Courage to Execute E-Book

James D. Murphy

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 284

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

How to build a culture of high performance within your organization The U.S. military in general, and its many elite organizations in particular, possesses a culture of high performance. Courage to Execute outlines the six basic principles that operate at the foundation of high performance, which include leadership, organization, communication, knowledge, experience, and discipline, known together as LOCKED. When all are practiced effectively, teamwork emerges. But the most elusive quality that exists at the heart of all elite military teams, the element that organizations and businesses deeply desire to perform more efficiently and effectively, is trust. Trust is easily spent, but hard won. Author James Murphy, an employer of approximately fifty senior military officers that have served in elite units such as the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, U.S. Navy SEALS, and U.S. Army Rangers, shares a multitude of personal leadership stories that illustrates the principles of LOCKED. * Shares compelling anecdotes from leaders in elite units of the U.S. Military * Written by James D. Murphy, founder and CEO of Afterburner, Inc., which has trained over 1.5 million executives, sales professionals, and business people from every industry in Afterburner's Flawless Execution Model, and its unique, high-energy programs Courage to Execute will help you develop effective leadership skills and build high-performance teams that out-compete your rivals every time.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise Page

Title Page

Copyright

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: The Military Response to a Complex World: The New Value of Effective Execution

Chapter 2: Basic Training: Indoctrinating Your People with Values and Skills

Organizational Identity and Imperatives

The Training Imperative

The Trust Imperative

The Leadership Imperative

Chapter 3: Team Alignment: Connecting the Troops with the Leader's Intent

Situational Awareness

High-Definition Destination and Leader's Intent

The Building Blocks

Developing Leaders

Chapter 4: Mission Preparation: Moving from Strategy toward Accountable Actions

Critical Leverage Points

Business Leverage Points

Levels of Planning

The Flawless Execution Engine: Plan, Brief, Execute, Debrief

Elements of Successful Planning

Developing Leaders

Chapter 5: Battle Rhythm: On Track, On Target, and On Time

Briefing

Execution Rhythm

Checkpoints

Task Saturation

X-Gaps

Developing Leaders

Chapter 6: Continuous Improvement: The Debrief Imperative

The STEALTH Debrief

Root-Cause Analysis

Chapter 7: Leadership on Purpose: Developing Teams and Leaders from Day One

Leadership

Organization

Communication

Knowledge

Experience

Discipline

Chapter 8: The Courage to Execute: A Smart Bias toward the Right Action

Appendix: Mission Checklists

Planning Overview

Six Steps to Mission Planning

Brief Checklist

Execution Checklist (Task Saturation Remedies)

STEALTH Debrief Checklist

Bibliography

Index

Praise for Courage to Execute

“I've worked with Jim; he knows his stuff, and this book is proof of that. Courage to Execute is full of proven tactics and techniques to drive business success by applying military principles, some of which we've deployed at The Home Depot. What I admire most about Jim's work is that he understands that at the heart of every strategy…at the core of every successful campaign…are people.”

—Carol Tomé, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Corporate Services, The Home Depot

“In Courage to Execute, ex-fighter pilot JimMurphy explains the proven frameworks and techniques used by our military's highest performing units to drive Flawless Execution while performing at the highest levels. He clearly and simply adapts those tools for business leaders who want to improve their teams' execution at any level. It is a great read full of practical insights and tools to drive executional excellence.”

—Mike White, Chairman and CEO, DirecTV

“Jim Murphy's work with us and his latest book Courage to Execute have truly disrupted—in a positive way—how our business thinks and executes. The motion picture industry doesn't just need to make films about the military, we need to adopt their tactics! Businesses across the spectrum can learn from this book and Murphy's experience, which can accelerate anyone's performance.”

—Ryan Kavanaugh CEO, Relativity Media, LLC

“As an Army Aviator and current business executive, I am convinced that the principles and tactics of our military's high-performing teams hold valuable lessons for American business. Courage to Execute brings those lessons home. Simplicity does combat complexity!”

—Colonel Lawrence M. Iwanski, U.S. Army Reserve, Executive Director, Financial Services at a leading financial services provider

“You can't travel far in corporate America without hearing about Jim Murphy and the radical things he and his company are doing. Murphy is the hands down voice of successful companies and elite corporate warriors everywhere. Courage to Execute is his third, and by far his best book yet. Navy SEALs. Army Rangers. And all the tools the rest of us need to be SEALs in our own lives. Highly recommended.”

—L. Douglas Keeney, Former Vice President, Young & Rubicam, and Author of 15 Minutes (St.Martin's Press/Macmillan)

“In Courage to Execute, Jim ‘Murph’ Murphy artfully blends the lessons learned during an inspirational military career into practical, applicable guidance that effectively translate to the civilian business world. Jim provides historical content that validates the advice and direction provided. He weaves first hand wins from business and professional sports to further advance the realization of what can be accomplished in our efforts to achieve our specific High Definition Destinations (HDD), while leveraging simplicity over complexity.

“Murphy incorporates components of his book, Flawless Execution, with new, powerful insight that aids the reader in victoriously attacking his/her real world, real pressure, high risk, high reward environment.

“As a child of both the military and corporate America (IBM Corporation) I have lived the framework so well-articulated in Courage to Execute and been the benefactor of its processes and systems. This is a wonderful tutorial to success as seen through the eyes of an American military hero and entrepreneur.

—Steven W. Tomson, Director of Sales, ProfitStars Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.

Cover design: Wiley

Cover images: Public domain

Copyright © 2014 by Afterburner, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with the respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom.

For general information about our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at [phone], outside the United States at [phone] or fax [phone].

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Murphy, James D., 1954-

Courage to execute : What elite U.S. military units can teach business about leadership and team performance / James D. Murphy.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-118-79009-0 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-84130-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-84132-7 (ebk)

1. Management. 2. Leadership. 3. Success in business. I. Title.

HD31.M823 2014

658.4′01--dc23

Preface

Elite military warriors are trained to perform at exceptionally high levels. They're put through the paces until they have the individual skills necessary to accomplish their missions, then these warriors come together as a team. They come from all walks of life but emerge from their training as Army Rangers or Navy SEALs. It doesn't take a pedigree and it isn't a birthright. You have to earn it. If you want to make the cut and be on that team, you need determination, motivation, confidence, courage, and the willingness to sacrifice your personal identity for the group's identity.

None of that is easy—the washout rate is high—but there are some encouraging words here. The first is training. In truth, you don't need special skills or background to become the best of the best—our entire military establishment was designed to take a diverse group of young people straight off the streets and put them into a process that molds them into fighter pilots, Rangers, SEALs, and ultimately enables them to execute in the business world outside the military. One day I was a farm boy from Kentucky, then entered the process. Next thing I knew, I was an F-15 fighter pilot. A decade later, I was teaching companies how to execute like a well-trained squadron. True story. And all because of a process.

You see, people who become elite in any field go against the grain and challenge accepted theories. Sometimes, conventional wisdom holds that the elite are somehow born, not made, that they came to their status naturally, not through training. That's simply not true. As the pages ahead will show you, you can train perfection, you can train courage, and guess what? You can train to become elite. It's not about luck or the right school or good genes. It's about you.

I'd barely learned to fly a Cessna when the air force took me off the streets and started making me into a top-notch fighter pilot. Not long after, I was flying a supersonic fighter jet over that farm in Kentucky. I wanted it. I worked hard. I made the cut. But I had no special skills. Need more proof? Just look around. There are plenty of examples of individuals and teams becoming extraordinary. It just takes a process.

You'd think everyone knows that. But in my years working with some of the most successful organizations in the world, I've found that most leaders have trouble actualizing that knowledge—implementing and following the processes they know can take them to the next level. It really hit me in the fall of 2011. If anyone was executing well, I thought surely it was the NFL. Then as we began working with teams like the Packers, Giants, and Broncos, we learned that everyone struggles to find and follow a winning process. The New York Giants' season had started slowly, they were having trouble. Then they began adopting elements of our military-inspired model and things began to change. They began winning and by Christmas, they were Super Bowl contenders. They continued improving and in February, they won the 2012 Super Bowl, crediting hard work, each other, and our process.

Organizations like the Broncos and Giants felt alone in the struggle to execute; they thought everyone else was doing it better. What we've discovered is that most businesses and teams have not learned what I learned in the military. Individual execution is one thing, but organizational execution is everything. And it shouldn't be as complex as the world we're competing in.

Inspired by the Giants, we went back and looked at our country's elite warriors and their history. We examined the spec ops community, aircraft carrier operations, aerial performance teams, and more. We began to see the patterns, the traits that give teams what I call the courage to execute. We found that every member of every elite team came in without any particular gifts—but they had all been trained, they had been indoctrinated with common standards and values, they had all rehearsed the scenarios they would face. What seems confusing and bewildering to you or me looks like a walk in the park to them. They're so well trained that they view a demanding mission as just “executing the plan.” They know to keep it simple, and just follow the process.

In the pages that follow, you'll see how our elite military forces execute, and through these examples you'll learn how to develop, hone, and spread their ability to execute across your entire organization. You just need determination to be the best. One day I was a farm boy, the next, an F-15 fighter pilot. Process. Now you can see how that process works for some of our nation's finest, in the most challenging of conditions. And you'll see some spectacular results.

Acknowledgments

I'd like to thank the many men and women who, over the past 18 years, have had an effect on this book. Countless fighter pilots and special operations professionals have come through our doors at Afterburner and have all contributed to this work and the Flawless Execution model.

We have also learned so much from our clients as they have leveraged and deployed these techniques in every type of business in every corner of the globe. Flawless Execution is a never-ending journey to find the best way to improve efficiently on the battlefield, in the marketplace, or in life. It's a collective work of lessons from practitioners who are not academic but pragmatic in using techniques that drive results. Our practitioners hail from elite military teams, surgical teams, and teams operating in high-risk environments, as well as the most successful of capital enterprises, all the way to the NFL.

A special thank-you to my writing partners, Alvin Townley and Will Duke, who have taken our model and captured its true essence of using simplicity to combat complexity.

And I would like to dedicate this book to the brave men and women serving in our military as well as my loving father, who has taught me so much about family, pursuit, and happiness.

—Murph

Chapter 1

The Military Response to a Complex World: The New Value of Effective Execution

It was Thursday, March 20, 2003, the first night of the Iraq War.

No moon. Calm seas. Perfect night for a surprise raid by an elite special operations force.

Four Mark V SOCs (Special Operations Craft) were running flat out across the Persian Gulf. Two boats were loaded with Navy SEALs. Their pockets were filled with ammunition; their faces were blackened. They were dead serious. Just hours before they'd launched, their boat team leader—a 26-year-old Harvard graduate—had told them, “We're going to change the world tonight. Let's do it right.” Then his team embarked on one of the first missions in this new war. His men were ready for their task, ready to show the courage to execute.1

From the boats, they looked out toward their rapidly-closing target: the Mina al-Bakr Oil Terminal, an impressive complex jutting out in the Gulf. The facility handled virtually all of Iraq's crude oil exports and American intelligence assets were convinced that Iraqi forces planned to unleash environmental and financial havoc by blowing up the facility; the SEALs were there to make sure that it didn't happen.