INSIGHTS

Continuing to Serve

John Troxell, SEAC (USA, Ret.), Former Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff & the University of Health & Performance

 

 

Interviewed By: Douglas Lindsay

Lindsay: Would you mind talking through your career in terms of where you’ve been, how you ended up as the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff (SEAC), and critical moments along that journey.

Troxell: I was born in Springfield, Illinois and I grew up in Davenport, Iowa. I went through school without any real purpose, motivation, and direction. But I saw older kids from my neighborhood that had joined the military and when they came back, they were different. They were motivated, they were a little bit more boisterous. They walked with their head held high, their chest out, and they were very fit. I thought, I don’t know what they are doing in the military, but I want some of that. So, I joined the Army after I graduated high school. I joined when I was 18 and became an armored reconnaissance specialist, basically focusing on reconnaissance operations. In total, I spent 1 month shy of 38 years on active duty and started as an E-1 and rose up through the ranks. Ultimately, I finished off my career as the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (SEAC) from 2015 to 2019. As the senior enlisted person of the Department of Defense (DoD) where I advised General Joe Dunford and General Mark Millie, as well as various Secretaries of Defense, Ash Carter, Jim Mattis, and lastly was Mark Esper.

In the military, I gained that purpose, motivation, and direction. I became part of something bigger than myself. I became part of a high performing team and I had to be high performing to make sure that my teammates on my left and right could count on me. Along the way, I met my wife when I was a young private and we got married and we’ve been married 41 years. She was on that journey with me the whole way and was providing me the motivation and inspiration from the home front. She took care of raising our three sons. But the significant event for me was I got assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, which was the rapid deployment division in the 1980s. I was an E-5 at the time.

I had served in heavy mechanized units in Germany, and that’s when the wall was up with the Soviet Union. We would do the tours on the border and stare down the East Germans and all that stuff. But it was like we were going through the motions because we never talked about going to war. But when I got to the 82nd, the language was you’ve got to be ready to go to war. You’ve got to be ready to fight and win… 18 h wheels up anywhere in the world. You’ve got to be ready for that physically, mentally, emotionally, technically, and tactically. And initially, I wasn’t prepared for that because I came from the heavy mechanized land. The first day I was there was the beginning of All American Week, the annual celebration of the 82nd Airborne Division. It starts off with a division run of 18,000 paratroopers on Long Street on then Fort Bragg, North Carolina, running in formation led by the Division Commander and Command Sergeant Major.

The pace is quite fast, and I fell out of that run. I had 18,000 paratroopers just hammering me, go back to where you came from. You don’t deserve to be here. In that event, I had not only embarrassed my unit and my teammates, even though I had only been there one day, I embarrassed myself and I felt I let my family down. I said, “Never again!” I got myself into shape, got myself physically, mentally, and emotionally where I needed to be, along with technically and tactically to be prepared to go to war 18 h anywhere in the world. Along the way, I did things like become a Jump Master. I went to Ranger School and Pathfinder School. I did all these things to make me the best I could be. In December of 1989, it happened.

We got the call for Operation Just Cause and I did the combat jump there. Within 24 h of getting that call, we lost a paratrooper specialist, Alejandro Manrique Lozano. He was killed in action by Panamanian Defense Forces. That’s when I realized another significant event about this job that I’d been in the last 7 years, kind of just going through the motions, it’s real, the enemy gets a vote, and people can die. So, I told myself, I’ve got to continue to be the best leader I could be. Seven months later, we turned around and deployed for Operation Desert Shield. That again taught me a lesson that I’ve got to be ready to fight tonight. So, throughout the rest of my career as an E-7 platoon sergeant all the way up to the SEAC, I focused on making sure the men and women in my charge or that I influenced were prepared physically, mentally, emotionally, technically, and tactically to fight tonight. You could even throw spiritually in there as well because I think that is a huge aspect of individual and collective readiness.

I am going to be the best example that I can be as a leader to influence those people to look at me and say, “I’m going to follow that guy,” or “I’m going to be in the worst situations with that guy.” So, those were several significant events that shaped me. Those along with the professional development that I was going through with my military schooling, and the people and leaders that I was working around. I worked around guys like retired Brigadier General John Lair, who was my Brigade Commander during the surge in Iraq, which was the bloodiest combat tour I had. I got to work with a guy like retired General Curtis Cap who was a former Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and he was my commander in Afghanistan. He was my commander in Iraq and at Joint Base Lewis McCord. Then, ultimately, a guy like Joe Dunford who was the consummate elder statesman. Just a phenomenal example as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Along the way, those leaders shaped me into who I was.

Lindsay: You mentioned you were looking for purpose when those young guys came back. It sounds like you found that but when you went in, you probably weren’t thinking, I’m going to serve 38 years. When did you come to the point where you said, I’m going to do this for as long as I can, or what was that decision process like? Or, did you just always know that you were going to continue on?

Troxell: I was going to do my initial tour and I was going to get out. I was assigned to Fort Bliss, in El Paso, Texas. That’s where I met my wife. I was only there a year, and we ended up moving to Germany. In Germany, my first tour there, I did not have the best examples of non-commissioned officers and I was a little short on mentorship. So, I had the silliest, most inane reason why I wanted to get out. I had to wait until midnight to watch NFL football on Sunday, and sometimes, three o’clock in the morning. I said, I am living in an upside down world here that I’m not happy with. I went to my wife, we were about a year out from my enlistment being up, and I told her that I think I’m going to get out. She said, “Well, where will we go?” I said, “We’ll go back to Iowa where I’m from.” She responded, “What will we do?” I said, “We’ll figure that out. We’ll stay with mom and pop until we figure things out.” She goes, “You don’t know how to do anything else but be a soldier.”

I had been the 3^rd Armor Division Soldier of the Year and I had been inducted into the prestigious Sergeant Audie Murphy Club. I was doing very well and I was promoted below the zone in every promotion that I had. For 2 days my wife wouldn’t talk to me. She was upset. She knew I was about to throw away the best thing we had going. After 2 days I couldn’t take it anymore. I went to her and I said, “Alright, you win. I’m going to re-enlist, but we’re going to go where I want to and we’re going to go to Fort Bragg, North Carolina. I want to be a Paratroop in 82nd Airborne Division.” She said, “Okay.” The minute I reenlisted, I said this is what I’m going to do for the rest of my career and there’s no turning back.

We made the trip to Fort Bragg and as we were driving through the gate, there was a five-ton truck in front of us that had paratroopers in the back of it that had camouflage on their face. They had just come off the drop zone. They were filthy, and I was like, wow, look at these guys. My wife says, “I don’t know if I’m going to like it here. These guys look scary.” And I said, “Now you know why we’re here.” The minute I got into that environment, and the minute I fell out of that run, I knew that I had to up my game. I said, if I’m going to be a career soldier and I’m going to serve in units like this and I’m going to be somebody that people can count on, then I need to be in shape and I need to get right mentally and emotionally to be a teammate that people could rely on.

That’s what focused me. After that, I looked for ways of how I can be better at who I am and what I am. How can I be a better teammate? How can I be a better father, a better husband? Holistically, I was focusing on getting better at everything I was doing at work and at home. It took one moment by 18,000 paratroopers that really know how to use adjectives and nouns that told me I will never be this embarrassment for myself, my family, my unit or the United States Army or the United States of America again.

Lindsay: I think we all can think of a moment or two where we have to ask ourselves how are we going to react to a negative situation? Am I going to lean into this and be who I know I can be? Or am I going to just step back and go, yeah, that probably wasn’t for me. What do you think it was that caused you to go, I’m leaning in, not away from this?

Troxell: I knew if I didn’t get my act together that I was going to embarrass my family back home. The guys I grew up with back home. It was that guilt and shame. I told myself I’m better than this. I’ve proven that I can do great things in the military, and I just have to get in peak operating form to be able to get after that. As I was going through that process I could feel myself physically, mentally, and emotionally getting better and the tactical and technical tasks I was expected to do came easier. The more I leaned in the more I was able to understand better. I was able to start creating a vision of not only where I wanted to go with my career and set goals, but I could also do that for others. I was serving with purpose now, as opposed to where I had been in the past in Germany. It had all been about individual achievement, but I wasn’t going down the road that was bringing others along with me. So, I think I realized at that time that there were people looking at me. There were young privates looking at me, and I’ve got to be the example for them. That was my fuel. Then, throughout my entire career after that, I wanted to be that example. I wanted my soldiers to know, my service members to know they needed to look no further than me to know what right is. And to be able to do that, I had to hold myself accountable before I could hold anybody else accountable. I had to set standards for myself. That I would be the example for others and say, “Hey, follow me and I’ll get you to a to a band of excellence.”

Lindsay: I think what you just said right there is pretty powerful. Certainly, achievements are great and it’s nice when we can have that success, but if it’s only about the achievement and it’s only about collecting schools and badges, you miss the opportunity that you just talked about. It’s about being the best at what you do so that you have a more powerful message and example for those that you’re leading and that you’re serving alongside.

Troxell: Absolutely. I will tell you one of the most demoralizing things that happened to me as a leader, as a young platoon sergeant in the 82^nd. I had a very young sharp sergeant, an E-5 that was going places. He wanted to be a Jump Master like me, so I coached him. We got him down to take the pre-examination to get him signed up, and then we got him a slot into the Jump Master Course. Now, the Jump Master Course in the 82nd Airborne Division has a 30% graduation rate, so you have to be on your game. A lot come back and they retest and they try to come back and graduate. But it’s one of the toughest courses I’ve ever been to except for the U.S. Army Ranger course. So, this young sergeant goes through and he gets down to the last exam, the Jump Master Personnel Inspection, and he failed it. But that was the only thing that he failed. He came back and told me he didn’t make it. I said, all right, we’ll send you back. He only had to go back and pass that part of the course. He went back and he failed again. He only had one remaining opportunity. I coached him up, I rehearsed him and sent him back. He failed a third time. I felt that I somehow failed him as a leader because I wanted this for him. I wanted him as a young 21-year-old sergeant, which is almost non-existent to be a Jump Master, I wanted him to be that guy. And it didn’t happen. Now, it didn’t mean he was any less of a soldier or a sergeant or a leader, but I saw the dejection on his face from all of this and the impact it had on him, and it had an impact on me because I wanted this for him.

After that, I said, I’m going to continue to focus my efforts on the people that are in my span of control and make them the best that they can be, but understand that there’s going to be failures along the way. And I, as a leader, have got to be there for them through the failures. If they’re honest mistakes like this was, then I’ve got to underwrite them and I’ve got to continue to pump them up and inspire them to set other goals. In this example, after you fail it three times, you’re not going back. You’re done. So that had a significant impact on me as a leader. So, turning from individual accolades to selfless service and leading by assisting others is what I was all about after that. And to the point, every time I would leave a duty station, they’d say, well, we’re going to give you an award. I don’t want an award. You get to a point in your career where that stuff doesn’t mean anything. The award or the reward for a leader ought to be the accomplishments that the young men and women that you had the opportunity to mentor and what they accomplished. Seeing them happy and focused and starting their brilliant career, that’s what you ought to walk away with as a leader and saying, “I’m glad I was able to help.”

Lindsay: That can be a bit of a burden at times as well, can’t it? How do you as a leader carry that burden, that responsibility, and still show up every day to be who you need to be?

Troxell: I think it is through a level of positivity. I told that young sergeant, “Hey, things didn’t happen the way we wanted it to, but you’re still a great non-commissioned officer, you’re still a great fire team leader. Those three soldiers down there in the company are expecting you to come back and still lead them. So we’re just going to push on with the mission, alright?” As an effective leader, you have to have a level of positivity about you. Don’t get me wrong, adversity is right around the corner and Murphy gets a vote and bad things happen to good organizations and to good leaders. Sometimes you get upset about that. If there’s some disciplinary issues, obviously you’ve got to put your foot down. But if you as a leader are negative in your nature and it’s just the way you are, you’re going to turn people off in a hurry and it’s going to affect morale and eventually it’s going to affect readiness and it’s going to affect efficiency, especially if you’re getting ready for a deployment or a combat operation. So, try to focus on positivity. And I’m not talking toxic positivity. Not, the ship is sinking and you’re saying, “Isn’t this great?” It’s positive in a way that you look at the negative things that have happened, but your perspective is in a positive way and the outcome is going to be in a positive manner. That’s what I tried to focus on as I moved forward.

And when people were running around with their hair on fire to bring me bad news, I’d say, thank you for letting me know, but I’m not going to run around with my hair on fire. I’m going to figure out courses of action that we can advise the commander on how to fix this problem. But I’m not going to be that person that exacerbates the negativity that’s already going on. I’m going to come with some positive outcomes on how we can get through this. Then in the after action process, how can we have some positive actions that would make sure that this kind of stuff doesn’t happen again?

Lindsay: I like that and I think you’re right. I think if it’s positivity for positivity’s sake, people look through that and go, he’s blowing smoke. But when there’s a frame of reference of positivity about what we can learn from it, it starts with an acknowledgement of what happened. I think a lot of times people are afraid to talk about the failure or talk about the mistakes. The challenge with that is you don’t go back and acknowledge that it happened and validate that this is not the standard we need. It doesn’t allow you to build on it because then you’re just trying to act like it didn’t happen. You acknowledge it, you come up with a course of action and you figure out how you move on from there and you get after it, right? Here’s what we’re going to do so that we hit the standard next time. It is a positive orientation, but you’re right, it’s not that fakeness of, “Hey, this is great, it’s all going to be good,” and acting like it never happened.

Troxell: Exactly. A good example to kind of amplify that is when I was a squadron level command sergeant major in the invasion in Iraq. Our operations officer, who I didn’t have a great relationship with, said that there was an improvised explosive device found on route Tampa. He thought we should shut down our convoys moving north and south. I looked at the commander and I said, “Sir, I absolutely disagree with that.” The operations officer said, “What do you mean?” I said, “I am not scared of one improvised explosive device. I’m not afraid of a bunch of guys that are putting bombs out there.” He said to me, “With that kind of cavalier attitude, you will get people killed.” I said, “Let me explain something to you major. I know the size of the enemy. I know their composition, I know their disposition, I know their strength, I know their morale. I know their most likely and most dangerous courses of action. And I’ve developed courses of action that we can take if we come under attack and courses of action that we can do to find, fix, neutralize, or defeat any kind of improvised explosive device. I’m confident in the people that I have in my patrol, that they are trained and they understand that this is not me with some swashbuckler hat on and a cavalier attitude saying, I ain’t afraid of these guys. I’ve studied them and I’ve been out there around them. I know exactly what they’re capable of and I’m not going to let one Improvised explosive device (IED) shut down an entire squadron’s operation.” The commander said, “With that analysis Sergeant Major, I think you need to execute.” My point in all of that is some people will look at a senior enlisted leader, and when I make a statement like I’m not scared of guys putting bombs on the side of the road, that I have this cavalier attitude and I haven’t studied the enemy. But, I have studied the enemy. I made my troops study the enemy. I made us go through the military process all along the way throughout that entire deployment. And for one officer to look at me and say, well, you’re being cavalier was an insult to me because I had done these kinds of things. It wasn’t toxic positivity in my response to him. It was positivity based off of analysis, training, certification and confidence and trust that the men and women in my patrol and myself we’re going to do the right thing, whether we are attacked or not. Now, again, the enemy gets a vote, but I was confident that we were going to be okay. Low and behold, guess what? We were okay. I wasn’t going to let one IED shut down an entire U.S. operation and we had our Iraqi partners with us. I wasn’t going to let one potential threat stop what we were doing. I was confident we could handle it.

Lindsay: I think strong leadership can often be intimidating to weak leadership. I’ve seen leaders that can sometimes be intimidated by a stronger leader below them that is really challenging them to be the leader that they need to be. I often get the question, what happens if you’re working for a bad leader or a toxic leader? What advice would you give or what’s your experience with that if you’re having to lead up because the person above you is either not doing their job, they’re incompetent or they’re just standing in the way?

Troxell: The operations officer didn’t want to be on the decision line to send people out there because he didn’t know the training readiness and effectiveness of the force we were going to put on that road where the IED was. So his thing was, if we just shut it down, then I’m not on the blame line. In another example, I wanted to facilitate the commander and wanted to support the commander, but I needed to have a teammate that could help me out. So, I went to the Executive Officer and I said, we collectively, me as the senior enlisted guy, you as the second in command are here to support the commander and assist him in making sound and timely decisions. We’ve got to be able to communicate with him, mitigating risks with our subordinate level officers and senior enlisted. How do we set conditions that he will be more comfortable making decisions? So, I think to answer your question is one, you’ve got to talk to the person. I mean, I would go in and have frank conversations with him, but alone, him and I, it was this is just the sergeant major disagreeing with him. However, if the Executive Officer and I went in talking to the commanding officer, now it’s his senior most officer under him and his senior most enlisted under him that are telling him. So, I think there’s got to be that eyeball to eyeball, kneecap to kneecap, tactful, respectful kind of dialogue. And then, if that’s not helping, there’s got to be some art to it between people that are influential to that commander to make sure that we’re getting the mission done and that the troops understand the direction we’re going.

When I was a young sergeant first class in the 82nd, I would get these young West Point second lieutenants, just like the second lieutenants from the Air Force Academy, that would come in bright-eyed and bushy tailed. They’ve been through the most prestigious military academies on the planet, and they get here and they’ve got everything going for them except common sense. I was the common sense hammer that had to put it in their face sometimes in a respectful way, but not in front of the troops. I would let them know that sometimes they needed to slow down and be quiet and watch and learn from their non-commissioned officers. I used to say this all the time, The company commander’s going to make you a good officer. I’m going to make you a good leader, especially in charge of this platoon. So, we’ve got to work together.” That was some of the art of influencing that I tried to do to help commanders or leaders above me that were struggling a little bit.

Lindsay: With that idea of a good leader in mind, what is good leadership? What do good leaders do?

Troxell: First of all, I think they have a measured level of energy and enthusiasm. I say measured because it doesn’t have to be a “Kill ‘em all, let God sort ‘em out” kind of thing. But you come with energy and then you’re enthusiastic about what you’re doing. Good leaders look people in the eye when they’re talking to them. They give off their time to others. And like I said before, they have vision, they have purpose, and they are positive in their approach. They are consistent with their subordinates delivering the why. People will sometimes say, “Why do we have to tell the troops why they have to do something?” Well, we do it all the time in our orders process. Here’s your task…here’s your purpose. Here’s what I want you to do, and here’s why I want you to do it in an operations order. We are constantly telling the why. It could be the worst mission on the planet under the most dangerous conditions, in the most austere environment with an unknown completion time of when this deployment’s going to be over with. But if we deliver the why on why we’re doing it, it may suck, but the troops will accept it. They may not like it, but they will accept it. I always wanted the troops to know what the hell we were doing all the time. I think a good leader brings a measured level of energy and enthusiasm. They lead through their physical example more than so within what comes out of their mouth. They have vision, they’re purposeful in their actions and they are positive, and they bring a positive attitude to work every day. I want people to be excited about coming to work. I want them to, when they come to work, they’re like, “Yeah, let’s get after it!” So, it’s that level of positivity and I keep bringing that up because it is what brings people back. And it’s contagious. A leader must also be able to admit when they’re wrong and say, “Hey, I screwed this up.”

Lindsay: Because your people already know it. Right? It goes back to that point of acknowledgement.

Troxell: Here’s an example. I had a great leader and he thought he had lost a very sensitive item. We were out at the Joint Maneuver Readiness Center doing an exercise. He came to me and said, “Hey, I can’t find this sensitive item.” As you know, if you lose something like a sensitive item, it shuts the whole thing down. I said, “Okay, what we’re going to do is we’re going to pull everything out of our vehicles, everything in the load plan, and we’re going to look and make sure before we report this higher up to make sure the item is truly lost.” I told all my squad leaders, I said, “Hey, start laying all your Bradley fighting vehicle’s equipment out.” Well, as we were about an hour into laying all this stuff out, the lieutenant comes back to me and he says, “Sergeant Troxell, I found it.” I said, “Where was it at, Sir?” He said it was in his Gore-Tex jacket, in the pocket. He asked me to get the whole platoon together. So, I gathered up all 30 of our troops, we gathered in a semicircle, and he said, “I found the sensitive item. I wasted your time, and I sincerely apologize for wasting your time and making this a significantly emotional event. I’m going to learn from this, I’ll get better. But this was on me.” I thought, this guy’s going to go places because he could’ve tried to cover it up, but instead he owned it. After that, all 30 of those soldiers, including myself, would’ve followed that guy to the gates of hell because he owned his mistake. But what he did that day as a leader set the best example any leader could have done when they make a mistake. And to this day, I respect the man for it.

Lindsay: You’ve mentioned several times throughout our conversation about purpose and vision. After 38 years culminating with the highest enlisted position in the Department of Defense, that’s a tough act to follow. So, what does purpose and vision look like for you now?

Troxell: I always use this phrase, and I learned it from a scholarly type as we were getting ready to go into the surge in Iraq. He said, “Do not be lost in your museum.” We all have museums from our military service, and we have all these accolades we have and awards and mementos from our service. But don’t get lost in that. You’ve got to focus on what is next and what is your next mission? When I finished as the SEAC, I still wanted to serve others. So, I came up with three focus areas. The first is how can I continue to pay it forward to the men and women in uniform right now? Whether that’s as a motivational speaker, as someone that helps them with their lethality, their readiness, their fitness, or however I can help them. Second of all, what can I do to give back to my fellow veterans through things like supporting the University of Health and Performance¹ or veteran service organizations? What can I do to help them? And three, I wanted to be able to take on the corporate world. I wanted to see if I could be a small business owner, have my own consulting firm, and have my own leader development company. Really, how can I do things to make life comfortable for my wife of 41 years that was on this journey with me, for my children and make a future for my grandchildren? And those are the three things that I focus on right now in that order. That’s what drives me every day.

I have this phrase, and I got it from Morgan Freeman in the movie Shawshank Redemption… “Get busy living or get busy dying.” I see too many of my peers that are in their sixties like I am, that are focusing more on dying than they are living. So, I’m going to continue to PT with the troops. I’m going to continue to look after my health. I’m going to continue to be a positive influence on my family, on others, on my military and on my nation. That positive influence that fuels me every day is I want to get up and make today better than it was yesterday.

Too many people are looking back. I was the SEAC, but now I advise a guy that was an E-4 in the Wyoming National Guard, or a guy that was an E-5 in the 10th Mountain Division, or a guy that was a Coast Guardsman that got out as an E-4. I don’t get caught up on what I was. I don’t need to. I’m proud of my service, proud that I spent 38 years and proud that I retired as the SEAC, but I’m John Wayne Troxel and I am here to help. How can I be a good teammate? That’s what I focus on. I think the more leaders as they transition, if they focus on things like that instead of how can I keep my status that I had in uniform, they’ll have a much better time after their military journey is over with. So that’s what I do.

Lindsay: That’s a good point. I think a lot of people focus on what they do or what they’ve done instead of who they are. And if I’m hearing what you’re saying, your mission and your purpose is to be of service. And if your purpose is to be of service, you never get done with that. You don’t get lost in the weeds because there are always people to serve, whether it’s your family, veterans, the active duty, or whoever that is. There’s always a ton of service available to do so you don’t get caught up in the museum. It’s good to reminisce. It’s good to think about that, to have value of what it was that we contributed, but I think a lot of times where people have trouble with that transition is they never really came to the realization who they are and what they want to be about.

Troxell: Here’s an example. I was a brigade sergeant major during the surge in Iraq. I lost 54 soldiers and had over 500 severely wounded. Hundreds of my soldiers are still suffering in silence with PTSD and traumatic brain injury. One of them reached out to me and says he lives in the local area where I live, and asks if I would come and speak to his son’s boy Scout troop? I said, Absolutely! He asked, “What’s it going to cost me?” I said, “Nothing. You paid me back in 2007 by being on patrol every day, taking the fight to the enemy, being there for the men and women on your left and serving as an awesome warrior.” So, I was going to do this because I knew what it meant to him. I wanted him to know that I was going to be there for him. He was there for me 17 years ago in combat by getting out there and getting after the mission every day. Things like that still fuel me to help serve others. One of my fellow warriors asked me to come and do something and I was going to be there. And Doug, I do that probably three dozen times a year. As a matter of fact, Friday I’m heading to Buffalo, New York. A guy that is in the New York National Guard said they’re having their company ball on Saturday. He served with me in combat and asked if I would come and be the speaker? And I made it a point that on my way back from South Carolina, I’m going to stop there to do that, because I know that’s a big deal.

Lindsay: I like that. If you look at service as a life purpose, you are never done. Which I think is the beauty of it, because we are always striving to serve. So, the last question is what advice do you have for young leaders?

Troxell: That you have been put in a leadership role for a reason, and it’s based on your potential to lead. With that comes a lot of responsibility and you ought to look at it as a privilege to lead, mentor, and coach the men and women in your charge. Do not take it lightly. Be the best leader you can be. One that treats people with dignity and respect and looks them in the eye when you’re talking to them and is there for them. A leader who knows them, knows their family, and knows what drives them. Know your people. Look out for them. And don’t take it lightly because it is a privilege to be a leader. So, you have to maximize that opportunity. It’s not about you, it’s about the people that you are providing purpose, motivation, direction, inspiration, and influence to. Focus on that, and I guarantee you, you’re going to be good.

Footnote

1 www.university-hp.com