive about the feedback. Receive with grace, and take it seriously

360 feedback humbles the leader

Radical Candor is a great book about getting your team to give you honest feedback and you to give them honest feedback

360 Feedback was so helpful for me to receive as a leader

have had leaders who turn upward feedback back on me negatively. So toxic

“Go direct” is 10X anonymous feedback.

Don’t wait for 360s semi or annually…put it in place for your team early and practice it/demo how to accept and understand that “Feedback is a Gift"

Don’t listen to respond. Listen to understand. Yes!

And listen to change as needed

Repeating back "what I'm hearing you say is.... is that correct?" is very powerful and makes people feel seen and heard. Also gives space for them to clarify

Yes exactly. I always felt if you are surprising someone during a review, it’s already too late. Should have been communicating it the whole way up.

Anyone good insights on what people call “leading Up” … to your superiors?

A lot of the best leaders I've ever known go to therapy on a regular basis to work through their own stuff so they don't bring it to their teams

You can only manage up, not lead up

It's great to have a mentor

Love that - figure out how you can be the best for different people

At the same time you need to be sensitive to cultural differences, so when one tells you they are great, vs when others a different one from a different culture tells you they are OK, it means different things

This has been a great reminder of the importance of things we should do every day but sometimes forget, especially in crisis. Thank you