 Following the chain of command and answering all those decision makers questions when we're trying to get something done can be really frustrating sometimes. But there are some advantages to us personally for sticking to it. Welcome back and congratulations on taking one more step towards becoming one of the great leaders of tomorrow. Following the chain of command can be a slow and painful process, but there are some advantages for doing it. So today I'm going to give you three ways you can think about following and respecting the chain of command that are beneficial to your career. And stay tuned to the end, I'm going to give you a link that will let you download our free Leadership Development Plan Workbook that will help you start making long-term career goals and plans and get your career to where you want to go. While I was in the Air Force, one of my assignments was to do rapid prototyping and testing of capabilities you wanted to get out in the field quickly. And because we were doing things that were very high risk, we had to go through a lot of levels of the chain of command in order to get approval for these projects. And it was really frustrating to me at first, but over time I learned that I was actually getting a lot of career advantages by spending this time with the chain of command and learning what the interests of each of these decision makers along the way was. So if you feel like you're hitting your head against the wall trying to get something through your boss or your boss's boss, I'm going to give you three tips and ways you can kind of think about this in your mindset to show that these are really advantages to you in your career. Benefit number one is that it improves our critical thinking. Bosses and decision makers ask a lot of questions and I know it's super annoying sometimes, but they're really just looking out for the best answer for the organization. And so answering these questions helps us develop the best possible solution for the organization and the people we're trying to serve. It may not be the best or most convenient solution for you, but it'll help you recognize what the interests of the organization are and the perspectives of others that you might need to incorporate into your solution. Now pay attention to the decision makers and the questions they ask. If you hear the same questions getting asked over and over again from project to project, this should help you build a database in your head of what a particular decision maker is concerned with and what their interests are. And when you come back with another project, you can be prepared to answer that question and get through your approval process much easier. So now that you're thinking about those questions that these decision makers are going to ask and how you're going to solve their problems before they even know they have one, you may be saying, how do I find the answers to these questions before the boss even has the question? And that's where benefit number two comes in. And when you follow the chain of command, when you have to answer these questions the decision makers are asking, benefit number two is you're going to build strong relationships with other people in other parts of your organization. When you're putting together a project, what you want to do is you want to go see how it's going to affect other people in the parts of your organization. So go get to know people in the other departments, whether that's finance, accounting, engineering, sales, whatever it is, go get to know these people and when you're putting together a new project, go kind of talk to them informally about what you're thinking of putting together and see how it affects them. Once you understand that, now you can factor that into your solution. When you go in front of the decision makers, whatever level of the chain of command, now you've got the answers to those questions that you already know they're going to ask. The best part about building these relationships today is it ties right into benefit three, which is preparing you to be a great boss someday. Learning about the problems your chain of command has and the things that they need to solve up at their level, that gets you thinking about those problems today and how you might solve them. And also, building these relationships and having them in place when you get to a position of greater responsibility will just help smooth your transition and be able to make those decisions a little better and a little easier. So there are your three ways that you can shift your mindset and think about working through your chain of command as a benefit to you and your career and not thinking about it as a burden. And this applies even if you're not planning and staying in the same job forever. Once you develop those critical thinking skills and once you develop the skills to build those relationships across departments and get that information in to help you build solutions, you'll have those skills with you for the rest of your life and that'll help you become one of the great leaders of tomorrow. If you found this helpful, please like, comment and share it with a friend or co-worker. If you have any business or leadership questions, email us at info at EvilGeniusLeadership.com or just put it down in the comments, we'll get you an answer. EvilGeniusLeadership.com is also where you can find out more about our coaching programs if you're looking for some more one-on-one training to tackle the specific things that you might be having a problem with. Thanks for watching today. I really appreciate it. And remember, the future is out there. Lead the way.