thanks very much
so Colonel ducek said that she was
entering the 21st century by reading her
remarks from the iPad I’m stepping back
into the 18th century I have my remarks
written on the back of an envelope
for the awardees today this is for you
and so what I thought I would do is
share a couple of stories about what it
means to lead some pointers as you begin
the next journey of your life the next
part of the journey of your life this is
by no means a complete list but a few
ideas one of the things that you will
have to do as you grow up is to
understand how and when to seize an
opportunity I went for a run with a
friend of mine around Central Park and
every week or so there’s an organization
that organizes races in Central Park so
we were doing one of these formal races
and very often they have a sponsor and
they’ll give something away for free at
the end apples or something on this
particular day they were giving away
free bagels and we past the finish line
and there was a you know a few cafeteria
tables laid up next to each other and on
one side of the cafeteria tables were
volunteers handing out bagels there were
boxes of bagels on the tables and then a
long line of runners waiting to be given
their free bagel so I said to my friend
let’s get a few bagel and he says nah
man I don’t want to stand in a line and
I said free bagels
he’s like nah I don’t want to stand in
the line I was like free bagels and
that’s when I realized there was two
kinds of people in this world there are
people who see the thing they want and
there are people who see the thing
that’s preventing them from getting the
thing they want and so I went up to the
line I leaned in between the line I put
my hands in between a couple of people I
grabbed a couple of bagels and I got us
free bagels and this is the point which
is you’re allowed to take shortcuts and
you’re allowed to go out of the thing
you want what you’re not allowed to do
is push someone out of someone out of
the way and deny them getting the thing
that they want no one got mad at me
because I didn’t cut the line I didn’t
push myself into the line
I simply leaned it what I sacrifice was
choice I didn’t get to choose what I
wanted and this is the point stay
fixated on the thing you want go after
the thing you want use any means
necessary to get the thing you want but
do not deny anybody else from getting
the thing that they want lesson to tell
the truth it’s the most important thing
you can ever do I visited Quantico
Marine base in Quantico Virginia and the
day I was there total coincidence there
had been an incident and so we sat down
for a meeting with the colonel the boss
of Quantico he was going to give us a
briefing on what goes on at Quantico and
he showed up a few minutes late you know
it’s a big deal with marine stroke a few
mins late and he apologized he said I’m
terribly sorry Oh from dealing with this
incident we’re considering throwing one
of our Marines out of OCS in other words
throwing them out of the Marine Corps
and I thought this must be serious I
mean to get thrown out of the Marine
Corps so I said what did he do thinking
he broke you know what crime did he
commit and the colonel said he fell
asleep on watch and I said that’s it he
fell asleep on watch in the woods of
Virginia and you’re going to throw him
out for that you guys are tough he says
no you don’t understand when we asked
him about it he denied it when we asked
him about it again he denied again
and only when we gave him irrefutable
proof did he say quote I want to take
responsibility for my actions the
problem we have is you take
responsibility for your actions at the
time you perform your actions not at the
time you get caught he said we had
another marine that fell asleep he
admitted it he got punished we have no
problem with him
the colonel went on to explain to me
that he cannot put this would-be leader
in a position of responsibility for the
lives of other human beings if their
downrange and for one minute if his men
doubt that the words coming out of their
leaders mouth or anything but the truth
if they think that he’s saying anything
to cover his own hide or to make himself
look better Trust will disintegrate when
people will die the amazing thing is we
don’t have to be in positions of life or
death for people to earn our trust for
people to want to follow us and believe
that we have their interests in mind and
not our own the single greatest thing
you can learn to do to earn the trust of
those around you is to tell the truth
good or bad whether it puts you in a
good light or a bad light telling the
truth is really easy or being honest is
really easy it’s just about telling the
truth and so I have a little challenge
for you for the next 48 hours just to
prove how difficult it is so what’s the
time now it’s about quarter past twelve
was it Friday today right so till
quarter past twelve on Sunday you may
not tell a single lie it’s really hard
because we’re conditioned to tell lies
it’s not always a bad thing somebody
gives you a birthday present and you
think it’s the ugliest thing you’ve ever
seen and they say to you do you like it
do you say no or do you say thank you I
love it which is a lie
so you have to find other wait nice ways
of saying things if somebody says do I
look fat in these jeans you don’t say
yes you say I like the other ones on you
better the point is for the next 48
hours try not telling a lie
number three ask for and accept help the
biggest mistake people make is thinking
that they have to know all the answers
or thinking if they don’t that they have
to pretend they do one of the biggest
failures of most leaders is the belief
that their leadership credibility comes
from their intelligence it doesn’t
there was a retired captain from the
Navy captain David mark hay who was a
career naval officer Submariner who’s
given the one of the greatest honors any
naval officer could ask for his given
command of his own submarine los
angeles-class nuclear-powered fast
attack sub how cool is that he was been
going to be given command of the USS
Olympia and it was one of the best rated
crews in the whole fleet and mark hey
like many believe that his credibility
as a leader would be based on his own
intelligence and so he studied that boat
for a year he spent a year on board
learning every screw every nut every
bolt every valve he studied the dossiers
of his crew he knew everything about who
they were where they come from
with their education where he was going
to be a good captain two weeks before he
took him out of the Olympia he got a
phone call that told him you won’t be
the captain with the Olympia you will be
the captain at the Santa Fe and by the
way it’s the worst rated crew in the
entire United States submarine fleet
they ranked last or close to last in
almost every readiness measurement the
Navy had mark K didn’t want to let
anybody know that he was a little bit
unfamiliar with the slightly newer ship
so he kept it to himself and he also
he’s still an ambitious guy with a big
ego and he figured if I give good orders
I’ll have a good ship and if I give
great orders I will have
and so in the first day started barking
orders to set sail and everything was
going smoothly everybody was following
orders it was great second or third day
out submerged they decided to run an
exercise they turned off the nuclear
reactor manually and pretended they had
a meltdown and they ran on battery power
it’s called EPM and mark’ decided to
make a little harder see how his crew
would respond them to pressure so he
gave a simple order ahead two-thirds
which means run the boat 2/3 its maximum
speed his number two in command standing
right next to him who incidentally had
more experience on the boat than anybody
else two and a half years aboard the
Santa Fe repeated at the command I had
two thirds and nothing happened mark a
piers Abbott from the side of his
periscope and he sees seaman Jones a
couple stripes on his arm just sitting
there squirming in a seat mark he could
see it our cases seaman Jones what’s the
problem and seaman Jones replies sir
there is no two-thirds setting
apparently on this slightly newer boat
there was just no 2/3 setting on the
battery power so he turns to his number
two he said did you know this
he said mmm-hmm he said then why did you
give the order he said because you told
me to and it’s at that point mark hay
realizes that he’s aboard a ship that he
doesn’t understand and he has a crew
trained for compliance it’s not like he
can just turn around and come back and
change his crew or get another boat this
is his crew and so he was forced to
Rhianna stand what leadership means
leadership is not the captain knowing
all the answers leadership is trusting
that his people knew more than he did
because the person who did know was
seaman Jones with two stripes on his arm
who knew exactly how the ship worked the
people at the top have all the authority
but the people at the bottom have all
the information the goal is not push the
information up the goal is to put push
the authority down trust people that
they know how to do their jobs and when
they offer you help say yes
admit you don’t know things because when
you admit you don’t know things people
will help when you say you know
everything it’s not that people don’t
want to help they just don’t think you
need it ask for and accept help take the
risk to trust people that’s the next
next lesson Bob Chapman who’s a dear
friend of mine runs a large
manufacturing company in st. Louis
called barry-wehmiller historically in
factories in this country we treat
management differently than we treat the
people who work in a factory floor for
example if you work in management and
you need supplies you go to the supply
cabinet you open it up you take out pens
and papers or whatever you need if you
work on the factory floor you ask
permission for to go to the supply cage
that’s kept under lock and key so that
someone else can sign out stuff that you
may need if you work in management if
you’re going to be home late for work
from work you pick up the phone you call
your kids you tell them you going to be
on light if you work in a factory floor
you ask permission to go to the pay
phone to call your kids to tell them
you’re going to be home late and it
creates this division we think that
because someone doesn’t have a college
education that they’re untrustworthy
nonsense and so Bob took the risk of
trust without any fanfare without
running any studies without asking for
anything in return he simply ordered
that all the locks be removed from all
the cages and that people could sign out
their own equipment if they wanted it he
took the risk of trust he got rid of all
the pay phones and put in company phones
that anybody could use at any time he
got rid of all of the whistles that
indicate when somebody should start work
when they should take a break and when
they should stop work he figured if in
management they know when to start their
jobs on a factory floor people know when
to start their jobs we don’t need to
blow whistles he took the risk of trust
asking for nothing in return
morale went up theft went down
because when we trust people they rise
to the occasion and when we don’t trust
people they rise to the occasion
leadership means taking the risk of
trust even if it goes the wrong way
because you’ll be responsible for when
something doesn’t go right this is one
of the fun things about leadership when
everything goes right you give the
credit away and when everything goes
wrong you take all the responsibility
that’s what it means to lead this is my
favorite story of all remember who you
are
there was an Undersecretary of Defense
who’s giving a speech at a large
conference like a thousand people and he
he was he’d recently retired she was a
former Undersecretary of Defense and he
was standing on the stage giving his
speech his prepared remarks and he while
he was talking he was taking a sip out
of a cup of coffee he had in this
Styrofoam cup and he sort of looks down
and smiles and interrupts his prepared
remarks and he says you know last year I
was the secretary as the undersecretary
and I spoke at this exact same event in
this exact same venue last year except
last year while I was still under
secretary they flew me here business
class they had a car waiting for me to
take me from the airport to the hotel
someone had already checked me in and
escorted me up to my room the next
morning I came downstairs there was
someone waiting for me in the lobby and
they took me to this same venue they
took me in the back entrance they took
me into the greenroom and they handed me
a cup of coffee in a beautiful ceramic
cup he says I’m no longer the
undersecretary I flew here coach I took
a taxi from the hotel to the airport I
checked myself in this morning I took
another taxi to the same venue I walked
in the front door I found my way to the
backstage and when I asked somebody do
you have any coffee he pointed to the
coffee machine in the corner and I
poured myself a cup of coffee into this
here Styrofoam cup he says the lesson is
the ceramic cup was never meant for me
it was meant for the position I hold I
deserve a Styrofoam cup
we all deserve styrofoam cups as you
become more successful as you do well in
life you will be afforded many
advantages people will call you sir and
ma’am they’ll carry your luggage they’ll
hold doors open for you they will bring
you a cup of tea without you even asking
for it but it’s not meant for you it’s
meant for the position you hold and when
you move on they will give all those
things to the person who replaces you
never ever forget that you only ever
deserved a Styrofoam cup go forth and do
well thank you very very much
you
so Colonel ducek said that she was
entering the 21st century by reading her
remarks from the iPad I’m stepping back
into the 18th century I have my remarks
written on the back of an envelope
for the awardees today this is for you
and so what I thought I would do is
share a couple of stories about what it
means to lead some pointers as you begin
the next journey of your life the next
part of the journey of your life this is
by no means a complete list but a few
ideas one of the things that you will
have to do as you grow up is to
understand how and when to seize an
opportunity I went for a run with a
friend of mine around Central Park and
every week or so there’s an organization
that organizes races in Central Park so
we were doing one of these formal races
and very often they have a sponsor and
they’ll give something away for free at
the end apples or something on this
particular day they were giving away
free bagels and we past the finish line
and there was a you know a few cafeteria
tables laid up next to each other and on
one side of the cafeteria tables were
volunteers handing out bagels there were
boxes of bagels on the tables and then a
long line of runners waiting to be given
their free bagel so I said to my friend
let’s get a few bagel and he says nah
man I don’t want to stand in a line and
I said free bagels
he’s like nah I don’t want to stand in
the line I was like free bagels and
that’s when I realized there was two
kinds of people in this world there are
people who see the thing they want and
there are people who see the thing
that’s preventing them from getting the
thing they want and so I went up to the
line I leaned in between the line I put
my hands in between a couple of people I
grabbed a couple of bagels and I got us
free bagels and this is the point which
is you’re allowed to take shortcuts and
you’re allowed to go out of the thing
you want what you’re not allowed to do
is push someone out of someone out of
the way and deny them getting the thing
that they want no one got mad at me
because I didn’t cut the line I didn’t
push myself into the line
I simply leaned it what I sacrifice was
choice I didn’t get to choose what I
wanted and this is the point stay
fixated on the thing you want go after
the thing you want use any means
necessary to get the thing you want but
do not deny anybody else from getting
the thing that they want lesson to tell
the truth it’s the most important thing
you can ever do I visited Quantico
Marine base in Quantico Virginia and the
day I was there total coincidence there
had been an incident and so we sat down
for a meeting with the colonel the boss
of Quantico he was going to give us a
briefing on what goes on at Quantico and
he showed up a few minutes late you know
it’s a big deal with marine stroke a few
mins late and he apologized he said I’m
terribly sorry Oh from dealing with this
incident we’re considering throwing one
of our Marines out of OCS in other words
throwing them out of the Marine Corps
and I thought this must be serious I
mean to get thrown out of the Marine
Corps so I said what did he do thinking
he broke you know what crime did he
commit and the colonel said he fell
asleep on watch and I said that’s it he
fell asleep on watch in the woods of
Virginia and you’re going to throw him
out for that you guys are tough he says
no you don’t understand when we asked
him about it he denied it when we asked
him about it again he denied again
and only when we gave him irrefutable
proof did he say quote I want to take
responsibility for my actions the
problem we have is you take
responsibility for your actions at the
time you perform your actions not at the
time you get caught he said we had
another marine that fell asleep he
admitted it he got punished we have no
problem with him
the colonel went on to explain to me
that he cannot put this would-be leader
in a position of responsibility for the
lives of other human beings if their
downrange and for one minute if his men
doubt that the words coming out of their
leaders mouth or anything but the truth
if they think that he’s saying anything
to cover his own hide or to make himself
look better Trust will disintegrate when
people will die the amazing thing is we
don’t have to be in positions of life or
death for people to earn our trust for
people to want to follow us and believe
that we have their interests in mind and
not our own the single greatest thing
you can learn to do to earn the trust of
those around you is to tell the truth
good or bad whether it puts you in a
good light or a bad light telling the
truth is really easy or being honest is
really easy it’s just about telling the
truth and so I have a little challenge
for you for the next 48 hours just to
prove how difficult it is so what’s the
time now it’s about quarter past twelve
was it Friday today right so till
quarter past twelve on Sunday you may
not tell a single lie it’s really hard
because we’re conditioned to tell lies
it’s not always a bad thing somebody
gives you a birthday present and you
think it’s the ugliest thing you’ve ever
seen and they say to you do you like it
do you say no or do you say thank you I
love it which is a lie
so you have to find other wait nice ways
of saying things if somebody says do I
look fat in these jeans you don’t say
yes you say I like the other ones on you
better the point is for the next 48
hours try not telling a lie
number three ask for and accept help the
biggest mistake people make is thinking
that they have to know all the answers
or thinking if they don’t that they have
to pretend they do one of the biggest
failures of most leaders is the belief
that their leadership credibility comes
from their intelligence it doesn’t
there was a retired captain from the
Navy captain David mark hay who was a
career naval officer Submariner who’s
given the one of the greatest honors any
naval officer could ask for his given
command of his own submarine los
angeles-class nuclear-powered fast
attack sub how cool is that he was been
going to be given command of the USS
Olympia and it was one of the best rated
crews in the whole fleet and mark hey
like many believe that his credibility
as a leader would be based on his own
intelligence and so he studied that boat
for a year he spent a year on board
learning every screw every nut every
bolt every valve he studied the dossiers
of his crew he knew everything about who
they were where they come from
with their education where he was going
to be a good captain two weeks before he
took him out of the Olympia he got a
phone call that told him you won’t be
the captain with the Olympia you will be
the captain at the Santa Fe and by the
way it’s the worst rated crew in the
entire United States submarine fleet
they ranked last or close to last in
almost every readiness measurement the
Navy had mark K didn’t want to let
anybody know that he was a little bit
unfamiliar with the slightly newer ship
so he kept it to himself and he also
he’s still an ambitious guy with a big
ego and he figured if I give good orders
I’ll have a good ship and if I give
great orders I will have
and so in the first day started barking
orders to set sail and everything was
going smoothly everybody was following
orders it was great second or third day
out submerged they decided to run an
exercise they turned off the nuclear
reactor manually and pretended they had
a meltdown and they ran on battery power
it’s called EPM and mark’ decided to
make a little harder see how his crew
would respond them to pressure so he
gave a simple order ahead two-thirds
which means run the boat 2/3 its maximum
speed his number two in command standing
right next to him who incidentally had
more experience on the boat than anybody
else two and a half years aboard the
Santa Fe repeated at the command I had
two thirds and nothing happened mark a
piers Abbott from the side of his
periscope and he sees seaman Jones a
couple stripes on his arm just sitting
there squirming in a seat mark he could
see it our cases seaman Jones what’s the
problem and seaman Jones replies sir
there is no two-thirds setting
apparently on this slightly newer boat
there was just no 2/3 setting on the
battery power so he turns to his number
two he said did you know this
he said mmm-hmm he said then why did you
give the order he said because you told
me to and it’s at that point mark hay
realizes that he’s aboard a ship that he
doesn’t understand and he has a crew
trained for compliance it’s not like he
can just turn around and come back and
change his crew or get another boat this
is his crew and so he was forced to
Rhianna stand what leadership means
leadership is not the captain knowing
all the answers leadership is trusting
that his people knew more than he did
because the person who did know was
seaman Jones with two stripes on his arm
who knew exactly how the ship worked the
people at the top have all the authority
but the people at the bottom have all
the information the goal is not push the
information up the goal is to put push
the authority down trust people that
they know how to do their jobs and when
they offer you help say yes
admit you don’t know things because when
you admit you don’t know things people
will help when you say you know
everything it’s not that people don’t
want to help they just don’t think you
need it ask for and accept help take the
risk to trust people that’s the next
next lesson Bob Chapman who’s a dear
friend of mine runs a large
manufacturing company in st. Louis
called barry-wehmiller historically in
factories in this country we treat
management differently than we treat the
people who work in a factory floor for
example if you work in management and
you need supplies you go to the supply
cabinet you open it up you take out pens
and papers or whatever you need if you
work on the factory floor you ask
permission for to go to the supply cage
that’s kept under lock and key so that
someone else can sign out stuff that you
may need if you work in management if
you’re going to be home late for work
from work you pick up the phone you call
your kids you tell them you going to be
on light if you work in a factory floor
you ask permission to go to the pay
phone to call your kids to tell them
you’re going to be home late and it
creates this division we think that
because someone doesn’t have a college
education that they’re untrustworthy
nonsense and so Bob took the risk of
trust without any fanfare without
running any studies without asking for
anything in return he simply ordered
that all the locks be removed from all
the cages and that people could sign out
their own equipment if they wanted it he
took the risk of trust he got rid of all
the pay phones and put in company phones
that anybody could use at any time he
got rid of all of the whistles that
indicate when somebody should start work
when they should take a break and when
they should stop work he figured if in
management they know when to start their
jobs on a factory floor people know when
to start their jobs we don’t need to
blow whistles he took the risk of trust
asking for nothing in return
morale went up theft went down
because when we trust people they rise
to the occasion and when we don’t trust
people they rise to the occasion
leadership means taking the risk of
trust even if it goes the wrong way
because you’ll be responsible for when
something doesn’t go right this is one
of the fun things about leadership when
everything goes right you give the
credit away and when everything goes
wrong you take all the responsibility
that’s what it means to lead this is my
favorite story of all remember who you
are
there was an Undersecretary of Defense
who’s giving a speech at a large
conference like a thousand people and he
he was he’d recently retired she was a
former Undersecretary of Defense and he
was standing on the stage giving his
speech his prepared remarks and he while
he was talking he was taking a sip out
of a cup of coffee he had in this
Styrofoam cup and he sort of looks down
and smiles and interrupts his prepared
remarks and he says you know last year I
was the secretary as the undersecretary
and I spoke at this exact same event in
this exact same venue last year except
last year while I was still under
secretary they flew me here business
class they had a car waiting for me to
take me from the airport to the hotel
someone had already checked me in and
escorted me up to my room the next
morning I came downstairs there was
someone waiting for me in the lobby and
they took me to this same venue they
took me in the back entrance they took
me into the greenroom and they handed me
a cup of coffee in a beautiful ceramic
cup he says I’m no longer the
undersecretary I flew here coach I took
a taxi from the hotel to the airport I
checked myself in this morning I took
another taxi to the same venue I walked
in the front door I found my way to the
backstage and when I asked somebody do
you have any coffee he pointed to the
coffee machine in the corner and I
poured myself a cup of coffee into this
here Styrofoam cup he says the lesson is
the ceramic cup was never meant for me
it was meant for the position I hold I
deserve a Styrofoam cup
we all deserve styrofoam cups as you
become more successful as you do well in
life you will be afforded many
advantages people will call you sir and
ma’am they’ll carry your luggage they’ll
hold doors open for you they will bring
you a cup of tea without you even asking
for it but it’s not meant for you it’s
meant for the position you hold and when
you move on they will give all those
things to the person who replaces you
never ever forget that you only ever
deserved a Styrofoam cup go forth and do
well thank you very very much
you
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