WEBVTT 00:02.240 --> 00:04.619 Celebrations as we uh celebrate launch 00:04.630 --> 00:06.797 schools excellence in health care . Um 00:06.797 --> 00:10.670 This is our third uh LP D of the day 00:10.720 --> 00:14.470 and it's a sergeant major uh Mark or 00:14.479 --> 00:18.139 clerk Sharpen tear . Um This uh this 00:18.149 --> 00:21.610 is uh I'm sorry , sorry , Major . 00:22.190 --> 00:24.450 Sharpe Tea is a native of Louisianian . 00:24.750 --> 00:26.972 Um He entered the army from New Orleans 00:26.972 --> 00:29.139 in 1993 basic training at Fort Still . 00:29.139 --> 00:32.409 Oklahoma came in as a combat medic . He 00:32.419 --> 00:34.939 did , he worked at launch twice . So he 00:34.950 --> 00:37.172 was a sergeant major from troop command 00:37.172 --> 00:39.283 and then again the sergeant major for 00:39.283 --> 00:41.339 the launch regional Medical Center . 00:41.339 --> 00:43.561 His sergeant major assignments included 00:43.561 --> 00:45.728 serving as the US Congress legislative 00:45.728 --> 00:47.839 advisor for the office of the Surgeon 00:47.839 --> 00:50.061 General National capital region and the 00:50.061 --> 00:52.228 first Armored Division chief , medical 00:52.228 --> 00:54.561 noncommissioned officer in , in Germany . 00:54.561 --> 00:56.728 Earlier in his career , he led a first 00:56.728 --> 00:58.617 sergeant , senior oper operations 00:58.617 --> 01:00.783 sergeant , senior small group leader , 01:00.783 --> 01:03.006 platoon sergeant , instructor , medevac 01:03.006 --> 01:05.117 team N C O in charge of flight medics 01:05.319 --> 01:07.550 and squad leader . Command sergeant 01:07.559 --> 01:10.629 major has also held assignments in Fort 01:10.839 --> 01:13.309 Wray , Alaska , Fort Rucker , Alabama , 01:13.319 --> 01:15.550 Fort Riley , Kansas and Fort Chua 01:17.099 --> 01:19.559 Arizona allowing combat deployments to 01:19.569 --> 01:21.779 Anbar and Baghdad provinces in Iraq , 01:22.470 --> 01:24.692 today , he'll be talking about why does 01:24.692 --> 01:26.900 it matter discussion in , in a uh 01:27.540 --> 01:29.800 commit to launch regional medical 01:29.809 --> 01:33.410 center um in the back part exits and to 01:33.419 --> 01:35.530 my right , your left are an exit . If 01:35.530 --> 01:37.641 anyone needs to use the restroom that 01:37.641 --> 01:39.697 is outside of the uh defect and down 01:39.697 --> 01:41.641 the hall to the right . Um Without 01:41.641 --> 01:43.697 further ado , let's welcome Sergeant 01:43.697 --> 01:47.669 major sharpen here . So I love 01:47.680 --> 01:49.736 the fact that the last thing that he 01:49.736 --> 01:51.736 talks about are the exits . So that 01:51.736 --> 01:53.958 means that everybody's just gonna wanna 01:53.958 --> 01:56.291 get out of here quickly . So , you know , 01:56.291 --> 01:58.513 a as , as I'm very privileged and , and 01:58.513 --> 02:00.624 happy to be able to be here and speak 02:00.624 --> 02:02.791 with , with you today , you know , I , 02:02.791 --> 02:04.791 I just wanna share a few thoughts . 02:04.791 --> 02:06.847 Don't worry , you need to lower your 02:06.847 --> 02:06.730 expectations . I'm not gonna tell you 02:06.739 --> 02:09.479 everything , but uh and I'm not going 02:09.490 --> 02:11.379 to say that this is going to be a 02:11.379 --> 02:13.601 discussion because much like that , you 02:13.601 --> 02:13.179 know , ceremony will begin in two 02:13.190 --> 02:15.559 minutes . That's awkward and I despise 02:15.570 --> 02:17.737 when people get up and say I want this 02:17.737 --> 02:19.737 to be a discussion and then there's 02:19.737 --> 02:21.848 absolutely no discussion whatsoever . 02:21.848 --> 02:24.014 So I'm not going to go that path . But 02:24.014 --> 02:27.020 if you have gone to A L C or S L C 02:27.149 --> 02:30.360 recently , uh you may hear a little bit 02:30.369 --> 02:32.480 of this , you may have heard a little 02:32.480 --> 02:34.536 bit of this already . So if you know 02:34.536 --> 02:36.647 the answers to the questions , then I 02:36.647 --> 02:38.702 would just ask you to , to allow the 02:38.702 --> 02:40.813 rest of the audience to sit there and 02:40.813 --> 02:42.925 squirm and try to figure out what the 02:42.925 --> 02:45.147 right answers are . So , you know , I , 02:45.147 --> 02:47.880 I'm gonna start off by asking , uh you 02:47.889 --> 02:50.056 know , for , for those of you who have 02:50.056 --> 02:52.210 been here at , for a while and you've 02:52.220 --> 02:55.490 been a leader in the army , you know , 02:55.500 --> 02:57.611 that there are expectations of people 02:57.619 --> 02:59.730 and whenever there's guest speakers , 02:59.730 --> 03:02.063 you know , they , they let you know the , 03:02.063 --> 03:04.397 the , the read ahead and all that stuff . 03:04.397 --> 03:06.630 So very simple question because as I 03:06.639 --> 03:09.169 look around the audience here , so who 03:09.179 --> 03:12.990 am I ? Who am I , who can 03:13.000 --> 03:16.990 answer that question ? Come 03:17.000 --> 03:19.222 on somebody , somebody's got it . Who , 03:19.222 --> 03:21.278 who , who do you think I am ? So you 03:21.278 --> 03:23.500 were the major command here when I went 03:23.500 --> 03:25.500 to the promotion board . But I also 03:25.500 --> 03:27.722 said that that's who I was . That's who 03:27.722 --> 03:29.667 I was three years ago . He's still 03:29.667 --> 03:32.619 traumatized . That's who I was . But 03:32.630 --> 03:34.800 I've also seen you vote around uh on 03:34.990 --> 03:37.169 other pages , uh providing , it's 03:37.179 --> 03:39.346 providing good uh feedback to the , to 03:39.346 --> 03:41.568 the NGO core and just anybody who , who 03:41.568 --> 03:43.679 take that mentorship or anything . So 03:43.679 --> 03:46.020 you're , you're skirting around . Maybe 03:46.619 --> 03:48.730 ma'am . Uh you were the best sounding 03:48.730 --> 03:50.952 ward for uh Lieutenant Colonel Susan to 03:50.952 --> 03:53.850 who is my best friend ? All right , 03:53.889 --> 03:57.589 well , maybe you are us . 03:57.919 --> 04:01.160 OK . You getting closer . Uh I heard 04:01.169 --> 04:03.169 you mentioned earlier that you , uh 04:03.169 --> 04:05.225 were in command of something between 04:05.225 --> 04:07.447 Hollywood and Bollywood and polar bears 04:07.447 --> 04:10.960 and penguins . Ok . All right . So all 04:10.970 --> 04:12.748 of those things are , yeah . So 04:12.748 --> 04:14.748 Regional Health Command Pacific for 04:14.748 --> 04:16.859 those of you who don't know that that 04:16.859 --> 04:16.660 was our saying because we went all the 04:16.670 --> 04:18.726 way from North Pole , South Pole and 04:18.726 --> 04:21.760 from California out to India . That was 04:21.769 --> 04:24.380 our area of coverage . Now , all of 04:24.390 --> 04:26.557 those are things that either I've done 04:26.720 --> 04:29.350 places I've served or positions I've 04:29.359 --> 04:32.920 held , but none of them are who I 04:32.929 --> 04:36.920 am . What would it take for 04:36.929 --> 04:40.589 you to know who I am ? What , what 04:40.600 --> 04:42.822 would have to happen ? Because all that 04:42.822 --> 04:44.989 information is either something you've 04:44.989 --> 04:47.211 run across something you've read on the 04:47.211 --> 04:49.433 interweb , something that's out there , 04:49.433 --> 04:51.544 something that you can research . But 04:51.544 --> 04:50.890 what would it take for you to know who 04:50.899 --> 04:52.559 I am a 04:54.170 --> 04:56.989 personal conversation to where we sit 04:57.000 --> 04:59.589 down , we talk about hopes , dreams , 04:59.600 --> 05:02.470 goals , things that are going on with 05:02.480 --> 05:05.750 me and all of those things . So now 05:06.600 --> 05:10.299 if I went back to the soldiers that you 05:10.309 --> 05:12.970 lead and ask them , 05:14.440 --> 05:17.450 does your supervisor , does your leader 05:17.769 --> 05:20.239 know who you are without a show of 05:20.250 --> 05:22.361 hands ? How many of them would say my 05:22.361 --> 05:24.528 leader knows who I am ? Just something 05:24.528 --> 05:26.472 to think about . Just something to 05:26.472 --> 05:26.410 think about . You don't have to show 05:26.420 --> 05:30.230 your hands because if you have 05:30.239 --> 05:32.839 not had that conversation with them , 05:33.559 --> 05:35.837 then you truly don't know who they are . 05:36.649 --> 05:38.482 And , and that's kind of a scary 05:38.482 --> 05:40.679 thought for some of us . Because it's 05:40.690 --> 05:42.500 much easier to communicate via 05:42.510 --> 05:44.732 electronic texts and all of those other 05:44.732 --> 05:46.954 things you do than to sit down and have 05:46.954 --> 05:49.288 a face to face conversation with anyone . 05:49.288 --> 05:51.619 But when do you get the best feedback 05:51.630 --> 05:54.450 from someone ? And a lot of it is non 05:54.459 --> 05:57.220 verbal communications because studies 05:57.230 --> 05:59.649 show that somewhere in the , depending 05:59.660 --> 06:01.604 on which study you look at 60 plus 06:01.604 --> 06:04.220 percent of a conversation , memorable 06:04.230 --> 06:08.010 communication . So if you are spending 06:08.019 --> 06:10.500 all of your time on Insta Cha and Snap 06:10.510 --> 06:12.519 Gram , then do you really know who 06:12.529 --> 06:14.751 someone is ? Yes . And I'm not that old 06:14.751 --> 06:16.862 that I don't know what it is . I just 06:16.862 --> 06:19.029 wanna make sure you're still awake and 06:19.029 --> 06:21.029 paying attention and I do know that 06:21.029 --> 06:20.230 that but if that's how you're 06:20.239 --> 06:22.239 communicating with your folks or if 06:22.239 --> 06:24.072 you're out in Korea and using or 06:24.072 --> 06:26.295 whatever , whatever the other platforms 06:26.295 --> 06:28.461 are and not sitting there talking with 06:28.461 --> 06:30.517 someone and you truly don't know who 06:30.517 --> 06:32.628 they are . So how can you effectively 06:32.628 --> 06:34.795 lead them ? How can you inspire them ? 06:34.795 --> 06:36.970 How can you get them to do ? What in 06:36.980 --> 06:39.540 some cases is unnatural 06:40.779 --> 06:43.200 putting themselves in harm's way to 06:43.209 --> 06:45.042 actually accomplish some kind of 06:45.042 --> 06:48.910 mission inspiration . And remember 06:48.920 --> 06:51.140 those that you are inspiring are not 06:51.149 --> 06:55.130 just those that you are leading , those 06:55.140 --> 06:57.307 of you are inspiring are some that are 06:57.307 --> 06:59.790 senior to you in rank . How many of you 06:59.799 --> 07:03.079 are here are leaders ? Everybody's hand 07:03.089 --> 07:05.200 should go up . It doesn't matter what 07:05.200 --> 07:07.367 your rank is . Everyone is a leader in 07:07.367 --> 07:10.529 a given situation . But the question is 07:10.540 --> 07:12.762 you say you're a leader , but what is a 07:12.762 --> 07:15.200 leader define what a leader is ? Who 07:15.209 --> 07:18.100 wants to take a shot at that one ? Who 07:18.109 --> 07:20.220 wants to take a shot at what a leader 07:20.220 --> 07:23.239 is or what is leadership ? And it's not 07:23.250 --> 07:25.083 providing purpose , motivation , 07:25.083 --> 07:28.010 direction by no answer . 07:29.989 --> 07:32.156 The two of you are always raising your 07:32.156 --> 07:34.156 hands . The three of you are always 07:34.156 --> 07:33.890 raising your hands because you feel 07:33.899 --> 07:36.070 comfortable , you feel confident . I'm 07:36.089 --> 07:38.089 going to start calling on people to 07:38.089 --> 07:40.200 make it a little more uncomfortable . 07:40.529 --> 07:44.070 Oh Yeah , you , you , you would know 07:44.079 --> 07:48.029 that I was looking at you . That , 07:48.040 --> 07:50.380 that's right . So , so what , what do 07:50.390 --> 07:53.220 you think a leader is ? So I know we're 07:53.230 --> 07:55.452 not going for the book answer . But one 07:55.452 --> 07:57.619 of the things I've learned a leader is 07:57.619 --> 07:59.674 somebody who takes the time to check 07:59.674 --> 07:59.589 down and check up on his troops and his 07:59.600 --> 08:01.600 fellow leadership to make sure that 08:01.600 --> 08:03.767 they're able to accomplish the mission 08:03.767 --> 08:03.070 and everything they need in their 08:03.079 --> 08:05.260 personal professional lives . You kind 08:05.269 --> 08:07.660 of work on a total soldier concept so 08:07.670 --> 08:10.799 that they're able to succeed in . Ok . 08:10.959 --> 08:14.630 OK . Someone who is uh trustworthy , 08:14.640 --> 08:16.929 someone that you can talk to uh on a 08:16.940 --> 08:18.996 personal level and also professional 08:18.996 --> 08:20.996 level and then have them give you a 08:20.996 --> 08:23.540 honest feedback . Uh but also someone 08:23.549 --> 08:25.660 that influences you not only by their 08:25.660 --> 08:27.716 words but by their actions . So that 08:27.716 --> 08:30.649 way you can make who you wanna be . Ok . 08:30.910 --> 08:32.910 All right . Would most of you agree 08:32.910 --> 08:35.077 with those assessments ? It kind of so 08:35.077 --> 08:37.969 taking stock of your own leadership 08:37.979 --> 08:40.090 techniques , how many of you fit that 08:40.090 --> 08:42.257 bill ? Not a raise of hands ? And this 08:42.257 --> 08:44.035 is one of those times where you 08:44.035 --> 08:46.146 actually have to do those honest self 08:46.146 --> 08:48.312 assessments . And sometimes those self 08:48.312 --> 08:48.099 assessments should feel like a punch in 08:48.109 --> 08:51.340 the gut because remember , we all have 08:51.349 --> 08:54.109 shortcomings . None of us are perfect 08:54.119 --> 08:56.479 as leaders . We all struggle with it 08:56.489 --> 08:58.630 and we all work through , you know , 08:58.640 --> 09:00.807 those challenges and try to figure out 09:00.807 --> 09:03.000 what do we need to do better . And if 09:03.010 --> 09:05.830 any , anyone asks you what your 09:05.840 --> 09:07.951 weakness is , whether it's on a board 09:07.951 --> 09:09.951 or somewhere else , you should know 09:09.951 --> 09:12.062 that pretty quickly . And if you talk 09:12.062 --> 09:14.173 to someone , you should , they should 09:14.173 --> 09:16.173 know it pretty quickly too . And if 09:16.173 --> 09:18.062 they are honest with themselves , 09:18.062 --> 09:20.007 because if they're not honest with 09:20.007 --> 09:22.229 themselves and chances are , they don't 09:22.229 --> 09:24.229 know what that weakness is . And so 09:24.229 --> 09:23.590 therefore they're not working on 09:23.599 --> 09:27.349 anything . So how many of you in an 09:27.359 --> 09:30.020 organization at some point in the past 09:30.450 --> 09:33.369 have had a commander that has written a 09:33.380 --> 09:35.679 leadership philosophy , a commander or 09:35.690 --> 09:38.119 a senior enlisted leader . All right 09:38.349 --> 09:40.571 now , thinking back to those leadership 09:40.571 --> 09:44.500 philosophies , you know , I , I can 09:44.510 --> 09:46.621 remember leadership philosophies from 09:46.621 --> 09:48.788 commanders in the past . No one who is 09:48.788 --> 09:51.700 in this room right now . Um A seven 09:51.710 --> 09:54.280 page leadership philosophy that was 09:54.289 --> 09:58.039 single spaced front and back of the 09:58.049 --> 10:01.070 page and was told during an initial 10:01.080 --> 10:05.070 counseling , read this and sign 10:05.080 --> 10:07.659 it , you understand it . And uh it's 10:07.669 --> 10:10.869 part of your initial counseling and 10:10.880 --> 10:13.000 given like 15 seconds to go through 10:13.010 --> 10:15.232 this seven page leadership philosophy . 10:17.049 --> 10:20.299 So how effective is that for a 10:20.309 --> 10:22.469 leadership philosophy ? If it's that 10:22.479 --> 10:25.890 long and that's specified , probably 10:25.900 --> 10:29.780 not too , too uh effective for you . 10:30.770 --> 10:34.580 So , after many , many years of 10:34.590 --> 10:36.146 doing this , so I've been a 10:36.146 --> 10:38.201 noncommissioned officer for about 28 10:38.201 --> 10:40.830 years at this point and about 15 of 10:40.840 --> 10:43.770 those as a sergeant major , I really 10:43.780 --> 10:45.630 kind of narrowed down leadership 10:45.640 --> 10:47.900 philosophies to something very 10:47.909 --> 10:51.659 simplistic . You know , when we look at 10:51.669 --> 10:54.000 leadership and what's the philosophy , 10:54.380 --> 10:56.989 you know , leadership 10:58.239 --> 11:01.690 is basically inspiring 11:01.700 --> 11:05.679 someone to do what needs to be done . 11:08.570 --> 11:12.159 And that's someone that leader is 11:12.169 --> 11:15.669 someone who is , has the privilege 11:16.549 --> 11:18.909 of inspiring someone to do what should 11:18.919 --> 11:22.559 be done . So leadership philosophy is 11:22.570 --> 11:26.489 most basically taking care 11:26.979 --> 11:29.789 of those that you are privileged to 11:29.799 --> 11:33.710 lead , taking care of those that you 11:33.719 --> 11:35.820 are privileged to lead all of those 11:35.830 --> 11:37.886 other things that are encompassed in 11:37.886 --> 11:39.929 that should fall somewhere in that 11:39.940 --> 11:43.580 parameter because taking care of 11:43.590 --> 11:47.250 those maybe includes some tough 11:47.260 --> 11:49.679 love . It may include some tough 11:49.690 --> 11:52.840 training . It may include a look in the 11:52.849 --> 11:53.580 eye 11:56.719 --> 12:00.700 park , taking care of them , maybe 12:00.710 --> 12:02.877 because you had that long conversation 12:02.877 --> 12:05.099 with them and you know who they are and 12:05.099 --> 12:07.450 you understand the dynamic that's going 12:07.460 --> 12:10.330 on in their , this moment in time . 12:10.340 --> 12:12.820 There is some perfect 12:13.659 --> 12:17.219 soldier or for that airman or for that 12:17.229 --> 12:19.340 civilian or whoever it is that you're 12:19.340 --> 12:21.830 supervising and if you do not afford 12:21.840 --> 12:23.896 them the opportunity to witness that 12:23.896 --> 12:25.896 moment , then you might crush their 12:25.896 --> 12:29.359 soul . Now , does that mean that people 12:29.369 --> 12:31.480 have once in a lifetime opportunities 12:31.480 --> 12:33.647 that are happening four times a week ? 12:33.647 --> 12:36.729 No , but that means that you know who 12:36.739 --> 12:38.961 you're dealing with and remember it's a 12:38.961 --> 12:41.128 privilege to lead because at any given 12:41.128 --> 12:43.239 time , if you lose the trust of those 12:43.239 --> 12:45.809 that you lead , then you are now 12:45.820 --> 12:48.000 ineffective because now you are only 12:48.010 --> 12:50.299 leading by what you wear on your 12:50.309 --> 12:53.380 uniform instead of leading with your 12:53.390 --> 12:56.890 head and your heart . All right , 12:58.659 --> 13:00.603 enough of the really heavy stuff , 13:00.603 --> 13:03.250 we'll go into the much easier stuff for 13:03.260 --> 13:06.390 some of you and we got a whole broad 13:06.400 --> 13:08.520 spectrum of people that are here . 13:08.559 --> 13:10.929 Everything from . Uh , I think I might 13:10.940 --> 13:13.609 have seen a junior soldier in here . 13:13.619 --> 13:15.675 Maybe not , maybe they use the exits 13:15.675 --> 13:17.679 that were brief but see some , some 13:17.690 --> 13:19.619 soldiers , some non commissioned 13:19.630 --> 13:23.549 officers , some officers , possibly 13:23.559 --> 13:25.892 some civilians can't read from this far . 13:25.892 --> 13:28.219 I know we've had some retirees but 13:28.320 --> 13:31.400 ultimately thinking about what is the 13:31.409 --> 13:35.140 secret to success in the army . How did 13:35.150 --> 13:38.840 you become a whatever it is that you 13:38.849 --> 13:40.905 want to become in the army , whether 13:40.905 --> 13:44.530 it's a general officer , whether it is 13:44.859 --> 13:47.169 a major , whether it is a command 13:47.179 --> 13:50.719 sergeant major , whether it is an 13:50.729 --> 13:52.618 RT , whatever it is . What is the 13:52.618 --> 13:55.080 secret to that ? Success ? And ladies 13:55.090 --> 13:57.368 and gentlemen , you're all the leaders . 13:57.659 --> 13:59.770 So I'm sure that each one of you have 13:59.770 --> 14:01.992 done different things and , and advised 14:01.992 --> 14:04.239 people different ways . But do you 14:04.250 --> 14:06.194 wanna know the secret to success ? 14:06.309 --> 14:08.940 Anybody wanna know it ? So , 14:12.840 --> 14:16.650 OK , so I'll boil it 14:16.659 --> 14:18.770 down so I , I'll back it off a little 14:18.770 --> 14:20.992 bit . So the secret to being successful 14:20.992 --> 14:23.215 as a soldier and it doesn't matter what 14:23.215 --> 14:25.270 parameter you fall into and , and uh 14:25.270 --> 14:27.859 for anyone who is an airman or sailor 14:27.869 --> 14:29.980 or whatever , it all flies , the same 14:30.059 --> 14:32.710 secret to success in any branch of the 14:32.719 --> 14:36.619 military is being able to listen . That 14:36.630 --> 14:39.349 is it , it is that simple . If you can 14:39.359 --> 14:41.526 listen and follow directions , you can 14:41.526 --> 14:45.059 be successful as a soldier and probably 14:45.070 --> 14:47.014 as a sailor and a marine and so on 14:47.750 --> 14:49.917 because someone's gonna tell you where 14:49.917 --> 14:52.119 to be what you're gonna be doing , how 14:52.130 --> 14:54.297 you're gonna do it . And if they don't 14:54.297 --> 14:56.463 tell you how to do it , there's a book 14:56.463 --> 14:58.630 that tells you how to do it , that has 14:58.630 --> 15:00.630 all these warnings in it for things 15:00.630 --> 15:02.741 that people didn't do it that way and 15:02.741 --> 15:05.340 it caused problems . So being 15:05.349 --> 15:07.979 successful is as simple as that 15:07.989 --> 15:09.989 listening in following directions . 15:09.989 --> 15:13.919 Very simple . Now who is providing 15:13.929 --> 15:15.985 that guidance to those individuals , 15:15.985 --> 15:17.651 those soldiers that are being 15:17.651 --> 15:20.929 successful , us everyone else that's 15:20.940 --> 15:24.619 here . So what do you need to do to be 15:24.630 --> 15:27.969 successful . Number one , you gotta be 15:27.979 --> 15:29.923 successful in everything that your 15:29.923 --> 15:31.812 soldiers or your subordinates are 15:31.812 --> 15:33.979 supposed to do . Second , you gotta be 15:33.979 --> 15:36.210 able to communicate , you gotta be able 15:36.219 --> 15:38.441 to communicate and you gotta be able to 15:38.441 --> 15:40.469 communicate effectively . The third 15:40.479 --> 15:42.590 thing and this applies for the junior 15:42.590 --> 15:44.868 soldiers for mid grades , for officers , 15:44.868 --> 15:47.719 for all of you . And this is gonna 15:47.729 --> 15:50.000 sound a little bit , uh , 15:51.369 --> 15:53.940 egocentric for each of you , 15:55.489 --> 15:58.239 but you gotta be the best . Doesn't 15:58.250 --> 16:01.969 matter what you're doing every 16:01.979 --> 16:04.090 single mission set . Now , it doesn't 16:04.090 --> 16:06.146 mean that you need to be better than 16:06.146 --> 16:10.099 you say you need to be the best against 16:10.109 --> 16:13.210 the established standard . AC T 16:14.380 --> 16:18.210 does it really matter if you score 16:18.219 --> 16:20.441 more than the person to your left or to 16:20.441 --> 16:24.359 your right ? What matters doing 16:24.369 --> 16:27.809 your best ? But scoring against being 16:27.820 --> 16:30.098 the best against the established scale , 16:30.098 --> 16:33.859 scoring 600 you got to be the 16:33.869 --> 16:36.299 best at it for those of you who might 16:36.309 --> 16:39.630 be supervising police calls , be the 16:39.640 --> 16:41.807 best at it . Make sure that nothing is 16:41.807 --> 16:44.029 left on the ground for those of you who 16:44.029 --> 16:46.630 are going to a course , be the best at 16:46.640 --> 16:48.473 it . It doesn't mean that you're 16:48.473 --> 16:50.640 cutting out someone else's legs so you 16:50.640 --> 16:52.973 can be the distinguished honor graduate . 16:52.973 --> 16:55.030 I would love to see everybody be 16:55.039 --> 16:57.095 perfect in every single course . And 16:57.095 --> 16:59.095 then we have 42 distinguished honor 16:59.095 --> 17:01.095 graduates because everybody did the 17:01.095 --> 17:03.150 best against an established standard 17:03.150 --> 17:06.280 would be the best strive to be the best 17:06.290 --> 17:08.512 at every single thing you do . And it's 17:08.512 --> 17:10.568 that simple , ladies and gentlemen , 17:10.568 --> 17:12.623 that is the secret to success in the 17:12.623 --> 17:16.180 military . Very simple to be the best 17:16.189 --> 17:19.959 leader . Right ? Not at all . Not at 17:19.969 --> 17:22.191 all because you gotta be on your a game 17:22.191 --> 17:25.250 24 7 . You know , and , and I've , I've 17:25.260 --> 17:27.482 heard a lot of different people , a lot 17:27.482 --> 17:29.704 of different times say different things 17:29.704 --> 17:31.760 about , well as a leader , you can't 17:31.760 --> 17:34.589 have a bad day . Well , I think as a 17:34.599 --> 17:38.069 leader , you can have a bad day to show 17:38.079 --> 17:41.160 your subordinates to show others that 17:41.170 --> 17:43.226 you also have bad days . Because for 17:43.226 --> 17:45.448 some reason , people think that general 17:45.448 --> 17:47.410 officers and sergeants major and 17:47.420 --> 17:49.476 brigade commanders don't ever have a 17:49.476 --> 17:52.160 bad day . Some people think that they 17:52.170 --> 17:54.750 don't have problems . Some people don't 17:54.760 --> 17:57.239 think that they don't have , you know , 17:57.250 --> 17:59.760 an issue with a child getting sick . 17:59.770 --> 18:02.069 And then another one that missed the 18:02.079 --> 18:04.560 school bus , all that stuff happens to 18:04.569 --> 18:07.670 all of us , but it's 18:07.680 --> 18:10.589 about showing that and showing how you 18:10.599 --> 18:13.420 can overcome that . How do you deal 18:13.430 --> 18:15.597 with that ? How do you problem solve ? 18:15.910 --> 18:18.099 And all of those things set the stage 18:18.109 --> 18:20.520 for your subordinates , for your peers 18:20.719 --> 18:23.630 and for others to see how well you can 18:23.640 --> 18:26.349 overcome those small adversities in 18:26.359 --> 18:30.010 life . Because for many of you in this 18:30.040 --> 18:33.670 audience , I would say that uh 18:33.800 --> 18:35.979 many of you who did deploy during 18:35.989 --> 18:39.339 kinetic operations , many of you were 18:39.349 --> 18:41.293 not in leadership positions during 18:41.293 --> 18:43.516 those deployments just over time . Some 18:43.516 --> 18:45.293 of you may be because maybe you 18:45.293 --> 18:47.293 deployed recently , but many of our 18:47.293 --> 18:49.516 deployment experiences are , you know , 18:49.516 --> 18:51.516 going up on a decade or so . And so 18:51.516 --> 18:53.460 many of you were not in leadership 18:53.460 --> 18:55.571 positions . So if you can't deal with 18:55.571 --> 18:57.738 the small things that are happening in 18:57.738 --> 18:59.905 garrison and trust me for you , it may 18:59.905 --> 19:02.016 be small but for that individual that 19:02.016 --> 19:04.127 it's occurring to that soldier , that 19:04.127 --> 19:06.182 sailor , that airman , that marine , 19:06.182 --> 19:08.349 that whoever it is , that , you know , 19:08.349 --> 19:11.920 it may be important to you their 19:11.930 --> 19:14.589 problem . But it's the most important 19:14.599 --> 19:17.729 thing to them at that given moment . 19:18.040 --> 19:20.151 The fact that their child is sick and 19:20.151 --> 19:22.369 they are working against a schedule to 19:22.380 --> 19:25.989 come into uh sterilized 19:26.000 --> 19:29.050 equipment in uh it was S P D . 19:30.569 --> 19:32.347 The most important thing that's 19:32.347 --> 19:34.347 happening to them at that moment is 19:34.347 --> 19:34.020 their child is sick and they have to 19:34.030 --> 19:36.839 report time to get to work for you as 19:36.849 --> 19:39.016 the supervisor . It may just be one of 19:39.016 --> 19:42.310 100 things that's going on , but having 19:42.709 --> 19:46.469 the empathy , not sympathy , but the 19:46.479 --> 19:48.800 empathy to be able to understand what 19:48.810 --> 19:51.099 that person is going through and 19:51.109 --> 19:53.387 address it appropriately . Very simple , 19:53.387 --> 19:55.609 right ? All that super simple stuff . I 19:55.609 --> 19:57.442 didn't tell you anything new . I 19:57.442 --> 19:58.887 haven't told you anything 19:58.887 --> 20:00.887 groundbreaking . This is all just a 20:00.887 --> 20:04.530 reinforcement of what we all know , 20:05.000 --> 20:07.349 but we should all be trying to practice . 20:07.540 --> 20:09.800 All right now , I don't remember 20:09.810 --> 20:11.866 exactly how much time I have , but I 20:11.866 --> 20:14.032 wanna open it up for questions because 20:14.032 --> 20:16.254 I got some other things that I can talk 20:16.254 --> 20:15.660 about , but they may come up in 20:15.670 --> 20:17.781 questions because generally they do . 20:17.781 --> 20:20.003 And I'm curious , what's on your mind ? 20:20.003 --> 20:22.003 What , what can I share with you at 20:22.003 --> 20:24.739 this point ? From your foxhole ? Yes . 20:26.599 --> 20:29.020 DC P CS , uh Deputy C IC . So I got a 20:29.030 --> 20:31.197 question for you . Is you continued to 20:31.197 --> 20:33.363 grow throughout your career . What did 20:33.363 --> 20:35.363 you find that that worked for you ? 20:35.363 --> 20:37.530 Because I believe we as human beings , 20:37.530 --> 20:39.586 we all have our own blind spots . So 20:39.586 --> 20:41.808 how did you , especially as you grew to 20:41.808 --> 20:41.709 become a star major and a command start 20:41.719 --> 20:43.775 major to make sure you had that true 20:43.775 --> 20:45.979 honest vector check with yourself to 20:45.989 --> 20:47.933 make sure that you weren't getting 20:47.933 --> 20:50.100 caught . Some of those cognitive traps 20:50.100 --> 20:49.800 of doing the same way you've always 20:49.810 --> 20:51.810 done things or making sure that you 20:51.810 --> 20:54.032 were staying with more momentum or , or 20:54.032 --> 20:56.199 making sure that , that you were , you 20:56.199 --> 20:58.310 were getting after what you needed to 20:58.310 --> 20:58.189 get after and , and having those 20:58.199 --> 21:00.569 resources to be able to check yourself 21:00.609 --> 21:02.910 when you . Yeah , great question . And 21:02.920 --> 21:05.087 you know , the one of the , one of the 21:05.087 --> 21:07.750 things is to stay with status quo and 21:07.760 --> 21:09.927 because you feel comfortable with it . 21:09.927 --> 21:13.920 So employing good honest people 21:13.930 --> 21:17.479 that you trust and listening and 21:17.489 --> 21:19.322 incorporating what they tell you 21:20.439 --> 21:22.495 because even though you have someone 21:22.495 --> 21:24.560 who is an honest broker for you . If 21:24.569 --> 21:27.430 you don't listen to them , then it's 21:27.439 --> 21:29.989 does you no good . And it , and it's a 21:30.000 --> 21:33.369 variety of people . Second thing 21:33.380 --> 21:37.290 is always , for me personally , always 21:37.300 --> 21:40.689 trying to stay humble . You know , I 21:40.699 --> 21:42.755 served as a command sergeant major . 21:43.400 --> 21:45.567 I'm not a command sergeant major , I'm 21:45.567 --> 21:47.622 a soldier . And there's a difference 21:47.622 --> 21:51.520 between those two and focusing on 21:51.750 --> 21:54.520 what are those differences , truly 21:54.530 --> 21:57.599 listening to what the formation is 21:57.609 --> 22:00.880 saying and not dismissing things as , 22:00.890 --> 22:03.223 oh , they're just disgruntled with this . 22:03.400 --> 22:05.849 I just came out of a talk with uh with 22:05.859 --> 22:07.970 General Rubenstein talking about Mh S 22:07.970 --> 22:10.137 Genesis . And I got to see that at the 22:10.137 --> 22:12.500 first platform at Madigan uh to several 22:12.510 --> 22:15.609 platforms and then uh kind of seeing 22:15.619 --> 22:17.730 the struggles with that and listening 22:17.730 --> 22:21.189 to that , employing your 22:21.199 --> 22:25.089 ideas when COVID hit at the uh 22:25.099 --> 22:27.321 Medical Center of Excellence and we had 22:27.321 --> 22:29.390 to still complete the mission of 22:29.400 --> 22:31.456 training . I didn't come up with the 22:31.456 --> 22:33.344 solutions on how we were gonna do 22:33.344 --> 22:35.289 distributed learning , how we were 22:35.289 --> 22:37.344 gonna have virtual pla platforms and 22:37.344 --> 22:39.619 classrooms , how we were gonna figure 22:39.630 --> 22:42.500 out we still had to do 68 whiskey 22:42.510 --> 22:44.732 training and how we're gonna figure out 22:44.732 --> 22:46.788 how to do it around the clock . That 22:46.788 --> 22:48.510 was actually a couple of staff 22:48.510 --> 22:50.732 sergeants and a sergeant who figure out 22:50.732 --> 22:52.899 just about all of that stuff . So what 22:52.899 --> 22:55.180 I did was I stayed open to those 22:55.189 --> 22:57.560 possibilities . I know that I'm not the 22:57.569 --> 23:01.349 expert on new technologies and 23:01.359 --> 23:03.469 being honest with that . Now , it 23:03.479 --> 23:05.590 doesn't mean that all of us have that 23:05.590 --> 23:08.430 same level of ability or comfort with 23:08.439 --> 23:11.589 where we are . But staying open to that 23:11.599 --> 23:14.579 is incredibly , incredibly important . 23:14.979 --> 23:18.949 Um listening , listen 23:18.959 --> 23:22.670 to what others are telling you and 23:22.680 --> 23:26.040 having the ability to have those two 23:26.050 --> 23:29.229 way conversations . Um , 23:30.170 --> 23:32.003 throughout my career , I've done 23:32.003 --> 23:34.003 multiple different things during my 23:34.003 --> 23:35.837 second time here at law school , 23:35.837 --> 23:35.790 actually , during my first time here at 23:35.800 --> 23:38.500 law Tool , uh we spent a lot of time 23:38.510 --> 23:40.732 standing outside of the dining facility 23:41.160 --> 23:43.271 because that's where all the soldiers 23:43.271 --> 23:45.493 came . That's where all of the airmen , 23:45.493 --> 23:47.549 all the civilians . And as I see him 23:47.549 --> 23:49.827 come in and just stop and talk to them , 23:49.827 --> 23:51.938 figure out what was going on , what's 23:51.938 --> 23:53.993 happening in your foxhole and really 23:53.993 --> 23:57.199 listening , taking every opportunity to 23:57.209 --> 24:00.930 talk to people and accept the fact that , 24:00.939 --> 24:03.869 hey , this is a problem and then not 24:03.880 --> 24:07.089 overreacting when someone did say 24:07.099 --> 24:09.430 something that was either directly 24:09.439 --> 24:11.661 about me , my leadership style or about 24:11.661 --> 24:14.719 my organization . Because as soon as 24:14.729 --> 24:18.410 you give someone negative feedback 24:18.420 --> 24:20.753 from feedback that they provided to you , 24:20.753 --> 24:22.809 if you change something because they 24:22.809 --> 24:24.698 said that you're not an effective 24:24.698 --> 24:26.864 public speaker . And all of a sudden , 24:26.864 --> 24:28.976 you know , you start having all these 24:28.976 --> 24:30.920 classes on how to public speak for 24:30.920 --> 24:33.142 everyone , then that's counterintuitive 24:33.142 --> 24:35.253 to that . It's more about taking care 24:35.253 --> 24:37.364 of yourself because someone said that 24:37.364 --> 24:39.476 you have a weakness that someone give 24:39.476 --> 24:41.642 you some ideas and thoughts and that's 24:41.642 --> 24:45.160 kind of how I did it . Um But I truly 24:45.170 --> 24:48.280 believe in humility as a leader is 24:48.290 --> 24:50.630 incredibly , incredibly important . 24:52.229 --> 24:54.439 Makes sense . Did I answer your 24:54.449 --> 24:55.819 question ? All right . 24:58.770 --> 25:00.729 So our first time he made his 25:00.800 --> 25:03.560 administration as we move up through 25:03.569 --> 25:05.736 the ranks , you know , we develop more 25:05.736 --> 25:08.069 responsibilities uh which probably will , 25:08.069 --> 25:10.125 will require us to work longer hours 25:10.125 --> 25:11.958 and take more time away from our 25:11.958 --> 25:13.958 families . Fortunately , for me , I 25:13.958 --> 25:15.958 have a very good support system for 25:15.958 --> 25:17.847 those who may not have that great 25:17.847 --> 25:20.013 support system . What advice would you 25:20.013 --> 25:22.236 offer them ? Yeah , and that , that's a 25:22.236 --> 25:24.458 rough one . And we , we talk about life 25:24.458 --> 25:26.510 balance . I've heard that for , you 25:26.520 --> 25:28.520 know , 25 30 years . I don't know , 25:28.520 --> 25:30.520 it's probably not that long . I was 25:30.520 --> 25:32.742 probably in the army for about 15 years 25:32.742 --> 25:32.449 before we started hearing about life 25:32.459 --> 25:36.079 balance . So I , I don't like to use 25:36.089 --> 25:38.959 the term balance because in my mind , I , 25:38.969 --> 25:41.239 I always see a seesaw on the playground 25:41.250 --> 25:43.361 and I know kids may not be on seesaws 25:43.361 --> 25:45.417 anymore because they're probably not 25:45.417 --> 25:47.472 safe . But anyway , you know , I , I 25:47.472 --> 25:51.260 see an equity but in what we 25:51.270 --> 25:53.770 do , there is no balance . It's more of 25:53.780 --> 25:55.836 a management . There's gonna be some 25:55.836 --> 25:57.891 times where you are going to have to 25:57.891 --> 26:00.113 give those long hours to the army , the 26:00.113 --> 26:02.880 air force your service . But there's 26:02.890 --> 26:04.890 also gonna be those times where you 26:04.890 --> 26:06.839 have to give focus to your family 26:06.849 --> 26:10.500 because that is requirement . It's 26:10.510 --> 26:13.540 necessary . So I , I will say that , uh 26:13.550 --> 26:15.969 I'll get to , uh , for those that don't 26:15.979 --> 26:18.089 have it . I will say I was extremely 26:18.099 --> 26:20.979 privileged and I considered the most 26:20.989 --> 26:23.670 successful thing I did in my career is 26:23.680 --> 26:26.380 that I am leaving the army with the 26:26.390 --> 26:28.829 same spouse that I joined the army with 26:28.839 --> 26:31.300 30 years earlier . And it has 26:31.310 --> 26:33.421 absolutely nothing to do with me . It 26:33.421 --> 26:35.588 has to do with , she's an amazing lady 26:35.588 --> 26:37.754 and put up with a lot of stuff and did 26:37.754 --> 26:39.866 a great job of raising our kids . But 26:39.866 --> 26:42.032 for those that don't have that support 26:42.032 --> 26:44.199 system in the family , that's where it 26:44.199 --> 26:46.366 becomes even more of a requirement for 26:46.366 --> 26:48.939 that individual to develop a web or a 26:48.949 --> 26:51.280 network of others that can assist with 26:51.290 --> 26:54.250 that part of it is also with the 26:54.260 --> 26:56.670 leadership establishing , hey , this is 26:56.680 --> 26:58.847 what's going on . I I know that people 26:58.847 --> 27:00.847 want to be private in their lives , 27:00.847 --> 27:02.958 some of them , some of them and , and 27:02.958 --> 27:05.124 it's very generalized but , you know , 27:05.124 --> 27:07.236 some of generation alpha , you know , 27:07.236 --> 27:09.180 they're not old enough yet to have 27:09.180 --> 27:11.124 families , but whatever generation 27:11.124 --> 27:13.291 likes to share all of their problems , 27:13.291 --> 27:15.402 but some don't . And so having a good 27:15.402 --> 27:17.513 conversation and a good understanding 27:17.513 --> 27:19.680 of what's happening with that to where 27:19.680 --> 27:21.459 it helps them to uh to use that 27:21.469 --> 27:23.691 extended network . The other thing that 27:23.691 --> 27:25.747 has kind of gone by the wayside over 27:25.747 --> 27:25.660 the years . Ladies and gentlemen , from 27:25.670 --> 27:28.869 my perspective , is some of the fine 27:28.880 --> 27:31.500 arts of garrison leadership and the 27:31.510 --> 27:34.430 programs and the services that are in 27:34.439 --> 27:37.489 place in the Department of Defense with 27:37.500 --> 27:40.430 families . Somewhere along the way , we , 27:40.439 --> 27:42.770 we kind of lost touch with some of the 27:42.780 --> 27:44.949 things that A CS can do for us . 27:44.959 --> 27:47.181 Somewhere along the way , we lost touch 27:47.181 --> 27:49.292 with things that Red Cross can do for 27:49.292 --> 27:51.459 us . Somewhere along the way , we lost 27:51.459 --> 27:53.660 touch with what our commanders , 27:53.680 --> 27:57.329 company commanders , first sergeants 27:57.339 --> 27:59.849 can do to assist with some of that 28:00.540 --> 28:03.920 life management without having that 28:04.150 --> 28:07.150 effective support system in place . So 28:07.160 --> 28:09.420 I think that in some aspects there are 28:09.430 --> 28:11.959 a lot of programs out there that are 28:11.969 --> 28:14.550 available , but for some of us , we 28:14.560 --> 28:16.727 just don't know about them and , and I 28:16.727 --> 28:18.910 would say that that's my fault because 28:18.920 --> 28:20.698 as a command sergeant major , I 28:20.698 --> 28:22.864 probably didn't teach coach , mentor , 28:22.864 --> 28:25.031 train somewhere along the way . But my 28:25.031 --> 28:27.319 ask is that each one of you that are a 28:27.329 --> 28:29.329 leader and that means that you're a 28:29.329 --> 28:31.551 noncommissioned officer or a commission 28:31.551 --> 28:33.662 officer that you burden shoulder some 28:33.662 --> 28:35.662 of that burden too and some of that 28:35.662 --> 28:37.829 responsibility , we all have a part in 28:37.829 --> 28:40.219 that . Um I know I didn't directly 28:40.229 --> 28:42.439 answer your question exactly how to do 28:42.449 --> 28:45.810 it . And , and , and I've never been 28:45.819 --> 28:49.359 one to actually give direct 28:49.369 --> 28:52.560 answers since I've been a squad leader , 28:52.989 --> 28:54.767 found that that kind of stifled 28:54.767 --> 28:56.989 initiative a little bit because as soon 28:56.989 --> 28:59.100 as I tell you one way to do something 28:59.100 --> 29:01.211 as we talked about this morning , the 29:01.211 --> 29:03.433 listen panel , that's what every single 29:03.433 --> 29:02.979 person could do . They're gonna do that 29:02.989 --> 29:05.439 exact thing and discipline initiative 29:05.449 --> 29:07.739 is gonna go out the window . So what I 29:07.750 --> 29:09.739 would encourage you to do is think 29:09.750 --> 29:12.500 about all of the aspects that you have 29:12.510 --> 29:14.920 understanding that here in a ocon 29:15.130 --> 29:17.010 assignment . It's a little bit 29:17.020 --> 29:19.242 different because it's not quite around 29:19.242 --> 29:21.670 the corner from having , you know , 29:21.680 --> 29:24.979 extended family , but leaning on the 29:24.989 --> 29:27.199 army family , other service members or 29:27.209 --> 29:29.579 whoever else to be able to work through 29:29.589 --> 29:32.510 those challenges . I know it didn't 29:32.520 --> 29:34.353 answer fully your question . But 29:34.353 --> 29:36.464 hopefully , I gave you some things to 29:36.464 --> 29:38.464 think about , which is ultimately , 29:38.464 --> 29:38.439 that's what we as leaders should be 29:38.449 --> 29:40.900 doing . We should be challenging others 29:41.270 --> 29:43.869 to think through problem sets . Trust 29:43.880 --> 29:45.991 me , I don't want all of your monkeys 29:45.991 --> 29:47.936 on my back . My back is not strong 29:47.936 --> 29:50.047 enough for that , but together we can 29:50.047 --> 29:52.158 all figure that stuff out . Does that 29:52.158 --> 29:54.719 make sense ? But I somewhat not answer 29:54.729 --> 29:58.050 your question . I ask , you know , I 29:58.060 --> 30:00.282 asked you to offer your suggestions and 30:00.282 --> 30:02.393 your advice and that's what you did . 30:02.393 --> 30:04.560 So , yeah , just like I said earlier , 30:04.560 --> 30:06.782 I , I can answer any question correctly 30:06.782 --> 30:10.489 because I can say , I don't know . Uh 30:11.150 --> 30:13.094 I wanted to ask this question when 30:13.094 --> 30:15.039 you're having the panel , but so I 30:15.039 --> 30:17.150 wrote it down . Uh basically , one of 30:17.150 --> 30:19.739 my primary duties is to train soldiers . 30:19.770 --> 30:21.992 What we do is not commission officers . 30:22.189 --> 30:24.459 And here lately , the conversation has 30:24.489 --> 30:26.600 led to two camps , people that say we 30:26.600 --> 30:28.489 need to go back to the basics and 30:28.489 --> 30:30.378 others say we need to enforce the 30:30.378 --> 30:32.829 standard that's already in place . So 30:32.839 --> 30:34.950 the question I have is does enforcing 30:34.950 --> 30:37.680 the standard , help teach the basics or 30:37.689 --> 30:39.911 does teaching the basics help reinforce 30:39.911 --> 30:41.849 the standard because of competing 30:42.060 --> 30:44.282 priority . Great question , chicken and 30:44.282 --> 30:46.504 the egg question . And you're trying to 30:46.504 --> 30:48.616 put me on the spot here with the hard 30:48.616 --> 30:50.504 questions and that's OK . I I got 30:50.504 --> 30:52.838 something for all of the hard questions . 30:52.838 --> 30:55.060 Our major rose will handle all of those 30:55.060 --> 30:56.760 answers . Uh 30:58.579 --> 31:01.859 So I , I , I don't know that you can 31:01.869 --> 31:03.813 separate those two and , and , and 31:03.813 --> 31:06.619 ultimately , as you're getting back to 31:06.630 --> 31:08.519 the basics , well , where are the 31:08.519 --> 31:10.352 basics ? The basics is enforcing 31:10.352 --> 31:12.574 standards and enforcing the standard of 31:12.574 --> 31:14.797 training because whether you realize it 31:14.797 --> 31:16.908 or not , you have T E OS for a task , 31:16.908 --> 31:19.019 right ? Task evaluation outline , you 31:19.019 --> 31:21.074 know , task conditions and standards 31:21.074 --> 31:23.241 and all those things . So whether it's 31:23.241 --> 31:25.074 a clinical task , whether it's a 31:25.074 --> 31:27.239 survivability task , whether it's any 31:27.250 --> 31:29.510 kind of task , there is something that 31:29.520 --> 31:32.219 you we leaders , non commissioned 31:32.229 --> 31:34.920 officers , officers , commanders should 31:34.930 --> 31:36.930 all be doing , we should be holding 31:36.930 --> 31:39.910 people to the appropriate standard to 31:39.920 --> 31:42.900 create the discipline to where they can 31:42.910 --> 31:46.030 handle . What are those basic functions . 31:46.040 --> 31:49.890 Ultimately , there's probably uh in , 31:49.900 --> 31:52.369 in some aspects , a tagline , a tied , 31:52.380 --> 31:54.602 tied to that and it's probably whatever 31:54.602 --> 31:57.280 is the uh the phrase phrase of the week , 31:57.290 --> 31:59.512 phrase of the month , whether it's back 31:59.512 --> 32:01.734 to basic because I heard back to basics 32:01.734 --> 32:03.901 probably three separate entities in my 32:03.901 --> 32:06.123 career . Each one separated by probably 32:06.123 --> 32:08.179 a decade . It , it kind of comes and 32:08.179 --> 32:10.880 goes as a , as a cool term . You know , 32:10.890 --> 32:12.779 they say we gotta get back to the 32:12.779 --> 32:15.112 basics , we gotta get back to the basic . 32:15.112 --> 32:14.930 Well , what are the basics ? All the 32:14.939 --> 32:17.209 basics are training to task conditions 32:17.219 --> 32:19.275 and standards ? So I don't know that 32:19.275 --> 32:21.530 you can separate the two and I think 32:21.540 --> 32:24.189 that they are mutually inclusive . If 32:24.199 --> 32:27.079 you do one , then you are the other one . 32:29.810 --> 32:32.260 One , then you're not only going to 32:32.270 --> 32:34.159 ignore the other one , but you're 32:34.159 --> 32:35.992 probably also going to lose some 32:35.992 --> 32:38.589 credibility as a leader and ultimately , 32:38.599 --> 32:41.449 you might lose a life . And so that , 32:41.459 --> 32:43.792 that's where the challenge comes in and , 32:43.792 --> 32:45.959 and the severity of what we do when we 32:45.959 --> 32:48.119 say back to the basics or enforcing 32:48.130 --> 32:51.829 standards . Um I , I don't 32:51.839 --> 32:54.117 recall whether you start off by saying , 32:54.117 --> 32:56.450 I , I think you said in , in my opinion , 32:56.450 --> 32:58.672 did you say in my opinion or not in the 32:58.672 --> 33:02.040 beginning of that question ? Ok . OK . 33:02.160 --> 33:04.382 Because if you're gonna say , well , if 33:04.382 --> 33:06.438 you start off with , in my opinion , 33:06.438 --> 33:08.549 you're asking my opinion , I can give 33:08.549 --> 33:10.660 my opinion and it may not be right or 33:10.660 --> 33:12.938 it may not be , or it may not be wrong . 33:12.938 --> 33:15.049 But ultimately , it comes down to you 33:15.049 --> 33:17.327 gotta focus on both of those and , and , 33:17.327 --> 33:19.438 and that's where kind of goes back to 33:19.438 --> 33:21.104 that comment about discipline 33:21.104 --> 33:24.900 initiative . If the command's mission 33:24.910 --> 33:27.520 priority is getting back to the basics 33:27.530 --> 33:29.641 and if that's what's being messaged , 33:29.660 --> 33:31.716 then as a leader , you gotta realize 33:31.716 --> 33:33.938 that part of getting back to the basics 33:34.079 --> 33:36.939 is training and is training to standard 33:36.949 --> 33:39.229 or if it's the message is , I'm gonna 33:39.239 --> 33:41.461 train the standard then yes , that is a 33:41.461 --> 33:43.683 basic soldier skill because each one of 33:43.683 --> 33:46.069 us , when we join the military , we 33:46.079 --> 33:48.246 learned how to follow orders , right ? 33:48.246 --> 33:50.689 So I guess going back to my secret of 33:50.699 --> 33:53.339 success in the army listening and being 33:53.349 --> 33:55.405 able to follow directions , that's a 33:55.405 --> 33:57.516 basic thing , right ? But it's also a 33:57.516 --> 33:59.900 training to standard thing . So did a 33:59.910 --> 34:01.799 good , do a good enough job , tap 34:01.799 --> 34:03.688 dancing around that one for you . 34:03.900 --> 34:06.280 Answer the question somewhat . Yeah . 34:07.530 --> 34:10.330 OK . All right . What else ? All right . 34:10.340 --> 34:13.500 Got another question . Awesome one . Uh 34:13.510 --> 34:15.677 What's something you wish you could go 34:15.677 --> 34:17.788 back and tell direct level you like , 34:17.788 --> 34:19.677 what do you wish ? You could tell 34:19.677 --> 34:19.669 yourself what piece of advice or what 34:19.959 --> 34:22.126 you wish you could tell yourself to do 34:22.126 --> 34:26.020 to be ? Wow , that , that , that's a 34:26.030 --> 34:28.709 long list of what not to do . And , and , 34:28.719 --> 34:30.941 and I don't know that we have this much 34:30.941 --> 34:33.163 time and , and I don't wanna share some 34:33.163 --> 34:35.163 of the choice words that I probably 34:35.163 --> 34:38.389 would use in that , but what to do . Um 34:38.399 --> 34:41.399 I I , I probably , uh , would think 34:41.409 --> 34:45.219 about , um , something I , during the 34:45.229 --> 34:47.062 panel this morning I was kind of 34:47.062 --> 34:49.229 thinking about that a little bit . You 34:49.229 --> 34:51.396 know , what , what advice would I give 34:51.396 --> 34:55.280 a younger , a younger me and really 34:56.260 --> 34:58.371 the advice that I'd give a younger me 34:58.371 --> 35:00.949 would be slow down 35:02.669 --> 35:05.070 in everything because , you know , good 35:05.080 --> 35:07.370 special operations doctrine , you know , 35:07.379 --> 35:10.070 slow , smooth , smooth is fast , slow 35:10.080 --> 35:12.949 down in everything and 35:13.840 --> 35:17.560 spend more time learning the 35:17.570 --> 35:21.060 job at hand and less time 35:21.070 --> 35:24.100 worrying about the out years . 35:25.090 --> 35:27.201 You gotta live in the now . You gotta 35:27.201 --> 35:29.629 focus on what your job is now . You 35:29.639 --> 35:31.719 will never ever , 35:33.530 --> 35:35.949 you will never . And as the adjutant or 35:35.959 --> 35:39.399 s one . Yeah . So you will never 35:39.850 --> 35:43.510 be an awesome command sergeant major 35:43.520 --> 35:45.870 unless you are an awesome first 35:45.879 --> 35:48.046 sergeant and you will never ever be an 35:48.046 --> 35:50.212 awesome first sergeant . If you're not 35:50.212 --> 35:52.379 an awesome platoon sergeant and you'll 35:52.379 --> 35:54.212 never ever be an awesome platoon 35:54.212 --> 35:56.212 sergeant . If you're not an awesome 35:56.212 --> 35:58.435 squad leader and you will never ever be 35:58.435 --> 36:00.490 an awesome any of those if you don't 36:00.490 --> 36:02.657 understand staff functions and how the 36:02.657 --> 36:04.935 staff and the leadership work together . 36:04.935 --> 36:07.046 So kind of getting back . What , what 36:07.046 --> 36:09.101 would I tell myself ? I'm gonna slow 36:09.101 --> 36:12.870 down and number two , focus on the here 36:12.879 --> 36:16.260 and now and be the best at my job now . 36:16.270 --> 36:18.437 Instead of trying to figure out what's 36:18.437 --> 36:21.120 next . Fair enough . Answer your 36:21.129 --> 36:24.350 question . All right . Who else wants 36:24.360 --> 36:27.949 to ask a question ? Come on . I , I got 36:27.959 --> 36:30.237 some more tap dancing . I can do . Yes , 36:30.237 --> 36:33.000 ma'am . Um , in , uh , I wish I had my 36:33.010 --> 36:35.121 sergeant major back . That's ok . I , 36:35.121 --> 36:39.100 I'm of a spouse service of a 36:39.110 --> 36:41.388 spouse that's going through retirement . 36:41.388 --> 36:43.554 What do you think from the perspective 36:43.554 --> 36:45.721 of your wife ? What do you think she's 36:45.721 --> 36:45.120 most worried about as you transition to 36:45.129 --> 36:46.770 retirement ? My sanity . 36:49.620 --> 36:52.000 So , uh , number one , I want to say 36:52.100 --> 36:54.560 thank you so much for being a dual 36:54.570 --> 36:56.737 military couple . And I don't know how 36:56.737 --> 36:58.903 show of hands how many of you are dual 36:58.903 --> 37:01.014 military in here . I have no idea how 37:01.014 --> 37:03.649 you do it . That's an amazing feat . 37:03.659 --> 37:06.169 And I've been in all my entire career 37:06.179 --> 37:08.489 of you getting through the army 37:08.500 --> 37:10.667 navigating it as dual military because 37:10.667 --> 37:12.833 that kind of goes back to that support 37:12.833 --> 37:14.611 structure because you both have 37:14.611 --> 37:16.778 missions going on at the same time and 37:16.778 --> 37:15.909 how you're dealing with the little 37:15.919 --> 37:18.086 crumb , snatch your ankle biters , you 37:18.086 --> 37:21.229 know those , those kids . So uh number 37:21.239 --> 37:23.295 one , I wanna say thank you to you , 37:23.295 --> 37:25.572 ma'am and to all of you for doing that . 37:25.572 --> 37:27.239 So things to think about with 37:27.239 --> 37:29.909 retirement . So I I can't speak for all 37:29.919 --> 37:32.139 retirees but things that I did . So 37:32.810 --> 37:35.429 because of where we are in life , we 37:35.439 --> 37:37.606 had a little bit different dynamic and 37:37.606 --> 37:39.661 so everybody has a different dynamic 37:39.661 --> 37:41.883 when it's approaching retirement . It's 37:41.883 --> 37:44.106 gonna happen . If you have kids at home 37:44.106 --> 37:43.969 school age kids is much different than 37:43.979 --> 37:47.330 being , uh , empty nesters . It's much 37:47.340 --> 37:49.007 different than being a single 37:49.007 --> 37:52.659 individual . But , uh , for spouse 37:52.669 --> 37:55.570 wise , my wife had the foresight a 37:55.580 --> 37:57.949 couple of years ago to see that 37:57.959 --> 38:00.360 retirement was on the horizon and she 38:00.370 --> 38:02.580 knew what kind of person I was . And 38:02.590 --> 38:06.340 she said you need a hobby and no 38:06.350 --> 38:10.179 running marathons does not count and 38:10.189 --> 38:13.010 no woodworking does not count . She 38:13.020 --> 38:15.909 said you need something that is quickly 38:15.919 --> 38:19.570 accessible and , and it's easy 38:19.580 --> 38:22.969 to , uh , get into on a daily basis . 38:22.979 --> 38:25.290 So , what she did for me was she knew 38:25.300 --> 38:27.830 they were the military . I played , uh , 38:27.840 --> 38:30.659 guitar and she said I know you sold all 38:30.669 --> 38:33.229 your stuff , but you need to get back 38:33.239 --> 38:35.295 in guitar . She gave me a guitar for 38:35.295 --> 38:39.169 one of my birthdays and it has led to a 38:39.179 --> 38:42.530 lot of goodness and why I say no 38:42.540 --> 38:44.707 marathon running and woodworking don't 38:44.707 --> 38:46.762 count because those require a lot of 38:46.762 --> 38:48.818 set up time or they require a lot of 38:48.818 --> 38:48.219 investment . You need something that's 38:48.229 --> 38:51.340 quick . So , for your spouse trying to 38:51.350 --> 38:54.550 help your spouse , uh , find a quick 38:54.560 --> 38:57.030 hobby . And my thing is I can walk by 38:57.040 --> 38:59.151 the guitar on a stand . I can pick it 38:59.151 --> 39:01.350 up and my goal five minutes . And if I 39:01.360 --> 39:03.639 play five minutes I'm good . If I play 39:03.649 --> 39:05.538 two hours , I'm good . It doesn't 39:05.538 --> 39:07.482 matter . But it's something that's 39:07.482 --> 39:09.316 quick and accessible and doesn't 39:09.316 --> 39:11.427 require other stuff . Yes , I do have 39:11.427 --> 39:13.371 other hobbies . Yes , I do like to 39:13.371 --> 39:15.427 cycle Yes , I do like to kayak . But 39:15.427 --> 39:15.070 those are things that I can't do 39:15.080 --> 39:17.136 quickly or in the evening , but it's 39:17.136 --> 39:19.302 something just kind of released . So , 39:19.302 --> 39:21.358 knowing who your spouse is , knowing 39:21.358 --> 39:23.413 what their preferences are trying to 39:23.413 --> 39:22.969 help guide them . And like I said , 39:22.979 --> 39:24.929 that was about two years out . The 39:24.939 --> 39:27.209 other thing that , uh , that I learned 39:27.219 --> 39:30.429 through the whole retirement process 39:30.840 --> 39:34.280 is everything that everyone has ever 39:34.290 --> 39:37.439 told you about retirement is true . 39:38.409 --> 39:41.010 Listen to them , they tell you to start 39:41.020 --> 39:43.209 early , to prepare to think about all 39:43.219 --> 39:46.919 this stuff . Um , I will say that , uh , 39:46.929 --> 39:50.770 probably I , I , one of my , my peers 39:50.780 --> 39:52.947 and he was actually pretty smart about 39:52.947 --> 39:55.113 this . He actually calculated what his 39:55.113 --> 39:57.669 retirement income was going to be . And 39:57.679 --> 40:00.209 he , while still on active duty and 40:00.219 --> 40:02.280 he's not , doesn't have a retirement 40:02.290 --> 40:04.709 yet . He actually lived off of that 40:04.719 --> 40:08.300 income for one year or tried to , to 40:08.310 --> 40:10.850 see if it could be done . So that way 40:10.860 --> 40:14.229 it was not a financial , got you 40:14.620 --> 40:16.398 whenever he did exit out of the 40:16.398 --> 40:19.000 military . So , and that was something 40:19.010 --> 40:20.870 that was not told to me in any 40:20.879 --> 40:22.990 transition course , just something to 40:22.990 --> 40:24.823 kind of think about , you know , 40:24.823 --> 40:27.046 especially if you're going to retire at 40:27.046 --> 40:29.739 20 years or blended retirement system 40:30.100 --> 40:32.322 stuff , you know , if , if that's gonna 40:32.322 --> 40:35.209 be your sole source of income . Um And 40:35.219 --> 40:37.330 the other thing that , uh , that they 40:37.330 --> 40:39.379 talk about during uh retirement 40:39.389 --> 40:42.370 seminars is have a cushion of at least 40:42.379 --> 40:46.340 90 days of pay . No , not enough . I 40:46.350 --> 40:49.050 would say 100 and 80 days . So look at 40:49.060 --> 40:51.520 what you make in a half a year and 40:51.530 --> 40:55.199 start preparing now to have a half a 40:55.209 --> 40:58.199 year of your income for that transition 40:58.209 --> 41:00.265 time . That way it makes it one less 41:00.265 --> 41:02.265 thing that you're gonna be stressed 41:02.265 --> 41:04.376 about when you retire because believe 41:04.376 --> 41:03.399 me , you got enough other stuff to 41:03.409 --> 41:05.649 stress about . Does that someone answer 41:05.659 --> 41:09.550 your question , ma'am ? Awesome . All 41:09.560 --> 41:11.893 right . Had another question back . Yes , 41:11.893 --> 41:13.116 sir . Good to see you 41:15.780 --> 41:17.947 as a senior leader in your career . At 41:18.370 --> 41:20.259 almost every level of command and 41:20.699 --> 41:23.360 different part of the , you share with 41:23.370 --> 41:26.260 us insights uh experiences or how you 41:26.270 --> 41:29.080 approach your partnership with those 41:29.090 --> 41:31.969 with whom you been asked to , to , to 41:31.979 --> 41:34.189 leave with us as commander . In many 41:34.199 --> 41:36.366 cases , maybe some of the difficulties 41:36.366 --> 41:38.477 of the leadership philosophy or their 41:38.477 --> 41:40.979 approaches were and styles of 41:42.850 --> 41:44.906 great question . Thanks , sir . I do 41:44.906 --> 41:47.128 appreciate it . And that leads into , I 41:47.128 --> 41:47.070 mean , we're hitting all like all the 41:47.080 --> 41:49.136 topics that I wanted to hit . That's 41:49.136 --> 41:51.358 good . That's why I'd like to have this 41:51.358 --> 41:54.350 question answered . So , ladies and 41:54.360 --> 41:56.939 gentlemen , unless you are the 41:56.949 --> 42:00.330 commander , you never have more than 42:00.340 --> 42:03.699 49% of the vote as part of a , 42:04.370 --> 42:07.270 you never do . And remember talked 42:07.280 --> 42:11.139 about um leadership philosophy and I 42:11.149 --> 42:13.739 kind of boil it down to a sentence and 42:13.750 --> 42:15.806 a half as long run on sentence , but 42:15.806 --> 42:18.889 talked about uh inspiring others . 42:19.100 --> 42:21.267 Those are your privileged to lead . So 42:21.267 --> 42:23.489 that's where the inspiration part comes 42:23.489 --> 42:26.189 in . And I'm not a big tricky or Star 42:26.199 --> 42:28.580 Wars person . But yeah , we use a lot 42:28.590 --> 42:32.530 of the Jedi mind tricks and inspiring a 42:32.540 --> 42:35.649 commander at multiple levels to see and 42:35.659 --> 42:37.548 understand what it was that I was 42:37.548 --> 42:41.280 seeing to get them to do what I 42:41.290 --> 42:44.330 needed them to do for the organization . 42:44.729 --> 42:46.785 Sometimes successful , sometimes not 42:46.785 --> 42:48.969 successful . But once again , I only 42:48.979 --> 42:51.530 had 49% of the vote . So when I walked 42:51.540 --> 42:54.199 out of that office , then I knew that I 42:54.209 --> 42:57.659 had done everything I needed to do to 42:57.669 --> 43:01.659 explain the challenge , the 43:01.669 --> 43:03.899 solutions , the possible probable 43:03.909 --> 43:07.770 impacts of decisions . And never 43:07.780 --> 43:10.199 once did I go back and say I told you 43:10.209 --> 43:12.431 so after , because I wanted to keep the 43:12.431 --> 43:15.879 relationship strong . And so , uh and , 43:15.889 --> 43:17.945 and I'm not saying I had adversarial 43:17.945 --> 43:20.111 relationships with , with commanders , 43:20.111 --> 43:23.790 but ultimately realizing what our roles 43:23.800 --> 43:27.340 are . The other thing is never ever , 43:27.350 --> 43:31.050 ever undercutting my 43:31.060 --> 43:33.860 commander . And it doesn't matter 43:33.870 --> 43:36.939 whether uh you're serving as a senior 43:36.949 --> 43:40.580 enlisted leader or a deputy to the 43:40.590 --> 43:43.729 commander as an officer , never ever 43:43.739 --> 43:45.409 undercutting your commander , 43:45.419 --> 43:49.179 especially in front of the organization . 43:49.489 --> 43:51.600 You can have those discussions behind 43:51.600 --> 43:53.878 closed doors but never out in the open . 43:53.878 --> 43:56.709 Uh And , and that builds a lot of a lot 43:56.719 --> 43:58.899 of faith and trust . Now , will I say 43:58.909 --> 44:00.687 that I agreed with every single 44:00.687 --> 44:02.742 decision that every single commander 44:02.742 --> 44:04.965 that I worked with from the time that I 44:04.965 --> 44:07.340 was a platoon sergeant all the way 44:07.350 --> 44:09.830 through command sergeant major . No , 44:10.520 --> 44:13.340 not at all . Did I at 44:13.350 --> 44:17.050 sometimes have to go back 44:17.060 --> 44:20.060 after the fact to , I don't know , 44:20.070 --> 44:23.600 damage control seems like a , a extreme 44:23.610 --> 44:25.777 term , but sometimes it did have to go 44:25.777 --> 44:27.999 do that to kind of soften the edges and 44:27.999 --> 44:30.850 the delivery of the message . Um , but 44:30.860 --> 44:32.749 it was always about what was that 44:32.749 --> 44:35.082 commander's intent to get to that point . 44:36.520 --> 44:40.169 I had one adversarial relationship with 44:40.179 --> 44:43.590 an a uh officer in my entire career . 44:43.600 --> 44:45.656 One individual that I could not work 44:45.656 --> 44:47.840 with that individual was a lieutenant 44:47.850 --> 44:50.017 colonel at the time that I worked with 44:50.017 --> 44:52.072 them and that lieutenant colonel was 44:52.072 --> 44:54.260 forced to retire as a major . So you 44:54.270 --> 44:56.889 can kind of figure that one out on why 44:56.899 --> 44:59.010 I could not work with this individual 44:59.010 --> 45:00.899 did not adhere to the army values 45:00.899 --> 45:04.590 whatsoever . Other than that , I know 45:04.600 --> 45:07.580 my role as a senior enlisted . I know 45:07.590 --> 45:10.120 my role , my role is to set up my 45:10.129 --> 45:13.590 commander for success . My role is to 45:13.600 --> 45:15.711 be the voice in the sounding board of 45:15.711 --> 45:17.433 the command , not the enlisted 45:17.433 --> 45:19.010 personnel , but the command 45:21.270 --> 45:24.979 and to make sure that my 45:24.989 --> 45:27.045 commander has all of the information 45:27.045 --> 45:29.790 that I can possibly give them . Now 45:29.800 --> 45:33.469 over time , those two 45:33.479 --> 45:35.590 individuals , my commander and I , we 45:35.590 --> 45:37.535 would get to a point where we were 45:37.535 --> 45:40.110 synchronized uh in thought , in word 45:40.120 --> 45:42.719 and action uh to the point where geo 45:42.739 --> 45:45.020 geography didn't matter as they start 45:45.030 --> 45:47.252 off talking about one of the commands , 45:47.252 --> 45:49.197 North Pole , South Pole , all that 45:49.197 --> 45:51.252 stuff out in the Pacific . There are 45:51.252 --> 45:54.520 many , many times where uh I was not on 45:54.530 --> 45:56.739 the same continent as my commander for 45:56.750 --> 46:00.159 weeks at a time . Um but still had a 46:00.169 --> 46:02.280 good working relationship and had the 46:02.280 --> 46:04.391 trust and had the communication piece 46:04.391 --> 46:06.639 to be able to effectively lead 46:08.489 --> 46:11.649 ladies and gentlemen , keep your ego in 46:11.659 --> 46:14.149 check for those of you who are 46:14.229 --> 46:16.285 sergeants major . Command , sergeant 46:16.285 --> 46:18.229 major , first sergeants , aspiring 46:18.229 --> 46:21.669 command sergeant major command is an 46:21.679 --> 46:24.750 adjective in your title . It describes 46:24.760 --> 46:26.871 what type of sergeant major you are . 46:26.871 --> 46:29.570 You are the command's sergeant major . 46:30.689 --> 46:33.229 You don't command anything . And I 46:33.239 --> 46:35.479 always stayed by that . I never was in 46:35.489 --> 46:38.139 command of a thing and that made it so 46:38.149 --> 46:40.330 much easier . Does someone answer your 46:40.340 --> 46:41.340 question , sir ? 46:44.050 --> 46:46.272 Thank you very much for that question . 46:46.272 --> 46:48.550 I love it . I , I , I love talking the , 46:48.550 --> 46:50.661 the relationship between officers and 46:50.661 --> 46:52.772 non commissioned officers . The other 46:52.772 --> 46:54.994 thing is there's no such thing as N C O 46:54.994 --> 46:57.217 business and officer business . There's 46:57.217 --> 46:59.439 leader , business and leaders take care 46:59.439 --> 47:01.717 of those . They are privileged to lead . 47:01.739 --> 47:04.290 Makes sense . All right . Any more 47:04.300 --> 47:06.411 questions ? Any more hard questions ? 47:06.411 --> 47:08.578 Sorry , Major Rose really wants a hard 47:08.578 --> 47:11.439 question . I have a question along the 47:11.449 --> 47:13.616 same lines . Colonel Chief for radio , 47:13.616 --> 47:16.370 a lot of what you mentioned was how you 47:16.379 --> 47:18.268 would support the command and the 47:18.268 --> 47:20.212 officers . What would you wish the 47:20.212 --> 47:22.919 officers could do or from experience 47:22.929 --> 47:26.459 that would support you ? Awesome , 47:26.469 --> 47:29.729 great question . So number one , 47:30.239 --> 47:32.899 I would appreciate the fact if officers 47:32.909 --> 47:36.310 do not think that enlisted soldiers 47:36.320 --> 47:39.639 are somewhat less of 47:39.649 --> 47:42.189 importance in the organization or in 47:42.199 --> 47:45.570 the mission , that should never ever 47:45.580 --> 47:49.360 happen . I challenge any soldier , 47:49.370 --> 47:51.259 whether they're an officer or non 47:51.259 --> 47:54.270 commissioned officer to be able to fire 47:54.280 --> 47:57.370 their weapon without that specialist 47:57.379 --> 47:59.699 who is serving as the armor and taking 47:59.709 --> 48:03.120 care of the weapon or that NBC N 48:03.129 --> 48:06.149 CEO , who is the P F C because you only 48:06.159 --> 48:08.889 have one sea Bernie specialist in your 48:08.899 --> 48:11.479 battalion . So that's number one , 48:11.489 --> 48:13.760 don't ever look down on or think that 48:13.770 --> 48:15.492 they're a lesser . They made a 48:15.492 --> 48:17.770 different career choice , they made it , 48:17.770 --> 48:19.881 they took a different career path and 48:19.881 --> 48:21.881 I'd like to see anybody do that job 48:21.881 --> 48:23.881 without soldiers . And ultimately , 48:23.881 --> 48:26.570 that's why leaders exist because 48:26.580 --> 48:28.747 leaders exist for one reason . And one 48:28.747 --> 48:30.747 reason only take care of those that 48:30.747 --> 48:33.570 they are privileged to lead . So uh for 48:33.580 --> 48:36.989 officers empower your non commissioned 48:37.000 --> 48:40.719 officers . Commanders power 48:40.729 --> 48:43.840 rely or relies and and lies in a R 48:43.850 --> 48:47.479 600-20 noncommissioned officer power 48:47.489 --> 48:50.780 and authority lies in being 48:50.790 --> 48:54.189 empowered by a commander . Commanders 48:54.199 --> 48:56.532 don't empower non commissioned officers . 48:57.149 --> 48:59.929 We can't help you , we cannot help you 49:00.179 --> 49:03.389 nor do we want you to do our job . If 49:03.399 --> 49:05.288 you wanna be the non commissioned 49:05.288 --> 49:07.399 officer , then resign your commission 49:07.399 --> 49:09.455 and become a noncommissioned officer 49:09.455 --> 49:11.510 otherwise allow your noncommissioned 49:11.510 --> 49:13.510 officers to do what they do because 49:13.510 --> 49:15.677 they will help you . Or you might just 49:15.677 --> 49:17.788 have some smart alec first sergeant , 49:17.788 --> 49:20.010 like the sharp and tear guy a long time 49:20.010 --> 49:19.479 ago who walked into his company 49:19.489 --> 49:21.600 commander's office and put his office 49:21.600 --> 49:23.822 keys on the desk and said , let me know 49:23.822 --> 49:25.878 whenever you want me to be the first 49:25.878 --> 49:27.767 sergeant again of the company and 49:27.767 --> 49:29.878 walked out and got a phone call about 49:29.878 --> 49:32.399 two hours later saying please come back 49:34.239 --> 49:36.406 but point made and , and learning from 49:36.409 --> 49:38.576 those lessons , I don't know . And I'm 49:38.576 --> 49:40.576 not advocating for any of you to do 49:40.576 --> 49:42.853 that nowadays because that was an army , 49:42.853 --> 49:44.909 you know , 20 years ago . So I don't 49:44.909 --> 49:44.739 know how that would work in today's 49:44.750 --> 49:48.389 army . But uh truly uh 49:48.399 --> 49:51.399 appreciating the empowerment of the non 49:51.409 --> 49:53.860 commissioned officer corps . And does 49:53.870 --> 49:56.203 that someone answer your question , sir ? 49:56.203 --> 49:59.149 So with that , I , I will uh draw a 49:59.159 --> 50:01.103 little bit of attention to someone 50:01.103 --> 50:03.103 sitting in the back of the audience 50:03.103 --> 50:05.048 back there that's looking over his 50:05.048 --> 50:07.048 shoulder and hoping that I don't do 50:07.048 --> 50:06.949 this . But one of the individuals who 50:06.959 --> 50:09.830 definitely did a lot to empower me and 50:09.840 --> 50:12.007 you may have already heard him speak . 50:12.007 --> 50:14.820 But major general T Jeff Clark , sir , 50:14.830 --> 50:17.052 do you have anything that you'd like to 50:17.052 --> 50:18.830 inject into this conversation ? 50:21.300 --> 50:22.300 Exactly . 50:28.429 --> 50:31.560 The major . He is a great , so major 50:31.949 --> 50:35.889 because he's a good person . Rattled it 50:35.899 --> 50:38.949 around for a moment . He is a great 50:38.959 --> 50:41.292 start major because he is a good person . 50:41.550 --> 50:44.290 You understand what I saying ? Yeah , 50:46.899 --> 50:50.189 a minute we were talking about strategy 50:50.199 --> 50:53.669 and that was a headquarters and I got , 50:53.689 --> 50:55.633 I got great beard . They call back 50:55.633 --> 50:57.889 great beers occasionally . And somebody 50:57.899 --> 51:00.066 that was there around the table said , 51:00.360 --> 51:02.919 you know , we , we keep referring to 51:02.929 --> 51:04.818 the folks that we get to serve as 51:04.818 --> 51:07.590 patients . Maybe we only refer to them 51:07.600 --> 51:10.510 as persons because when we call them a 51:10.520 --> 51:13.449 patient , we're defining them from our 51:13.459 --> 51:15.669 perspective . Does that make sense ? 51:15.679 --> 51:17.290 We're defining them from the 51:17.290 --> 51:19.401 relationship that we have with them ? 51:19.401 --> 51:21.800 And they're a person 24 7 . Does that 51:21.810 --> 51:24.032 make sense ? And they're only a patient 51:24.032 --> 51:25.977 when they happen to come in to the 51:25.977 --> 51:28.750 clinic ? Does that make sense ? And I , 51:28.760 --> 51:30.899 as I thought about that new world , 51:33.330 --> 51:35.580 uh each of us is a person . 51:37.870 --> 51:40.092 Does that make sense ? And everyone you 51:40.092 --> 51:42.209 get to lead is a person . So taking a 51:42.219 --> 51:45.060 holistic view of them as a fellow human 51:45.070 --> 51:48.139 being , I think it's the essence of 51:48.149 --> 51:50.810 what sort of trying to say the same 51:50.979 --> 51:53.260 thing you were saying ? Does that make 51:53.270 --> 51:55.800 sense ? So understand those that you 51:55.810 --> 51:57.810 privileged to lead as fellow human 51:57.820 --> 52:00.550 beings as persons and realize that they 52:00.560 --> 52:02.727 also put on the uniform and do what we 52:02.727 --> 52:04.782 ask them to do as soldiers , money , 52:05.090 --> 52:07.959 gentlemen . But there's a good portion 52:07.969 --> 52:09.580 of the time that they have a 52:09.580 --> 52:11.802 relationship and then you have a spouse 52:11.802 --> 52:13.858 or they have a partner or you have a 52:13.858 --> 52:15.858 kid and all that other stuff . Does 52:15.858 --> 52:17.858 that make sense ? They're a child , 52:17.858 --> 52:19.802 their sibling , their grandchild , 52:19.802 --> 52:20.969 maybe grandparents . 52:23.260 --> 52:25.459 Um I don't think I appreciated that 52:25.469 --> 52:28.159 when I was younger , I had to work with 52:28.169 --> 52:30.336 great songs like that in my theater in 52:30.336 --> 52:33.370 order to , to give my , 52:35.129 --> 52:37.810 does that make sense ? Other thing I 52:37.820 --> 52:40.810 just say very quickly , I , I never 52:40.820 --> 52:44.260 liked it when the commanders would say 52:45.010 --> 52:46.620 my commands are made 52:49.270 --> 52:51.437 because they , they weren't my command 52:51.439 --> 52:53.560 sergeant . They were our command 52:53.570 --> 52:56.540 sergeant . Does that make sense ? And 52:56.550 --> 52:58.606 this distinction with a difference , 52:59.149 --> 53:02.310 the station where the and the mind 53:02.320 --> 53:04.264 seemed like a good mind , but it's 53:04.264 --> 53:06.487 really outward . Does that make sense ? 53:06.699 --> 53:09.659 So I'm , I , I'm very careful of using 53:09.669 --> 53:11.899 the uh using my 53:14.100 --> 53:16.129 because it's not the first argument 53:18.000 --> 53:21.909 DC , a whatever going on is 53:21.919 --> 53:25.459 out . And I think it sets a tone that 53:25.540 --> 53:28.610 is consistently , we are all in this . 53:31.629 --> 53:34.590 Some were in trouble . 53:35.570 --> 53:39.560 So major . He's a great man and 53:39.570 --> 53:40.070 wife . 53:45.189 --> 53:47.411 Thanks , sir . I do appreciate it . And 53:47.560 --> 53:50.979 you know , as a command sergeant 53:50.989 --> 53:53.919 major , I never have the last word . I 53:53.929 --> 53:57.000 always defer to my commander . And uh 53:57.010 --> 54:00.159 at that time , Clark and I worked 54:00.169 --> 54:02.489 together here at launch duel in 2012 as 54:02.500 --> 54:05.409 a command team . So uh still deferring 54:05.419 --> 54:07.641 to , to my commander . But uh thank you 54:07.641 --> 54:09.697 very much , sir for your words . But 54:09.697 --> 54:11.919 this time and this only one time I will 54:11.919 --> 54:15.739 have the last word . Uh , so I , I 54:15.750 --> 54:17.806 started off this presentation with a 54:17.806 --> 54:20.028 question about who am I ? And , and you 54:20.028 --> 54:22.250 had a great lead in . I appreciate that 54:23.040 --> 54:26.500 because at one of the A L C or S L C 54:26.510 --> 54:28.454 classes , after I went through the 54:28.454 --> 54:30.677 presentation and opened up a question , 54:30.677 --> 54:32.899 somebody , one of the students stood up 54:32.899 --> 54:35.066 and said , well , sergeant major , who 54:35.066 --> 54:38.439 are you and asked me that question and , 54:38.760 --> 54:40.850 yeah , I went down the list of , you 54:40.860 --> 54:43.729 know , I'm , I'm a son , I'm a brother , 54:44.610 --> 54:47.209 I'm a father , I'm a husband now a 54:47.219 --> 54:50.590 grandfather . I'm a soldier , 54:51.489 --> 54:53.711 also a non commissioned officer and I'm 54:53.711 --> 54:57.709 a leader . And yes , I do have goals 54:57.939 --> 55:00.310 and I do have things that drive me to 55:00.320 --> 55:03.860 do things . But number 55:03.870 --> 55:07.629 one , for me at that time was I 55:07.639 --> 55:10.199 was privileged to be in that audience 55:10.679 --> 55:13.879 and have the attention of those folks . 55:13.889 --> 55:16.800 So who am I ? I'm an individual that's 55:16.810 --> 55:20.060 privileged to have had an 55:20.070 --> 55:23.209 amazing opportunity to be a 55:23.219 --> 55:25.270 soldier and a leader in the United 55:25.280 --> 55:27.270 States army . And I'm a privileged 55:27.280 --> 55:30.360 opportunity that you would invest your 55:30.370 --> 55:33.050 time in listening to what I have to 55:33.060 --> 55:35.600 share with you . So thank you very much 55:35.610 --> 55:37.721 for your attention . And the question 55:37.721 --> 55:39.777 that was posed for the topic of this 55:39.780 --> 55:41.929 conversation was why does it matter 55:44.739 --> 55:48.479 because of you , it matters because 55:48.489 --> 55:52.100 of every single soldier , marine 55:52.110 --> 55:55.820 sailor , airman , partner nation , 55:56.129 --> 55:59.739 any other individual that life is 55:59.750 --> 56:03.560 impacted by what you do , how you train , 56:03.570 --> 56:05.989 how you lead , how you take care of 56:06.219 --> 56:08.330 those that you are privileged to lead 56:08.330 --> 56:10.780 their lives are changed by you . So 56:10.790 --> 56:13.239 whether you realize it or not , it 56:13.250 --> 56:15.879 matters because so many of those people 56:15.889 --> 56:18.429 can't , don't or won't ever say thank 56:18.439 --> 56:21.560 you . So thank you for what you've done 56:21.570 --> 56:24.399 every single day to make sure that 56:24.409 --> 56:27.939 lives are better . That's why it 56:27.949 --> 56:31.939 matters because what you do today will 56:31.949 --> 56:35.419 positively and hopefully not negatively 56:36.399 --> 56:39.100 impact somebody tomorrow . Thanks very 56:39.110 --> 56:40.832 much for your attention . I do 56:40.832 --> 56:40.699 appreciate it .