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Transcript

Intro/Outro: Welcome to the insurance leadership podcast, the podcast designed to bring you perspectives and principles from leaders in the life and health insurance industry. We trust you will enjoy today's episode.

Ryan Eaton: Welcome to another episode of the insurance leadership podcast. I'm Ryan Eaton, your host, and honored to have you listening in. Today we have Bobby Harrington with us and he's going to be here talking to us about leadership and he brings a totally different perspective. Something from the military, something from college football, something from working with a fortune 100 company for over 35 years.

It's going to be a great perspective. He's also the author of a book called Lead You, really focusing in on personal development and personal accountability. So with that, we're going to go ahead and get started today. Bobby, welcome to the show, buddy. 

Bobby Harrington: Thank you. Glad to be here. I 

Ryan Eaton: well, look, we're excited to have you on.

What I do with all of our guests, I ask everybody to give us a little kind of intro into yourself. You've got an awesome resume from experience with the Marines, with college footballs, all the different stuff. Would you mind kind of walking us through that as well as kind of your family dynamics? 

Bobby Harrington: Yeah, sure.

 Thanks Ryan. You know, my background does span sports, martial arts, the military, private business, and working for a Fortune 100 company is where I retired from just last, last month. So not unlike most folks that grew up in the South, you know I'm from a small family. Small immediate family, but, but large, you know, extended family.

You know how it is, right? 

Ryan Eaton: I do. 

Bobby Harrington: And throughout grade school and high school, I played sports. My favorite sport was football, obviously love football. And that's what I thought it would eventually become, was a football player, but you know, that didn't quite work out, but you know, I really enjoyed that.

And from high school. I went on to college and played football for one semester and, you know, quickly found out that there were others that were a lot better than I was. I don't know if you remember who Jackie Harris was, but he's one of the great tight ends in the NFL. He played on that team one semester I was in college and, you know, after he drug me about 15 yards, I figured out that, you know, I wasn't going to make it.

So, you know, that was funny, but not funny. And after that, you know, life sort of took me to the to the Marine Corps. My father had a background in the military, being in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam three times. So, you know, I thought that was a good option. I would explore, you know, what that had to offer and, you know. Extremely glad I did, you know, sort of set the tone for my, the rest of my life.

You know, family dynamics you know, again, came from a small, you know, immediate family, large extended family. Married now, my kids are both grown, became empty nester last month too. So, you know, going through a bit of a transition with retiring, empty nester. You know, standing up a couple of businesses.

So that's kind of where I'm at right now. 

Ryan Eaton: Man. That that's a lot in one month, all the kids out of the house, retiring. You have any fun trips planned? 

Bobby Harrington: You know, actually I might go to South Africa. One of my last assignments was in Skravos, Nigeria, and I worked with a lot of South Africans and. You know, South Africa is really a beautiful country and even some of the bordering countries like Namibia.

And, and places like that, you know, you can go on safaris and, and kind of see the, the nicer part of Africa. 

Ryan Eaton: I'll tell you this and I don't wanna get too far off point, but I went to Botswana years ago and we went in August and it was the, the river that was there, the Okavanga Delta, I believe it was called.

And it was like the Lion King when everything was dried up around and they all had to come to the one spot to have water and food. It was absolutely gorgeous. So while you're over there, I would highly recommend you check that out too. So how old are your kids? What are your kids doing now? 

Bobby Harrington: Right. So my daughter's 26.

Laura Lee, she's working at UT McGovern preparing for medical school. She's working with little babies and watching the heart surgeries and stuff like that and doing research, clinical research. My son, he was playing college baseball. He's done with that. He's out in California now, and he's trying to be an actor.

Ryan Eaton: Oh man, that's awesome. Well, good for them. That sounds like two successful kids, which is great. 

Bobby Harrington: Yeah, they're trying. They're working hard. 

Ryan Eaton: Well, look, bobby, we're, we're here on the insurance leadership podcast, right? And you didn't say a thing about insurance, obviously. And so one of the things though that you're here to talk about is leadership.

You just got through and done writing a book, came out, lead you. Phenomenal book. It was able to read through it a little bit over the past week or so. And some great points in there was very meant a lot to me, but before we kind of get into the leadership side, like how long did you spend thinking about this book?

How long did it take you to write it? What was your passion kind of with, with putting it all together? 

Bobby Harrington: Yeah, no, first and foremost, thanks for that compliment. You know, it's always good that, you know, people got one or two things, you know, from the book, that's kind of the mission there. Yeah. So 34 years of experience, you know, being privileged to lead other people, you know, I really wanted to pass on the knowledge and approach I have to others who, who may be starting their leadership journey.

I was lucky, you know, I had parents that taught leadership, not formally, but you know, they were leaders, no two ways about it. And then, you know, playing football and having good coaches that were leaders. And then to top all that off, you know, being in the Marine Corps. You know, they teach leadership a certain way and it all begins with self leadership, right?

That's right with leadership traits and principles, you know, the ones you see there in the book and you know a few years back I said, well, okay, I'm approaching, you know a retirement phase didn't know exactly when I was going to retire, but I'm I'm approaching. So what can I give back? And what can I do that?

You know, I've had a lot of repetitions that so well, you know, I'd like to write down my thoughts. So then I started doing research. And, you know, the first research I did was I went to Amazon, right? And there's over 60, 000 titles on leadership. Is there really? Wow. Okay. I really had to do a lot of thinking, you know, yeah.

I didn't want to write just another high minded leadership book. So I said, okay, let, let me pull on my experience. And so that brought me back to where I started, you know, with you know, football and the Marine Corps and specifically the Marine Corps. So, you know, as I start the book with, with all those traits, you know, I have 16 traits in there, but the Marine Corps taught us 14.

I added, you know, compassion and accountability because I sort of learned that along the way, you know, to effectively lead. Yourself and people most importantly, you know, you definitely have to have some element of compassion and empathy and, you know, accountability. Man, it's everything. A hundred percent.

You know, when you're leading yourself to build trust and leading others. So that's kind of how I arrived at lead you. 

Ryan Eaton: Okay. Well, so speaking of accountability, how did you handle it? Were you one of those ones who are really good at deadlines and you said, Hey, I'm gonna start now. I'm going to be done in the next two months writing this book. 

Did you kind of go on a trip for a week or two, just isolate yourself or do you spend certain hours a day? I think it was John Grisham said I write 400 words a day and that's what he does. I thought that was pretty interesting, but how did you write your book? Had you come to the the process of it?

Bobby Harrington: Before I had no idea, but part of the, the process of the company that I wrote the book through is that you visit Austin, Texas for three days and you go to a workshop. Okay. And let me tell you what, this workshop is out of sight. It's not just a functional workshop, but like, you know, and information share.

You know, you can't help but, you know, have some of your own stories in there, so it forces you to dig, you know, for the truth, but back to the process of writing the book, you know, they recommended 300 words a day, so, you know, that was my target. I wouldn't say I'm, I'm naturally gifted at deadlines, but rather I work hard to cultivate an ethic.

You know, whatever I want, I'm going to have it, but I have to prioritize, so I challenge myself in that way, you know, so I, I wrote anywhere from 300 to 1, 000 words a day for six months. Wow. And I wrote during lunch, at night. On time off on airplanes in airports everywhere to make the six month, you know, deadline.

Ryan Eaton: Wow. Well, good for you and that's awesome. I want to ask you about one more thing before we jump into kind of the leadership topic, your time in the military, I know it had a huge impact on you on leadership and it's had on so many people, just their personal discipline and personal accountability as well, which is one of the things I really want to hit on your book.

But you were in the military for four years. Give us a little summary of your experience in there. What are some of the biggest things you've learned? Tell us a little bit too on kind of what was that transition like coming back from military life where everything is so focused? And everything is so disciplined to coming back to, I guess you would call it the civilian world where there's not a lot of discipline out there.

What was that transition like and, and how did that impact you? 

Bobby Harrington: I guess I'll start with bootcamp. Bootcamp was certainly an eye opener. You know, I was prepared for it and having, you know, suffered through two days playing football in August in South Louisiana. 

Ryan Eaton: Yeah. 

Bobby Harrington: And you know, my parents were taskmasters and, you know, so I had an element of discipline, but the Marine Corps, I mean, it's a whole nother level, right?

It can be, and it is a well oiled machine, you know, I mean, there are follies, you know, here and there, but, you know, by and large, you know, everyone knows their job and knows it extremely well. And, you know, those leadership traits and the discipline, you know, is part of that. And that's why I learned that in highly effective teams, there's high accountability.

If you didn't do something, you were told very immediately and very directly. That, Hey, you know, this is how to do it, or you need more training on this. And most of the time, you know, believe it or not, it was direct, but constructive. You know, so that was sort of the eye openers. Then, you know, the happenings. I spent a year in Okinawa, which was very, very unique and, and interesting. Part of that year was six months in the Philippines and Subic Bay and stuff like that.

So I was able to attend jungle environment, survival training. That was probably one of my more favorite classes that I had in the Marine Corps. It was five days, sort of, in the jungle and basically you--

Ryan Eaton: did you have food when you went out there? Did they give you a pack of food or was it good luck finding your food for the next five days?

Bobby Harrington: Good luck finding your food, but...

You know, before you go to the training, they take you to this small zoo, right? Where you see the monkeys and you know, different things, but you know, in that zoo are, are cobras, right? And I don't know if you know a lot about cobras, but a cobra can stand up, you know, half as tall as it is long, right? So for cobras, you know, say eight feet long, it could stand four feet up, right?

Ryan Eaton: Wow. 

Bobby Harrington: And when, when you see a cobra was sort of doing this, it's, you know, it's a little bit eerie. 

Ryan Eaton: Yeah. 

Bobby Harrington: And then the next day, you know, you're going into the jungle, right? 

Ryan Eaton: Everything that moves, you're kind of looking at a little bit closer. 

Bobby Harrington: So exactly. And I don't know if you heard the term triple canopy. 

Ryan Eaton: I haven't.

Bobby Harrington: Right. So that means you know, sort of level of the density of vegetation in the jungle. And when you get into triple canopy, it's like nighttime, right? It could be 12 noon in the daytime, but it looks like night. 

Ryan Eaton: Wow. 

Bobby Harrington: So, you know, you're holding on to the person in front of you going up and down and, you know, all these things. But our guides on that training and our instructors were Negritos, right? The indigenous people in from the Philippines before the Spaniards, you know, got there and look, they knew every inch of the jungle. They knew what vines to get water from, you know, they knew how to kill bamboo bats. 

We cooked rice in you know, in bamboo stock. This is a very neat experience. And you know, it, it really was my first test and perspective on survival. Right. Cause it's like you go in there. I mean, that's why they call it jungle survival environment training, but you go in there with nothing. Right. And you basically live off the land. 

Ryan Eaton: Wow. Well, that's impressive.

Thank you for your service, first of all, that that's pretty awesome. You hear that and you just realize how I'm gonna call myself a pansy, but how, how weak, how weak we are when you hear stories like that. That's, it's pretty awesome. So thank you. 

Bobby Harrington: Yeah. I mean, we, we think we're tough until we go to those types of things.

Ryan Eaton: That's right. Those environments 

Bobby Harrington: can go really quick. 

Ryan Eaton: That's exactly right. 

Bobby Harrington: But, you know, to build on that, after I left Okinawa, I was assigned to 29 Palms Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center. 

Ryan Eaton: Okay. 

Bobby Harrington: And shortly after that was Desert Storm. So I was in Desert Storm for a little over three months and that didn't, it didn't last, you know, very long, but you know, that that gave me a, you know, three month of limited view into the realities of war.

You know, it was, it was a lot, the Gulf War was a lot different than the global war on terror that we've had for the last 20 years. It maybe concluded last year, whatever. But still, you know, we, we constructed an EPW camp, right? So we, we processed all the Iraqis, you know, that were captured. And that gives you a view into the human side of, of war, man.

Ryan Eaton: Well, that's tough. That.. I appreciate, appreciate you sharing that and everything you did for our country and all the military and veterans out there. It's, it's awesome. The sacrifice y'all make. So thank you again for that. I appreciate it. 

Bobby Harrington: Ah, your welcome. My privilege. 

Ryan Eaton: Well, let me hop into some of the leadership stuff with you now today.

I want to jump in. One of the main sections I want to hit on today is kind of personal development accountability, but I got kind of some quicker questions for you to start with, if that's okay. So one of my first ones is, do you think everyone has the ability to lead? 

Bobby Harrington: Yeah. You know, that's a good question.

And I would say everyone has the ability to lead themselves. Yep. You know, we all control our thoughts, decisions, choices, you know, and actions. That's right. You know the other side of that is I would say there are some people Who do not belong, you know, leading others you know, we can all lead ourselves and you know, if we have people skills and we're collaborators and we're constructive, then we've got a good shot at leading others, you know, plus if we've got a really strong desire, right?

That's right. But there are definitely some people that. That don't belong in charge of other humans. 

Ryan Eaton: Yeah, that's, that's one of the things I wanted to ask you about a little bit because no one ever talks about, you know, people who don't need to be leaders, right? You hear all this stuff about leadership and, you know, how to be a better leader and how to be an effective leader and all this.

You know, there's some people with their character traits and just how they treat people and how they act and their self discipline. It's like, man, you do not need to be in leadership, you know? So I want to hit that in just a little bit. Let me ask you this. We're kind of looking at someone looking at people from a leadership standpoint.

Do you think that we're born with leadership skills or do you think it's kind of the environments that we grow up in? How do you think people develop those leadership skills quicker than other people 

Bobby Harrington: do? Yeah. Some people are predisposed. Right to be leaders right now some element of drive. That's right some element of you know charisma stuff like that But you know leadership is something that has to be taught First I sort of I asked people to check what kind of drive they have because you know to be a leader and do it Day in day out do consistently, you know, we're never gonna be perfect.

But you know, you always have to have that desire To put others before yourself. That's right. Right? And that's a hard thing. It is. And it's hard for everyone. But it's, you know, it's something that people need to sort of come to terms with. Yep. Also, I would say... What kind of resilience and endurance do people have, right?

Because the leader's journey, you know, it's long and it never ends. You know, I had 34 years, you know, until I retired and I never felt like I was perfect. There was always more to learn. So, you know, that takes a lot of resilience, you know, even at Senior level or mastery. You're going to have some days where you asked yourself, man, what was that?

Yep. You know, what kind of performance did I turn into? 

Ryan Eaton: That was great. You know, I love how you said drive. That is something that I don't necessarily always hear people peg. That is just. One characteristic of leadership, but I would agree with you. I think drive is something that inspires other, right? You setting the goal, setting the vision, you know, you hear it kind of said in those ways, but really drive as a, as an underlying factor of the vision to kind of press forward.

So if someone does not know, I tell my team all the time, I said, look, everyone is a leader, you know, whether you're leading your families, whether you're leading yourself, whether you're leading the softball team for your kids, whether. It's your neighborhood watch program, right? Like, we all have some sort of capacity that we can lead in.

If someone doesn't realize what leadership skills they have or they possess, how would you kind of tell them to kind of maybe look and analyze to be able to figure out what their leadership skills are? 

Bobby Harrington: There's actually six questions and you'll see them there in the book. 

Ryan Eaton: Yep. 

Bobby Harrington: First one is do you have the grit to make disliked decisions? 

Right, because you know part of being a leader is being sovereign, right? And having values because like if you waver every time you get challenged, Well, then you're not making an impact and what's different about you as as a leader The other one is are you willing to embrace self awareness?

And the demands of a self leadership, right? Like being a leader is always being self aware your appearance, your bearing, your tongue, you know, stuff like that. Yeah, and you know, there's demands, you know, like before you go to work or in your military before you you're with your team You have a family.

There's so many other elements of life, right? So it's very demanding. Mm hmm. Are you willing to take accountability for your actions and decisions? Right. If you make a bad decision, as a leader, you have to take accountability. That's right. You know, if you point at others, you're automatically discredited, right?

Yep. Which goes back sort of to trust. It's very hard to gain trust, very easy to lose it. And it's one of those things that you sort of have to always build and protect. And here's the thing, too. Are you willing to struggle for self improvement? Right. Because at some point you get, you get to the point of diminishing returns, but you know you have, there's more you can do as a leader.

And that's kind of when the struggle comes. You know, I've found like the last five to seven years of my career were the hardest. You know, because. I had mastered so many things over 28 to 30 years, right? Right. But I wanted to get better. You know, every day I woke up, I wanted to get better as a leader and you know, that, that can be a struggle.

And last I would say, you know, are you willing to build and protect trust with yourself and others? Right. Cause going back to leading self, it's very hard to trust others if you don't trust yourself. So you kind of have to protect your self trust and, you know, keeping your self trust is Doing the things you say you're going to do day in and day out, right?

Your family, your belief system, your finances, right? Your, your physical, your physical health, right? And that's the bear. You know, it's kind of a bear to, you know, keep up with all that. That's right. 

Ryan Eaton: I got a mentor of mine who told me, he said, do the things you need to do when you need to do them. Then there will come a time that you can do the things you want to do when you want to do them.

And he talked about that personal accountability. I love that statement. And you talk on trust as well. I think it was Warren Buffett, who's the one who said it takes 20 years to build a reputation. And 20 seconds to lose it. And that's one of the truest quotes I've heard. And as a leader, you got to remember that you can't have downtime.

You can't, you can't let your guard down and you can't let your character drop. Otherwise it could ruin what you built up into that point. 

Bobby Harrington: Man, I've seen that movie play out so many times in 34 years. And again, you know, I'm not perfect. You know, I've had my... My struggles, you know, where I've drifted, but that, that is a true statement.

You know, that's why it's important to protect trust. 

Ryan Eaton: Well, let me hit the point that I've been most excited to kind of hit with you, the kind of the personal development, personal accountability. You know, I have to assume that the Marines, you were already disciplined with football and two a days and, you know, early morning workouts growing up as a kid, I have to know the Marines kind of helped discipline you there, but when it comes to personal accountability and.

Self discipline, what would you say are the biggest factors there as a leader? Why you have to have them? Why it's so important to kind of make sure that's in kind of your everyday routine of improving and getting better. 

Bobby Harrington: The answer to that question or the hardest traits, you know, to master. So first, you know, let's look at the psychological tool set, right?

I would say emotional control is number one, right? Keeping your bearing in all situations is very important because people are looking at you. That's right. You know, not only your subordinates. Your peers, but you know, superiors, you know your supervisors, you know, what have you, however you want to, you know, term those people.

And if you don't keep your bearing in certain situations, you know, that could lead to lack of opportunities, right? That's right. So, you know, cause a lot of time in business, people will try to elicit an emotional response. And nine times out of 10, especially probably the last 10 to 15 years of my career, I just, you know, wouldn't want to give them any kind of emotional response, you know, so emotional control, you know, managing focus and compartmentalization would probably be next.

I mean, a lot of people say manage time, but it's more about managing focus. 

Ryan Eaton: Yeah. So when you say, let me ask you a question off that, so you talk about managing focus, managing time. I agree with you. We, we actually just got out of a meeting a little bit ago this morning, we were talking about. Kind of some of the things, you know, when things are going good, sometimes distractions can show up at your doorstep dressed like opportunities.

That's not my quote. That's someone else's quote, but I loved it. And we got into talking about focus and time and discipline with your time, but really it came back to the focus hit on that. Why, why it's so important to have something you're focused on and not 20 different things where you kind of like.

Let all the balls drop because you're trying to do so many things but really kind of hammering it on Maybe one or two key goals key focuses key visions for whether it's leading yourself your company or your family Whatever the case may be. 

Bobby Harrington: Yeah, so the whole idea about leadership is to be effective.

Ryan Eaton: Okay, that's right so 

Bobby Harrington: if I can push the ball two yards doing 20 things Or I can push the ball 15 yards, doing one or two things very well. 

Ryan Eaton: Yeah, that's good. 

Bobby Harrington: Right. So, you know, I learned so many things, and like, at the end of my career, I wish I would have known earlier, right. Or, you know, had that self awareness, but like probably the last five to seven years of my career, I pick one to three things a day to do extremely well.

And it usually ended up as one, right. 

Ryan Eaton: Yep. 

Bobby Harrington: Or, or two sometimes, but usually one. Right. And I found that I got way more mileage from focusing on one thing and doing it extremely well, something that could, you know, quote unquote, you know, move the needle, right. Or move the ball. That's right. And you know, there's temptation in that, right?

So we all have lists, right? We do all these prioritizations and seriatim. And it's easy to reach down to the bottom and get one of those easy ones, right? To make yourself feel good to get that dopamine. Oh, I finished that. That's right. But, you know, for me, really, I wanted to attack the hardest things first.

And focus on one to three things. And again, it always came back to one that I could do very well. 

Ryan Eaton: Well, that's good. So what did you do when you set goals, right? You set maybe a quarterly goal or an annual goal and you have more than one goal, right? Typically when you're setting quarterly or annually, you may have one or two for your financial.

You may have one or two for you know, physical goals or mental goals or whatever the case may be. What does your goal setting process look like? 

Bobby Harrington: It depends on the goal, but largely I work with the end in mind. So in other words, what does good look like to me, or what does good look like to my customer?

How do they define success? And then I'll back engineer into manageable sub goals. In some corporate circles, you may have heard it called strategic blueprinting. Right? Where you have success, and then what's the last step before success? And then finally you get back to the origin, like where am I at? I find that, you know, it's an easy exercise, and the reason I do that is it provides clarity.

It helps me align my resources I might need. And, moreover, it develops a line of sight where I can set personal accountability mentally. Right. Instead of like having a goal and say, okay, every day I'm going to wake up and just work towards that goal. Well, for me, that doesn't work. I have to set up small sub goals, right.

That are manageable that I can actually achieve and not always have the end in mind. I think that's the pitfall of goals and dreams. People always thinking about the end state. That's right. When we should break them down into smaller sub goals, right? You're more likely, you know, to get to the top of the mountain.

Ryan Eaton: We say all the time, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time, right? That's kind of one of those. So, if you don't hit a goal, let me ask you this, and this can vary by situation, but let's just say you don't hit a goal and say something silly, maybe the goal is to lose. Five pounds and a quarter or whatever the case may be.

Do you automatically, are you one of the people who automatically move that goal to your next quarter? If you missed it, or do you move it off the list? What's kind of your process there? If you don't always reach the goal in the timeframe that you had it. 

Bobby Harrington: This is a real good discussion. So I'm selective about the goals that, that I put on my list or I have for the quarter, right? My thinking, if it merits priority, then I believe it's worth doing. So my goals, the goal is going to stay on the list, right? Mine too. And, you know, thinking quickly, I give you couple of examples. So when I was young, I was in you know, Taekwondo and up until the Marine Corps, I'd got up to like blue belt or purple belt.

And then when I joined the Marine Corps, I, I didn't, you know, I was never in one place long enough to keep up with the progression. Right. Well, later in life, when I was 35 and you know, had a stable job at a refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi. I went back and I, I achieved my black belt at 35. Right. And eventually, eventually got up to second degree, you know, black belt.

But like for me. If I plant something in my mind and it's important, I have to finish it, right? No matter if it's, you know, finishing it at the end of the week or, you know, years later. Same thing with college degree, right? I washed out of college football, went to the Marine Corps, you know, had an opportunity for distance education, but with deploying and everything, it just, you know, for me, it was too much to manage.

So when I was 47, I went back to school and I spent four years doing a degree online and graduated with with a bachelor's in intelligence and a minor in international relations. Okay. So I'm always gonna... Say if it's worth doing it, it has to be finished. 

Ryan Eaton: I like it. the same way. I'm the same way. I don't like to feel, if I don't hit a goal, I don't like to feel like I quit either.

I think there's a little bit of that in me. If I don't keep it on the list to try to knock it out. Now, sometimes priorities do change, right? And you might want to reprioritize that or it's not worth what it was worth. at some point or another. So I, I, I'm with you on that. Look, kind of last question before we get close.

I know we're hitting kind of on the timeframes. I want to get into the people and leadership qualities of people that should not be leading. Cause this is something we didn't talk about and you kind of hit on it a little bit earlier, but what are some of the things that, you know, if you're in leadership and these are some traits, maybe that You've seen in your own life or maybe you've seen in other people's life.

What are some kind of some of the red flags there of people who should not be leading? Maybe they need to lead themselves and maybe they need to lead themselves better, but you don't need to bring these qualities to the table. If you are a leader, could you hit on that for a little bit? 

Bobby Harrington: Yeah. And I got a lot of energy around that.

I would say probably my top three would be poor interpersonal skills. Yeah. Number two would be lack of compassion, which we sort of already touched on, because it's all about people, you know, I ended up as a servant leader. So people were the most important thing to me. Those relationships were precious to me and to round that out, probably irrational or emotional people.

And that goes back to days and, and, and football and the Marine Corps, you know, if, you know, the team captain got excited or, you know, platoon Sergeant or whomever was leading, you know, that mission. You know, got irrational and emotional, and I saw that firsthand. That's why, that's why I'm using it as an example.

Then it causes others to, to lose belief. That's right. 

Ryan Eaton: Right. It does. No, that's, that's exactly right. So let me ask you this. If someone's working with someone, let's just say my boss or my supervisor, is demonstrating some of those. Maybe they're irrational. Maybe they have no compassion or whatever the case may be.

It might be weird for me to approach them about some of that, right? What would you say to the person who maybe is in a position right now and they see those leadership qualities in their leader? You know, you kind of got some different things like, Hey, I can just sit here and continue to take it. I can quit.

Those are two different type things. But if you were to address that. With the leader. How would you bring that up? What would be your, your way to approach that with him? 

Bobby Harrington: Yeah. No, excellent. You know I'm 53, you know, I grew up where it was don't speak until you're spoken to, you know, 

Ryan Eaton: that's right.

Bobby Harrington: Right. No, not necessarily, you know, in my house, you know, we always had healthy discussions, but like in the Marine Corps, you know, business after that in the oil field, you know, It was kind of a one way thing, right? And, you know, so I'm just building up to say that the number one thing I would do if I experienced that is give feedback.

Yep. Right? You know, today, you know, I think in corporate America and it's permeating to other parts of society and companies is there should be a healthy two way feedback loop. And if there's not, you know, that's a red flag. But I would say first and foremost is give the person direct feedback. You know, Hey, you know, I wanted to make you aware of this interchange and, you know, what my, my perception was of it, you know, there might be some opportunity for us to, you know, communicate in a different way, right?

Yeah. Because, you know, as a leader or subordinate, you always want to preserve you always want to let the other person say face. That's right. That's right. You never want to leave on, you know, sort of a negative note because, you know, that doesn't build trust. That's right. That goes on to. You know, you want to accomplish the mission or, or, you know.. 

Ryan Eaton: You're not doing it to beat them up.

You're doing it to try to make it a better mission and better playing field while you're trying to reach that goal, right there. 

Bobby Harrington: It's all about, you know, finding what people do best and improving them. And, you know, that's why it's important as a leader to take feedback. 

Ryan Eaton: Oh, that's good. Well, speaking of leadership, kind of one of the last things I wanted to hit with you, Rubicon COA, your leadership training program, man, tell us about it.

Who's it for? What are they learning? Give us some kind of the big golden nuggets on that. 

Bobby Harrington: Yeah, no, thanks for asking. So the Rubicon COA, you know, is formed out of a passion to improve others, right? And there's, there's three entities. There's the book, Lead You, which there'll be two more books, you know, coming, leading teams and leading through change, which is my favorite because if we learn to lead through change, we're going to be successful no matter what change comes at us.

That's right. And, and aside from that, we have the Stronger You coaching program where we're focusing on CEOs, executives, and business owners. A lot of CEOs and executives, business owners, they, they know how to do the functional things good, but you know, sometimes I fall a little bit of short on, on self leadership, right?

You know, so we teach nine different unique success patterns because life and performance is all about patterns. And aside from that, we have live immersive events. Our first event is going to be June 26th through 30th at the Y. O. Ranch in Kerrville, Texas. And myself and three other cadre will, we'll take 15 or 16 students out there from ages, you know, 18 to, to wherever, and teach them about self leadership, teamwork, teach them to lead through change.

There's going to be a lot of skills development. And at the end, we have a lot of fun and we have adventure. 

Ryan Eaton: Well, I watched the video on that yesterday and that looked pretty cool. That looks like it's going to be a good intensive leadership program. What was that one? Four days. Am I correct on that?

Four days. Yes. Four days. Man, that's awesome. Well, well, Bobby, you're knocking it out of the park there, man. I thank you for writing this book. I picked up a lot of good nuggets out of it and your leadership program and teaching people and just yourself, leadership and compassion. I wish more men were like that.

So I appreciate that. Can't tell you enough. 

Bobby Harrington: Well, thank you so much, Ryan. It's my pleasure to be here and, and thanks for buying the book and reading the book and if you don't mind, please leave a review. 

Ryan Eaton: Definitely will Bobby. Definitely will. Well, look, that wraps up another episode of the insurance leadership podcast.

We thank you for listening in and remember a good plan today is better than a great plan months from now. Thank you so much.

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