Adapt, Improvise, Overcome…
- Post By: Greg Crumpton
- Date:
- Category: Blog
Several years ago the buzz around the news media world was “embedded”. A news outlet would connect to their embedded reporter via satellite to get a real-time view of our “boots on the ground”, also a popular term at the time.
The reporter would travel with, eat, sleep and dodge bullets right alongside our US warriors. That is as embedded as it gets. Are you there with your crew?
Sometimes you need to be embedded with your crew in the trenches, clearing the minefields and covering ground. Sometimes you need to be embedded at an observation post on the hilltop, directing your group on where to head, covering your collective sixes and hitting ‘em where they aren’t looking.
Rolling with the situation and following your gut on when to be where, and what to do once you’re there is the hallmark of a true leader.
One of my favorite movies is Heartbreak Ridge. Clint Eastwood portrays Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway. Highway had several favorite, some now famous, quotes. He used these quotes to inspire his young Marines, maybe to shock them, and mostly to allow them to understand he was the man that had been there and done that.
This quote from Gunny’s always strikes a chord within me, “You’re Marines now. You adapt. You overcome. You improvise. Let’s move.”
To me, this is such a great way to develop a culture – or shape a mindset in the customer service world. Things are going to get shipped late, freezing rain may appear, children will get a stomach bug, etc.. it’s part of life. If you are embedded within your (fill in the blank here) _________ (Example: team, crew, company, church, etc…) AND understand what Highway was teaching, then you figure out a way to get it done. Regardless of the situation.
In the trenches, or high on the hill, only you know what is best at any given moment of time, but get embedded with your boots on the ground.
