 Welcome to Keys to Success, which is live on the ThinkTech Live Streaming Network series weekly on Thursdays at 11am. We are your hosts. My name is Danilia, D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm the other half of the duo, John Newman. Welcome to today's show. The goal of this show is to provide professional and personal development tools and profound insights on how to achieve success in life, career and or business. We are very grateful for all the positive feedback we have received from viewers. One of the viewer comments from our last show was the show is another example of opening the hearts and minds of viewers that may get inspired to persevere a personal or business decision. You, our viewers and listeners, are our inspiration for the show. Adrian Alfonso, the owner of Aesthetic Dental Designs, was our guest on our last show and his words of wisdom can be accessed on Newman Consulting Services website, NewmanConsultingServices.com or our landing page, Danilia.org. Our thing for today is, I can, I will, end of story. Joining us today in the studio as our honored guest is Lieutenant General John A. Tulan Jr., United States Marine Corps Forces Pacific Commanding General. Mahalo for joining us today. Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. Well, we're going to put you to the test right away, General, okay? I know you've had an illustrious career. And I'd like to ask and have you share with our viewers. Why did you decide that you wanted to become a general and why? Well, I think the question is interesting because I don't think I really ever came in with the objective of being a general. In fact, and I know today that when you look at the people that we're selecting for positions of responsibility, you could probably fill the bus up with all the newly selected generals, run them over the cliff and find 16 more, 20 more new generals to just fill the hole. So it's not necessarily who you are. It's kind of a sharing of experiences and things that you bring with you that I think eventually kind of improves the institution. So I don't feel like my goal was to be a general. My goal was to be a really good Marine. All right. There you go. And you'll accomplish that. Yeah. I think, to some degree, I have, yes. So as you were on your path and you realized there might be an awkward chance that you might become a general. Was there any time during that time when you thought, when you had doubts about it? Well, you know, this interesting book that I'm sure you've probably read, Outliers. It's like, how do people become outliers in their community and their organization? And I think it's a mixture of people you know, people you meet, the timing. I mean, all these things come together. And I just feel like in my particular situation, we've been going through 15 years of kind of conflict. Oh, yes. With Afghanistan and Iraq. Yes. And during those times, really where I was and where I was located, I bloomed, I focused on my job, which turned into an opportunity to actually serve in some of those conflicts where on occasion, I did a good enough job where I got recognized and then just kind of carried it through until selection to promotion. There you go. Yeah. Great. That's great. I think so many individuals in your charge, how challenging was it for you to stay focused on the mission? That's a great question because I think, you know, this organization has 83,000 Marines. I have two-thirds of the Marine Corps out here in the Pacific. And that's done by purpose. I mean, the Marine Corps is out here in the Pacific because the Pacific is a very important area for the United States. But the only way I can do the job is by relying on my subordinates and making sure that in the Marine Corps, what we talk about is commander's intent. You understand generally what your intent, what your goal, what your priorities are. And then you let the commanders below you, the leadership below you, kind of disseminate that information. Right. You got to trust them. Yeah. Sometimes it's a leap of faith, particularly, you know, in some situations out here in the Pacific where a young Lance Corporal that does a 19-year-old Lance Corporal may do something that could have strategic implications. Right. But you got to sleep. Yeah. You know, you got to go to bed at night saying, I got good leadership out there. They're going to take care of those young men. Right. Okay. What is your leadership management style? Yeah. I think leadership and management are two different words, I believe. Management is doing the right thing, is doing things right where leadership is doing the right things. Right. And I believe that my effort, my focus is on doing the right things. And my leadership objective is, first of all, to make sure that I know myself. I know what my traits, characteristics, what are the things that I don't do well? I got to understand that. And so then I hopefully they can bring people in to help complement those weaknesses and then show up my own strengths. Second is I think I really got to make sure that the people who work for me know that I care about them. Yeah. They don't really need to know how brilliant I am, they just need to know how I care. Right. And quite frankly, sometimes I try to cloak some of that brilliance because it may not always be there. You're not modest at all. I see that. It's the second half of the question. So would you like to? Yeah. No, go ahead. Okay. So what part to visualizing and managing self-talk as far as, because you know, you had a lot going on and you really, really, you know, one of the big things is just as a small business owner it's hard to sleep at night, but you had like so much more under your command. And so how did visualizing self-talk, playing your decision making in high pressure environments? You know, that's interesting because what I talk about to my folks is that I have to help them understand where we're going. So I have to have a vision, but more importantly is I have to be able to transfer that vision to them because if it's just in my head it's not going to go anywhere. I got to make sure it's in their head. And so the good part about it is if you just think through that problem and you help them visualize, for example, when we crossed the berm into Baghdad, I needed them to understand what they were going to face, they were going to face, you know, fire, they were going to face civilian interference, they were going to face looting and burning in the city. So if I was able to transfer that image to them, then they go and do it. And they see, holy mackerel, what the boss told us he was going to see, we're actually seeing. Hey, he must know what he's doing. And so in that confidence and the leadership kind of just kind of just perpetuates itself. So what do you feel are a common organizational misperceptions between the civilians and the military personnel? I've thought about that. And I think that the fact that the military as a profession of arms is sometimes considered an organization that seeks to towards violence rather than peace. And I think that's a misperception because really until you've actually served in combat and served in conflict, then you understand you don't ever want to be in war. You want to avoid it at all costs. And so our objective is to make sure that we train hard, that we ready ourselves, that we deter by our presence in the Pacific, for example, conflict. But we never will be the last ones in line to actually recommend, hey, we got to go to war. I understand. Okay. You know, as you talk about leadership, you know, you need to have a lot of mental strength for leadership, I believe, because, you know, you've got so much that you're responsible for. So and also building a team is very important. Yeah. How do you build a team, General? Right. And, you know, how do you get everybody on board to your vision? It's selflessness, I believe. It's been, I use the analogy of the all blacks and the rugby team, you know, and now the reason why the all blacks are so good is because they're all selfless. I mean, there's nobody that throws a dirty towel on the ground and says, hey, somebody else will pick it up. They all take the responsibility to clean up after themselves. And it's just small things. Nobody's a hero. Nobody's a superstar. Everybody's kind of got their role to play. And when you put it all together, you get one heck of a team like the all blacks. And so I think that's an important aspect is self-teaching and encouraging and rewarding selflessness. And doing your tenure, what are some of the challenges that you were faced with? Oh, I think there's some big ones, but one of the ones that probably still weighs heavy on my mind is, you know, when we were going up into Iraq, I was I was the operations officer for the division. The individual that was in command of one of the combat forces was fired and I took his job. And I did it in the middle of combat. I had to actually fly up to Baghdad, join the unit, tell them I was their new boss. Very difficult in an environment where really nobody really knew me. And the past commander had already kind of earned the confidence of his people. But now he's gone. Somebody else is in charge. How do you get that organization moving? And I think the basis for that is that we had some common, we all had it came from a common foundation of being the United States Marine. We all had certain values that I think it was easier for me because I knew what was important to them. They knew it was important to me. So I think we could move on. And so that was a big challenge. I think it turned out okay. Thanks so too. All right, we're here. So General Dwight Eisenhower said the supreme quality for leadership is unquestionable integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is a section gang, a football field and an army or in an office. How do you feel about that? We owe it to our people. Yes. We owe it to them. They got to know that they can trust us. If our integrity is in question, then their well-being is not going to be of interest to the leader. And to be honest, our folks, our young Marines and sailors, they understand, they can tell when a leader really cares and when it's just kind of faking it. So it goes back to what I said. I mean, people really want you to know how much you care rather than care how much you know. What's interesting about this is the similarities between that form and the form in business because it just goes hand in hand. Everything you've talked about is exactly the way it is in business as well. And that's what we teach. We have a vocational school and that's what we teach. You have to speak from the heart to touch the heart and you have to care. I don't care what you know. I need to know that you care for me because you can't do for me, but you can care for me. Right. I think there's certainly things that can be learned from the military to the civilian community and to be quite honest, vice versa, I think we can learn from the civilian community how things work. The beauty of the military is that there's a starting point. You have to go through a screening process. There's a boot camp where we weed out those who we think don't have the resilience to survive through a combat environment or whatever. And then we have a process of promotion and all that. So I think it's pretty well understood. I think in the civilian community, one, people move from company to company, organization to organization, so they don't have that. They've got to figure out that foundation. What's making this organization tick? Where it's already understood in the military side of house. And so I think that's really a challenge for young leaders that move into the business community. It really is because that's one of the things that we talk about, how it's changed over the years because back in our day, it was the same model. But now it's very different. People are moving from job to job every six months and it's like starting all over again and not really creating that foundation. It's tough. The cohesiveness of a team is the key. Right. Absolutely. I mean, again, it's where I go back to the all blacks again. I mean, you wanted a team. You got to work all the parts together, not an individual. Absolutely. So, you know, looking back, what would you tell your, if you were 30 again, for example, I know you've got to think back. What would you tell yourself? I think way back. That was just a couple of years ago, General. Come on. What would you like to tell yourself back then from looking from today's perspective? Right. Not to worry about the future. Focus on the here and now, the today. Look to your job where you're sort of a bloom where you planted theory. Focus on that. If you start thinking about all the things in the future, life's going to go by. So true. And you won't benefit from the experiences that you had. I think the other thing, too, is you got to understand that when the job is over, you're still going to have your family. Right. And so you need to make sure that, yes, there's going to be sacrifices. You're going to make sacrifices. But that's OK, as long as you remember that you've got to take care of that family. Because when I retire, who's going to be there? My wife, my kids, you know, and that's really what's important. Interesting because that was what it was with John, too, when he retired. We're going to come back to that and talk a little more about that in a moment. Thank you so much. We're going to take a short break. This is keys to success on the Think Tech Live Streaming Network series. We're talking with Lieutenant General John Toulon Jr., who currently serves as the United States Marine Corps forces, Pacific's commanding general. Regarding our theme today, I can, I will end of story. My name is Danelia D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm the other half of the duo, John Newman. We'll be returning in a minute, so please stay tuned for more keys to success. Hey, you stand the energy man here. I know you're bored this summer. You're just sitting at home, figuring out what to do, go to the beach, spend some time with Think Tech Hawaii, spend the time thinking about how you can contribute to Hawaii and make it a better place to live, and start watching some of the programs on Think Tech, including Stand the Energy Man. Well, you'll learn all about everything energy, especially hydrogen and transportation. So we'll see you every Friday at 12 o'clock noon. Stand the Energy Man here on Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha. Aloha. I'm Chantel Seville, the host of The Savvy Chick Show. You can watch the show every Wednesday at 11 a.m. Honolulu time and enjoy how to be inspired and powered if you're a woman or girl. Everyone is welcome, but it's really dedicated to you. And we look forward to seeing you. You can also find us on ThinkTechHawaii.com. See you soon. Aloha. Aloha. How are you doing? Welcome to Ibaachi Talk. I'm here at Gordo the Tech Star on Think Tech Hawaii. I'm here with my good old buddy, Andrew, the security guy. Hey, everybody. How are you doing? Aloha. Good to have Andrew here in the house. Please join us every Friday from 1 to 130 and follow us up on YouTube. And remember, as we say at the end of every show, how are you doing? Welcome back. This is Keys to Success on the ThinkTech Livestreaming Network series. We encourage you to call our hotline at 415-871-2474 to join our conversation or tweet us at ThinkTechHI if you have any questions or comments. We've been talking with Lieutenant General John Tulan, Jr., who currently serves at the United States Marine Corps Forces Pacific's Commanding General regarding our theme today. I can, I will, end of story. My name is Danelia, D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm the other half of the duo, John Newman. Welcome back to the show. General Tulan, again, we're going to put you right to the test. What can a civilian business owner learn from the implementation of some of the things that we do in the military model? I think civilian business owners could probably look towards first the policy of screening and drawing in good recruits. What are you looking for? Understanding that there are certain things that you need in a person in order to do well in this job. And so you gotta have some kind of screening process. I think understanding the individual's family situation, their background, their schooling, all of that's important. Because all of those things, even the smallest, my new things, like did you play sports in high school or are vitally important to really understand that person. And I think you want to have a certain kind of people that you can count on and rely upon. And so that screening process is critical. I also think though, transitioning from the civilian community or from one job to another, you really have to hold their hand and walk them through it. Don't bring them into an organization, say here's your desk and go do your work. You need to check on them on a regular basis. You need to see how they're doing. You need to bring them in in the early stages because that's where you lose them. You lose them in that early stage. Because that's showing you care by saying, hey, how's the job doing? Why don't you come in and let's talk about some of your questions that you might have. So I think that's very important. And then I think probably the most important is to make sure that you are recognizing their talents and their skills by what you say and what you do. In other words, by what you accomplish, you give them and also maybe what's in their paycheck as well. I mean, I've seen it in the Marine Corps. If you want somebody to be a really good marksman, you offer $50 more extra in a paycheck for an expert, it's amazing in how the numbers will go up. And there's nothing wrong with one to increase the salary. I think that's a good incentive. Bonuses, yes, absolutely, absolutely. So what is the red team concept and how can it be applied to a business in the civil sector? Now, red teaming is something that we have tried to institute in all our planning. Is take the plan, now really put it to the test, throw every possible wrench you can into the plan, see whether or not that plan is resilient enough to withstand those wrenches. But what you need on a red team is you really need people that are totally disassociated from the organizational leadership. There can be no working for that individual. They have to be independent. If you're right in their evaluation, that's the wrong person. Because the red team's got to come in and they've got to be hard. They've got to tear your plan apart. They've got to look for the holes and then see how the other side responds. If we don't rehearse our plans, we'll find that we're going to make some serious mistakes. So it's a talent, it's a skill. You've got to have a special kind of person. Sort of the people that are somewhat pessimistic, people that always maybe see the other side of the coin, those are the people that you need. The contrarians as the Brits call them. Right, right. So in business, we always recommend to business owners and to others just in your life to have somebody or people in your life who will tell you the truth if you ask them a question and not just go with, oh yeah, you're doing fine. When in fact, no, you're not doing fine. You need to get back on course. It's very important. And in business as well to have, we have individuals that we work with that are in other states that we actually have teleconferences with and say, well, we're thinking about doing this. They tell us what they're thinking about doing. And then we shoot holes in it to work out the plan and get it down. And there's no question about the fact that you are very truthful about what you think about that. So yeah, that makes a big difference in business. The red teamers, the training that we give them is a large dosage of human behavior. You know, trying to figure out how do human behavior works, what are the variables associated? And those red teamers really do study that and then apply it into the decision-making process. Yes, yes, yes, critical. All right, now our show is keys to success. And we have a signature question that we ask all of our guests and I'll ask you the question now. What are your three top success habits if you share that with us, sir? I think my first most important habit is that I gotta do the homework, particularly as a leader. Oftentimes I'll find myself in a situation where I'm busy and I'm gonna get a brief on a plan and I don't read the materials. And so really what I'm showing the people that do all the work is it wasn't important. I'll wait for you guys to sit me down and try to work me through it. Where I'll waste their time and my time asking questions that I could have answered if I had done my homework. So I believe that I always get to my, I have to have a professional military education program. I gotta have a reading program. I gotta make sure that I'm staying ahead rather than lagging behind and waiting for my staff and my folks to keep me up to speed. So doing my homework I think has always paid off because one, it helps people realize I think their work is valuable, but two, is I save time and I really show that I care. I think the other thing is knowing my folks, knowing the people, making the habit of going to their spaces, their desks, their locations, not having them come to my palace, my throne, for me to go see them in their location and figure out, okay, what's their workspace look like, how are things, just really kind of taking an interest. Like this morning I went to a ship to visit 58 Marines that just came back from Tonga and Fiji. 58 guys, it's a small number of my total 83,000, but I can guarantee you that when they saw that I took the time to come and see what they've been living on, it's just shipped for three months. Hey, he cares. The difference, yeah. And then I guess probably the third habit is I gotta make sure that, and I don't know if you consider to have it, but I try to be positive. I try to not be negative. I don't want to tell everybody the sky is falling. Hey, the budget's been reduced, we're not gonna have any money. You know, I stay off of that. They don't need to know that. As long as they're getting a paycheck and they're getting to do their job, they don't have to worry about the worries that I have. And I think that that brings the spirit of camaraderie and laughter, which are good things. And faith, right? Absolute faith, because if the leader starts falling apart that everybody starts falling apart because then it's like, what do we do now? You've got to be strong as a leader. No matter what you're feeling inside, just gotta be strong. So I want to get back to a little bit to the retirement thing, because I think this is really important. As far as when there are a lot of military individuals, not any military individuals, but also civil sector individuals, really have a challenge changing the mindset to go into retirement, because we've been working 70 hours a week for how many years? 40. 40 years. But it's like, how do you wrap your mind around that? And one of the things you mentioned was family, which is extremely important. And how do you mentally transition into that? Right. Well, you have to walk away and retire and realize that you're not going to be getting the phone calls and emails, and that in fact, you may be tapping your blackberry, saying, how come nobody's sending anything? And you could be disturbed by that, or you could be satisfied that, okay, we're slowing down. There's other things you can do. I still think that in retirement, you need to have in your mind, how can you still give back something? Because, let's face it, you're not going to forget all the things you learned over 40 years. And just like we're doing here, I mean, there are people we can continue to mentor and share that information. So I hope to be able to stay busy with that. But I know also too that there have been times when I've talked to some folks who keep telling me the same old story. I don't want to get to that point. Right, right, right. All right. So, you know, we're wrapping up. We've got one more question you can ask. Well, that went too quickly. What I'd like you to do, General, if you would, what council would you give our viewers and listeners to help them in their case, move along with their case to success? Well, I guess, going back to the early part of our session here, I think trying to understand your strengths and your weaknesses and making sure that you're aware of them. That self-awareness is something, I derived it from the Jesuit tradition of knowing yourself. And when you do, then you know where you need help and where you can go off on your own. I am absolutely convinced that humility is a big part of this leadership business. If you come on, you could be a motivator and enthusiast and all that kind of stuff, but in the end, it's not about you. It's about the organization. And when you were able to transmit that by your actions to the people who work for you, I think you got championships coming down the pike. Thank you so much, General. Thank you so much. Well, we're out of time. We'll have to wrap it up. I know that John would like to share a quote. Oh yes, if you say so, my dear. I'd like to share a quote in closing from Western Churchill. And he said, destiny is not a matter of chance. It's not a matter of choice. It's not a thing to be waited for. It's the thing to be achieved. Thank you all. Aloha.