The Navy SEAL Approach to Leadership

05/25/23 • 30 min

As we commemorate Memorial Day, we wanted to share some of the great lessons shared by some of our veteran guests. There’s no higher-stakes environment in which to learn about leadership, teamwork, and perseverance, and we in the sales world can learn a lot from their service.

Tune in as VMWare Chief Operating Officer Mike Hayes and TakingPoint Leadership CEO Brent Gleeson talk about the importance of taking the harder path versus easy decisions, key leadership traits, and adapting the right mindset to succeed. Learn all of this and more on this episode of Revenue Builders.

Here are some key sections to check out:

02:24 Mike Hayes on high-performing people living in "two places at once".

08:34 Mike on taking the harder decisions and helping others do so as well

19:23 Brent Gleeson differentiating between the ones that excel and those that didn't make it

23:52 Brent on channeling pain pathways

Additional Resources:

Learn more about Mike Hayes: https://www.thisismikehayes.com/
Get his book Never Enough: https://a.co/d/6sDG3NL
Learn more about Brent Gleeson: http://www.brentgleesonspeaker.com/index.html
Get his book Embrace the Suck: https://a.co/d/9JCAyBB

QUOTES

You're only excellent if you know you're never excellent enough - Mike: “Whatever ways we definite 'better', I think it has nothing to do with seniority, age, or where we are in our careers. You can be ninety-something years old and still be trying to get better at different things.”

Brent on having a passion for what you're trying to accomplish: “If you think about any lofty goal we've ever pursued in life whether it's sports, work, charitable organizations, or in relationships, no lofty goal is ever achieved without some stress, pain, and adversity.”

Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064

The Shift Group works to place Veterans in sales roles. If you have open roles to fill, please contact them here: https://www.shiftgroup.io/companies-registration

Here are some key sections to check out:

02:24 Mike Hayes on high-performing people living in "two places at once".

08:34 Mike on taking the harder decisions and helping others do so as well

19:23 Brent Gleeson differentiating between the ones that excel and those that didn't make it

23:52 Brent on channeling pain pathways

Additional Resources:

Learn more about Mike Hayes: https://www.thisismikehayes.com/
Get his book Never Enough: https://a.co/d/6sDG3NL
Learn more about Brent Gleeson: http://www.brentgleesonspeaker.com/index.html
Get his book Embrace the Suck: https://a.co/d/9JCAyBB

QUOTES

Check out John McMahon’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Qualified-Sales-Leader-Proven-Lessons/dp/0578895064

The Shift Group works to place Veterans in sales roles. If you have open roles to fill, please contact them here: https://www.shiftgroup.io/companies-registration

Previous Episode

Executing a Winning Strategy with Chuck Bamford

What makes a winning strategy? According to today’s guest Chuck Bamford, PhD, author of The Strategy Mindset 2.0, strategy is about developing and aligning on a competitive advantage that actually moves the needle in your customer’s experience. It’s aligning on strategy from the top down that can often be a challenge for sales organization.

Chuck is the author of multiple strategy books used in MBA and Entrepreneurship courses around the country. He joins us today to talk common pitfalls, new realities, and winning implementation processes for strategy. Tune in for some truly golden insights shared in this conversation with our hosts John Kaplan and John McMahon.

Here are some key sections to check out:

03:47 Defining strategy and how not to complicate it

16:06 The two disconnects in business

25:04 The importance of aligning goals with compensation

33:13 Avoid knee-jerk reactions during slow economic times

43:30 Hygiene around the ideal customer profile

50:08 Company culture tied to strategy

53:59 Creating a differentiation strategy

Additional Resources:

Connect with Chuck Bamford on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuck-bamford-ph-d-67b9811/
Get The Strategy Mindset 2.0: https://www.bamfordassociates.com/the-strategy-mindset-2-0
How to Enable Sellers to Execute on Your Revenue Strategy During Economic Change: https://forc.mx/3OfBtGR

QUOTES

Chuck on converting KPIs:

“I think one of the big disconnects in business is that everything that leadership does is hypothesis. They believe that if we invest here, here and here, and our employees do this, this and this, that as we move forward, the number of customers will go up or returning customers or our EBITA, but they don't want to address what the activities are, or to convert it to activity metrics.

Chuck on aligning with employees:

“I tell everybody that the entire game in alignment with all my employees, I'm trying to get as many employees as I can to buy into my strategy. And the entire game is that it fits with how they view the company in the world, and that they are compensated and rewarded for making that happen.”

Next Episode

Coaches vs. Champions with Anne Gary

Force Management Facilitator Anne Gary joins the Revenue Builders. Anne is a skilled sales consultant and trainer with more than 20 years of experience in direct and indirect and channel sales, sales management, sales development, and sales operations. John and I both worked with her at PTC – she was there when PTC was a startup and helped us grow to a $10 billion dollar market cap. Anne spends her time now working with companies and leadership teams – helping them improve their sales performance and helping their reps grasp those key sales fundamentals that are so critical.

In this episode, John McMahon and Anne Gary talk about the MEDDICC concept of Coaches and Champions. They discuss common mistakes salespeople make distinguishing a Coach from a Champion, as well as what sales leaders need to do to push their teams to identify and test the coveted role.

Additional Resources: