0:01

Welcome to the Raise up podcast.

0:03

The only podcast focused on how you

0:05

can get a raise at work every week.

0:07

We're dishing tips and tricks straight from

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the industry experts, CEOs,

0:11

and HR directors. So, you can finally

0:14

get paid what you're worth. So, buckle up buttercup, let's

0:17

break it down. She's

0:19

a little sassy, but a lot of fun.

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Here's your host, Amanda LeFever.

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Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the

0:28

Raise Up Podcast. My name is Amanda

0:30

LeFever, and I'm here to help you make more money

0:32

at your job. We are back again with

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a great guest, and I'm super excited about

0:37

this conversation. His name is Tom

0:39

Crea, and he's a leadership expert,

0:41

decorated career Army officer,

0:44

and Black Hawk helicopter pilot.

0:46

Because of his proven skills, he was hand-selected

0:48

to run the Army's leadership development program

0:51

at two Boston Colleges where he

0:53

and his team transformed college

0:55

students into combat leaders.

0:58

Today he's a servant leadership ambassador,

1:00

an author, keynote speaker, radio

1:02

show host, and leadership development

1:04

coach who loves coaching basketball

1:06

and spending time with his wife and two boys.

1:09

Tom, welcome, welcome to the

1:11

show.

1:12

Thank you so much, Amanda. And you can add baseball

1:14

to that too now.

1:15

Baseball? That sounds awesome.

1:18

Did you start in the little, little leagues

1:20

and go all the way ?

1:21

Well, I'm coaching my sons now. Yeah

1:23

, I started, but , yeah. Yeah. And it's

1:25

fun to live vicariously through them at

1:27

this point.

1:28

Yeah, how are they doing? They like baseball? Basketball?

1:31

They're doing, they're doing pretty well. You

1:34

know, one of them is in coach

1:36

pitch, and the other one moved to kid pitch, and he's had

1:40

his machinations, but he's actually doing pretty

1:42

well as a pitcher. So, I'm happy with that.

1:44

Hey, that's awesome. I hear it's quite the

1:47

investment and involvement in

1:49

baseball, is that correct? Is it a lot of, a

1:52

lot of time, and money?

1:53

Oh, investment of time? Yeah. There are

1:56

sports that are much, much more expensive and

1:58

you know, fortunately we're here in Pennsylvania, and

2:00

we we've, we had a hiccup

2:02

where we didn't get to play a week because of

2:04

the virus and then we're back

2:06

on track, but it was a shortened season, and hopefully

2:08

we'll be playing in the fall. So, yeah.

2:12

I'm glad that you're able to do that with them. I'm

2:14

sure it's a great bonding

2:16

experience.

2:17

It is, it's something I know, and something

2:19

I can share, and pass on. And I think every parent wants

2:22

to be able to do that with their children.

2:23

Yeah, for sure. So, I have a question,

2:26

and it might be random, but did you always

2:28

know you wanted to be a Black Hawk helicopter

2:31

pilot?

2:32

No, no, I did not. I mean, I didn't

2:34

, I never

2:36

thought about the military seriously until

2:39

a guidance counselor sent me

2:42

off to something called boys state, if you're familiar

2:44

with that. And I went there, and I came

2:46

back, and just things started lining

2:48

up where I applied for ROTC

2:50

scholarships. And then I went to school on an ROTC

2:52

scholarship, and that

2:55

really changed my life. And so, I always

2:57

thought I wanted to fly, and I wanted to go in the Air

2:59

Force, and the Air Force didn't want me,

3:01

but the Army wanted me, go figure. Believe it or not,

3:04

the Army has more aircraft than the Air

3:06

Force, and has more boats than the Navy,

3:08

but they're much smaller in both cases, much less

3:11

expensive. Yeah. Well, cause there are a lot of helicopters,

3:13

and there are a lot of tiny little boats , and that

3:16

people don't think of not ships, so

3:19

it's a trivial thing.

3:21

Yeah, I had no idea. So, you

3:23

were hand selected to run the

3:25

Army's leadership development program, and

3:27

I feel like that is huge. What, what

3:30

did you do to, how

3:33

do you position yourself to be in that

3:35

, that type of role?

3:37

So, you know what it is, it's

3:39

an issue of a career

3:40

progression, you're trying

3:44

to, as an officer, you want to command

3:46

for promotion, and to be

3:48

perfectly candid that wasn't the first

3:51

string, if you will. So, the first string that has,

3:53

I would command a line battalion, a helicopter

3:55

organization, it's still

4:00

command, and it was good, but it's not

4:02

considered as highly as commanding

4:04

a line battalion. Whether it's

4:07

infantry, armory, aviation, whatever. So,

4:09

I commanded an ROTC battalion. It

4:11

was one of 270 at the time

4:13

when I was doing it. So, there are a lot of them across

4:15

the program, and I'm sure you've seen him on different college

4:17

campuses. And so, I haven't had one

4:20

it was very unique. It was one of two that the

4:22

host school was less prestigious

4:25

than the school that was the sister school.

4:27

So, those two colleges were, I had Northeastern

4:29

University, and Boston College was

4:32

more prestigious, and then in the Army gave more

4:34

money. So, it was awkward

4:36

with my bosses on the Northeastern campus.

4:39

And , the other school

4:41

was Santa Clara University who matches,

4:43

they're paired up with Stanford.

4:45

Nice. That's awesome.

4:47

So, you say career progression,

4:49

so you started out and what

4:52

did you do? How did it work?

4:53

Yeah, so, I looked

4:56

at some of your previous episodes,

4:58

and the way you do things. And so, career progression for us

5:00

is you know, I remember

5:02

from almost day one where they

5:04

would talk about, you need to have a 10-year plan,

5:06

you need to have a 10-year plan. And

5:09

for us it was a little , because you

5:11

know, it's an organization, and institution that's

5:13

been around for 200 years. Everything is kind

5:15

of like set in, there's not

5:18

that it's set in stone, but you can see a bunch of paths,

5:20

and you can see different ways to do things. And

5:22

so, the normal career progression is you

5:24

go from being a platoon leader,

5:26

which is a supervisor, to being a company

5:28

commander, which would be more like a mid-manager type

5:31

of thing. And then to going on to

5:33

battalion command, which would be more like the VP position,

5:36

which I would, I would say that that was the

5:38

parallel position that I retired

5:41

at. I wanted to leave it on a high note.

5:43

I enjoyed thoroughly my career. If

5:45

I were young and healthy, I would do it all over

5:47

again. But yeah, that's so

5:50

they wanted you to have a 10-year plan because

5:53

I didn't command my battalion

5:55

until I was at year 16. So,

5:58

you were thinking about these things and

6:00

how was I going to get there? And you have to not

6:04

to go into gory details, but you had to , you had

6:06

to know what tracks

6:08

they were going to put you on. And when you were going to get assigned

6:10

here and there, and you had these

6:12

other different assignments that I would call a penance

6:14

assignment because I wasn't flying helicopter.

6:16

My other specialty was

6:18

computer science, but that was never my strength. So,

6:22

that's why I called it a penance assignment, but

6:24

I I'm glad I met some great people with

6:26

that experience, and I

6:29

enjoyed it, but it was much harder

6:31

for me cause it wasn't my natural thing.

6:33

I'm curious about the long view?

6:35

Like you had talked about that a little bit, like your perspective

6:38

is different than what's

6:40

gonna get you immediate gratification

6:43

or immediate rewards, more

6:45

of taking the perspective of the long

6:47

view when you're looking at your career.

6:50

So, let's take a huge step back. And what

6:52

I mean by the long view is in what , like

6:54

you, I'm a speaker. And so, when I

6:56

speak, one of the things I talk about is

6:59

values. And a matter of fact, you mentioned

7:01

my book, "Unleash your Values", and I

7:03

feel that everybody needs to follow your values

7:05

because when you're doing

7:07

what you believe to be true,

7:10

you're just going to be better at it. And not

7:12

only are you going to be better at it. So, the question

7:14

I ask when I'm speaking is it's like why do

7:18

you, why do people join organizations?

7:21

And you know, why do you choose your friends and

7:23

that sort of thing? And the bottom line is if you

7:25

think about those answers is because you want to

7:27

be around people that are like minded

7:29

that think like you. And as

7:34

I went into the army, and there are probably other industries

7:37

or companies that I could have gone into that

7:39

would have been comparable, and I would have been a good

7:41

fit. But then of course, then there would have been

7:43

others that maybe I could have

7:45

survived, but I wouldn't have been a good fit, and

7:47

survive is not a good way to spend eight hours

7:50

of every day and you know,

7:52

a career. And so, what I mean by that, I

7:54

mean the very first thing that I would suggest that anybody

7:56

do is look, are you in the right place? And

7:59

if you're not, don't despair because

8:02

life's too short to

8:04

just spend the rest of your life in the wrong

8:05

place, and you

8:08

could take steps to move on.

8:11

So, back to

8:13

this long view. So, if you're in the right place,

8:15

and I did feel that I was in the right place

8:17

and I had a, I don't know if

8:19

cathartic is the right word, but I had an

8:21

experience that told me that really

8:25

knocked me on my heels, a couple

8:27

of experiences. And then I had an experience

8:31

that said, wow, you're in

8:33

the right place. This is, this is really

8:35

what it was, and those all happened within

8:37

the very first two years of my career. And

8:39

I said, I'm committed, I'm in it for 20

8:41

years, for sure. I'm going to make it a career.

8:44

So, go ahead, please ask me another question.

8:46

I was going to say, do you mind like sharing

8:48

what your experiences were that kind

8:50

of solidified that?

8:52

No, no, I don't mind at all. So, one

8:56

of the things you're looking for is , well, what drives

8:59

me, what's important to me? What do I do?

9:01

You know, my passion is leadership in

9:03

serving others. I mean, I was in

9:05

a leadership role and I honestly believe that,

9:08

you know, instead of having that pyramid where you're

9:10

the person at the top, no, you gotta flip that

9:12

pyramid upside down. You're the person at the bottom,

9:14

because if you support the people that are

9:17

on your team, then

9:19

they're going to do the work. They're going to get things done, and they're

9:21

going to, they're going to look good. They're going to make you look

9:23

good. And if you get joy

9:25

out of that, then leadership is the right

9:27

thing for you. And if you don't

9:30

get joy out of that, then that doesn't that's okay,

9:32

because not everybody's cut out to do that. Maybe you just

9:35

are going to be, and we had technical experts,

9:37

we had career experts

9:40

or management experts if you will. So,

9:43

here's what happened, you know, I grew up, and things

9:49

came naturally to me in high school. And then when

9:51

I got to college, I was a big

9:53

fish in a small pond, and I get to college

9:55

and boy did I get knocked back on my heels.

9:57

And now I have to study, and life

10:00

is harder, but our ROTC

10:02

was the right place for me. And that was my niche

10:05

because the reason I got the

10:07

scholarship, just because I wasn't great

10:09

at academics, I wasn't great at athletics, and

10:12

I wasn't great at the student

10:15

council , if you will, in high school. But I was good at all

10:17

those things. And because I was good at all those

10:19

things, that was the combination of the

10:22

Army or the military is looking

10:24

for when they're finding. And that's exactly what I

10:26

entered the army in ROTC, and I exited

10:28

running ROTC . So, it was kind of nice

10:30

to start with finishing the same spot, but in a different

10:32

chair.

10:34

What were those experiences that you had, that kind of solidified

10:35

that you were in the right place?

10:37

Right, right. Okay . Yeah

10:39

, yeah . This is important, and this

10:41

is what I talk about when I speak to, because

10:44

essentially, I have a

10:46

story about humility that I have

10:49

another story about humility that I can share.

10:51

And then another story about humility that I

10:53

can share. So yeah , I don't,

10:55

I don't, I don't have, we don't have time to do all

10:57

of them, but let me try to give you the couple,

11:02

the ones that really matter. So, I

11:06

was doing, doing very well. You know,

11:08

they rate their peers , your peers, you know, I'm in

11:10

my basic course at the infantry officer, basic

11:12

school at Fort Benning, Georgia,

11:14

which we like to call Fort beginning, cause that's

11:17

where we started. So, I'm

11:19

there, and the very first time

11:21

we do a peer review, I'm rated in the top third

11:24

of my platoon. And then one day

11:26

we have this opportunity to excel,

11:29

if you will. And so, I'll tell you this story. So,

11:31

it's a June 1983, Fort Benning,

11:33

Georgia, 90 degrees, 50%

11:35

humidity, and it's four o'clock

11:37

in the afternoon. And so, I positioned

11:39

two pounds of water on my hips, these canteens.

11:42

And then I hoist this 40-pound brick chuck sack, and

11:44

the platoon leader comes to me and says, Tom, will

11:47

you carry the machine gun? So, now I'm

11:49

one of the biggest, most fit persons

11:51

in my platoon. And I'm thinking I got this,

11:53

no problem. So, I pick

11:55

up another 23 pounds

11:58

off we go. I find myself reaching

12:00

for water again and again,

12:03

I drain both canteens. I'm

12:05

drenched with sweat at a rest,

12:07

stop refill, find

12:10

some shade, two-liter pushes . How

12:12

you doing Tom? Fine time

12:14

to go, as we begin

12:17

another six miles.

12:20

Yeah, the extra

12:22

65-pounds and the

12:24

brutal Georgia sun are kicking

12:27

its toll. After a mile,

12:30

my opportunity to drops back to check on me, want

12:33

someone else to carry the gun? Now

12:36

I don't want someone smaller than me to

12:38

suffer this. No, I'm fine.

12:41

A mile later, he drops back again

12:44

or behind schedule. You want to trade? I

12:47

got it. I don't want

12:49

my peers to think I'm weak. We

12:52

don't go another mile. And he drops

12:54

back a third time and he makes

12:56

me trade weapons with

12:58

one of the smallest guys in our books

13:01

. Yeah.

13:04

I'm frustrated, but secretly

13:07

I'm relieved. I

13:09

gladly trade 23 pounds

13:12

for eight. I have a new bounce

13:15

in my step, but the first nine

13:17

miles wore me out.

13:20

I'm not a gas. I continue

13:23

to slow everyone down. We

13:26

arrive late. We fail the

13:28

exercise. It's

13:30

my fault. So,

13:33

the question I asked when I'm speaking, as I say,

13:35

have you ever done something with the best

13:38

of intentions only to

13:40

let others down? Any

13:43

thoughts ?

13:44

Yeah, oh man. I have plenty of thoughts . Yes,

13:47

I have.

13:49

You don't have to share, but if you want, go ahead.

13:52

No, there's I can't think of a

13:54

specific experience, but I can definitely

13:56

relate, not to the Georgia

13:58

heat, and carrying a heavy load.

14:00

But there've been plenty of

14:02

times that I felt like I could

14:04

carry the load all by myself. And

14:07

I was saying this the other day, that one is too small

14:09

of a number to really do much of

14:11

anything. And so, sometimes

14:14

you do have to eat some humble pie.

14:17

So, then I continue, and I

14:19

go on and I say, look , I say,

14:22

I thought I could handle it. What was I missing? And

14:24

I said, my only excuse, and I looked directly

14:27

at a woman, you're gonna think this is sexist, but there's a

14:29

reason for it. Is

14:31

it can you guess? And I look at

14:33

that woman, I say, yeah, you're right, testosterone. So

14:38

yeah. So, it's there mentally, it's for funny. It's

14:40

, you know, it's not your intent, but you, when you take

14:43

on too much, you communicate a lack

14:45

of confidence in other people. And

14:48

when you take on too much, you communicate

14:50

a lack of trust. Neither

14:53

of those are good traits for somebody to do as a

14:55

leader. And so, I'm learning these

14:58

things. And so, at the end of that exercise, I dropped

15:00

from the top third of that platoon to the middle

15:02

third . Now I go on,

15:05

we have another exercise. I won't tell you that story

15:07

because we don't have enough time for that because I only

15:09

have so many stories I can share. But I

15:11

have a similar experience, all bad. I've

15:13

written about both of these in there in my

15:15

LinkedIn, you can find them in my profile.

15:18

And , now at the end

15:20

of this, at the end, of the course, I dropped from the middle

15:22

third to the bottom third. Now

15:24

I tuck my tail between my legs

15:27

because here I am starting great, I'm starting

15:29

my career, and I'm not starting off on the right foot.

15:31

And so, I go off, I go to flight school. Well,

15:34

I go to flight school and you know,

15:36

and one of the things my roommate gives

15:39

me the impression I'm reading this book called "How

15:41

to Win Friends and Influence People." He

15:45

walks in and he says, why are you reading that

15:47

book? You don't need to read that, you're going

15:50

to be the boss. And then I'm thinking

15:52

, oh my, am

15:54

I in the wrong place? Did

15:56

I choose the wrong organization?

15:59

Let me fast forward to my first assignment, go

16:01

through flight school. I get to the first assignment, and now, I

16:07

didn't do well as well as I would've liked

16:09

the flight school because instead of getting the Blackhawk transition,

16:11

I fly the older Vietnam era, Huey

16:13

helicopter. So, they sent me off to my first assignment

16:16

and I'm at K 16 air base, itt's now

16:18

October, it's 1984.

16:20

And now it seems like forever, and I

16:23

finally get on the flight schedule. It's Dawn

16:25

and a crisp fall morning, I'm excited to fly.

16:29

I finished my pre-flight and upon my returned, Mr.

16:32

Welda, my instructor pilot intercepts

16:34

me, he said, sir, I

16:36

smell alcohol on our S ergeant X.

16:38

Now, I guess what I need to tell you is I'm

16:40

the platoon leader. I'm in charge of the 23 people of the

16:43

p latoon, and I'm two

16:46

years in the Army, no real experience.

16:48

And I have an instructor pilot and a platoon

16:50

Sergeant, both of them had 10 o r more years

16:52

of experience, me less than

16:54

two years. Now, why should they follow me?

16:58

I mean, think about that, doesn't every young manager

17:00

have that challenge? Where now all of

17:02

a sudden they're responsible, they're in charge,

17:05

and t hey're people that are older than them with more

17:07

experience. Now, the question i s, is

17:09

how are they g oing t o respond to you? So, let

17:11

me share this story that shaped

17:14

how I would continue

17:16

my career. So, now

17:19

the problem with having alcohol o n your breath is

17:21

it violates our 12 hour bottle t

17:23

o throttle rule, which means

17:26

there's no alcohol or any residual effects of the

17:28

alcohol for at least 12 hours

17:31

prior to flying the aircraft for working with the aircraft.

17:33

And you can imagine it's a safety issue. So,

17:35

I have a problem, Sergeant X works for me,

17:38

but I don't know what to do. And

17:40

Mr. Welda, knows it. Sir, you

17:43

need to take Sergeant X in for a drug and

17:45

alcohol test. I'm

17:47

thinking, oh, he lives off base, what about

17:50

his wife? What about his family? What

17:52

about his career? Sir, you really

17:54

need to take h im in. So, I'm 23, it's

17:57

a Saturday morning, and all I

17:59

wanted to do was fly.

18:02

I approached Sergent X, h

18:04

e sure smells like alcohol. I

18:07

find myself taking him to the nearest

18:10

medical facility, the Army

18:12

hospital in S ol, 12 miles

18:15

away. So, I have to get

18:17

a Jeep, no sooner that w e're on the Sol Pusan

18:19

highway, our m ash e ra, no

18:21

kidding, Army Jeep breaks down,

18:25

two enlisted soldiers, and me

18:27

on the side of the road. Do you

18:29

feel my pain? Y eah. So,

18:32

we finally get help, we drive forward,

18:35

he takes h is test, we return.

18:38

And I spend the rest of the weekend wondering,

18:40

did I do the right thing? Monday

18:43

morning, I'll never forget being

18:46

in my b oss, Major Bigelow's office.

18:49

Report sir, he a

18:52

sk, well, what happened? And then, my

18:55

knees are shaking, and I'll never forget his response.

18:58

He says, Tom, I'm just

19:00

tickled pink, you did the right thing. Huh?

19:05

I'm surprised you had the gumption to take a minute. And

19:07

I'm thinking, wow, maybe I did do

19:09

the right thing. Now, despite the fact that

19:11

he reports to me, I'm more concerned

19:13

about w hat my Sergeant, Sergeant Watson thinks,

19:15

and you know,

19:18

cause he's the one teaching me, training me, teaching me the

19:20

ropes. And we go behind closed doors, and

19:22

he s aid, s ir, I didn't like what you did on Saturday,

19:25

but you did the right thing, and I'm

19:27

going to support you. What

19:29

a relief, now

19:32

three different career professionals, a c

19:34

ommission officer Major Bigelow, a warrant

19:36

officer, Mr. Welda, and a noncommissioned

19:38

officer, Sergeant Watson, all communicated

19:42

these things to me, they

19:44

said, if I was going to be a leader in

19:46

their Army, I had to live

19:48

their values. Remember, I talked

19:51

about values? Well, in our

19:53

business, the values has of course, so

19:55

you can imagine the Army, we have an acronym, and it's, LDRSHP:

19:58

loyalty, duty, respect, selfless

20:00

service, honor, integrity and personal courage.

20:03

And so, I'm telling you all that. So, let's get back to,

20:05

y ou k now, w hat you want your listeners. And, you know, I said the long

20:07

view, the long view is you g

20:10

otta be in the right place. And I didn't

20:12

know that immediately, it took a couple years

20:14

and it was those experiences. First,

20:16

getting knocked down a peg, and then a peg,

20:19

and then a peg, because they were all

20:21

humbling experiences. And it's,

20:24

you know, if you're going to be in the leadership world,

20:26

or any world, it's about character,

20:28

and it's about who you are, and people knowing what they

20:32

can expect of you. So, that was

20:34

a very long answer to your short question. And I don't

20:36

want to run you out of time. So, go ahead

20:38

and ask me the next question.

20:40

No, that was a great, those

20:42

are great stories, and you're

20:44

doing fantastic. So, the

20:47

question that I have is, did

20:49

you always know what your values were or

20:51

was that something that you feel like you cultivated

20:54

in those various situations?

20:56

No, I think

20:59

we all go through that. So , you

21:03

know what , I'm okay with sharing this because I'm

21:05

proud of this. In a matter of fact, what I

21:07

do today is I work with

21:09

Christian business owners, and I grew up

21:11

Catholic, and I had

21:15

my doubts about that. I went to Catholic grade

21:17

school, high school and college, which I didn't

21:19

know until after I actually got on campus, cause it's

21:22

got a University of Dayton. Doesn't sound like

21:25

a Catholic school, but it is at any rate.

21:27

So, I find myself going through those

21:29

questions, and I stopped going to mass

21:31

in my junior year. But the very first day I'm in

21:33

the army I am just drawn

21:36

back to the Sunday mass.

21:38

And I gotta tell you, it

21:41

was my faith that was

21:43

able to get me through those toughest

21:45

times. Have you ever heard that poem? Footprints?

21:49

Oh my gosh, you got to look it up, all

21:51

the listeners, and it's the bottom line is this, it's

21:53

like either there's footprints in the sand, and at the

21:56

weakest points of your life, you said, Lord, why

21:58

weren't you there in the toughest times of my life? And he

22:00

said, son, that's when I was carrying

22:03

you. Yeah.

22:06

It's , it's a fantastic poem. And it's

22:08

things like that, it's like your faith, it's gonna

22:13

carry you through in your most difficult

22:15

times. And especially if

22:17

you're in a leadership role, and you

22:19

feel alone, you're not alone. There

22:21

are people out there, there are people like those three

22:24

people, the Sergeant,

22:26

the noncommissioned Officer, they may

22:30

not want to be in the leadership role, but

22:33

they're really rooting for you to do the right thing, believe it

22:36

or not. Because they don't want to join, you

22:38

don't want to join an organization and have a terrible

22:40

boss, do you? You really want

22:42

to have a good boss, but you're going to test them. You're

22:44

going to test them to see whether or not they're

22:46

cut out to being a boss. And they do,

22:48

we do that in the Army, they do it everywhere,

22:51

you're going to get tested, but so

22:53

now it becomes an issue of character. Do you have

22:55

the character? So, yeah,

22:59

I know your conversation is more about promotions.

23:03

So, let me just share this one thing that I would say to you. You

23:06

know, one of the other things that I, we

23:08

don't have time, I don't think for another story, but I

23:10

tell another story about what

23:12

do managers

23:15

most w ant most from their

23:17

leaders? And I would tell you that

23:19

they want you to be

23:21

responsible, to demonstrate responsibility

23:24

so that they can count on you. Now,

23:26

what are your employees wants most, he

23:29

wants you to give them responsibility.

23:32

They want to be, they want to know that

23:34

you trust them, and they can

23:37

take care of things. And it's all

23:39

about, you know, everybody wants

23:41

to. There are a couple of things I say individually,

23:43

we all want to be treated with dignity

23:46

and respect, right? And we

23:48

all want the opportunity to

23:50

learn and grow. Now, collectively, and

23:52

your team, everybody wants their contributions

23:54

to matter, you want

23:56

to feel significant, and we all want to feel

23:59

like we're part of something greater than ourselves.

24:02

So, everything I'm sharing with you is like, okay,

24:03

find what your values are, find

24:06

the right team, and make

24:08

it the right team. Now, one of the things you also

24:10

asked me, and if I'm going

24:12

on, please cut me off. But the thing

24:15

that I would tell you is like, okay , so I'm trying to learn, how

24:17

do I shape my career? How do I have the

24:19

10-year plan? How do I do the right thing for

24:21

this organization that I've joined. And

24:23

the question that I would ask you is,

24:26

you know, before you go and ask, like, you know,

24:28

I feel like I deserve a raise or whatever

24:30

the case is. The question I would ask you is this

24:33

, well

24:35

, what did you do? Why do you feel you deserve a raise?

24:38

So, one of the great things that we learned in the

24:40

Army as part of this whole leadership development,

24:41

and you know, just

24:43

imagine, if you're the leader

24:46

and you're trying to grow a plant from a seed,

24:49

you got to nurture it, you've got to give it the soil and all

24:51

the things, and you get the whole metaphor. But

24:54

if you have a boss that say is not doing

24:56

that, and so you're concerned

24:58

about, well, I want my annual

25:01

evaluation, or however your performance reports

25:03

are done in whatever organization you are

25:05

in. The way we did it was annually, and

25:07

so they taught us to

25:10

now, if we're going to do it this way, so the

25:12

annual report is written in pen, if

25:14

you will. And then we're going to do these quarterly

25:16

appraisals. You're required to do

25:19

it for the junior officers, the people who've been

25:21

in less than 10 years, because they

25:23

need to cut their teeth, learn to do this the

25:25

right way. And then we have something

25:27

called Footlocker counseling, which may

25:29

be foreign to you. But you got to imagine back to

25:31

the old World War II Army barracks, where you

25:33

have these Footlockers at the end of the bunks

25:35

, and you have two people sitting there talking and chatting,

25:38

and it's a very informal conversation.

25:40

So, if I were to share with you how that

25:42

goes, is essentially is, okay,

25:45

when you're leading somebody you're trying to grow

25:48

and nurture that person, that seed.

25:50

You don't just have the conversation

25:53

annually with that person, you have the conversation

25:56

on an ongoing basis, and you sit down

25:58

and you have these informal, how's it going Amanda? Is

26:00

everything okay? What can I help you with, that

26:02

sort of thing? And then , you know,

26:04

after a few months, and you do this four

26:06

times a year, you say, okay, Amanda, you

26:08

know, at the very beginning of this exercise,

26:10

we sat down and we said , here are your

26:13

roles and responsibilities, and you

26:15

said, these were your objectives. This is

26:18

what you thought, and you and I had a conversation, one-on-one where let's

26:23

say, assume I'm your boss, I agree with you, or I

26:26

didn't agree with you, and I suggested , what about this too?

26:28

And we came to mutual

26:30

agreement, and those were

26:33

your goals, and then we're going to assess

26:35

in 12 months whether or not you achieve those

26:37

goals. But along the way,

26:39

my goal is to help you be successful, and if

26:41

I don't help you become successful, I'm

26:44

not being a servant leader, like philosophy

26:46

that I like to talk about, and I

26:50

failed you. And if I failed you,

26:52

then I'm not going to be successful. And you

26:54

know, a lot of when I talked to you about that inverted

26:56

pyramid, you know, if you view

26:58

leadership as I'm going to

27:01

help the people on my team to do their

27:03

job, you know , first of course,

27:05

you got to go through the process of learning a lot of those things,

27:07

and earning their trust

27:09

and confidence along the way. Then,

27:12

okay, well now I'm going

27:14

to help you learn and grow. Well, let's

27:16

just say you don't have a boss who does that.

27:19

Then you need to take this process that I just

27:21

described, and you need to go to the bosses, hey, you

27:23

know, I'd like to sit , can we have coffee

27:25

just you and me? I want to have an hour of your time, and I

27:28

want to say, hey, you know, this is what I think I'm supposed

27:30

to do, and these are my objectives, what do you think?

27:32

And you've got to work that out with them. And

27:34

then you say, you know, do you mind if we do this

27:36

every quarter, between now,

27:39

every 90 days? And

27:41

then if that person's still , you can't get

27:43

them out of their shell, then you've got to

27:45

have those informal conversations and you gotta be

27:47

the one to initiate, but you know what, that's

27:50

a person who takes responsibility. If

27:53

you don't have that boss and you do

27:55

those things, you know, they

27:58

may not admit it if they're say

28:01

narcissistic or passive-aggressive or whatever, but

28:04

they're going to appreciate that you're on their team.

28:07

Absolutely, and it will set you apart

28:09

too, I feel like. That you're

28:11

like you had said, taking responsibility

28:13

for your position and how

28:16

you're contributing, and that you're hoping

28:18

to contribute more. So, I

28:20

think that's a really good point that some

28:22

people don't have bosses that are servant

28:24

leaders, it seems

28:27

like.

28:29

We can describe it as a moral leader or ethical

28:31

leader but to me, it's kind of all the same

28:33

genre. It's like people who are looking after

28:35

people, and because it's a people business,

28:38

and everything's about relationships

28:41

in a people business.

28:44

That's true. I think that's something that sometimes

28:46

we miss too, is that a lot of this is

28:48

about relationships, and not always about

28:50

numbers. That if we

28:52

improve the relationships, that the numbers would

28:55

improve as well.

28:56

Well, you know , I want to know something, you just hit on something

28:58

that because I'm so passionate, that's how

29:00

I met your husband. And that's how I think you and I

29:02

met because of your husband. I'm so

29:05

committed to this as the right way to treat people.

29:07

And it not only is it the right way to treat people,

29:09

guess what the best companies

29:12

in the world have been had

29:15

to have the greatest profits are because they have people

29:17

who are servant leader mentality.

29:20

And that's how I found Travis. And, you

29:22

know, he shared a fantastic story and I'm going

29:24

to write about him someday, but I'm not there

29:26

yet. I just started my series last

29:28

Tuesday. And I published an article last Tuesday,

29:30

and I published another article this yesterday

29:33

on LinkedIn. And I plan to do this weekly until

29:35

I exhaust these. And then I'm probably

29:38

going to go out and reach out to other people who

29:40

think like this because it's a

29:44

philosophy. I don't like to call it a style it's a

29:46

philosophy that's long overdue and the more

29:48

we have people who are believing like that,

29:51

it's going to be a better team.

29:53

It's going to be a better community,

29:55

and it's going to be a better world. And

29:57

that's important to me.

29:59

Absolutely. I love that. So, how can people

30:02

connect with you? Is LinkedIn really the best

30:04

place to do that?

30:05

Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn quite often. I am

30:08

not the greatest with my cell phone,

30:10

but let's just say

30:12

that's the only place you're going to find me on my cell phone cause

30:15

I can't seem to figure out, or I don't know that

30:17

Facebook is the right place for me just because

30:21

my orientation is very professional, it's

30:23

about leadership. So, my leadership

30:26

profile , it's not Tom Crea, it's

30:30

at Thomas Crea, and then

30:32

you would find me. And of course, if you're interested in,

30:34

you'd like to hear more, absolutely reach out to

30:36

me. I'm open to anybody

30:38

except mostly solicitors, and at least still

30:41

connect with them. But then when I find out their solicitors, I'm

30:43

not as interested. But , yeah, and

30:46

the other thing I would tell you is I'm on Twitter,

30:48

I'm on Facebook and I'm on YouTube.

30:50

And there , my handle is @BlackHawkthehelicopterspeaks.

30:56

But Thomas Crea on

30:58

LinkedIn is the best

31:01

way to find me and reach out to me, connect

31:03

with me.

31:03

Nice. So, I'll put all of those things in the show

31:05

notes, and I'll also put a link for your book.

31:08

Where can people get your book?

31:10

It's on Amazon? Yeah, you've got

31:15

the name and you'll put the link, so that's great .

31:17

Absolutely. So, we'll do all that. So, I really

31:19

appreciate you being on the show Tom, it has

31:21

been an exceptional conversation.

31:24

I feel like a lot of gold nuggets,

31:26

to be honest with all of your humility

31:28

and experience.

31:30

Well, let me share you with one last thing. Here's

31:33

why I honestly

31:35

believe I am a product of the

31:37

best leadership development

31:39

culture in the world. And

31:42

if you think about it, if you think about

31:44

if you're whether or not you're Christian or not, if

31:46

you happen to know the parable of the talents, you can

31:48

find and read about it, but that parable

31:50

talks about the amount of talents you've

31:52

been given and what you're going to be expected

31:54

at the end of the rainbow. And so, since I

31:57

was given these talents and I was blessed

31:59

to have learned leadership in the Army, I

32:01

feel obligated to share as much of this as

32:03

possible with the world.

32:05

That's awesome. And I think that

32:08

I don't know, I'm really inspired by

32:10

that. I knew that the Army had

32:12

great leadership development, but

32:14

I didn't understand how robust

32:16

it was. So, this has been really enlightening

32:19

as well. So, thank you so much for

32:21

being on the show.

32:22

It's my pleasure. Yeah .

32:25

All right . Well , we will talk to you guys

32:27

again soon. Bye

32:33

Thanks for listening to the Raise up Podcast. If

32:36

you want a raise, head to www.

32:40

RaiseUpPodcast .com and download our step by step roadmap

32:42

where we've taken all the expert advice

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we've collected, and put it into a simple PDF

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32:49

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32:51

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33:02

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