0260: A Road Map To Improve Your Leadership Performance Personally & Professionally with Author, Speaker & Marine Corp Veteran Tom Connally

Tom. I'm Tom Connolly@connellyconsulting.com and you're listening to EA Interviews.

EA Interviews, episode 260, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the Imperfect Action Round. Seven days a week, join Mario Ficcini for today's expert authority effect interview Leadership. Do we still have it today? I don't know. Some people say we do, some people say we don't. And it's a very interesting thing I say we do. And everyone should be better at it because without leadership, everything crumbles. No matter if you're talking personally, head of household, professionally head of business. You know, you're probably thinking of someone right now that you're like, yeah, they say they're a leader, but you don't really get that impression. And there's other people who probably aren't running around saying, I'm a leader, I'm a leader, I'm a leader. But you just know that they are. And that's why I'm excited to have Tom Connolly on the show today. Author, speaker and leadership coach. And he is going to be sharing the topic of leadership and I'm going to bring him up right after we thank our sponsor. Every business needs a book, including yours. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's free businessbook publishingcourse.com Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Tom Connolly. Tom, how are you feeling today?

I'm great. Thanks for having me here, Mario. It's great to be on the show. I hope I can live up to the standard of all your past guests and bring something to the conversation.

Oh, you definitely can. And I'm excited to have you on because I know that your heart's in the right place. You've served, you're a veteran and leadership is vitally important. And I thank you for your service and I just going to let you go because there's so much you can teach, not only the audience, but me as well. So why leadership? Why is it important?

Wow.

Be careful with that now we'll run over because I'll talk. This is my passion. But leadership is fundamentally about inspiring people to transcend to something greater than themselves. And that means knowing who you are and knowing what you want to focus your life and your work on. And it means bringing everybody along with you. You know, they say, you know, if you want to know something, write a book about it. So I wrote a book. Right. I didn't really write it as part of my business, but. But as I wrote that book, a lot of things that I was pretty convicted about for 30 years, I became very convicted about. And you had to really understand. I had to really understand what I was saying. I was going to tell my children. That's the reason I started the book, was to tell my children what. What they needed to do to optimize their apprenticeship.

You know, leadership is a. You can read all three books in the world and not know anything about leadership. You have to. You have to learn it, and you have to see it in action. Leaders are masters and apprentices at the same time, and that's a continual push and pull. But as I looked at leadership and I said, you know, there are some fundamental waypoints. And so I said, let's. Let's think about this as a roadmap, a roadmap to the apprenticeship, to learning how to lead. Because we're all learning all the time. Any leader who's not learning is not leading, because yet you've got to continually learn and teach that interaction is essential to developing relationships and trust. And like I said, you can read every book in the world, but you got to see it. And you got to find those people in your life, in your industry, that can help you to see those things. Sometimes it's a coach like me, somebody who can look at you in the eye and say, you're not doing it. You're not going to get to where you want to go. Sometimes it's those folks we have around us. But leadership comes down to people.

My prime imperative in my book is.

Accept the prime imperative, that every person in your organization has value. If you don't value your people, then you're not going to.

Put in the commitment. And that's what it is. Leadership's a commitment.

Anybody can be in a position of authority, but just because you're a general or a politician or, you know, or a CEO doesn't mean you're a leader. You're only a leader if you commit to being a leader and you commit to bringing your people along towards the objective, your objective, the organization's objective, their objective. You have to develop your people as you go.

Would you say that?

Would you say that the leadership is ongoing as well? You're saying, so I make a commitment, I'm going to be a leader, and I'm bringing my team to the objective. But what if it's for a few months, six months, or a year? Is it who you are? And it's part of You. Or can it be a temporary thing?

Well, who you are as a person. Leadership evolves or, you know, emanates from your character. If you want to be a good leader, work on your character. You have to have the strength, moral fortitude, and know what you believe in first and foremost. Anybody can be a leader, but you have to be committed to doing it. It's a continual cycle of study, action, reflection, and refinement.

That is part of that. Learn and teach.

It's also how you have to approach life every day. Leadership. Can it be temporary? Your position may be temporary, but if you're going to be a leader, you commit to leading. And no matter what you do, you lead. Now, you may not be in the position as the CEO, but that doesn't mean you're not leading. That doesn't mean that you don't have an apprentice under you, and it doesn't mean you don't have somebody that, that you look to as a mentor and you have a peer who's gonna tell you when you're smoking dope, you know, and your decisions aren't good or your ideas aren't good or whatever it is. But.

So. So the idea of being in, you know, of leadership being temporary. Leadership isn't temporary. Your position might be temporary, but. But if you commit to leading, then effectively it becomes your way of life, becomes what you decide to do.

And, you know, some people don't ever want to be a leader, right? They just wanted to be a good, you know, good painter. They just wanted to paint houses real well or whatever it might be, develop software, and they get promoted to a position or they expand their business to the point where now they have people who work for them. Well, now they're a leader de facto. And.

Whether they wanted to be or not, the circumstances came upon them. And I think that, well, I thoroughly am invested in the idea that anyone can become a leader. And those people that find themselves in a leadership position, if they commit to that, they can become a leader. They can become great leaders. You know, there are many, many stories throughout history of people that didn't want to be in a position of leadership, but were thrust into it and they committed to the idea and they were very successful. And so, you know, whoever a leader is, their character is such that they're going to always lead. It may be one person, it may be their family, it may be a bazillion, you know, is that a real number? Bazillion? But anyway, it is now, you know, it could be a bazillion yeah. So, you know, leadership is a way of life. You know, it's a commitment to.

Building people and accomplishing things and inspiring people to be more than who they are. And.

That'S the fundamental underpinnings. Are there things along the way that you have to learn? Yes. Leadership is very nuanced in every position, you have to learn new things. That's part of that whole apprenticeship, apprentice vocation idea. You can be a leader for 20 years and you moved into a position that's different, or maybe it's in a different industry or there are different challenges with it, and now you have to learn new things. That's why leaders have to continue to learn. They're never going to be an expert necessarily in all the technical aspects of maybe the organization that they're leading, very complex organizations, whether that's in the military or in industry, politics.

But they don't need to be either, do they?

Correct. You don't have to be, but you have to continue to be humble enough to learn from the experts around you so that you learn the things that you need to know to get the best from your people. And. But yes, you don't have to be an expert in everything. Lord knows we have lots of people that aren't expert in much, but they're great leaders. So leadership is a commitment to people and a commitment to making people in organizations the best that they can be, finding their best, their best selves, their best organization. So those are, you know, that's the fundamental underpinning. So, I mean, are we done? Should I go home?

You're doing great. And it's reminding me of, like what you said, that you, you know, you're always growing, you're always learning, and there's people that are just thrust into leadership. And it's reminding me of the scripture of God doesn't equal call the equipped. He equips the called.

You know, it doesn't matter where you're starting at.

Say that again.

I agree with you 100%. That's a. And that's a great scripture. You know, the good Lord gives certain people talents, and we're all called to make the best of those talents. And, and we're not all called to the same vocations, but leadership is a vocation and it requires effort. And, you know, I have a saying, you know, all things are possible through prayer and heavy deadlifts. So you have to, you have to do the work right, and you got to keep the faith.

And how much work do you have to do?

Well, leadership would obviously Depend on your experience.

And your position and those that are around you. And sometimes it's all you can do every minute of the day and other times it's not. But you always are looking and seeking to improve yourself and your organization. That's what leaders commit to.

Leaders have to be what their organization needs at the time that they need it. It doesn't change who you are, but it may change the things that you have to do. Sometimes you're in an organization or at a place in an organization where you can delegate a lot because you have great expertise and talent around you. Sometimes you were just building and you have to be more hands on and involved until you get people up to the level where they can handle all those things.

So.

The idea that you ever arrive as a leader is just, it's fallacy. You reach a point where you're very competent, but you never arrive in the minute that you think you've arrived, you've not arrived. Right? I mean, it's like the old Benjamin Franklin, you know, had his nine, his nine principles that he, you know, he followed every day and he kept track of them for a long time. And you know, he'd go through all the key values in life and he would always get down to the last one. And the last one was humility. And he said, I get down to the last one and then I wouldn't be able to check that block because I would get proud that I had done all the other ones before it. So, you know.

You'Re always, you know, having to look at yourself in the mirror and say, did I do the best that I could do yesterday? Did I get the results that I wanted? And if you're not able to do that and look at your people, your organization and say, listen, I didn't do that right? Or we didn't get the objective that we wanted because, because I did something that I had us go in the wrong direction or putting too much effort over here. If you're unwilling to do that, then you have to reevaluate your own character. Because as a leader you have to be able to do that. Your people will follow you anywhere. If you're willing to look at them and say, I made a mistake, we're going to need to do this again. If they know you care. One of the things from one of the key things in my book, hey, you got to be competent. You have to own the mission. It's your responsibility. Your organization becomes yours and it's your responsibility. If it does, well, then it will be your on your people, they have done well, and they get the credit. And if they do poorly, you own it. You own it as a leader.

That's the hard part.

So you can't just take all the upside and pass the blame on the downside.

Well, you can for a short period of time, and soon your employees will leave you because they know that that's not the case. People want to know you care, and they want to know that you're putting in your best effort. And if you do that, then they're gonna. They'll go the extra mile for you all the time. You have to go the extra mile.

That flexibility is so important because I'm thinking of times when, early on, I sent the wrong invoice to the wrong client, and it was correct. It wasn't a wrong amount, but I was sweating bullets, and I'm like, oh, my gosh. And I called them up and. Because I knew them in person, and I'm nice to everyone. I had met the receptionist, I don't know, a few months before and everything, and she's like, how's it going? I'm like, pretty good. How's your day going, by the way? I sent. And she goes, I already took care of it. Don't worry about it. I've done it myself.

There you go.

And I was like, oh. And I. That one thing sticks out. That was well over a decade ago, but I was just like it. I thought my whole world was coming down, and everyone's gonna think I'm a horrible business owner and all these things, and it's just like, relax.

Treat people, take care of you, and they'll, you know, if they know that you're trying to do the right thing, then no one's perfect, right? Exactly. Nobody's perfect. Heck, nobody's perfect. We make mistakes. We have to be willing to own up to them. That's part. That's part of leadership, and it's part of character. And the fundamental, you know, fundamental core of. Of being a leader is your character. You know, if you want to be a. Be a better leader, start with your own character. Are you living up to what you believe in or what you say is important?

I wanted to ask you real quick, bring us back to the beginning. What inspired you to write your book and start the business?

So when I was a kid, my dad used to. My older brothers are. I have three older brothers that are significantly older than me. 10, eight, five years older than me and my dad, and they were all officers in the military. My dad had been in the military. And my dad would write these epic essays about leadership to us. And so my daughter was at the Naval Academy, and I had retired from the Marine Corps, and I was working in the defense industry, working for a company, a small company at that time. And.

And I said, I'm going to write her an epic essay. And so, you know, how to get started as a new lieutenant in the Marine Corps. And so I started writing it, and it was a hard slog. I mean, I'm like, I know leadership. I've lived leadership. I've thought about leadership. I've even written stuff about leadership. Why is this so hard? So I was slogging through it, and as I was slogging through it, I began to realize that what was hard about it was I was trying to write everything about everything. I said, you know, I'm gonna. I need to neck this thing down to what a lieutenant, what a new officer needs to know.

And then, you know, what was it. Was it Lincoln that said, I didn't have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one?

And I said, I can't do that if I expect somebody to read it, especially youngsters to read it then, or people that are busy.

So I was writing this book, and as I was writing the book.

And trying to get it done on my free time, that was another challenge working for somebody else. I realized that I had spent so much time in my five years in the industry after the Marine Corps, in boardrooms and in proposal development sessions where I seem to spend all my time talking about leadership, organizational strategy.

Building teams, missions, and those kind of things, and all the structures that go with trying to build something right or fix something. I said, you know what? I just need to do that as a business. And so I picked up the phone and I called my boss and I said, look, this is what I want to do. And he's a friend of mine, and he great, great man and military experience. He's been a submarine captain. He said, that's great. That's a great thing. And I said, well, I need. I want to be doing this in 18 months. And he said, so, well, you better get started on it. I said, yeah, that's why I'm quitting. And he said, what can I do to help? And so he was helpful to me and in trying to figure out what. What a small business look like and, you know, what I needed to do to start those things. But my daughter came to me, and by this time, she graduated from the Naval Academy, and she's going through her basic officer training. She said, dad, you got to finish this thing. You got to write it down, all these things you say. And so I kind of put everything else on hold. I said, let's finish the book. And I was working with a couple of nonprofit organizations at the time, and so I was keeping up with that. But I finished the book. I pushed through the book, and I had a friend of mine read it, and he said, you know, you only mentioned these things at the end, but that's your whole book. I said, goodness gracious, you're right. And so I had to completely then retool the whole thing and reorganize it, because he was right. You know, these five things, plus the prime imperative, are in fact the main points of.

The roadmap to leadership. You know, believe in your people, realize they have value, be competent, own the mission. You know, go the extra mile for your people and then teach something every day and learn something every day. Day. And I tell some, you know, sea stories in there. In the civilian world, we call them fairy tales. In the military, we call them sea stories or marine Corps, we call them sea stories. But I tell some stories to try and. Try and illuminate, you know, or illustrate the points that I'm trying to make in the book. But, yeah, it was not aimed at my business.

My business came from the book. But it was. The book was written for my kids.

And the review from most people that are many people that have read it that have never served in the military was this is applicable across the board. And I think it is from the standpoint of talking about the vocation of leadership as an apprenticed vocation, because at every level, you have to do all those things all the time. You have to. Who are my people? You know, what? You know, how do I give? How do I recognize their value? How do I build their value? Right? What do I need to know? How competent, proficient, and in what areas do I need to be? And every level that changes, right? And you own the mission. What is that mission? What's my mission? What's my. What's my organization's mission? What's their mission within the industry and what industry am I? Am I in? Right? And then. And then, you know, what do I do? How do I go the extra mile? How do we talk? We talked a little bit about your. About people, but you got to be willing to sit down and get dirty and listen to people and hear what their problems are and then do something for them. They don't want you to be your best. They don't want to be your best friend. They don't want you to be their best friend. They don't want you to come over and take care of their dog. They just want to know that you care. Right. And that you're going to do something. And a lot of times what you can do as their boss is not hard. You ask how hard is it? Sometimes it's really hard. It really takes energy. Sometimes it takes your whole day just to help that one person in your organization.

But they know you care at that point. Like you said, they're not coming over expecting you to take care of their dog. But they know you're not just going to sweep them under the bus or, you know, blame everything on them. You know, when it comes down to it.

Exactly. That's exactly the point. Exactly the point. But you get, like I said, you're. If you don't, if you don't care like that and you, you know, then. And it. And it's not about being, Having the gift of gab or being, you know, the, you know, or looking great. Heck, I'm. I'm five foot five, bald head. I'm not, you know, I look more like a troll than I do like, you know, than I do like a movie star. That's, that's not why people would ever follow me.

But I have seen guys of all talents and abilities and, you know, and extroverts and introverts and as long as they cared about their people and did those things, were competent, owned the mission, were responsible, were looking to always build their people, and they were continually learning and teaching those people, were successful. And so I think it does apply. I think it applies across the board. Wasn't intended that way, but, you know, 30 years of experience, maybe it bolts out that way.

Well, I'm glad you do. And I'd rather have someone with character than is a character. So thank you for being you because there's plenty of, let's just say, other people in the world. I have one question for you, and it's going to be a fun one. Well, I hope you think it's fun. This is the wheel of whatever. We're gonna do this and then thank our sponsor, but. Oh, I am getting good at that. Look at that one go. Sometimes it doesn't work out so well, but that's just fine.

That's good. So my question is. See where it landed. Perfect question every time.

My question for you is if you could be in any position of leadership and power right now.

Would you change what you're doing or is there somewhere you go? I'd really love to be xyz. I know I could do some good and help a ton of people.

Any industry, any anything, any country, any whatever.

Real specific.

No, I wouldn't change a thing. I wouldn't change a thing because I think the Lord gives us our challenges and he shows us where we need to go. And my past, you know, I felt that way when I, when I was standing in Iraq with my battalion that I had, that God had prepared me for what I was supposed to do and that there was no other place in the world that I wanted to be at that point in time. If you gave me a battalion of Marines, boy, I would have fun. Okay? But.

I also believe that, and the reason I committed to this line of work, my wife said, you're going to do this, you know, how long are you going to do this for? You know, I said, I'm going to do it forever. I'm going to do this until I can't do it anymore. Because I believe that my mission is to help as many leaders and organizations to improve their performance and success personally, professionally, spiritually and physically.

Because that's what God has given me to do. That's what he's equipped me to do. That's the challenge that he's put in front of me. And I'm happy to do it every day. I think you don't build leaders by being. It's great to have motivational speakers and I can do that piece, trust me. I can stand on stages and I can motivate people and I can make them feel good about themselves and I can make a move to an objective. But it's of minimal value because.

You don't change lives that way. You don't build organizations that way. You do it one person at a time. And so if God wants me to do something greater than in a different way, then that opportunity will arise.

But I'm not looking for something else. I think you build leaders and organizations one person at a time. And in doing so, that's my mission. That's where I'm at.

And if that's CEOs, then it's CEOs. And if it's.

A brand new fellow out of college or a lady who's just stepping off into a new challenge, then that's where it is and that's what I'll do.

I think that that's the mission I've been given and it's the vocation that I've committed to. So we'll see.

How long I can keep going. But I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. People ask me if I'm retired. I'm just not on active duty. I'm still, you know, I'm still moving out as best I can. Everybody.

I appreciate the transparency and honesty that hits close to home for me. And what a great answer. Thank you.

We're going to thank our sponsor and come back with the imperfect action round. You've heard me say every business needs a book, including yours. And it's true. And that's why you should Visit free businessbook publishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. But you know what, don't take my word for it. Take it from a few of my authors like Lori, I went from having.

An idea and a possibility to actually getting my book published.

Or Catherine, thank you for making my.

Mom number one best selling author.

Or Mary Alice what he got done.

For me in three days regarding my book launch.

Unmanageable.

John Cody I've worked with Mario over the phone and online and he's been very helpful in getting me where I needed to go with promoting my books.

Rocio there's no way in the world I would have been able to do this with somebody else again. I've attempted it in the past. It didn't serve me. As a matter of fact, I ended up more frustrated than anything. So this has been a very seamless process. Adele if you're looking for an amazing business coach, I highly recommend Mario Ficcini or Bill Benner.

I can't make a higher recommendation for than to work with Mario Ficini. He has been great for me and right now I won't work with anybody.

Else except for Mario.

Hey, their words, not mine. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com to get started now and I look forward to hearing your transformation as the next video success story. Once Again, that's free businessbook publishingcourse.com and we are back with the imperfect action round. Tom, are you ready to take imperfect action?

Ready. Everything's 8020 man. You know.

Better have an 80% plan executed violently or you know, energetically than 100% plan too late.

Can't agree more. Three questions for you. 60 second or less answers. The first one is what is the fastest path to profits?

Leadership.

Excellent. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making in the fastest way they can fix it?

Aligning their performance with what they believe. And the fastest way they can fix it is know what they believe. Write it down.

Excellent. Number three, what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Relationships. Build good relationships. Make them trust you. Trust them.

What books would you recommend to Expert Authority World?

Wow. That's always hard. Mine. But mine's not the best book out there.

You can find great guidance if you're a Christian and you need to crack the Bible and look in there. There's great books out there by all kinds of all kinds of leaders. I like one particularly that's called.

It's called.

Discovering the Laws of Life by Sir John Templeton. And if you don't know who Sir John Templeton was, he was actually an American citizen who gave up his American citizenship after he'd made a ton of money in the investment world. And the Templeton funds are all named after him. But he wrote a book and it's great short stories about values and what is most important in life. And he gave up his US Citizenship so that he could donate an exorbitant amount of money to a charity in the United States. Wow. The only way he could pull it off. So he did. Wow.

Have not heard of that one, but I've heard of him.

That sounds great. Thank you for sharing that. Where would you like people to learn more?

Go to connollyconsulting.com and they'll find a link to my book. They'll find a free download on some of that section that talks about knowing what you believe and who you are just discovering and developing your character. They'll also find other podcasts, links to links to podcasts, and some of the other videos that I have made that talk to these subjects.

Excellent. Well, I appreciate you for sharing. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.

Thank you for having me. I hope I lived up to the high standard that you set with your guests.

You definitely did and I knew you would.

Thank you, sir.

All right, Expert Authority World. We have another great episode here today. I'll see you tomorrow. Have a great day and God bless.

You're already the expert, but have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate and qualify leads while increasing profit for you 247 and if so, how well are you promoting it? With the Expert Authority effect publishing method, it's easier and faster than ever. Visit free business book publishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com to get started. Now, once again, that's freebusinessbookpublishingcourse. Com.