If We Don't Learn From Our History...

Join me on a transformative journey to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where the historic battlefield becomes a powerful classroom for modern leadership lessons. Stepping away from our usual format, this special episode takes you inside the Marco's Leadership Institute, where military history and contemporary leadership science converge in fascinating ways.

• Click HERE to learn more about Diamond 6

HERE ARE MORE RESOURCES FROM REAL GOOD VENTURES:

Never miss a good opportunity to learn from a bad boss...

Click HERE to get your very own Reference Profile.  We use The Predictive Index as our analytics platform so you know it's validated and reliable.  Your Reference Profile informs you of your needs, behaviors, and the nuances of what we call your Behavioral DNA.  It also explains your work style, your strengths, and even the common traps in which you may find yourself.  It's a great tool to share with friends, family, and co-workers.

Follow us on Instagram HERE and make sure to share with your network!

Follow us on Twitter HERE and make sure to share with your network!

Provide your feedback HERE, please!  We love to hear from our listeners and welcome your thoughts and ideas about how to improve the podcast and even suggest topics and ideas for future episodes.

Visit us at www.realgoodventures.com.  We are a Talent Optimization consultancy specializing in people and business execution analytics.  Real Good Ventures was founded by Sara Best and John Broer who are both Certified Talent Optimization Consultants with over 50 years of combined consulting and organizational performance experience.  Sara is also certified in EQi 2.0.  RGV is also a Certified Partner of Line-of-Sight, a powerful organizational health and execution platform.  RGV is known for its work in leadership development, executive coaching, and what we call organizational rebuild where we bring all our tools together to diagnose an organization's present state and how to grow toward a stronger future state.

Send us a text

Episode Transcript

John Broer (00:02):
This is going to be a very different episode of the
Bossh ole Chronicles because I'mactually on location this week
recording this from Gettysburg,Pennsylvania.
I have the honor of being aguest at the Marcos Leadership
Institute and they do thisleadership training every year
and use the Battle of Gettysburgas a backdrop.
It's absolutely amazing.

(00:23):
Can't wait to tell you about it.
The Bossh ole Chronicles arebrought to you by Real Good
Ventures, the talentoptimization firm, helping
organizations diagnose theirmost critical people and
execution issues withworld-class analytics.
Make sure to check out all theresources in the show notes and

(00:44):
be sure to follow us and shareyour feedback.
Enjoy today's episode.
Okay, so this is a reallydifferent episode of The Bossh
ole Chronicles.
You've had our subject matterexpert episodes, our roundtables
, our new ones.
"You might be a Boss hole ifand this week I am a guest of

(01:05):
one of our clients, MarcosFranchising and the Marcos
Leadership Institute, becauseevery year they bring people out
to Gettysburg for theGettysburg Leadership Workshop.
Marcos partners with anorganization called Diamond Six,
and Diamond Six specializes inleadership and strategic
development with their clientsall over the country Actually, I

(01:28):
think all over the world, andfrom Diamond Six we are being
guided by its founder andleadership facilitator, colonel
Jeff McCausland, who is retired.
Colonel Jeff McCausland, whohas retired, and partnering with
him is a battlefield historian,Fred Wieners Colonel Fred

(01:49):
Wieners, who has also retired.
But it has been an amazing day.
I mean, I just got backunderstanding really, not only
what happened on July 1stthrough the 3rd in 1863, but,

(02:11):
more importantly, talking aboutthe leaders that were out in the
battlefield, not only in thebuildup of Gettysburg but also
during those three days.
I mean people that we have readabout in history from the Union
George Meade, joshuaChamberlain, john Buford, john
Reynolds, Strong Vincent, andthen, of course, from the
Confederate side, we havenotable military leaders Robert

(02:35):
E Lee, Jeb Stuart, JamesLongstreet, George Edward
Pickett and the like.
.
What I'm really taking away fromtoday and I think this is so
important for our managers andsupervisors out there who aspire
to be more effective leadersand remember our definition, our
distinction between managementand leadership management is

(02:57):
about having a position ofauthority over someone.
Leadership is really being in aposition of influence with
other people.
So in leadership it isn'tnecessary to have a hierarchical
position over somebody else,your influence, your effect on

(03:17):
other people to get them excitedor interested in some sort of a
cause, hopefully a good andmoral one.
And let's face it, rememberthere have been leaders in
history that have done horribleand atrocious things.
What I'm talking about are theleaders that had a solid moral
compass and embodied thosecharacteristics, those traits of

(03:39):
leaders, and other peoplegravitated to them, they were
bought in to the vision, themission, the direction that they
were taking.
So all of this to say that thisbattle serves as a backdrop, it
is a lens through history tolearn from the different leaders

(04:00):
in Gettysburg and what can weglean from that to our
leadership practices today?
And actually it's quite a lot.
Now I'm not going to go into allthe details.
Actually, I would encouragepeople to really do some
research and think about that.
But one of the cool things thatwe did, we actually took the

(04:21):
Science of Predictive Index,which we talk about, analyze and
theorize what would thereference profile be for these
key leaders at Gettysburg andthrough research and historic

(04:42):
articles, their own words,textbooks, accounts of these
famous people from history,military leaders from history,
it actually did come up withsome general idea of what their
reference profiles would be, andone particular pairing, if you
will, that I found fascinatingis Robert E Lee was probably

(05:02):
based on the AI analysis, morein the innovation and agility
grouping, and that's going to bewhere I am, you know, Captain,
Maverick, Persuader, Venturerand actually a little bit of
hint of maybe even Scholar,which is in the results and
discipline quadrant.
So if you're familiar with ourcompeting values matrix, as most

(05:25):
of you are, this is on theright-hand side.
So somebody who is comfortablewith risk, proactive, let's move
forward, let's advance.
And then one of his mosttrusted colleagues he referred
to him as the Old War Horse,James Longstreet actually came
back with our analysis as moreof a process and precision

(05:48):
individual having leadershiptraits that were more consistent
with process and precisionreference profiles, like the
Artisan or Guardian orSpecialist or Operator.
In other words, somebody who ismore collaborative, harmony
seeking, perhaps cautious withrisk and more responsive than
proactive.
Now, when we talk about head,heart and briefcase, remember

(06:11):
the briefcase is a person'scredentials, skills, abilities
that they've learned.
Well, these leaders, most ofthem both on the Confederacy and
the Union Army, went to WestPoint.
So they all had a very similarbriefcase the heart where
somebody's core values resideand their passions.

(06:32):
That's absolutely where westarted to see some distinction,
because you had Robert E Lee,who was invited to lead the
Union Army, the Army of thePotomac, and he declined that
and went to lead the ConfederateArmy because he was from
Virginia.
And then, when you get to thehead, where the behavioral data

(06:54):
lives, that's where we reallystart to see the difference.
The leadership DNA presentitself in very different ways.
And so you had Robert E Lee,you had Longstreet two different
ends of the spectrum, accordingto our theoretical research.
And as you look at theactivities or the events of July

(07:16):
1st through the 3rd in 1863,you absolutely see those
distinctions play out.
And it's just fascinating tothink about how we can look
through the lens of history tosome of the most significant
military events, certainly inAmerican history, and how do we
learn from the leaders that werethere?
What did they do well, what didthey do poorly?

(07:38):
How were their decisionsinfluenced by their leadership
DNA and should they have donesomething different?
Well, same can be said on theunion side with George Meade and
Chamberlain and Buford.
Just really remarkabledifferences.
So I just wanted to share withyou today that I was in this

(08:00):
immersive event, this immersiveexperience at Gettysburg, and
reminded about how important itis for our managers and our
supervisors to learn fromhistory not just their history,
but research and learn aboutleaders of the past.
What did they do well?
What did they do poorly?

(08:21):
How can we learn from them?
And then, at the core of beingan effective leader we've talked
about this self-awareness isthe number one competency of
being an effective leader.
So that's why PI is so powerfulto help you understand your
leadership DNA.
But that's not enough.
Emotional intelligence, theability to create psychological

(08:44):
safety within the team it allplays a role and we've actually
been seeing it through the lensof history play its role in
Gettysburg.
One last story, and I didn'tknow this, but after he finished
his second term as president ofthe United States, Dwight D
Eisenhower and his wife Mamieactually bought a farm adjacent

(09:07):
to Gettysburg.
And during an interview,apparently they were in the
library at the Eisenhower farmand he had just tons of books on
leadership.
And the interviewer inquired toPresident Eisenhower I mean,
this was a man who went to WestPoint, who had a highly

(09:29):
decorated career in militaryservice, led the entire Allied
force in World War II, movingthrough Europe to defeat the
Nazis.
He went to be the president ofa university I think it was
Columbia University after heserved in the military and then
he went on to be president ofthe United States.

(09:52):
And this guy you know asked himwhat do you read, you know?
And he said I read aboutleadership.
I think that really surprisedthe interviewer.
He said but you have such anextensive history of effective
leadership.
He said, yes, but I want tounderstand it better but also
understand if I could have doneit differently or done it better
.
So, in other words, authenticleaders never stop learning and

(10:23):
when they make leadership partof their study, I think
everybody can benefit.
So I hope this was of interestto you.
I'm nerding out a little bitbecause I of course do love
history and this has been just areally, really special treat.
So I thank my friends at Marcosfor the invitation and the

(10:44):
opportunity to be here and, ofcourse, the amazing work from
the team at diamond six.
Please go into the show notes.
I will put a link to diamondsix, to the website for Diamond
Six.
You can get to know them andthe work that they're doing.

(11:06):
And if you do not know yourreference profile, there's a
link in the show notes.
Find that out and let thatperhaps be the beginning of your
learning, your leadershiplearning and putting you on the
path of honing and refining yourown unique leadership approach.
And remember and refining yourown unique leadership approach.
And remember the most effectiveleaders are the ones that are
self-aware, because thatself-awareness allows them to
understand their strengths,their potential caution areas

(11:29):
and ultimately lead from aposition of strength.
So thanks for listening ineverybody, and we will see you
next time on the Bossh oleChronicles.
Thanks very much for checkingout this episode of the Bossh

(11:49):
ole Chronicles.
It was so good to have you hereand if you have your own Boss
hole story that you want toshare with the Bossh ole
Transformation Nation, justreach out.
You can email us atmystory@thebossholechronicles.
com.
Again,mystory@thebossholechronicles.
com.
We'll see you next time.