Military

I'm a veteran and currently serve military and veterans at the VA as a licensed clinical social worker.
 
Transcript: "What is your current role in the military community? Well, I served in the United States Marine Corps for four years active duty, deployed to Iraq twice. And currently I'm a veteran. So I've been out of the military for a number of years and I serve active duty military and veterans at the VA as a licensed clinical social worker or a therapist running a veteran mental health center."

Selfless service is a key component of building strong teams in times of crisis. It encourages trust between team members by showing that no matter what, somebody has your back and will take care of you. This is an important trait that is taught in the military and can be used to help build strong teams during difficult times.
 
Transcript: "How does selfless service help build a strong team in times of crisis? Well, selfless service meaning that you put others before yourself, lifting up the group or another individual before your own welfare. And that's something taught day one of basic training, I think every single branch. And I learned that in the Marine Corps, we are only as good as the weakest link of the chain. And so we are designed, trained to do this. And so that makes a strong team is because you know that no matter what, someone has your back. Even if someone's angry at you, even if somebody has a problem with you, it doesn't matter. You're part of the group, so they take care of you. And that builds that same kind of trust. So when you're in that situation for yourself, others will take care of you. And we all know this because we've experienced it and continue to practice it in the military."

Leadership can be applied to any situation, including healthcare and nonprofit work. Leadership involves being out in front and serving the people below you, as well as making difficult decisions, shifting the direction of a workplace, and treating people fairly so they know they have a place on the team.
 
Transcript: "How do you think the lessons you learn in the military can be applied to other fields such as healthcare or nonprofit? Well, leadership can be applied in any situation and a big part of my experience in the Marine Corps was learning about leadership, how to lead, and what it means to lead is to be out in front, the one rallying everybody, but also participating, serving the people who are supposed to be under you. And so that act of service translates into healthy work environments. So that can be applied to healthcare, nonprofit, really anywhere, because if you're working with a team, you have other people who depend and trust in you and they need you to step up and make difficult decisions. They need you to shift the direction of a culture, of a workplace, and give your vision, your intent, so other people can follow it and be able to follow through and treat people fairly so everybody knows they have a place on the team."

Courage helps an individual to handle unexpected and high-stress situations by giving them the strength to act on their values despite the consequences. Knowing what is important to you can help develop courage, which can be used for physical or moral courage.
 
Transcript: "How does courage help an individual to handle unexpected and high stress situations? Well, courage or displaying courage, it's an action that people take when they were able to be very connected to their values. And so I believe courage is the result of a deep commitment to one's values and action in those situations, despite the consequences. And so I believe that people who display courage in unexpected and high stress situations are those who are so deeply committed to their values that they take those uncomfortable, scary steps. So knowing what one's values are are very important and knowing what's important to you, you can write out a list of, of what's important to you. And you can do that in a few different spheres, work and education. What's important to you? How do you want to be family or relationships, leisure, things you do to recharge and then health and personal growth. So you look at those four spheres and decide what's important to you, how you want to be, how you want to spend your time in this world. And once you develop that, it helps you do incredibly courageous things, whether that's physical courage or moral courage, standing up for what's right in this, in the face of people who don't believe the same as you do, or her doing something that's wrong."

In difficult situations, having a selfless service mindset can help create positive change by adopting a positive attitude and focusing on helping others instead of just yourself.
 
Transcript: "Hey, what's up guys? So the question is, how can an individual's selfless service mindset help to create positive change in difficult situations? So guys, this is a big one, and I think there's two components of this. Number one is just positive mental attitude. When it is hard, there's a natural tendency for all of us to turn inward. We focus on the pain. We focus on the misery. And if you can look outward and think about how choosing positivity in the face of negativity, it can make an absolute huge difference. And then the other tendency is when things are really hard, we have a tendency to focus on ourselves. We're focusing on our pain. We're focused on the things that we can or can't do. Frequently, we're focused on the things that are external to us. And so often, in really hard situations, when we're dealing with adversity, when we're dealing with problems, instead of thinking about yourself, you've got to fall into my three rules of leadership. Rule number three, you got to lead always. And this is where we push outward. We push past that pain, and we say, "Hey, man. How can I help you? Hey, man. I know you're hurting. I'm hurting, too. How can I help?" And sometimes this falls out the scope of our normal duties. It might not even be your job. But that is how selfless service can make a difference in super hard challenging times. Try it out. Make a difference with others around you. All right. I'm out."

Your performance in boot camp does not affect your career development in the military.
 
Transcript: "So the question is, is the soldier or service members development career going to be affected in the long run by their boot camp training? It's going to depend on what context you're referring to. I mean, obviously you are not going to have a career in the military unless you or until you have passed boot camp. But if the concern is, does your performance in boot camp transfer over and follow you throughout your career and give any indication as to your career performance? The answer is a resounding no. Nobody cares about your performance in boot camp and basic training. I know many, many people that were very high performers in boot camp and turned out to be completely useless once they got out to their field units and became some of the biggest problems that I had to deal with. I know many other people, myself being one of them, that struggled during boot camp and basic training and turned out with some good mentoring and good supervision, were able to absolutely excel in their career. So the short version is, no one cares about how good you did or did not do in boot camp."