November 12, 2024 • 11 mins
Have you wondered how morale & alignment can be the bedrock of combat effectiveness and business success?
Join us as we explore the power of transformative leadership with Retired US Navy Captain Rick Hoffman, CEO of Orion Solutions LLC.
Drawing from his remarkable career in both the military and business worlds, Captain Rick shares invaluable lessons on building resilient, mission-driven teams.
Captain Rick recounts his experience revitalizing the USS Way City into a combat-ready force after 9/11, translating those lessons to his work with executives to elevate alignment and efficiency in today’s business landscape.
His approach offers a roadmap to cultivating a culture rooted in trust, transparency, and strategic focus.
In this conversation, we delve into the balance between leadership and management, emphasizing creating unified, strategically aligned teams.
Captain Rick speaks candidly on today's business challenges - advocating for a culture that supports merit-based and purpose-driven work environments.
His stories highlight the power of enduring relationships and teamwork, illustrating how clear communication and prioritized goals can drive success in both naval and corporate environments.
Don’t miss these actionable insights from a leader who’s mastered the art of aligning teams for peak performance.
We'd love your feedback on how we can improve - send us a Text!!
Seeking to align your culture, boost performance & impact your bottom line? Let’s chat—no sales, just real talk about your challenges. Not ready? Join our PL3 Community for free insights & connections.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
William Gladhart (00:00):
Welcome to the Leadership Levers Podcast.
I'm your host, will Gladhart,CMO at the Culture Think Tank.
At the Culture Think Tank, weempower leaders with metrics
that strengthen culture, driveperformance and return.
We're here today to learn aboutthe actions leaders have taken
to address organizational change.
(00:21):
Our guest today is Captain RickHoffman, CEO of Orion Solutions
.
Thanks so much for taking thetime to join us.
Captain Rick Hoffman (00:31):
Thank you Will.
Thanks for having me.
William Gladhart (00:33):
Yeah, I thought we would start by having
you share with our audience abit about yourself your
background and your organization.
Captain Rick Hoffman (00:53):
I'm a retired Navy captain.
I commanded two US Navywarships.
The Boston street sign behindme was given to me when I
visited the city aboard USS WadeCity in 2002.
Old sailors and put them on thepodium or on board the ship to
teach young sailors how to usetheir weapon systems and sensors
to fight their ship safely.
William Gladhart (01:08):
so they can grow up to be old sailors.
Captain Rick Hoffman (01:10):
What's my company do?
We make old sailors and rightnow some of our kids are in the
Red Sea, in the Gulf of Aden,fighting the Houdi rebels.
The USS Kearney and USS Hudnerare two of the ships that we've
done a lot of work trainingtheir combat systems.
That's what we do.
William Gladhart (01:25):
Yeah, that's amazing.
So we'll be discussing threequestions today as a warm-up to
start our conversation.
Would you share why you believea healthy culture is critical?
Captain Rick Hoffman (01:33):
Well, a healthy culture is essential for
, say, focus on the mission, forgetting the job done.
In my world I would call thatmorale.
Morale is the sum of how good Ifeel about my leadership, how
good I feel about my role in theteam, whether I'm trained,
given the equipment to do my job, whether I'm appreciated for
the contribution I make andwhether or not my efforts are
(01:53):
rewarded, and that there'sclarity in how I'm promoted and
how I'm rewarded.
It's harder to know how moraleis going than it is to have an
appreciation for how importantmorale is.
So morale is the cornerstone ofcombat readiness.
A healthy culture is thecornerstone of business
effectiveness.
William Gladhart (02:13):
I like that.
That's a really good way tothink about that.
What do you see as the biggestchallenge that leaders face when
addressing a challenge in anorganization, or what specific
level you're faced in your ownleadership in the military?
Captain Rick Hoffman (02:27):
Alignment.
Alignment is the key Having aclear vision and articulating in
such a way that everyoneunderstands exactly what the
mission is.
As an example, when I tookcommand of USS Way City in 2001,
she'd been a research anddevelopment ship for the Navy to
bring a new combat systemscapability to the fleet, and so
a lot of people had specificallyfound themselves on that ship
(02:49):
because the ship did not deploy.
She was not a warfighting ship.
My predecessor, understandingthat he had been part of that
earlier culture he could notaffect change, brought me in one
year to the day before we madeour first deployment back to the
Middle East after five years ofhiatus.
I had to turn the ship backinto a warship.
(03:09):
I had to get them out of theidea that they're going to go
home every single day.
They're going to spend thesummer with their families.
They're not going to make asix-month deployment.
And I had to get them aligned.
I had to beat down some very,very mature cultures and focus
them on making sure that theywere ready to fight.
The ship 9-11 occurred eightmonths after I took command and
(03:30):
as an alignment tool.
The result was my sailorsunderstood what I was doing and
why I was doing it, and theywere ready to go when we
deployed in January.
I'm in the midst of a bigchange right now.
I started my company.
We've got about 50 employees.
There's some inefficiency.
We don't.
We're not professional, we'renot entrepreneurs.
There's a lot we don't know.
We solve a lot of problemsthrough brute force.
(03:51):
I hired a consultant to come inand look at how we do business,
to build some controls and lookat our finances, because we're
making okay money, but there'ssome inefficiencies.
I have three very seniorretired Navy enlisted guys who
were the top of their field andhave a very high paying
themselves and I had to bringthem together and say guys, it's
not about ego, we got where wegot.
(04:12):
We need to fix it.
Don't go back and say explainhow you got where you got,
recognize that where we need togo is different than where we
are.
William Gladhart (04:20):
And every one of them gets it and we're
completely 100% on board on thisone where we are and every one
of them gets it, and we'recompletely, 100% on board on
this one.
Yeah, those are two verydifferent types of challenges
and you know, not only on themilitary side but also on the
running a business, and you knowbeing in that more
entrepreneurial mindset what doyou think that leaders can do to
address the challenge they arefacing?
Or you know what have you done?
Captain Rick Hoffman (04:39):
I think that they have to be open and
honest.
William Gladhart (04:42):
That's the biggest thing.
Captain Rick Hoffman (04:43):
A leader is going to lose the support and
the hearts and minds of theirteam if they're inconsistent, if
they don't have a validinterest in the well-being of
the organization, if they don'tfully realize that their actions
, their words, their deeds havean effect all the way down to
what I would call the deckplates the guys on the deck
plates doing the hard workplates the guys on the deck
(05:05):
plates doing the hard work.
The other thing is consistency.
I made a point early in my Navycareer.
I had a captain who everysingle day would come back with
some great idea and you'd haveto do a 90 degree turn and a 90
degree turn and he never gotanywhere.
I chose my team, I said I'mgoing to establish my priorities
today this was the first day Itook command and I'm going to
not change them without somethought, some conversation, and
(05:26):
then it will be deliberate overa period of time.
Basically, I establish thepriorities, stay focused and
keep articulating that, butdon't, by any of your actions,
undermine that which you saidyou were going to do or that
which you said was important.
Okay, so you can't say thatpeople are important and they're
not taking care of your people.
William Gladhart (05:46):
Absolutely, and and you know we, with the
type of research and work we doat the culture think tank it's
you know we specifically focuson the one behavior or the one
thing that the leader can do totake the next steps based on the
needs and feedbacks of theiremployees.
One thing I did want to ask youwe kind of had a quick in a
quick conversation before werecorded was you mentioned that
(06:08):
in the corporate world orbusiness world, you get to pick
the individuals that you workwith, or you get to pick the
individuals that might be yourright hand man or woman on the
job, and you noted that when youstep into a role, such as
changing the morale or theleadership in a ship, that you
(06:28):
get what you get, and so can youexpand on that just a little
bit?
I thought it was reallyfascinating.
Captain Rick Hoffman (06:33):
Well, that's right.
When I took command of USSWhite City, I had 400 young men
and women who had been there fora while.
My executive officer, thenumber two, the guy with whom I
have to pay place.
Somebody's got to be in chargewhen I'm sleeping, and I have to
pay place.
Somebody's got to be in chargewhen I'm sleeping.
And I have to trust that guy.
He was there when I got thereand then he was relieved by
someone else and I had to figureout first, how do I make them
align with my own ideals, my ownvalues and my own focus, my own
(06:55):
strategic vision.
How do I know when they're notbuying into that program.
How do I influence them to makesure that they are effective in
pushing my focus on my agenda,and that goes all the way down
to the deck place with mostjunior folks?
Not only do I have the value ofthe Uniform Code of Military
Justice to enforce my whim and,quite frankly, the Uniform Code
of Military Justice can mask badleadership.
(07:16):
I'm going to get results inmany cases despite my failure of
leadership, because they haveto do it the way I told them to
do it.
But at the same time, if youuse that as if you rely on that
first, you need to be aware ofit, and many aren't.
But, more importantly, you'vegot to recognize that it gives
you an advantage that you canmask.
(07:37):
It's a privilege, as it were,that you don't normally have in
the corporate world.
So you've got to bring themalong and once you get what you
get, you gotta make sure thatyou understand their strengths
and their weaknesses and youwork around them.
You elevate those folks whocompliment your leadership team
and you marginalize those guysthat are counterproductive.
William Gladhart (07:58):
Right.
Well, I think that can apply inany business situation where
you're looking to align yourteam, your staff, your
organization, to those sametypes of leadership values the
same direction, getting everyoneon the same bus.
So I really appreciate yousharing those thoughts.
Is there anything else thatyou'd like to add as a parting
thought for other leaders?
Captain Rick Hoffman (08:19):
Well, yeah , in the Navy, in fact in the
military, we place high value onleadership and we forget that
there's other issues that may ormay not be effective.
We also kind of denigrate theidea of management.
We're leaders, not managers.
Managers are like Britishnobility looking down on
shopkeepers.
Well, in my view, managementand leadership are the opposite
(08:40):
sides of the same coin.
You're looking through the samewindow in different directions.
I don't think I can lead apoorly managed organization, and
in the Navy in many cases Icouldn't control some of the big
management efforts that werehappening above me.
I don't own my schedule, Idon't own pay rate, I don't own
promotion.
I can influence those thingsbut I don't own them.
(09:00):
So I have to make sure thatwhere management's failing
externally, I need to make sureI understand that and
accommodate that in how I leadthe rest of my team, make sure
that the guys richly deserve toget promoted, get promoted in
spite of the program that theNavy operates.
The other thing that currentlywe've gotten in today's
political view we've fallen allover ourselves and politicizing
(09:23):
things that I think shouldn't bepoliticized.
As an example, here in Floridawe've really gotten really
unhappy about the issue ofdiversity, inclusion and equity.
And I think that equity andinclusion if you look at my
LinkedIn page Will you'll see alittle paper I wrote.
Equity and inclusion are.
They go back to your firststatement.
They are the logical outcome ofa good culture.
(09:45):
If I know that I'm going to getpromoted fairly, if I know what
the processes are for megetting rewarded for my work, if
I know that I'm going to behired based on my value to the
company and not by some othermeans, the result of that is
going to be good morale.
It's going to be cohesivenessin the workforce.
It's going to be productivityand efficiency based on
(10:07):
collaboration and cooperation,versus me directing actions to
take place.
The more I direct, the less Ican do for myself, the less I
can help the company.
Micromanagement is a leadershipfailure, but if I don't trust
you.
I'm going to micromanage you Ifyou don't trust me, you're going
to need to be micromanaged.
Let's not get fogged out aboutthe catch phrases and
(10:29):
terminologies, but understandthat it's important for everyone
on the team to realize the rolethey play and the importance
that they, that they have toeveryone else on the team and
you can't fake that it's got tobe genuine.
It's got to be absolutely,absolutely genuine.
I put my team together in 2008.
I've got the same four guys inmy headquarter staff, but we're
(10:49):
still here.
We're going to work togetheruntil one of us retires and I'm
the oldest one in the group, soI'm probably first to go Well.
William Gladhart (10:59):
I'm sure you've still got lots to
contribute to a lot of differentleaders and businesses.
So, Captain Rick, I've enjoyedhaving you on our Leadership
Levers podcast.
Captain Rick Hoffman (11:09):
Thanks Will Glad to help.
Bye-bye.
William Gladhart (11:13):
Thank you for joining us on the Leadership
Levers podcast.
Find all our Leadership Leversepisodes on the Culture Think
Tank website at www.
theculturethink tank.
com or listen on your favoritestreaming platform.
We'd love to hear from youabout the challenges you have
faced as a leader.
Tune in weekly as we inviteleaders to share their
(11:36):
experiences in strengtheningculture and performance, one
action at a time.
Welcome to the Leadership Levers Podcast.
I'm your host, will Gladhart,CMO at the Culture Think Tank.
At the Culture Think Tank, weempower leaders with metrics
that strengthen culture, driveperformance and return.
We're here today to learn aboutthe actions leaders have taken
to address organizational change.
(00:21):
Our guest today is Captain RickHoffman, CEO of Orion Solutions
.
Thanks so much for taking thetime to join us.
Captain Rick Hoffman (00:31):
Thank you Will.
Thanks for having me.
William Gladhart (00:33):
Yeah, I thought we would start by having
you share with our audience abit about yourself your
background and your organization.
Captain Rick Hoffman (00:53):
I'm a retired Navy captain.
I commanded two US Navywarships.
The Boston street sign behindme was given to me when I
visited the city aboard USS WadeCity in 2002.
Old sailors and put them on thepodium or on board the ship to
teach young sailors how to usetheir weapon systems and sensors
to fight their ship safely.
William Gladhart (01:08):
so they can grow up to be old sailors.
Captain Rick Hoffman (01:10):
What's my company do?
We make old sailors and rightnow some of our kids are in the
Red Sea, in the Gulf of Aden,fighting the Houdi rebels.
The USS Kearney and USS Hudnerare two of the ships that we've
done a lot of work trainingtheir combat systems.
That's what we do.
William Gladhart (01:25):
Yeah, that's amazing.
So we'll be discussing threequestions today as a warm-up to
start our conversation.
Would you share why you believea healthy culture is critical?
Captain Rick Hoffman (01:33):
Well, a healthy culture is essential for
, say, focus on the mission, forgetting the job done.
In my world I would call thatmorale.
Morale is the sum of how good Ifeel about my leadership, how
good I feel about my role in theteam, whether I'm trained,
given the equipment to do my job, whether I'm appreciated for
the contribution I make andwhether or not my efforts are
(01:53):
rewarded, and that there'sclarity in how I'm promoted and
how I'm rewarded.
It's harder to know how moraleis going than it is to have an
appreciation for how importantmorale is.
So morale is the cornerstone ofcombat readiness.
A healthy culture is thecornerstone of business
effectiveness.
William Gladhart (02:13):
I like that.
That's a really good way tothink about that.
What do you see as the biggestchallenge that leaders face when
addressing a challenge in anorganization, or what specific
level you're faced in your ownleadership in the military?
Captain Rick Hoffman (02:27):
Alignment.
Alignment is the key Having aclear vision and articulating in
such a way that everyoneunderstands exactly what the
mission is.
As an example, when I tookcommand of USS Way City in 2001,
she'd been a research anddevelopment ship for the Navy to
bring a new combat systemscapability to the fleet, and so
a lot of people had specificallyfound themselves on that ship
(02:49):
because the ship did not deploy.
She was not a warfighting ship.
My predecessor, understandingthat he had been part of that
earlier culture he could notaffect change, brought me in one
year to the day before we madeour first deployment back to the
Middle East after five years ofhiatus.
I had to turn the ship backinto a warship.
(03:09):
I had to get them out of theidea that they're going to go
home every single day.
They're going to spend thesummer with their families.
They're not going to make asix-month deployment.
And I had to get them aligned.
I had to beat down some very,very mature cultures and focus
them on making sure that theywere ready to fight.
The ship 9-11 occurred eightmonths after I took command and
(03:30):
as an alignment tool.
The result was my sailorsunderstood what I was doing and
why I was doing it, and theywere ready to go when we
deployed in January.
I'm in the midst of a bigchange right now.
I started my company.
We've got about 50 employees.
There's some inefficiency.
We don't.
We're not professional, we'renot entrepreneurs.
There's a lot we don't know.
We solve a lot of problemsthrough brute force.
(03:51):
I hired a consultant to come inand look at how we do business,
to build some controls and lookat our finances, because we're
making okay money, but there'ssome inefficiencies.
I have three very seniorretired Navy enlisted guys who
were the top of their field andhave a very high paying
themselves and I had to bringthem together and say guys, it's
not about ego, we got where wegot.
(04:12):
We need to fix it.
Don't go back and say explainhow you got where you got,
recognize that where we need togo is different than where we
are.
William Gladhart (04:20):
And every one of them gets it and we're
completely 100% on board on thisone where we are and every one
of them gets it, and we'recompletely, 100% on board on
this one.
Yeah, those are two verydifferent types of challenges
and you know, not only on themilitary side but also on the
running a business, and you knowbeing in that more
entrepreneurial mindset what doyou think that leaders can do to
address the challenge they arefacing?
Or you know what have you done?
Captain Rick Hoffman (04:39):
I think that they have to be open and
honest.
William Gladhart (04:42):
That's the biggest thing.
Captain Rick Hoffman (04:43):
A leader is going to lose the support and
the hearts and minds of theirteam if they're inconsistent, if
they don't have a validinterest in the well-being of
the organization, if they don'tfully realize that their actions
, their words, their deeds havean effect all the way down to
what I would call the deckplates the guys on the deck
plates doing the hard workplates the guys on the deck
(05:05):
plates doing the hard work.
The other thing is consistency.
I made a point early in my Navycareer.
I had a captain who everysingle day would come back with
some great idea and you'd haveto do a 90 degree turn and a 90
degree turn and he never gotanywhere.
I chose my team, I said I'mgoing to establish my priorities
today this was the first day Itook command and I'm going to
not change them without somethought, some conversation, and
(05:26):
then it will be deliberate overa period of time.
Basically, I establish thepriorities, stay focused and
keep articulating that, butdon't, by any of your actions,
undermine that which you saidyou were going to do or that
which you said was important.
Okay, so you can't say thatpeople are important and they're
not taking care of your people.
William Gladhart (05:46):
Absolutely, and and you know we, with the
type of research and work we doat the culture think tank it's
you know we specifically focuson the one behavior or the one
thing that the leader can do totake the next steps based on the
needs and feedbacks of theiremployees.
One thing I did want to ask youwe kind of had a quick in a
quick conversation before werecorded was you mentioned that
(06:08):
in the corporate world orbusiness world, you get to pick
the individuals that you workwith, or you get to pick the
individuals that might be yourright hand man or woman on the
job, and you noted that when youstep into a role, such as
changing the morale or theleadership in a ship, that you
(06:28):
get what you get, and so can youexpand on that just a little
bit?
I thought it was reallyfascinating.
Captain Rick Hoffman (06:33):
Well, that's right.
When I took command of USSWhite City, I had 400 young men
and women who had been there fora while.
My executive officer, thenumber two, the guy with whom I
have to pay place.
Somebody's got to be in chargewhen I'm sleeping, and I have to
pay place.
Somebody's got to be in chargewhen I'm sleeping.
And I have to trust that guy.
He was there when I got thereand then he was relieved by
someone else and I had to figureout first, how do I make them
align with my own ideals, my ownvalues and my own focus, my own
(06:55):
strategic vision.
How do I know when they're notbuying into that program.
How do I influence them to makesure that they are effective in
pushing my focus on my agenda,and that goes all the way down
to the deck place with mostjunior folks?
Not only do I have the value ofthe Uniform Code of Military
Justice to enforce my whim and,quite frankly, the Uniform Code
of Military Justice can mask badleadership.
(07:16):
I'm going to get results inmany cases despite my failure of
leadership, because they haveto do it the way I told them to
do it.
But at the same time, if youuse that as if you rely on that
first, you need to be aware ofit, and many aren't.
But, more importantly, you'vegot to recognize that it gives
you an advantage that you canmask.
(07:37):
It's a privilege, as it were,that you don't normally have in
the corporate world.
So you've got to bring themalong and once you get what you
get, you gotta make sure thatyou understand their strengths
and their weaknesses and youwork around them.
You elevate those folks whocompliment your leadership team
and you marginalize those guysthat are counterproductive.
William Gladhart (07:58):
Right.
Well, I think that can apply inany business situation where
you're looking to align yourteam, your staff, your
organization, to those sametypes of leadership values the
same direction, getting everyoneon the same bus.
So I really appreciate yousharing those thoughts.
Is there anything else thatyou'd like to add as a parting
thought for other leaders?
Captain Rick Hoffman (08:19):
Well, yeah , in the Navy, in fact in the
military, we place high value onleadership and we forget that
there's other issues that may ormay not be effective.
We also kind of denigrate theidea of management.
We're leaders, not managers.
Managers are like Britishnobility looking down on
shopkeepers.
Well, in my view, managementand leadership are the opposite
(08:40):
sides of the same coin.
You're looking through the samewindow in different directions.
I don't think I can lead apoorly managed organization, and
in the Navy in many cases Icouldn't control some of the big
management efforts that werehappening above me.
I don't own my schedule, Idon't own pay rate, I don't own
promotion.
I can influence those thingsbut I don't own them.
(09:00):
So I have to make sure thatwhere management's failing
externally, I need to make sureI understand that and
accommodate that in how I leadthe rest of my team, make sure
that the guys richly deserve toget promoted, get promoted in
spite of the program that theNavy operates.
The other thing that currentlywe've gotten in today's
political view we've fallen allover ourselves and politicizing
(09:23):
things that I think shouldn't bepoliticized.
As an example, here in Floridawe've really gotten really
unhappy about the issue ofdiversity, inclusion and equity.
And I think that equity andinclusion if you look at my
LinkedIn page Will you'll see alittle paper I wrote.
Equity and inclusion are.
They go back to your firststatement.
They are the logical outcome ofa good culture.
(09:45):
If I know that I'm going to getpromoted fairly, if I know what
the processes are for megetting rewarded for my work, if
I know that I'm going to behired based on my value to the
company and not by some othermeans, the result of that is
going to be good morale.
It's going to be cohesivenessin the workforce.
It's going to be productivityand efficiency based on
(10:07):
collaboration and cooperation,versus me directing actions to
take place.
The more I direct, the less Ican do for myself, the less I
can help the company.
Micromanagement is a leadershipfailure, but if I don't trust
you.
I'm going to micromanage you Ifyou don't trust me, you're going
to need to be micromanaged.
Let's not get fogged out aboutthe catch phrases and
(10:29):
terminologies, but understandthat it's important for everyone
on the team to realize the rolethey play and the importance
that they, that they have toeveryone else on the team and
you can't fake that it's got tobe genuine.
It's got to be absolutely,absolutely genuine.
I put my team together in 2008.
I've got the same four guys inmy headquarter staff, but we're
(10:49):
still here.
We're going to work togetheruntil one of us retires and I'm
the oldest one in the group, soI'm probably first to go Well.
William Gladhart (10:59):
I'm sure you've still got lots to
contribute to a lot of differentleaders and businesses.
So, Captain Rick, I've enjoyedhaving you on our Leadership
Levers podcast.
Captain Rick Hoffman (11:09):
Thanks Will Glad to help.
Bye-bye.
William Gladhart (11:13):
Thank you for joining us on the Leadership
Levers podcast.
Find all our Leadership Leversepisodes on the Culture Think
Tank website at www.
theculturethink tank.
com or listen on your favoritestreaming platform.
We'd love to hear from youabout the challenges you have
faced as a leader.
Tune in weekly as we inviteleaders to share their
(11:36):
experiences in strengtheningculture and performance, one
action at a time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!