I’d like to think when major decisions are made that affect your team that you are included in the decision. And that once the decision is made it’s full steam ahead to make it happen by you and the team.

Years ago at my Toyota dealership I had a parts and service director who was a retired Master Gunnery Sergeant in the Marine Corps. Since I’m a former Marine, you just know I had to love that guy. If you don’t understand military rank, just understand even though it’s an enlisted rank, officers don’t generally mess with a Master Gunnery Sergeant. A Master Gunnery Sergeant is one of the most respected ranks in the military. 

He & I would often have meetings on Parts & Service issues and we did not always agree. I knew enough about parts and service to be dangerous. Even when we did not agree, once it was all said and done and I had won, when he left that meeting with his marching orders you can be assured the mission was going to be carried out.

Far too often those in business shake their heads “yes,” as if to say “I’m all in,” and then do their best to circumvent the mission just so they can be right. It’s not about being right. It’s about carrying out the plan at hand.

Your job should be to do everything you can to make the plan work, not the opposite. You and the team will never be all they can be unless you do so.

Semper Fi is all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs.

Just in case: Semper Fi means always faithful.