[Pictured above] Damian McKinney, co-founder of McKinney Rogers and DioniLife.
Multi-entrepreneur and business leader Damian McKinney, co-founder of strategy execution consultancy McKinney Rogers and now co-founder of no and low drinks portfolio DioniLife, had a military career before turning to entrepreneurship.
The former Royal Marine shares transferable tips from his military career, which have proved indispensable when leading his businesses forward, including how to build better trust, focus, communication and project execution among teams.
1. Build trust through clarity of mission
Trust is important, but the second critical piece is the mission. Imagine it’s night and the stars are out. You, as the leader, are going in the same direction as a colleague because you’re looking at a star, and that’s what you’re following. But if you haven’t really talked about the star, what happens is the colleague can start doing things that you think, hang on a minute, what the hell are you doing? And you say, but I trusted you. As a leader, what you’d forgotten here is the most fundamental building block: did we start this by saying where we were going? So you must provide clarity first.
2. Have open communications and update
Open communications are critical, including constantly updating and talking to each other. In the military, we always made sure we had a clear mission, and then we would work on the plan together. The great thing about working on something together is that you don’t have to have all the answers. There’s a sense in business that you can look weak if you don’t have all the answers, but that isn’t true. Bring your team in and say, let’s work on this one together.
3. Meetings are a check-in, not a check-up
A meeting isn’t designed for me to check that you’re working. A meeting is simply designed to say, so how are you getting on? Is there anything getting in your way or stopping you? It’s like a pit stop in Formula One. I want to come out fast, I want to win the race, so do these regular check-ins. See a meeting as a means by which you check in, and see if we want to change something or if we’re good. When you’re at your most extreme in terms of pressure, you do more check-ins. It’s funny in business when people say I’m really busy, there are too many meetings. Actually, if they’re the right meetings, you are going to have more because you’re consciously checking things. There’s a misjudged thing in some businesses where, for meetings, you come prepared so you can bat away questions, but actually, it really should be about touching base, including what is needed and having that humility.
4. Now execute
You walk out of a meeting with something to go and deliver. Call it the determined march, as we do in the military. We’re together, we’ve made the decision, and we’re going. Once you’re into the execution stage, then you’ve just got to trust people and let them run with it.
[Pictured above] Damian McKinney, co-founder of McKinney Rogers and DioniLife.
Multi-entrepreneur and business leader Damian McKinney, co-founder of strategy execution consultancy McKinney Rogers and now co-founder of no and low drinks portfolio DioniLife, had a military career before turning to entrepreneurship.
The former Royal Marine shares transferable tips from his military career, which have proved indispensable when leading his businesses forward, including how to build better trust, focus, communication and project execution among teams.
