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

Tom Connally [0:00]
I’m Tom Connally at ConnallyConsulting.com and you’re listening to EA Interviews.

Intro [0:05]
EA Interviews, Episode 260, inspiration, transformation success stories and the Imperfect Action Round seven days a week. Join Mario Fachini for today’s Expert Authority Effect Interview.

Mario Fachini [0:18]
Leadership. Do we still have it today? I don’t know. Some people say we do. Some people say we don’t. And it’s a very interesting thing. I say we do and everyone should be better at it because without leadership, everything crumbles no matter if you’re talking personally, head of household, professionally, head of business, you know, you’re probably thinking of someone right now that you’re like, yeah, they say they’re a leader but you don’t really get that impression. And there’s other people who probably aren’t running around saying, I’m a leader, I’m a leader, I’m a leader, but you just know that they are. And that’s why I’m excited to have Tom Connally on the show today. Author, speaker and leadership coach and he is going to be sharing the topic of leadership. And I’m going to bring them up right after we thank our sponsor.

Sponsor – Free Business Book Publishing Course [1:05]
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Mario Fachini [1:20]
Here he is, ladies and gentlemen Tom Connally. Tom, how are you feeling today?

Tom Connally [1:25]
Oh, great. Thanks for having me here, Mario. It’s, it’s great to be on the show. I hope I can live up to the standard of all your past guests and bring something to the conversation.

Mario Fachini [1:36]
Oh, you definitely can. And I’m excited to have you on because I know that your hearts in the right place on you’ve served your veteran and leadership is vitally important. And I thank you for your service. And I’m just gonna let you go. And because there’s so much you can teach not only the audience, but me as well. So why leadership? Why is it important?

Tom Connally [2:00]
Wow. Be careful with that. Now we’ll run over because I’m talking about, this is my passion. But leadership is, you know, fundamentally, about inspiring people to transcend to something greater than themselves. And that means knowing who you are. And knowing what you want to focus your life and your work on. And it means bringing everybody along with you,if you want to know something, write a book about it. So I wrote a book, right? I didn’t really write it as part of my business. But as I wrote that book, a lot of things that I was pretty convicted about, for 30 years, I became very convicted about and you had to really understand, I had to really understand what I was saying, I was going to tell my children, that’s the reason I started the book was to tell my children what they needed to do to optimize their apprenticeship. You know, leadership is you can read all three books in the world and not know anything about leadership. You have to learn it and you have to see it in action. Leaders are masters and apprentices at the same time. And that’s a continual push and pull. But as I looked at leadership, and I said, you know, there are some fundamental way points. And so I said, Let’s, let’s think about this as a roadmap to the apprenticeship to learning how to lead because we’re all learning all the time. Any leader who’s not learning is not leading. Because yeah, you’ve got to continually learn and teach that interaction is essential to developing relationships and trust. And like I said, you can read every book in the world but you gotta see it. And you got to find those people in your life and your industry that can help you to see those things. Sometimes it’s your coach like me, somebody who can look at you in the eye and say, you’re not doing it. You’re not going to get to where you want to go. Sometimes it’s those folks we have around us. But you know, leadership comes down to people. And my prime imperative in my book is accept the prime imperative that every person in your organization has value. If you don’t value your people, then you’re not going to put in the commitment. And that’s what it is, leadership is a commitment. Anybody can be in a position of authority, but just because you’re a general or a public politician or you know a CEO doesn’t mean you’re a leader, you’re only a leader if you commit to being a leader and you commit to bringing your people along towards the objective, your objective, the organization’s objective, their objective, you have to develop your people as you go. Would you say that thing is?

Mario Fachini [5:21]
Would you say that the leadership is ongoing as well, you’re saying, so I make a commitment, I’m going to be a leader and I’m bringing my team to the objective. But what if it’s for a few months, six months or a year? Is that who you are and it’s part of you, or can it be a temporary thing?

Tom Connally [5:41]
Um, well, who you are as a person, leadership evolves or emanates from your character if you want to be a good leader work on your character, you know, you have to have the strength, moral fortitude, and know what you believe in. First and foremost, anybody can be a leader but you have to be committed to doing it. It’s a continual cycle of study action, reflection and refinement, that is that is part of that learning teach. It’s also, you know, how you have to approach life every day. Leadership, can it be temporary, your position may be temporary. But if you’re going to be a leader, you commit to leading and no matter what you do, you lead, now, you may not be in the position as the CEO but that doesn’t mean you’re not leading, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have an apprentice under you. And it doesn’t mean you don’t have somebody that you look to as a mentor and you have a peer, who’s gonna tell you, when you’re smoking dope and your decisions aren’t good or your ideas aren’t good, or whatever it is. But so the idea of being in you know, leadership being temporary, leadership isn’t temporary, your position might be temporary. But if you’re committed to leading then effectively it becomes your way of life becomes what you decide to do. And some people don’t ever want to be a leader, right? They just wanted to be a good good painter, they just wanted to paint houses real well, or whatever it might be developed software and they get promoted to a position or they expand their business to the point where now they have people who work for him. Well, now they’re a leader de facto. And whether they wanted to be or not, the circumstances came upon them. And I think that well, I’m thoroughly invested in the idea that anyone can become a leader. And those people that find themselves in a leadership position, if they commit to that they can become a leader, they can become great leaders. You know, there are many, many stories throughout history of people that didn’t want to be in a position of leadership but were thrust into it. And they committed to the idea and they were very successful. And whoever a leader is, their character is such that they’re going to always lead, it may be one person, it may be their family. It may be a bazillion ,you know, it doesn’t have a real number bazillion. But anyways, now,it could be a bazillion. Yeah. So you know, leadership is a way of life. It’s a commitment to building people and accomplishing things and inspiring people to be more than who they are. And that’s that’s the fundamental underpinnings are they things along the way that you have to learn? Yes, leadership is very nuanced. In every position, you have to learn new things. That’s part of that whole I apprenticeship, apprentice vocation idea. You can be a leader for 20 years and you’re moved into a position that’s different or maybe it’s in a different industry or there are different challenges with it. And now you have to learn new things. That’s why leaders have to continue to learn. They’re never going to be an expert necessarily, in all the technical aspects of maybe the organization that they’re leading very complex organizations, whether that’s in the military or in industry, power.

Mario Fachini [9:40]
They don’t need to be either, do they?

Tom Connally [9:43]
Correct. You don’t have to be but you have to continue to be humble enough to learn from the experts around you. So that you learn the thing is that you need to know to get the best from your people. And but yes, you don’t have to be an expert in everything, Lord knows we have lots of people that aren’t experts in much, but they’re great leaders. So leadership is a commitment to people and commitment to making people in organizations the best that they can be finding their best, their best selves, their best organization. So those are, you know, that’s the fundamental underpinning. So I mean, are we done? Should I go home?

Mario Fachini [10:30]
You’re doing great. And it reminded me of what you said that you know, you’re always growing, you’re always learning. And there’s people that are just thrust into leadership, and it reminded me of the Scripture of God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called. You know, it doesn’t matter where. Say it again.

Tom Connally [10:51]
I agree with you. 100%. That’s a and that’s a great scripture. You know the good Lord gives certain people talents and we’re all called to make the best of those talents. And we’re not all called those same vocations. But leadership is a vocation. And it requires effort. And, you know, I have a saying, you know, all things are possible through prayer and heavy deadlifts. So you have to do the work, right, and you got to keep the face and…

Mario Fachini [10:55]
How much work you have to do.

Tom Connally [11:39]
Well, leadership, it would obviously depend on your experience and your position and those that are around you. And sometimes it’s all you can do every minute of the day. And other times, it’s not, but you always are looking and seeking to improve yourself and your organization. That’s what leaders commit to. Leaders have to be with their organization needs, at the time that they need it. It doesn’t change who you are, but it may change the things that you have to do. Sometimes you’re in an organization or at a place in an organization where you can delegate a lot. Because you have great expertise and talent around you. Sometimes you’re just building and you have to be more hands on and involved until you get people up to the level where they can handle all those things. So the idea that, that you ever arrive as a leader is just it, it’s fallacy, you reach a point where you’re very competent, but you never arrive in the minute that you think you’ve arrived, you’ve not arrived, right? I mean, it’s like the old Benjamin Franklin, you know, he had his nine principles that he, you know, he followed every day, and he kept track of them for a long time. And you know and he goes through all the key values in life and he would always get down to the last one. And the last one was humility. And he said, I get down to the last one and then I wouldn’t be able to check that block because I would get proud that I had done all the other ones before it. So, you know, you’re always you know, having to look at yourself in the mirror and say, Did I do the best that I could do yesterday? Did I get the results that I wanted? And if you’re not able to do that and look at your people, your organization and say, Listen, I didn’t do that, right? Or we didn’t get the objective that we wanted because I did something that I had to fill in the wrong direction or putting too much effort over here. If you’re unwilling to do that then you have to reevaluate your own character because as a leader, you have to be able to do that your people will follow you anywhere, if you’re willing to look at them and say, I made a mistake. We’re going to need to do this again, if they know you care, you know, one of the things you know from what one of the key things in my book, hey, you got to be competent, you have to own the mission, it’s your responsibility, your organization becomes yours. And it’s your responsibility, if it does well, that it will be on your people they have done well. If and they get the credit and if they do poorly, you own it. You own it as a leader. That’s the hard part, you know.

Mario Fachini [14:45]
So you can’t just take all the upside and pass the blame on the downside.

Tom Connally [14:51]
Well, you can for a short period of time and soon your employees will leave you because they know that that’s not the case. People want to know you care, and they want to know that you’re putting in your best effort. And if you do that then they’re going to, they’ll go the extra mile for you all the time, you have to go the extra mile,

Mario Fachini [15:16]
That flexibility is so important because I’m thinking of times when, early on, I sent the wrong invoice to the wrong client. And it was correct. It wasn’t a wrong amount, but I was sweating bullets and I’m like, oh my gosh and I called them up and because I knew them in person and I’m nice to everyone. I had met the receptionist, I didn’t know a few months before and everything. And she’s like, how’s it going? I’m like, pretty good. How’s your day going? By the way I sent and she goes I already took care of it don’t worry about it. I’ve done it myself.

Tom Connally [15:53]
There you go.

Mario Fachini [15:54]
And I was like, oh, and I that one thing sticks out. That was well over a decade ago, but I was just like it, I thought my whole world was coming down. And everyone’s gonna think I’m a horrible business owner and all these things. And it’s just like, relax.

Tom Connally [16:13]
Treat people, they care for you. And then, you know, if they know that you’re trying to do the right thing.

Mario Fachini [16:21]
No one’s perfect, right?

Tom Connally [16:22]
Yeah, exactly. Nobody’s perfect. Nobody’s perfect. We make mistakes, we have to be willing to own up to them. That’s part that’s part of leadership. And it’s part of character. And the fundamental, you know, fundamental core of being a leader is your character. You know, if you want to be a better leader, start with your own character. Are you living up to what you believe in, or what you say is important?

Mario Fachini [16:49]
I wanted to ask you real quick, bring us back to the beginning, what inspired you to write your book and start the business?

Tom Connally [16:57]
Um, so when I was a kid, my dad used my older brothers or I have three older brothers that are significantly older than me 10, eight, five years older than me. My dad and they are all officers in the military, my dad had been in the military, my dad would write these epic essays about leadership to us. And so my daughter was at the Naval Academy. And I had retired from the Marine Corps and I was working in the defense industry working for a company, a small company at that time. And I said, I’m going to write her an epic essay. And so how to get started as a new lieutenant in the Marine Corps. And so I started writing it and it was a hard slog. I mean,I’m like, I know, leadership, I’ve lived leadership, I’ve thought about lead. I’ve even written stuff about leadership. Why is this so hard? So I was slogging through it. And as I was slogging through it, I began to realize that what was hard about it was I was trying to write everything about everything I said, you know, I’m no need to neck this thing down to what a lieutenant, what a new officer needs to know. And then what it was at Lincoln that said, I didn’t have time to write your short letter. So I wrote you a long one. And I said, I can’t do that. If I expect somebody to read it, especially youngsters to read it, then or people that are busy. And as I was writing the book, you know, and trying to get it done in my free time, that was another challenge, right? working for somebody else, I realized that I had spent so many too much time in my five years in the industry after the Marine Corps, in boardrooms and in proposal development sessions, where I seem to spend all my time talking about leadership, organizational strategy, building teams, missions and those kinds of things and all the structures that go with trying to build something right or fix something. I said, you know, what, I just need to do that as a business. And so I picked up the phone and I called my boss and I said, look, I want to this is what I wanted. And he’s a friend of mine and he’s a great man with military experience. He’s been a submarine captain. He said that’s great. That’s a great thing. And I said, he says, yeah, I said, Well, I need to be doing this in 18 months. And he said, so well, you better get started on So yeah, that’s why I’m quitting. And he said, what can I do to help? And so he was helpful to me. And in trying to figure out what a small business looks like, and you know what I needed to do to start those things. But my daughter came to me and by this time she graduated from the Naval Academy. And she going through her Basic Officer Training says, dad, you gotta finish this thing, you got to write it down all these things you say. And so I kind of put everything else on board, I said, let’s finish the book. And I was working with a couple of nonprofit organizations at the time. And it’s always keeping up with that. But I finished the book, I pushed through the book. And I had a friend of mine read it. And he said you only mentioned these things at the end. But that’s your whole book. I said, goodness, gracious, you’re right. And so I had to completely then retool the whole thing and reorganize it. Because he was right, you know, these five things plus the prime imperative are, in fact, the the main points of lead of the roadmap to leadership, you know, believe in your people and realize they have value, be competent, own the mission, you know, go the extra mile for your people and then teach something every day and learn something every day. And I tell some, you know, see stories in there. In the civilian world, we call them fairy tales in the military, we call them see stalker reports, we come see stories, but I tell some stories to try and try and illuminate you know or illustrate the points that I’m trying to make in the book. But yeah, it was not aimed at my business. My business came from the book but it was the book that was written for my kids. And the review from most people that are many people that have read it that have never served in the military was this is applicable across the board. And I think it is from the standpoint of talking about the vocation of leadership as an apprentice vocation. Because at every level, you have to do all those things all the time, you have to who are my people, you know, what, you know, how do I give? How do I recognize their value? How do I build their value? Right? What do I need to know how competent, proficient and in what areas so I need to be in every level that changes, right? And you own the mission? What is that mission? What’s my mission? What’s my, what’s my organization’s mission? What’s their mission within the industry? And what industry? And what am I in, right? And then you know how I go the extra mile, how about you we talk a little bit about your people, but you gotta be willing to sit down and get dirty and listen to people and and hear what their problems are and then do something for them. They don’t want you to be your best, they don’t want to be your best friend, you don’t, they don’t want you to be their best friend, they don’t want you to come over and take care of their dog. They just want to know that you care, right? And that you’re going to do something and a lot of times what you can do is their boss is not hard. You asked how hard is it? Sometimes it’s really hard. It really takes energy. Sometimes it takes your whole day just to help that one person in your organization.

Mario Fachini [23:22]
But they know you care at that point, like you said, they’re not coming over expecting you to take care of their dog but they know you’re not just going to sweep them under the bus or you know, blame everything on them, you know, when it comes down to it.

Tom Connally [23:35]
Exactly. That’s exactly the point. exactly the point. But you get like I said, your if you don’t if you don’t care like that and you you know, then it’s not about being having the gift of gab or being you know are looking great Heck, I’m, I’m five foot five with a bald head, I’m not you know, I’m more like a troll than I do like, you know than I do like a movie star. That’s not why people would ever follow me. But I’ve seen guys of all talents and abilities and extroverts and introverts. And as long as they cared about their people and did those things, were competent, own to the mission, we’re responsible, were looking to always build their people and they were continually learning and teaching. Those people were successful. And so I think it does apply, I think it applies across the board wasn’t intended that way, but you know, 30 years of experience, maybe it bolts out that way so.

Mario Fachini [24:38]
Well, I’m glad you do. And I’d rather have someone with character than is a character. So thank you for being you because there’s plenty of, let’s just say other people in the world. I have one question for you and it’s gonna be a fun one. Well, I hope you think it’s fun. This is the Wheel of Whatever we’re gonna do this and then thanks our sponsor, but oh, I am getting good at that. Look at that one go. Sometimes it doesn’t work out so well, but that’s just fine. Yeah, it’s good. So my question is see where it landed? Perfect question every time. My question for you is, if you could be in any position of leadership and power right now would you change what you’re doing? Or is there somewhere you go, I’d really love to be XYZ. I know I could do some good and help a ton of people.

Tom Connally [25:40]
Umm.

Mario Fachini [25:42]
Any industry, any anything, any country, any, whatever. real specific.

Tom Connally [25:51]
None, I wouldn’t change a thing because I think that the Lord gives us our challenges and He shows us where we need to go. And my past, you know, I felt that way, when I was standing in Iraq with my battalion that I had, that God had prepared me for what I was supposed to do and for and that there was no no other place in the world that I wanted to be at that point in time. If you gave me a battalion of Marines, boy, I would have fun, okay, but I also believe that and the reason I committed to this line of work, my wife said, you’re going to do this, you know how I need to do this for you, I said, I’m going to do it forever. I’m going to do this until I can’t do it anymore. Because I believe that my mission is to help as many leaders and organizations to improve their performance and success, personally, professionally, spiritually and physically. Because that’s what God has given me to do. That’s what he’s equipped me to do. That’s the challenge that he’s put in front of me. And I’m happy to do it every day. I think you don’t build leaders by being a, it’s great to have motivational speakers and I can do that piece trust me, I can stand on stages and I can motivate people and I can make them feel good about themselves. And I can make them move to an objective. But it’s a minimal value because you don’t change lives that way. You don’t build organizations that way you do it one person at a time. And so if you if God wants me to do something greater than, you know, within a different way, then that opportunity will arise. But I’m not looking for something else. I think He builds leaders in organizations, one person at a time and in doing so that’s my mission. That’s where I’m at. And if that’s CEOs then it CEOs, and if it’s a brand new fella, you know, out of college or a lady who’s just stepping off into a new challenge, then that’s where it is. And that’s what I’ll do. I think that, that’s the mission I’ve been given. And it’s the vocation that I’ve committed to. So we’ll see, you know how long I can keep going. But I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. People ask me if I’m retired, I’m just not on active duty. I’m still moving out, as best I can, every day,

Mario Fachini [28:34]
Wow. That I appreciate the transparency and honesty that hits close to home for me. And what a great answer. Thank you. We’re gonna thank our sponsor and come back with the Imperfect Action Round.

Sponsor – Free Business Book Publishing Course [28:49]
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Mario Fachini [30:20]
And we are back with the Imperfect Action Round. Tom, are you ready to take Imperfect Action?

Tom Connally [30:26]
I’m ready. Everything’s 80 ,20 men, you know, said you better have an 80% plan executed violently or you know energetically than a 100% plan too late.

Mario Fachini [30:39]
Cannot agree more. Three questions for you 60 seconds or less answers. The first one is what is the fastest path to profits?

Tom Connally [30:49]
Leadership.

Mario Fachini [30:53]
Excellent. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making in the fastest way they can fix it?

Tom Connally [31:00]
Aligning their performance with what they believe. And the fastest way they can fix it is know what they believe. Write it down.

Mario Fachini [31:09]
Excellent. Number three. What is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Tom Connally [31:17]
Relationships, build good relationships, make them trust you. Trust them.

Mario Fachini [31:28]
What books would you recommend to Expert Authority World?

Tom Connally [31:33]
Wow, that’s always hard for me. But mine stopped the best book out there. You know, you can find great guidance if you’re a Christian in and you need to crack the Bible. And in looking there, there’s great books out there by all kinds of all kinds of leaders. I like one particularly, that’s called Discovering The Laws of Life by Sir John Templeton. And if you don’t know who Sir John Templeton was, he was actually an American citizen who gave up his American citizenship after he’d made a ton of money in the investment world. And the Templeton funds are all named after him. But he wrote a book and it’s great short stories about values and what is most important in life, and he gave up his US citizenship so that he could donate an exorbitant amount of money to a charity in the United States. Well, the only way he could pull it off, so he did.

Mario Fachini [32:48]
Well, I have not heard of that one. But I’ve heard of him. That sounds great. Thank you for sharing that. Where would you like people to learn more?

Tom Connally [33:00]
Go to ConnallyConsulting.com and they’ll find a link to my book, they’ll find a free download on some of that section that talks about knowing what you believe and who you are discovering in developing your character. They’ll also find other podcasts, links to podcasts and some of the other videos that I have made that talk to these subjects.

Mario Fachini [33:26]
Excellent. Well, I appreciate you for sharing. Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure.

Tom Connally [33:32]
Thank you for having me. I hope I live up to the high standard that you set with your guests.

Mario Fachini [33:37]
You definitely. And I knew you would.

Tom Connally [33:41]
Thank you, sir.

Mario Fachini [33:43]
All right, expert authority world. We have another great episode here today. I’ll see you tomorrow. Have a great day. And God bless.

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