Colonel Candid

Colonel Candid here starting this mentorship session with an adage my grandmother used to tell me. She served as a Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVE) in World War II, for the Navy. It was a part of her history that I didn’t really know much about until I’d started serving in the military myself. I’d hear people referencing one of Grandma Bunny’s (yes, a former WAVE went by Bunny – short for Bernita) quotable quotes, “The only thing constant in life is change.” There’s a lot to unpackage in that statement but it does ring true. Let’s focus on leading in a time of change. More than likely, that’s what you’ll be doing and it’s best to have a clear path forward rather than fumble along. The likelihood of success increases through preparing, fulfilling, and maintaining change by the following: 1.        Stickiness. Don’t just throw change spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. When you announce and change and expect people to ju...

Colonel Candid here starting this mentorship session with an adage my grandmother used to tell me. She served as a Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVE) in World War II, for the Navy. It was a part of her history that I didn’t really know much about until I’d started serving in the military myself. I’d hear people referencing one of Grandma Bunny’s (yes, a former WAVE went by Bunny – short for Bernita) quotable quotes, “The only thing constant in life is change.” There’s a lot to unpackage in that statement but it does ring true. Let’s focus on leading in a time of change. More than likely, that’s what you’ll be doing and it’s best to have a clear path forward rather than fumble along. The likelihood of success increases through preparing, fulfilling, and maintaining change by the following: 1.        Stickiness. Don’t just throw change spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. When you announce and change and expect people to ju...

Colonel Candid here in one of my most candid writings. Sometimes as much as I want to build you up, I’m also going to need you to self-reflect and find those areas where you are weakest. Let’s apply some serious elbow grease and get rid of these bad habits before they make you the leader who sucks. The reason you’re ineffective at leading could be one of several issues stemming from communication, trust, integrity, or planning. The impacts of these failures ripple across your team or organization. 1.        You talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. Please, we appreciate your lofty attempts at coaching, speeches, and the numerous vision statements you’ve posted around. Unfortunately, your inaction is evident every single day. The paper-thin goals you’ve put up aren’t working because you don’t provide us with the intent. Clear communication is key and we want to understand what you want of us. 2.        You could care less...

Are you ever asked to coordinate a project with a committee or another team? As you work together you may find valuable time spend sitting in nauseating meetings where people drone on about the small details, instead of getting after the big issues. Colonel Candid is here to focus you on collaboration over coordination. Because words matter, we need to understand the difference between coordination and collaboration. An example, when you get an email, read it, and pass it along – you’ve coordinated something. Now when you get a phone call or video conference and you work on this project with someone, you start to collaborate. To reach the immersion level of collaboration, you’ve got to have skin in the game. It’s the point when you don’t just nod your head in concurrence when others are talking, you’re collaborating when you speak out and pounding on the table in agreement. Setting the conditions for great collaboration on a project begins with the players involved. When you cre...