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How to Manage Better With Tactical Decision-Making

Hear the phrase “tactical decision-making” and your first instinct is probably to frame it in terms of its strategic counterpart. This is not an article about strategy, but there is an important habit we need to bring with us from setting strategy when we think about tactics: thinking. No one reading this would let strategy decide itself or claim that strategy emerges from reacting to crises. Management by exception has its place, but it won’t set your strategy for you. Neither, more to the point, is it appropriate to let our reflexive reactions to events dictate our tactics.

What Is Tactical Decision-Making?

Put simply, tactical decision-making is thinking through your day-to-day operations, with an emphasis on taking responsibility and control over improving the way you and your team get things done.

Tactical decision-making is easier to understand in terms of what it is not. If you are running on autopilot, spectating your metrics, or responding reflexively to events, you are not engaging in tactical decision-making.

Running on Autopilot

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds …” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Running on autopilot” is doing what you did because it is what you have done. Maybe you looked at your metrics first, or you see that your customers and team are happy, or perhaps you’ve thought through what you’re doing extremely well, and that’s why it works. But nothing works the same way forever. And was it not tactical decision-making that led you to such a smooth-running operation in the first place?

Responding Reflexively to Events

We must respond to events, but if we’re letting events dictate our reactions, repetition will turn those reactions into policy. When we find ourselves reacting to the same crises, know that we are creating policy whether we think it through or not. A leader sets policy with intention; a follower is led into policy unaware.

“Fear is the mind-killer.” -Frank Herbert, Dune

Nothing sets the reflexes in gear and the mind in neutral like fear. Despite the note of urgency of the metaphor of putting out fires, most leadership crises aren’t so critical that we can’t afford to think before we act. One way to create some space is not to fight the fear but embrace it as problem-solving urgency. When you feel that pit opening in your gut, stop. Take a moment to absorb the situation. Consider your options, pick one, and then proceed. If your “fight or flight” response is set to “fight” and the way you fight is to “solve,” you’ve set yourself up for problem-solving over panic.

It also helps to try to anticipate time-constrained problems before they arise. Of course, no one can predict everything. The best we can do is learn from experience and never be taken by surprise twice.

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A Spectator to Your Metrics

You’re close to tactical decision-making, but you’re not quite there. You’re looking at your financials, tracking your project’s critical path, and checking your metrics. You’re keeping track of your progress, whatever form that takes. Fantastic! How are you acting on those metrics? Running on autopilot? Reacting reflexively? Or are you really using your tools to make good decisions?

Tactical Decision-Making

You have the metrics and the mindfulness to actively choose to make or remake operational decisions. You’re looking at your processes, policies, and methods and asking yourself, “How can I make this better?” You’re thinking and acting, not responding reflexively. This is tactical decision-making.

Balance: Management by Exception vs. Tactical Decision-Making

We have many duties as leaders, and no advice we take or method we employ should ever draw us away from keeping our responsibilities balanced. Tactical decision-making should never be a reason not to give prompt attention to immediate needs and emerging problems.

When Tactical Decision-Making Is an Excuse

Everyone has worked with — or worse, for — a Laputan so wrapped up in abstract ideas you can count on this person to do no actual work. Such a person might even hijack a meeting to discuss a concept in uselessly abstract terms or quibble over issues not related to the work at hand. The Laputan will also talk a lot about “vision,” “strategy,” and perhaps even “tactical decision-making.”

Obviously, a good leader has to dig in and do the work. A good leader must respond promptly to crises, particularly those involving customers or legal affairs. A good leader needs to be in the moment when the situation demands it. “Don’t bother me; I’m thinking,” isn’t an acceptable excuse when you are needed. When we lead a meeting, we need to justify every minute we hold the floor to justify the time cost for every person there, including ourselves.

When Management by Exception Is an Excuse

The customer walks away happy, the dispute between the employees dissolves before your wisdom, the blockage in the production line bursts open at your command, and you feel pretty good about that. “I’m doing a great job!”

Yes, you did a great job and have every right to feel proud. But you’re a leader, and a leader has many responsibilities. If we never think about tactical decision-making, if we never think about underlying processes, some of which might well be contributing to the fires we’re constantly putting out, we are neglecting one of our duties as a leader. It costs us time, but intelligently addressing the cause of a problem saves us the time of repeatedly solving that problem.

Conclusion

Tactical decision-making is as important as responding promptly to the immediate challenges of our leadership environment. A wise leader understands and carries the burdens of both planning and execution. Find the right balance between responding to events as a leader and taking time to think through the day-to-day work processes so that “emergencies” and “exceptions” become fewer as our plans for dealing with them become better.

The Eighth Mile offers an online leadership training course to help find balance and think and act like a leader. Get in touch to find out how to can improve decision-making processes.

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Top 9 Benefits of Online Leadership Training

A company today must think fast, pivot, and always be on its proverbial toes. With so much change happening all around the world, talent retention and leadership cultivation are ongoing challenges. Without continued dedication to leadership training, a business’s short- and long-term success could hang in the balance. That’s not to say a company’s success is more important than the personal successes of its leaders. In fact, it’s only with great leaders that a business sees success, leaving many organizations wondering about online leadership training benefits.

A leader must be resilient, as well as:

  • Capable of empathy
  • Familiar with accountability
  • Tenacious
  • Self-aware

At The Eighth Mile, we enjoy partnering with businesses to cultivate positive outcomes and successful leaders. Organizations reach out to us to ask about the differences between traditional classrooms and online leadership training and what makes us different. We’ve found, even prior to the events of the past few years, that online leadership training benefits are virtually equal to those of traditional classroom learning —and then some.

Why Should You Choose Online Leadership Training?

If you’ve ever sat through a business meeting in person versus over Zoom or another platform, you can understand a few of the differences between classroom-based leadership courses and online leadership training benefits. There’s a definite difference between uninspired, text-based PowerPoints disguised as a “class” — whether traditional or online — and a specialized course developed according to real-world lessons learned over the course of a lifetime in the military and business. The latter training allows for hyper-personalization, attendance on your own time, and exciting coaching sessions, both individual and group.

We developed our coaching sessions and coursework through years of hands-on experience in the military and through years of lessons learned in and outside of boardrooms and businesses. As such, we know that it’s all about engagement. Without it, and without the online leadership training benefits we’re about to discuss, developing strong, empathic, accountable, and self-aware leaders would be impossible.

9 of the Most Important Online Leadership Training Benefits

Aside from some of the more obvious online leadership training benefits, such as saving on fuel, arranging your schedule as you need to, and not missing workdays, an online leadership training course also provides these lesser-known but ultimately more important benefits for employees, administrators, HR staff, and the company as a whole.

1. Support to Find Success

With a busy lifestyle, you may neglect the things you want for yourself in favor of others, even if one of your goals is professional success. Online leadership training imparts the motivation and confidence you need to overcome obstacles and distractions to achieve those goals.

2. Time to Listen to Yourself

Introspection is a gift, and it is the online leadership training benefit that reveals your weaknesses and strengths in a familiar environment so you can learn to trust yourself and your gut feelings.

3. Learn to Influence Others

Leaders must exude a careful mix of confidence, conviction, and humbleness. In doing so, you can influence and motivate the rest of your team to follow your lead. Really, a great leader helps the whole team become leaders by listening and trusting, which helps build everyone’s confidence.

4. Connect With Other Leadership Professionals

In an online leadership training course, you’ll learn the history of leadership, how ideas and methods evolve, and how those ideas and methods create successful leaders. Leadership is a bit like medicine in that respect — it’s an ongoing practice and it is fluid. You become part of a leadership network that stands together, grows together, and continues learning together from your combined experiences.

5. Gain a Better Understanding Of Your Business

HR professionals can especially benefit from online leadership training. When you’re the one responsible for hiring the right people, it’s important to understand the business and how it works. It isn’t enough to know Human Resources’ language — the HR team should be contributing members to the company’s mission and overall vision. If not, it’s unlikely that upper management will take you seriously because these are necessary aspects of fulfilling your duties, such as workforce planning.

6. Promote and Nurture Teamwork

The best leaders know how to build teams of individuals happy to collaborate. While you are engaged in your training to better yourself as a leader, you also have the opportunity to step away from the team and delegate. As stated previously, good leaders create other good leaders. Now’s your chance to see how you’ve done up to this point.

7. Clear Your Vision

Leaders who have no problem looking at a project and seeing exactly how it works out have clear sight — they’re considered visionaries, especially when presented with a rudimentary idea. Leadership training cultivates your vision. When you can “see” how to make something happen, you can also help others see it too, and motivate them to follow you.

8. Be Kind to Your Budget

Learning & Development is a department most of today’s companies couldn’t live without. As technology and business approaches shift, upper management has to stay on top of these changes by continuing to upskill. As such, one of the greatest online leadership training benefits for your company is the cost — it’s thousands less than a traditional college or university course. You can upskill an entire department in an online course for what it would cost to send just one student to a university.

9. Learn to Fail Better

One of your lessons in a leadership course is how to avoid making mistakes. Now, this doesn’t mean that at course completion you’ll never make a mistake again. What it does mean is you’ll know what to watch out for, how to spot a potentially damaging error before it happens and prevent the worst of the mistakes. As you learn how to do this for yourself, you’ll also learn how to help your team apply the same rationale.

Mistakes are human nature and bound to occur from time to time — the greatest leader won’t seek blame but rather a resolution. And after you fail (because again, you likely will), you’ll now have the tools to get back up, which may be the biggest benefit of online leadership training there is.

How The Eighth Mile Consulting Can Help

If you want to know more about online leadership training benefits, and the leadership style, level of accountability, and overall resiliency we strive to cultivate in businesses of all sizes, let us know. Our 8-week online leadership training course can help you develop strong leaders in your organization or become one yourself. Contact us to learn how we can help your organization improve and help your team unite and confidently embrace the challenges ahead.

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What is Online Leadership Training?

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

It takes a trailblazer to go where no path exists. It takes a leader.

In every business, it’s leaders who provide direction. Your business couldn’t reach its goals without this.

But great leaders aren’t necessarily born — they’re made. Leadership is one of those qualities that people can learn.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) recent report on working millennials, 29% of those surveyed accepted their most recent position for its personal development opportunities and advancement potential. Only 14% chose their position for the benefits package.

The bottom line? Millennials are poised to make up 75% of the workforce in just a few years. These workers want to see training opportunities offered, and employers who don’t meet this desire risk losing current (and attracting future) talent.

The question is: do you opt for traditional classroom-based or online leadership training? And how do you know if online leadership training is right for you or your organization?

Classroom-based learning has its place, but online leadership training offers multiple benefits over the classroom — for employees and employers.

Benefits of Online Leadership Training

Whether you want to help employees jumpstart a soaring career trajectory, succeed in a current role, or prepare for a future role, knowing the benefits of this kind of training can help point you to the right type of program.

At Eighth Mile Consulting, we pride ourselves on helping organizations grow by improving their people and processes. Our consulting services can help your organization handle change, build resilience, and develop the strategies that cultivate leadership.

The right online leadership training program can provide many opportunities for improvement.

Assess your Leadership Effectiveness 

To improve upon anything, you need to know where your skills stand currently.

  • What are some of your weaknesses?
  • How can you strengthen those areas?
  • Where do your strengths lie?
  • How can you pull from your current skillset to improve your leadership qualities?

Becoming familiar with these answers generates awareness. It offers insights that identify improvement strategies and personal leadership styles. You and your employees can reference, pull from and build upon these skills over the course of a career.

Learn and Practice Vital Leadership Skills

Effective leaders know how to:

  • Define direction
  • Create teams
  • Coach coworkers
  • Give constructive criticism
  • Offer meaningful advice and feedback
  • Generate interpersonal relationships built on trust

The mark of a genuine leader lies in their influence on (and empowerment of) coworkers, subordinates, and bosses. Great leaders can tackle stressful situations and identify whether delegation is necessary or if it would be better to handle the task on their own.

Receive Honest Advice From More Experienced Leaders

This is the greatest benefit of online leadership training: the exposure to others in leadership positions. Leaders in all career stages have experiences they can share, and learning from others is one of the best ways to grow. Freely debating and exchanging ideas is something that can prove invaluable compared to trying to learn how to lead all by yourself.

Who Benefits Most From Online Leadership Training?

You may think the only candidates worthy of leadership training are those who already hold some type of leadership position. Actually, a wide range of positions and career stages can find value.

Let’s take a look at four types of professionals who typically see the most benefit from online leadership training.

Entry-Level to Mid-Career Employees 

These professionals might be experts in their field or company. If this person wants to eventually take on a leadership position but isn’t sure of the path to get there, leadership training is the map. Proactive development of the skills a leader needs primes these employees for lift-off when the right position opens.

Employees New to Leadership Roles

Most larger companies have an established hierarchy that determines those next in line for promotions to leadership roles. For example, specific education and relevant experience may be required for consideration.

On the other hand, smaller and more agile companies might not have such a formal hierarchy. This is ideal for employees who desire a leadership role but don’t have any experience yet. Employees suddenly thrust into leadership positions can especially benefit from leadership training to get acclimated to their new responsibilities.

New Entrepreneurs

A lot of small businesses begin as single self-employed individuals. There are no other employees to schedule, manage or otherwise consider.

The moment this entrepreneur’s business grows, hiring that first employee can change the game entirely. The entrepreneur isn’t just responsible for themselves anymore. Many people can attest that solopreneurial success doesn’t always translate to entrepreneurial success.

Honing leadership skills is a must for people whose desires lie in the entrepreneurial territory. It helps them learn the skills needed to hire and manage a high-performance team.

Entire Companies

Depending on the business or industry, some companies look outside to hire for open leadership roles. But there are several benefits of promoting someone already familiar with how the business works, such as:

  • Reduced costs. There’s no expense to recruit, screen, or interview candidates.
  • Faster acclimation. Since the employee already knows a lot about the company, there’s much less time spent on training.

Offering access to online leadership training can help the newly promoted individual learn more about management and build the skills necessary for success in their new role.

What Problems Can Online Leadership Training Solve?

Online leadership training, compared to traditional classroom-based training, can ease the strain on employees in several respects, such as:

  • Employees with children don’t need to seek childcare.
  • Employees whose families share one vehicle don’t need to coordinate transportation.
  • Employees can still address other responsibilities outside of work.

Unfortunately, some companies cast aside these benefits in exchange for perceived cost savings because the C-suite mistakenly believes that investing in online leadership training is cost-prohibitive. Did you know: After changing company policy and implementing online leadership training, IBM saved almost $200 million?

Partner with The Eighth Mile

At The Eighth Mile, our mission is to work with good people who are ready to improve their leadership and management skills through critical evaluation and absolute honesty. If that sounds like a challenge you are ready for, we’d love to hear from you. Our consulting and educational programs can help you design your ideal team through our 8-week online leadership course with regular virtual workshops and even one-on-one coaching sessions included with the modules. If you want to learn how to better handle changes in your organization, build greater resilience within your staff, and develop the strategies that cultivate strong leaders, connect with us to learn more.

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How to Hire the Best Leaders

When determining how to hire the best leaders, let’s take a step back and start with a more basic question:

What does it mean to be “fit”? 

If I had to guess, I’d say you’re probably picturing someone lean, muscular, and athletic. Someone who is likely to excel at any sport they attempt. But what if that sport was sumo wrestling?

A side-by-side comparison of a UFC wrestler and a sumo wrestler to demonstrate fitness is purpose-specific.

The ideal sumo wrestler looks nothing like the Western ideal of “fit.” They strive to be as large as possible, and in doing so, are idolized as sporting gods.

The term “fitness” will always be relative to a given scenario. This is especially true when determining how to hire the best leaders. No matter how strong a leader appears to be on paper, do their skills and style suit the requirements of that role?

Are they “fit”?

A Bad Leader? Or a Bad Fit?

We often works with organizations in developing their leadership and project capabilities. In doing so, we have learned that different tasks, environments, and strategies play a big role in determining how to hire the best leaders. By taking these all into account, you can determine which leadership style will be the best fit.

Fitness based on leadership style is a crucial point that is largely overlooked in the hiring process. When figuring out how to hire the best leaders, interviewers tend to focus on the “Previous Experience” section of a candidate’s resume when that has the least relevance in relation to your company’s needs.

Another common reason for choosing a candidate is because they are “really intelligent.” But having an IQ of 170 doesn’t automatically make one qualified to lead. In fact, there have been many studies on the correlation between IQ (intelligence quotient) and EQ (emotional quotient). While the results varied in their specifics, the general conclusion is that most people tend to be strong in one or the other, but not both. Therefore, a candidate with a high level of traditional intelligence may actually be at a disadvantage for emotional intelligence, making it more difficult for them to communicate, cooperate and, in short, lead.

Leading The Blind

When determining how to hire the best leader for your company, ask yourself:

  • Do you have a thorough understanding of the organizational issues this leader will need to address?
  • Can you communicate the expectations for this role in its entirety?
  • Do you know how do the position’s goals play into the company’s larger plan?
  • If you are hiring a replacement, have you considered exploring a new style of leadership in this role?

If you’ve answered “no” to any of these questions, don’t put up that Help Wanted sign just yet.

Many organizations try to hire for leadership without first knowing where they want to be led. All too often those choices are put off “until we find the right candidate.” This attitude makes the hiring process like trying to hit a bullseye blindfolded. You can keep throwing darts, but without knowing what to aim at, you’ll be lucky to hit anything at all.

The future of your company is not a game of darts, and neither are your employee’s careers. It is unfair to fire a leader who has been hamstrung by limited resources and nebulous expectations, and yet this is exactly what will happen. Eventually, you will have to let them go because they “aren’t a good fit”–a fact you would have known if you’d determined what a good fit was in the first place. 

How to Hire The Best Leaders

To avoid any questions about how to hire the best leaders for the open position, make sure you do the following prep work.

Understand The Problem and the Need

When determining how to hire the best leaders, you must first figure out where the company wants to be led to (or away from).

  • What is the issue you are trying to solve?
  • Is this a people, processes, product, or profile problem?
  • What are the expectations of the leader in terms of time, cost, and quality outputs?

Know Your Desired Outcomes

Based on what you know about the position, what strengths and styles are needed most?

  • Someone who focuses on the details? Or someone who keeps the larger goal in sight?
  • Someone who has a high level of technical, governance, and/or risk experience?
  • Someone who will gel with other members of the team?
  • Someone who is not afraid to challenge the way you do things? Or someone who will operate in a similar way to the person in the role previously?

Finally, of the traits mentioned above, which one is most important?

Same Conditions = Same Results

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

-Albert Einstein

If the reason you looking into how to hire the best leaders is that your last one was unsuccessful, think twice before hiring someone with a similar style–especially if that style involved not rocking the boat. If there’s a potential problem within senior management (such as limited resources or lack of direction), hiring a candidate that will push back could be an asset.

Hiring Is Only The Beginning

Just because you’ve figured out how to hire the best leader doesn’t mean your work is done. Evaluating the company’s strategy and goals in relation to your new hire must continue even after they come on board.

Commit to Continuing Education

Even the best leaders have room for improvement. But if you’ve hired someone fit for purpose, then you should be able to develop them appropriately, especially in areas where the team needs them to be stronger.

New Software Won’t Fix Bad Management

Many organizations mistake a personnel issue for a technical problem. What looks like a failure with one of your systems may in fact be a communication issue between sub-organizations or individuals. Companies can spend millions of dollars trying to implement software solutions whilst avoiding the actual people-based problem.

In Conclusion

There’s a saying in the military: “Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted.” The same mentality can be applied when figuring out how to hire the best leaders for your company. By taking a methodical approach to identifying what the problem is and finding the most appropriate solution, you will be more assured of finding the right leader for you. Otherwise, you may end up with a slalom skier when what you need is a sumo wrestler.

When it comes to hiring leaders, it may be beneficial for you to experience what good leadership looks like firsthand. The Eighth Mile Consulting offers an 8-week self-paced online leadership course perfect for those looking to improve their skills through honest self-evaluation and disciplined dedication. To understand what “good” leadership really looks like, visit our course page or contact us for more information.

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Managing Up – The Art of Influence

In this 60-minute workshop, we discuss techniques for presenting ideas that gain buy-in.

TOPICS WE DISCUSSED IN THIS WORKSHOP

  •  Understanding your manager
  •  Nesting your ideas within existing objectives
  •  Micro Skilling
  •  Matrix Teams
  •  Managing Obstructionists
  •  Using yours and your team’s values to support the cause

INFLUENCE REQUIRES UNDERSTANDING

Successfully presenting new ideas requires you to do the background research and set the stage for change. Take a look at what may be affecting your coworkers and how your idea will impact them. Forbes research shows that 70% of all organisational change efforts fail. Have you done the analysis that will enable you to achieve a break in with your idea?

There is an art to preparing information in such a way that it encourages transformation within your business.  If you present your ideas with no strategy you may experience push back.  The Eighth Mile Consulting offers executive coaching for individuals looking to develop their understanding of the motivating factors that determine the outcomes in their workplace. Developing self-awareness and social awareness can give you the edge that drives your career forward.

For more helpful videos to help you grow your people and your organisation subscribe to our YouTube channel.

What are your thoughts or learnings when it comes to presenting new ideas? Are you seeing positive results from investing time in your own self-development? Let us know in the comments below!

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A NEW WAY TO ASSESS & IMPROVE EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

In this 60-minute workshop, we discuss getting the balance right in communicating with our employees.

TOPICS WE DISCUSSED IN THIS WORKSHOP

  • 05:48 – Decentralised control and the balance between expectation and empathy
  • 11:00 – The trust issue
  • 16:00 – The freedom in routine
  • 21:30 – Combatting uncertainty
  • 29:00 – The impact of cutting employees to save money
  • 42:00 – Continuous education within a cost-sensitive period
  • 48:00 – How to have courageous conversations

HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS REQUIRE TRANSPARENCY

Successfully developing your people is fundamental to the sustainable growth of your organisation. Take a look at what may be holding your organisation back. Is the rate of change making it difficult for your team to feel connected with a sense of purpose and direction?  Do you feel there is a lack of clarity at the tactical level? Do your leaders feel confident to handle having courageous conversations? The Eighth Mile Consulting can help you build your leadership team through Leadership Training to motivate disaffected teams and deliver business and people outcomes.

For more helpful videos to help you grow your people and your organisation subscribe to our YouTube channel.

What are your thoughts or learnings when it comes to managing employee performance? Are you seeing positive results from having courageous conversations? Let us know in the comments below!

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Weekly Planner

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The Eighth Mile Consulting – A One Year Snapshot

The Eighth Mile Consulting officially launched in January this year (2019) and our team has been on an exciting roller coaster ever since. Modeled on a belief of ‘Good People, Helping Good People’, we have stepped out into the world seeking to find positive people and support community serving projects.

The purpose of this report is to provide a mechanism to communicate all of the lessons we learnt along the journey so far. In doing so, we hope that it serves other teams and removes the need to learn the same mistakes the hard way. We also hope that it helps them to capitalise on opportunities which we have identified.

This follows a six-month report which we published in August this year, called “Our no BS review of The Eighth Mile Consulting – 6 Months in”. It also includes many lessons that might be of merit to others.

Snapshot

  • Our team has grown from 2 to 11 people.   
  • We have achieved our first-year brand recognition targets. 
  • We achieved our financial targets. 
  • We exceeded our organisational growth targets by 30%. 
  • We have set all the conditions for our next phase in 2020.

Now that we have that out of the way these are the lessons we learnt or have had reinforced throughout our short journey…

Lesson 1: Only supporting positive projects is financially viable

We have conclusively proven that supporting positive projects is a viable business methodology, but it requires consideration of a number of factors to remain sustainable.

Project funding models need to be discussed early in scoping stages and need to be leveraged off of a Return on Investment (ROI) for the customer. The customer needs to feel that they are supporting something which will provide a positive legacy for them, the community and their brand. But, it needs to be clear that the project is ‘for profit’ as we have staff to pay and administration costs to attend to.

Many positive industries are still in the early stages of development. This means that they have not yet fully embraced the idea of consulting being used in support of their existing organisational structures. This can make conversations difficult when trying to find middle ground that will ensure value for both organisations, whilst also delivering positive projects.

The best approach is to be clear, transparent and upfront about everyone’s expectations.

Lesson 2: Plan to scale and grow quickly

All the strategies in the world will not determine how it plays out on the ground. Always have a reserve or something in the back pocket in order to deal with unforeseen contingencies.

We spent significant time preparing a methodology for scaling our services, based on a number of growth assumptions. As it turns out, what we thought were ambitious growth targets were only half of what was required in reality (a good problem to have). A rapid increase in demand required that our strategy be accelerated in areas in order to accommodate the number of projects which were required in a short time.

We are now in a great place with good projects and initiatives in the pipeline, supported by a proportionately growing staff pool. For the meantime we have found the right balance, but admittedly there were some late nights trying to figure out how we can ensure services were provided to the standard we hold ourselves to.

Lesson 3: Leave your ego & pride at the door. Don’t go down with a sinking ship.

It is not always clear what initiatives will land and which ones will not. Linking back to our military careers there was a popular saying among leaders, “time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted”. The same rings true in business.

The time spent conceptualising new ideas, creating a plan for market, and then probing out to determine its value is essential in ensuring your relevance with other client organisations.

This being said, do not put all your eggs in one basket, and do not keep whipping a dead horse. Probing, by its very nature, is used to confirm, validate or deny facts and assumptions. If the data comes back that it isn’t worth the continued effort in a certain area. Stop, learn/adapt, reorientate, and then move again.

Lesson 4: The Sunshine Coast is very difficult to establish in.

One of our aims has been to base The Eighth Mile Consulting out of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland Australia. The reasons for this were based around a growing economy, an acceptance of small businesses, lifestyle, community, technology advancements and great infrastructure.

As it turns out the vast majority of our clients are based in Brisbane. It has been very difficult to break into the cliques associated with the Sunshine Coast despite many efforts to find relevance in the community. In many ways we have found it easier to provide services to other countries such as the USA.

Our company is very keen to support The Sunshine Coast in a more formal capacity but something is going to have to give. It might be a matter of time and pressure making diamonds, but it also might be a venture which is not viable long term. Time will tell.

Not known for stalling, we have a number of initiatives we will test. Depending on the viability of the outcomes we will make decisions whether to officially base our efforts out of Brisbane or Sunshine Coast.

Lesson 5: Build a high performing team, and clients will magnetise towards it.

We are fortunate in that we have access to a unique pool of extremely high performing leaders in which to create our staff base. We have made a deliberate choice to grow the team, prior to knowing all the problems. In doing so, we have actively sourced people which we trust, and we know can deliver incredible services to organisations that need it the most.

The beauty of having access to such people is that they are able to remain flexible and adapt their style, approach and methodology to suit the client and the target audience. The second advantage is that the more high performers we draw into the pool, the more appetising it is for other candidates who may have been fence sitting prior. In essence, it generates its own momentum and energy.

Lesson 6: We remain methodology agnostic

From our inception we have been, and remain, project methodology agnostic.

Due to our tertiary qualifications and history of project management we have developed a strong understanding of different project methodologies. We can use them if requested/required, but you will not see us heavily pushing a specific approach.

Instead, we are strong advocates on developing customised solutions for clients after listening intensively to their stories and determining their needs. We do not subscribe to a one solution fits all approach and we will continue to work under this design. It works for our clients, and it works for us.

Lesson 7: Keep having fun

Throughout this journey we have grown our team, fought through the challenges and have done so with a big smile on our faces. We revel in the complexity and the uncertainty and it has only served to cement many of our friendships in even stronger foundations.

We enjoy going to work and being around our team. We learn and professionally develop from each other and we are good at what we do. I can’t wait to bring in some more equally positive people to the company.

Lesson 8: Continue removing single points of failure

Until now there has been a misconception that The Eighth Mile Consulting team is the ‘Dave and Jono’ experience. This is a perception we need to rectify, as we feel it directly undermines the amazing work being provided by our ever-growing team.

Significant effort will be placed in the next cycle to demonstrate the amazing and unique skillsets which our team provide on a daily basis.

The plan moving forward

Keep trying to find good people by teaming up and partnering with more like-minded and motivated individuals, teams and organisations. 

Continue to scale our services into new industries (watch this space). 

Continue to find our relevance in the Sunshine Coast until it becomes overtly obvious that it is no longer viable. 

Continue supporting veterans, emergency services and first responders as part of an enduring effort across multiple projects. 

Continue to organically grow our follower base on Linkedin without the use of sending requests from the Company page. We believe in creating a community of people who want to be involved, not those who felt pressured to join us. 

Continue growing our team at a rate commensurate with our service demand. 

Continue providing value for free online platforms like LinkedIn, websites and Business magazines in order to help other people, whilst concurrently demonstrating our team’s knowledge base. 

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Leadership 101 – Infographic

Leadership 101

Leadership is NOT about you. Leadership is about trying to write yourself out of a job by EMPOWERING others to take over and head towards success.

Leadership is:

  • Helping the team understand the strategy
  • Enabling them to operate in your absence
  • Empowering them to make decisions and take risks, protected by your influence

Leadership is not:

  • Witholding information or techniques
  • Isolating individuals
  • Building a team around you for the sake of ego

Leadership 101 Infographic

Leadership Infographic by The Eighth Mile Consulting
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Why we helped create a medicinal cannabis platform designed specifically for Australian Veterans

An article by David Neal (Director), The Eighth Mile Consulting

In 2017, I medically discharged from the Australian Army due to a myriad of injuries that were gained throughout my time in the Infantry Corps. This is not unusual or special in any way, in fact it is quite a regular occurrence for serving members to medically discharge due to their service caused injuries.

Where my story diverges from the norm is the way that I ultimately addressed the problem surrounding my chronic injuries, and the way in which my team and I are now trying to give our precious findings back to our Veteran community, and provide them with a solution that might help them win their battles.

Throughout my career I had dealt with my injuries in the same way nearly everyone in the service does, by popping Ibuprofen and Panadol like they are tic tac’s, overshadowed by a deep love for beer, bourbon and scotch.

Over time, as the number of broken bones and joints grew as did the need for stronger solutions with an emphasis on Codeine and Opiate solutions. Over time my willingness to use these drugs increased ever so gradually until they became virtually useless, but still left all the negative symptoms such as lack of concentration, dizziness, shortness of breath etc. Simply put, it was not a solution that would work long-term without having serious risks on my health and a high likelihood of developing addictions, or as a minimum a very unhealthy reliance.

When I was finally discharged, I approached my doctor to start developing sustainable longer-term solutions. I was fortunate enough to have access to some incredible medical physicians who were contemporary, understood military issues, were open minded and solution driven. After numerous discussions, the topic of medicinal cannabis was raised in its capacity as a possible solution for chronic pain. This was a bit of a shock to me after having come from a no tolerance community and having been directly responsible for kicking many people out of the Army for their use of recreational cannabis. I would be lying if I also said I was not worried about the judgement of my peers who were currently serving in the Defence force at the time, and would have very little first-hand knowledge in this space.

In any case, there wasn’t a great deal of other alternatives on the plate. I had already had all the nerves fried out of my spine and neck with very little success, with a larger number of surgeries on the way. I really didn’t have anything to lose.

I invested significant research to see if medicinal cannabis had helped other Veterans in similar situations, and it had. Veterans can be very ‘clicky’ sometimes and we often like to speak to our own before we make decisions. I was fortunate to have discussions with a large number of veterans who had also gone the black-market route, utilising recreational cannabis for its pain killing properties. Some of these individuals had experienced remarkable improvements in their physical and mental health as a result of their actions. I had seen the improvements from the outside looking in.

As it was, I was the first to go through the legal prescription process which was a little clunky due to the immaturity of the medicinal cannabis industry at the time, overshadowed by a clunky government legal approval system (TGA). But once through, I was blessed with a solution that not only turned my pain off (yes, off) but also allowed me to stay more coherent, sleep through an entire night (I couldn’t remember the last time I had done that), and generally feel better all round. This was life changing to say the least. My relationships started improving, my moods and confidence improved, and I started feeling younger again. It was a significant jump in the right direction.

The problems I had though was that it was exceptionally expensive ($400 per month, AUD), it tasted disgusting (I can deal with that) and was a difficult administration process to navigate to get there. Another issue was the type of medication one might take; a quick slip of the lips and an individual might agree to a THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) & CBD (Cannabidiol) solution as opposed to a CBD only solution, resulting in a loss of one’s driving licence. The most difficult thing was trying to have it accepted by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs who can be a very slow-moving and bureaucratic beast.

My team and I decided that something needed to be done. We needed to:

  • A. Educate other veterans about how effective this was as a solution
  • B. Warn others about the dangers associated with Codeine, Opiate and Alcohol
  • C. Provide a platform for veterans to become better educated
  • D. Provide a means for veterans to start their journey to sourcing legally approved medicinal cannabis product
  • E. Provide the best chance for veterans to have their prescriptions subsidised by the Department of Veterans Affairs
  • F. Most importantly, remove the victim persona that follows the veteran community like a plague

After a significant amount of searching, we finally met the team at MedReleaf Australia who were willing to team up with us in developing a platform that would make the product better understood, and easier to source (pending the suitability for the individual). In doing so a partnership was formed. We had also met some not so desirable companies in our journey that were clearly focused on using veterans for the sole purpose of making a ‘quick buck’. The MedReleaf Australia team were considered, caring and compassionate about providing a service where it will get best effect and provide care to the people that had fought on behalf of the country.

Since that time a significant amount of research has been invested into ensuring the currency of information in an industry that is currently flying by the seat of its pants. We have also implemented a ground up build of the ‘Releaf for Veterans’ platform which will enable veterans to simply start their journey by visiting a website. Simply put, the Releaf for Veterans platform will allow veterans to be provided with an alternate and easy to navigate solution if it is applicable to them.

In memory of the veterans we have served who struggle with physical and mental injuries due to their service, we have decided to launch the platform on 11th November (Remembrance Day).

I hope that it in some way this project will both practically and functionally help our community of veterans for which I am proud to have served with, and I owe so much to.

I am exceptionally proud of my team at The Eighth Mile Consulting for their professionalism, tenacity and dedication in delivering this project on time and on budget. Amazing work.

Thank you for reading.

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