In this episode of the Executive Connect Podcast, Melissa sits down with Michael Allison, a Marine and Purple Heart recipient turned entrepreneur, to unpack what it truly means to lead under pressure. Michael shares how battlefield experiences shaped his approach to leadership, why clarity and conviction matter more than charisma, and how founders and executives can build identity-driven systems that prevent burnout before it starts. This conversation goes beyond motivation and gets practical about decision-making, culture, resilience, and sustainable scale. If you’re building something meaningful in a high-stakes environment, this episode offers a grounded, real-world blueprint for leading with strength and integrity.

Chapters:

(1:27) Michael Allison’s battlefield experience and leadership clarity

(3:41) Translating combat decision-making into business leadership

(6:56) Identity-driven leadership explained

(8:22) Rediscovering leadership identity under pressure

(12:12) Preventing burnout while scaling fast

(14:42) Break the bottle, protect the house framework

(17:24) Common leadership mistakes during high stress

(19:21) Leadership re-entry during growth and transition

(24:26) Turning adversity into a scaling advantage

(28:49) Culture as an operational system

(32:42) The three pillars: clarity, creativity, conviction

(35:25) Final leadership principles from Michael Allison

Michael

(0:00) I think burnout is usually a system failure that’s masquerading as individual weakness, and to prevent it, we must teach leaders to build protective systems. (0:09) So identifying and knowing that and taking a look, a step back and identifying that from that perspective, you could truly understand how can I actually set up boundaries and set up systems to avoid burnout. (0:22) And I think it’s important for us to go through some of those processes and actually identifying what that is so we can prevent burnout and redesign our systems and create it in a way where it’s practical, where it’s logical.

Melissa

(0:33) From battlefield scars to boardroom wins, Michael Allison doesn’t just talk about resilience, he lives it. (0:42) A Marine and Purple Heart recipient turned entrepreneur, Michael knows firsthand what it means to lead under fire. (0:51) If you think scaling a venture is just about marketing strategy and spreadsheets, think again.

(0:58) In this episode of the Executive Connect podcast, we’re diving into what it really takes to lead under pressure, bounce back from adversity, and build ventures that don’t just scale, but scale with soul. (1:12) Whether you’re a founder in the trenches or an executive executing transformation, this is your blueprint for resilient growth. (1:21) Welcome, Michael.

Michael

(1:23) Hey Melissa, thank you so much for having me. (1:25) It’s an absolute pleasure to be here with you.

Melissa

(1:27) Now, your journey is anything but typical. (1:30) Marine, Purple Heart recipient, entrepreneur, take us back to the battlefield experience that shaped your leadership strategies today.

Michael

(1:40) Yeah, definitely. (1:41) For me, I had a chance to serve our country in Iraq, in Fallujah, and that experience is one of the most chaotic experiences I could ever say that I’ve ridden through in my life. (1:52) Getting blown up by VBID and losing friends on the battlefield, nobody wants that, right?

(1:58) But that’s actually what truly happened. (1:59) So when that VBID hit, it reduced everything for me down to two questions. (2:04) It’s like, what must be done now, and who can do it?

(2:06) And through the noise, through the smell, all the improvised lighting, the chaos, all that class and stuff, that experience taught me to be brutally clear with what needs to be executed and what needs to be done. (2:18) And under pressure leadership is an operating system, not just like a personality trait. (2:23) And I think when you translate that into business, then you got to create designing systems that are repeatable and that gives you clarity.

(2:32) And it helps create like a decision rhythm for you to as well, where roles are simplified, habits are simplified, and that removes some of the ambiguity when things are in that particular place. (2:42) So once those things were in place for me, it gave me practical solutions to make decision, direction, and destination, just to make sure things are operated at a more precise level, especially when you’re a leader and you’re in the midst of chaos. (2:55) There cannot be any ambiguity.

(2:57) There cannot be any confusions. (2:58) Everybody needs to be decisive. (3:00) Everybody needs to know what to do, especially when crap hits the fan.

Melissa

(3:04) Ready to lead smarter and invest wiser? (3:08) On the Executive Connect podcast, we unpack executive strategies for wealth and influence. (3:15) Hit the subscribe button now.

(3:17) Don’t just watch, act. (3:19) Literally. (3:20) I mean, you survived a VBIED attack that could have taken your life and you’ve seen it.

(3:27) And so talk to me a little bit about that moment and how, I mean, I have to imagine it completely shifted and pivoted your life at that exact moment. (3:36) How did it shift how you lead and work in the world today?

Michael

(3:41) Most definitely. (3:41) You know, it allowed me to create that human connection with people. (3:48) And at the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to as leaders.

(3:50) We’re working with human beings. (3:53) And when I’m in the, when I was in the battlefield, you know, that’s someone’s life that actually something just happened to them. (3:59) And how do you respond and how do you handle that?

(4:01) And when you take in consideration, you’re working with people on a daily basis and they have natural things that is going to move them in different kinds of ways. (4:11) You got to get a chance to know your people. (4:13) And for me, I had a chance to know everybody that I serve with in combat and it showed me how they reacted whenever either the seriousness of things to the less seriousness of things and how they responded.

(4:24) And I took that same approach in the corporate space, in the business space too, as well of how to treat people and create that human connection. (4:31) And once you get that empathy built into you, you understand like, well, this employee reacts this way, or this employee reacts this way. (4:38) Not every single employee is actually treated the same, quite honestly, just like how it is when I was playing sports or just like how it is when I was actually serving too, as well.

(4:47) But it allowed me also to, in addition to that was to be intentional and not take opportunities for granted. (4:54) You never know what opportunities you’re going to get again. (4:57) And I think it’s important for leaders to be intentional, say what we mean, mean what we say, especially when we’re working with our teams, working with our clients, working with people that are reporting to us on down the line.

Melissa

(5:08) I love that you said that. (5:10) I think there’s so much truth in that. (5:12) And one of my personal, you know, missions, you know, statements I live by is carpe diem, which means seize the day because you just said it, you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, or if that’s ever going to be come back around in your life.

(5:27) So talk to me a little bit about in the world we live in today, there’s a lot of chaos, there’s a lot of disruptors, whether it’s in the company, you know, whether it’s traveling, it’s everywhere. (5:40) How do you build and bring that battlefield calm into the boardroom into, you know, any situation in your life?

Michael

(5:50) For me, I think when it comes to dealing with chaos, and you have to be centered, you have to be grounded and really know who you are as a leader. (5:58) And whatever it may be for yourself, for you to anchor yourself, it could be in your faith, it could be in your mental health, it could be in your physical fitness. (6:06) And those are some things that you truly, truly, really need to know who you are.

(6:10) And when you have those things anchored to yourself, then you can know how to respond to things because you won’t get out of character. (6:18) And oftentimes, many people will get out of character when they don’t know how to respond, they don’t have repeatable systems, they do not have things in place. (6:25) And then they start doing sporadic things.

(6:27) So for me, I follow the three steps decision, what are the decisions that I need to make, and then operate through that with clarity and precision. (6:34) And then what are the next steps that I need to take in regards to the direction or approach that I need to follow through? (6:39) And then follow that through the mental checklist that I do have for myself.

(6:43) And then make sure that it identifies with what I’m aligned to, what am I anchored to? (6:49) And then it allows you to make better decisions, whether this is a yes, or whether this is a no.

Melissa

(6:56) Now talk to me a little bit about identity driven leadership. (7:00) And I know you talk a lot about identity aligned leadership. (7:04) What does that mean?

(7:05) In practice for founders, executives, leaders that are trying to scale or build something quick?

Michael

(7:12) I think identity driven leadership is simple. (7:16) It’s who you are determined and how you decide founders often chase like features or the markets or growth metrics while their teams acts, who are we supposed to be? (7:26) Right?

(7:27) So without a coherent identity, every decision becomes opinion based or hiring is inconsistent. (7:33) And I think culture sometimes become fragmented as you try to scale. (7:37) So I think for founders, identity is the compass, right?

(7:40) When pressure arrives, identity answers the question, which choice matches who we are? (7:46) And that short circuit debate reduces friction and speeds execution for me. (7:50) Practically, I think we help teams articulate a small set of identity anchors where we value and express as non-negotiable behaviors for me as well too.

Melissa

(8:00) And that’s really interesting because I feel like we’re at a time now, correct me if I’m wrong here by saying this, where people are either trying to rediscover who they are, discover who they are, reinvent themselves. (8:14) So talk to me about how you help people discover, rediscover their leadership identity right now.

Michael

(8:22) You know, I follow this three-step process. (8:25) And it’s interesting you say that right around this time of the year, many people was going to get ready to end off their year. (8:31) And now they’re getting ready to go into the new year and they’re going to have new year’s resolutions and all of these different things.

(8:36) And somehow they forgot who they are and now they’re trying to refocus and recenter. (8:40) And identity drivenness comes from three things that I’m going to always ask people to do. (8:45) And it’s tied under the decision framework is number one is identify.

(8:49) Identify who you are and then identify who you really want to be. (8:54) And then sometimes we get into this mindset of what people have put up on us opposed to who we truly want to be. (9:03) And I say that as in you may have a friend that say, hey, you should be this, you should do that.

(9:07) Or your mom and dad tell you that, hey, you should do this, you should do that. (9:10) And we actually go that route. (9:12) And when we get to our deathbed, we have these regrets and saying like, why did I even do this?

(9:17) I didn’t really want to do this. (9:18) And we find ourselves burning out and crashing out because we did things that we didn’t really want to do. (9:23) The next step to that is clarifying.

(9:25) And how can we clarify what is it that is truly, truly what we value, what are our standards and what it is to our core? (9:33) And the last piece of that is going to be verifying it. (9:36) Actually identifying, is this something that I truly want to find myself going down this path, going down this road?

(9:43) If you can follow those three steps, I think it simplifies things for you.

Melissa

(9:47) Yeah, I love it. (9:48) I think there’s so much in that, you know, oftentimes I hear from leaders, they have to become kind of, you know, who their leadership wants them to be, whether it’s, you know, a woman in a male dominated space, whether it’s an engineer that has to become a leader because they were engineering something and now they’re leading something. (10:09) I feel like let’s unpack a little bit about what happens when companies let leaders drift too far away from their actual identity or whatever they’re really good at in their roles.

Michael

(10:22) I think, well, I think it’s important when things like that happen to identify what are your boundaries? (10:28) And if we don’t have any boundaries, then we get out of limit and we get out of character. (10:32) So that’s the number one thing I would say.

(10:34) Number two thing is this, be disciplined. (10:36) Oftentimes when these things come at us, we’re not disciplined in regarding to like standing up for ourselves or speaking up or being bold and actually truly going with what’s at our gut and what’s at our core, opposed to just going with what everybody says. (10:51) And when you could do those two things, I think that’ll help simplify things for you.

Melissa

(10:57) Yeah, well said. (10:58) I think when we get clear about what we’re trying to accomplish as a team, it makes everybody very, I feel like clarity is kind and the more we’re clear with not with just the vision of the company, but clarity with who we are and what we’re driving towards, it helps the whole mission align. (11:15) And I love how the military does that so well.

(11:19) It’s really, they’re a leadership organization. (11:22) One person is not in the role, they’re not there. (11:26) Somebody steps in and knows how to perform at a certain level because they’ve trained, they’ve practiced, they have clarity and understanding of what they need to do.

(11:34) I want to switch gears a little bit on you. (11:36) I love, love, love this word resilience. (11:39) It’s my new kind of favorite word.

(11:42) And so when I think of scaling businesses in any capacity, whether it’s scaling staff or revenue or whatever a founder, entrepreneur or leader is trying to do right now, scaling usually means more stress, faster pace, higher stakes, more burnout. (12:01) So talk to me a little bit about how leaders avoid the burnout before it’s too late while they’re building something great. (12:12) This episode is brought to you by Summit Ventures.

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Michael

(13:05) I think burnout is usually a system failure that’s masquerading as individual weakness. (13:10) And to prevent it, we must teach leaders to build protective systems. (13:15) And when we’re building protective systems, it’s truly creating like walls and creating those boundaries.

(13:21) And you’ll really know, like you just mentioned, the military truly gives us like repeatable systems that we process over and over again. (13:31) That’s why you could see someone could come through the military, go through the ranks, serve for 20 years, and somebody else could come in and do the same thing over and over again for hence what reason, while the military system has been created for over hundreds of years now. (13:45) So identifying and knowing that and taking a step back and identifying that from that perspective, then you could truly understand how can I actually set up boundaries and set up systems to avoid burnout.

(13:58) And I think it’s important for us to go through some of those processes and (14:02) actually identifying what that is so we can prevent burnout and redesign our systems and (14:06) create it in a way where it’s practical, where it’s logical, whereas we need to either look at (14:10) like 90 day sprints, audit what we’re doing, look at some of our calendars, look at some of our (14:15) micro practices, and then put some of those things in place and actually train and reiterate, (14:19) train and iterate, put these things into practice, and then actually go from there (14:23) and actually make sure we could identify what it actually looks like. (14:26) You could even implement some coaching that’s tied into that too as well from somebody else to look at it from a different standpoint to see what are some of our blind spots, what are some of our weak areas in that particular space if you have quite a few people that actually is suffering from burnout too as well.

Melissa

(14:42) I love it. (14:43) Now talk to me a little bit about break the bottle and protect the house. (14:48) How does this framework keep leaders grounded in the storm?

Michael

(14:54) You know, so break the bottle initially came from a conversation that I was having with a friend of (14:59) mine and quite often I was one that was balling so many emotions mentally, physically, spiritually, (15:07) and things that I was keeping on the inside and I really did not know how to respond from that (15:11) and it stemmed from my childhood and it affected me as a professional too as well and I could not (15:19) speak up in meetings or I would hesitate when it came time to either make a phone call for a (15:23) business deal or when I was inside of a room or maybe have been intimidated and when we started (15:28) going back at it and looking at it, why is it that I won’t speak up or why is it that I get (15:36) complacent or why is it that I do some of these things or I procrastinate and it was stemmed (15:40) from that so once we decided to identify what those things are we came up with the concept of (15:44) breaking the bottle but once I did that I followed the framework that I mentioned earlier of like (15:48) what are the decisions that I need to start making identifying what it is clarify what it is and (15:52) verify what it is then step two to that was how could we actually go in a direction that’s going (15:58) to get us to that path of breaking the bottle so then we had to start building and then we had to (16:02) start planning and navigating through that yes there’s going to be hiccups along the way but (16:06) once you have a system in place you could actually truly navigate through that and then the (16:10) last part to that was the destination piece when we’re talking about that and how could we actually (16:15) start aligning ourselves with the people that surround us and how we could start engaging that (16:19) and then how could we sustain that because yes you’re going to have success doing that but the (16:23) key to that is not get complacent and then protect the houses you want to think of yourself you want (16:30) to think about your house of all of these things that you actually put in place to protect your (16:35) own house and all of the safeguard things that you’re doing so just if you want to think about (16:39) it your house has doors it has windows it has security systems all of these things that we (16:43) have in place right and you will not let or allow anything to come inside of that and take that away (16:48) and that’s what we’re talking about when we’re talking about protecting the house so what we do (16:53) we create house rules we create the four walls that’s tied around purpose people your process (16:58) and your practices to actually implement some of these things in place I want to get this pops

Melissa

(17:03) into my head while you’re talking I find a lot of times that leaders make some mistakes as stress (17:10) ramps up they you know they might have stress at work stress at home stress with the politics (17:18) whatever’s going on in their life so talk to me about some of the mistakes that leaders make

Michael

(17:24) when stress happens and it ramps up in their life yeah sadly you know whenever stress hits us we (17:31) default to what is going to be our quick wins or our quick fixes and sometimes it could be to our (17:38) own demise personally for me you know whenever I was stressed out I may have go get a drink or (17:42) I may just want to sleep it off or not not even worry about it and oftentimes even when you’re (17:49) stressed when you’re burned out those problems are still there tomorrow so it’s important for (17:53) actually for us to address it head on and actually deal with it that’s my simple answer to that and we (18:00) can’t avoid stress we can’t avoid burnout we eventually we do have to deal with it but once (18:06) you start doing that though it’s important for you actually for actually just follow through that (18:11) process and create that system so for me I changed my diet I changed how I was exercising I changed (18:17) the conversations of who I was speaking to I changed what I was watching on tv I changed the (18:22) music and the podcast that I was listening to and that all of a sudden just started changing my mood (18:27) that started changing my behavior that changed how I woke up and changed how I went to bed at night (18:31) and started implementing those things it changed me to become a better founder and a CEO for our

Melissa

(18:36) company and I love that I think there’s so much truth in that getting the stress out of our body (18:42) and into something else like whether it’s breaking the bottle or punching a punching bag or sweating (18:48) it out at the gym or getting a massage but the key is to not let it like build and build and (18:54) compound because like you said it’s easy to grab a drink or bad food or you know stay up late (19:00) yeah it’s so easy right and so yeah over time it’s just it doesn’t get better it gets worse so (19:08) let’s talk about another one of your framework called leadership re-entry what is this about (19:15) and how does it apply to companies that are trying to scale their business

Michael

(19:21) yeah so leadership re-entry is a set of checkpoints for leaders who are moving (19:24) into new stakes right so a promotion a new market or a scale and inflection type of thing so (19:32) growth stretches purpose and people correct so what we do is when we do re-entry we recalibrate (19:38) both and that checklist is very short and I mentioned this earlier before but it ties into (19:42) the protect the house framework too as well but purpose like we reaffirm why the organization (19:47) exists and what winning actually truly looks like then the people part of that is that we’re going (19:52) to reassess the roles the capacity and who who must be stretched and then the third part of that (19:59) is the process let’s map out some of the decision handoffs and execution rhythm and then the practice (20:04) part of that is like we’re going to start rehearsing the highest risk moment with some simulations (20:08) that’s tied into that to actually really truly embed that into the DNA and I think when we do (20:13) that that’s one of the most key important things for us to actually start implementing we do that (20:17) through a 30-day plan a 60-day plan and a 90-day plan that has measurable outcomes.

Melissa

(20:24) I love that now you kind of alluded to it a little bit as we come into you know the new year everybody’s thinking about you know the things that they want to change in their life so talk to me a little bit about this hitting pause in certain areas of their life and then recalibrating like how does one do that in practice?

Michael

(20:45) For me you know whenever I wanted to pause and reset at the (20:49) end of the year I’m gonna share with you this is in my new book too but this is what me and my wife (20:53) do we actually take the entire weekend and we travel to a location and we rent out let’s say (21:02) the hotel like like a little breakout conference room type of thing and we actually just take our (21:09) time back we go over there with a glass of champagne probably have some charcuterie board (21:14) and we actually just take our time back and look at the year of what we did in regards to like what (21:20) we planned our goals that’s tied to our business that’s tied to our health our fitness tied to (21:25) our kids our investing all of those things are all those things and then once we go through that (21:30) now we look at the next year and how we could plan for that but it’s in one of the most relaxed (21:35) moments of our time but we disconnect from the phone calls we disconnect from the tv we disconnect (21:41) from the news and we just get away and we just enjoy ourselves and we just actually plan and (21:46) strategize and just actually recoup ourself just to get ready to come back and attack the next year (21:53) and that’s something that I would recommend to all leaders out there just take some time away (21:57) take some time back and just disconnect if you need to go to the Bahamas if you need to go to (22:02) Jamaica not Jamaica right now there’s a hurricane but travel somewhere and just take some time to (22:07) yourself and just really like re-engage back with yourself get a chance to like know yourself (22:11) and have a conversation with either a loved one or family member that’s close with you (22:15) as you get a chance to just take some time to yourself now that hurricane for the record

Melissa

(22:21) is Hurricane Melissa I don’t know if you heard I don’t know if you heard I’m coming through it’s a (22:28) record-breaking hurricane so uh I you know my brother’s been giving me a hard time about this (22:35) you know you launched the book biggest hurricane ever you know we’re just doing it here the (22:40) Executive Connect experience today uh one thing that you mentioned that I know I’m personally (22:46) guilty of um is you know I set a goal I achieve the goal and I move on what I’m hearing you say (22:54) is you sit with your wife and you celebrate all that you’ve accomplished and then you look (23:02) towards you recalibrate and look towards the future now that’s an area I am working on right (23:08) now is recalibrating how to you know celebrate um my successes um and not that this is a podcast (23:15) about me but I find it funny my co-author for my book um messaged me the night before we got Amazon (23:22) or the day we got Amazon bestseller and my reply to her was what does that mean (23:30) I didn’t say to her that’s so cool I’m like what does that mean but you there’s so much (23:37) truth in what you’re saying is celebrating celebrate the win all that we win and they (23:44) could be small wins like getting our kids into a college or you know cleaning out our garage (23:50) or spring cleaning or whatever it is you’ve been trying to do I know I have tons of drawers I’ve (23:55) been trying to clean for years and that’s still on my list of celebration but I think you’re so (24:01) spot on with that I think it’s really an important piece so let’s talk about adversity uh you say (24:08) adversity isn’t just something to survive it’s something to use amen I couldn’t agree with that (24:15) so let’s unpack it and talk about how entrepreneurs can use hardship to scale smarter so you know

Michael

(24:26) adversity gives you honest feedback faster than success does and I had to give that thought when (24:34) I was looking at all the different adversities that I’ve been through in my life and to be quite (24:38) honest with you Melissa I’ve been through a lot and I’ve been through several hurricanes growing (24:43) up as a kid I’ve been abused as a kid I’ve been through injuries playing sports I’ve been through (24:48) all of the things you could think about that someone goes through in war either being shot (24:52) at or being blown up you name it even my transition out of the military was not the greatest I’ve been (24:57) through losing a job I’ve been through two divorces I’ve been through all of these different (25:01) things it allows you to learn from all of these experiences opposed to sitting here and stressing (25:07) about it or worrying about it and what I’ve learned from that it has allowed me to become (25:13) stronger and much more resilient whenever other adversities have come my way because I’m much more (25:19) much more prepared to deal with tough situations and tough times it’s it’s a known fact that tough (25:25) situations is continuously going to go you’re not going to go a whole year even two years or three (25:30) years or four years or five years where everything is just going to be great so how do you deal with (25:34) those things and it exposes the bottlenecks it gives you clarity it helps you with priorities (25:39) it forces creative constraints right so we’ve seen that teams use downturns to harden decision (25:46) processes eliminate brutal product lines and sometimes codify better handoffs and I see that (25:52) whenever like companies are dealing with tough times and tough situations and they’ve asked us (25:57) to come in and help and we actually go through a process as we go through training with them (26:01) and actually see what some of the tough things that they’ve dealt with before because sometimes (26:05) you’ll find that even like with leaders or with some of their staff if they’ve never been through (26:10) some things they get into the micromanage space they get into the indecisiveness of things because (26:15) they don’t really know how to deal with tough circumstances tough situations in their business

Melissa

(26:20) or even for themselves personally this episode sponsor is a couple I absolutely love David and (26:26) Alexis Kiwi they help power couples be successful at home just like they are at work if you’re (26:34) crushing it in the business world but quietly disconnected from your spouse you’re not alone (26:39) check them out at DavidandAlexisKiwi.org they have spent years creating a simple tool set (26:46) that will help you save your marriage don’t forget to use code executive one to save $500 (26:51) off their six-week coaching program DavidandAlexisKiwi.org code executive one (27:02) I love that I always feel I like to reframe the storm as struggle like struggle every time I’ve (27:13) struggled in an area I’ve used that struggle as fuel for strength and I’ve refound different pieces (27:21) and uncovered rocks within me that I never knew were there and I find it funny if we keep making (27:28) the same mistakes Michael it’s funny how you know whatever you believe in God the universe (27:34) they just keep serving us up the same things until we finally have that like aha moment and then we (27:42) make the change so I find it’s best to learn from our mistakes the first time I’ve had to make them (27:48) one or two times to really learn so now I’m experts in some of those areas because I’ve made (27:54) so many mistakes but you know it’s so true I agree with you know I think the practical move

Michael

(27:59) is to treat each adversity as an experiment collect the data formalize it into a playbook (28:04) for yourself right and then bake that into like your rhythms as you go through tomorrow (28:08) and then just really look at that in regards to becoming an advantage for you or repeatedly

Melissa

(28:13) advantage for you to as well let’s talk about one of my favorite subjects these days culture (28:21) everybody has the master solution you know I’ve heard things like pizza party solves everything (28:29) or work from home right and so how do teams stay aligned during struggle during stress (28:40) stress as they scale like what is that formula to make teams stay together when things are tough

Michael

(28:49) well I believe culture is operational not aspirational and we help companies translate (28:55) mission into like rituals so onboarding scripts five-day rituals for new managers weekly leader (29:01) reviews pre-mortem pre-mortem before launch and stuff like that or public commitment (29:07) like a legacy leadership manifesto those types of things and when you kind of embed those things (29:13) into your staff it bleeds through in the dna of your company so if you ever notice if you ever (29:19) notice what chick-fil-a is if you go inside of their all their employees respond the same act (29:23) the same or treat them the same because they’ve created a culture if you’ve ever been to the (29:28) google building they all kind of either dress the same look the same speak the same right (29:33) if you ever been around the amazon they call themselves the amazonians and you’ll see that (29:37) they act a little bit different treat each other a little bit different too as well but what I love (29:42) about them also within their culture they have standards they have values they have mottos they (29:46) have mantras and you can kind of see that they live a certain way act a certain way and go about (29:51) a certain way so for you as an organization what is the culture that you’re creating or you’re (29:55) designing right and and that could be inside of the dna and into the fabric of what you have for (30:02) yourself as a leader and it’s important for you as a leader to identify what those things are (30:05) because now you create a sense of belonging you create a sense of where people say I want to (30:10) be there I want to work there I love my boss I love my supervisor and I think that’s one of the (30:14) most important things for leaders to actually acknowledge and actually start creating too as (30:18) well I think about also you know when we served in the marine corps we’re a band of brothers all (30:24) of us wore the same uniform all of us had each other’s six because we believed in the mission (30:29) we believed in the vision of what the marine corps stand for I’ve seen and read so many company

Melissa

(30:34) mission statements like a lot of them that they say people first yes they’re not people first (30:41) or they’re all about technology and their employees are using very old technology so (30:47) let’s talk about how do you use identity as a filtering when hiring onboarding and in leadership

Michael

(30:56) development for companies I think identity is important for you as a leader and creating that (31:04) for companies so you as a leader do you embody what you say do you how and how do we measure (31:10) that right so as a leader your staff and your team is looking at you believe it or not they’re (31:17) watching how you move they’re watching how you operate so is that something that you actually (31:21) practice what you preach and when you do that you got to create ways where you’re held accountable (31:27) just as much as you’re holding other people accountable to as well I agree I think I love

Melissa

(31:35) that I’m thinking as you’re talking I’ll never forget this I had a boss that was adamant that (31:40) everybody arrived on time yet he was never on time right so we all laughed you know some of us were (31:48) one or two minutes late and we were like yelled at and we just laughed and let it go so none of us (31:55) trusted him right none of us trusted him we all thought he was hypocritical yeah and to your point (32:04) we weren’t a team it was a division it was like you know us against the person in charge versus

Michael

(32:10) all of us working together so you’re spot on yeah you’ll lose trust immediately if you if you’re (32:17) going to say something and not do it yourself you’ll lose trust and credibility immediately and (32:22) it’s hard to actually build that back up after a while then you’re in then you’re in a position (32:26) of more so of apologizing and this is where you often find that we’re speaking about culture (32:32) early and this is where you’ll often find where employees or staff disconnect and now they’re (32:37) looking for the exit of the door and trying to find somewhere else to go 100 percent

Melissa

(32:42) if you had to distill your entire leadership philosophy into three words you’ve picked clarity (32:51) creativity and conviction first of all i love all three words and they’re all starting with c’s so (32:57) talk to me about why the c words and why those three because they’re sequential and mutually

Michael

(33:06) reinforcing i think clarity gives you the right questions to answer i think creative creativity (33:11) gives you the option to answer it with constraints when constraints tighten i think conviction gives (33:17) you the courage to act and the consistency to keep doing it you need all three for me i believe i (33:23) think clarity without creativity is kind of brutal and then creativity without conviction is just (33:27) noise and i think conviction without clarity is just stubbornness i think when you have clarity (33:34) you could perform much more precisely with precision and when you have creativity you (33:40) get the opportunity to now actually freely think and actually truly be yourself and not (33:46) subconsciously or wonder and start thinking about anything else and then the conviction is actually (33:51) you’re going to do what you say say what you’re going to mean what you say and actually perform

Melissa

(33:55) and execute and you’re not second guessing now a tough question what one of the three (34:05) do you think leaders struggle with the most today wow wow wow wow only one

Michael

(34:13) the one i say leaders struggle with the most is conviction and they struggle with (34:21) that the most because i found that a lot of leaders are indecisive and they struggle with (34:28) making decisions that’s why i’m always big on decision decision decision and you’re one decision (34:33) and people are scared of failure people don’t want to fail so they get indecisive and they (34:40) second guess themselves should i do this should i do that and you’ll find that the people that (34:44) are very decisive people that make decisions very fast very quickly are the one that are more

Melissa

(34:48) successful i love it i’m one of those quick decision people michael i decided to start (34:55) the podcast and i called my best friend and my co-author to be my first guest and i’m like well (35:00) hopefully your parents and my parents will listen (35:05) and here i am you know hundreds of episodes later still talking to fabulous people like you (35:12) in closing i want to get any final thoughts or anything you want to listen or leave not listen (35:19) leave uh with our listeners today and share with them what’s the best way to communicate with you

Michael

(35:25) yeah definitely if you want to communicate with me or contact me you could definitely (35:29) find me at www.michaelwallison.com or you could find our company adversity leadership institute (35:35) for all of our programs and our services on social media it’s i am michael w allison simple (35:40) all across the board connect with me on linkedin instagram facebook i’m on all of those platforms (35:46) what i would leave with your your leaders here that are listening to the podcast i think it’s (35:51) important for us to lead with that conviction lead with that creativity and lead with clarity (35:57) and when you lead from that way and lead well the people that follow you the people that that (36:03) you’re leading and taking them them to wherever that your organization is going it’ll be much (36:08) more easier and simpler for you to do so when they believe in you and they trust you too as well

Melissa

(36:14) well said great way to end the podcast thank you so much for being here today and listening to me (36:23) as i get tongue tied and talking about bad jokes like hurricane melissa i appreciate you (36:29) spending your time with us today sharing your knowledge and with our listeners that’s the (36:35) executive connect podcast