Debrief to Win: How Failure Builds Unstoppable Leaders
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What are the key qualifications of Cujo?
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the show. We have a tremendous episode for you today, a conversation with Robert Cujo Teschner. He is a combat veteran, former F-15 Eagle instructor at the prestigious U.S. Air Force Weapons School, as well as Air Force Top Gun Program instructor. He's a former F-22 Raptor Fighter Squadron commander, having commanded one of America's most prestigious... operational F-22 fighter squadrons. Cujo is now a leadership coach, a peak performance, personal development coach, entrepreneur, speaker. And his book, Debrief to Win, is a must-read for leaders. It is a must-read. It's called Debrief to Win. I'll have a link in the show notes. If you haven't read Debrief to Win, stop what you're reading right now. Pick up this book.
If you are in a leadership position or aspire to be in one someday, this is a book you do not want to miss. This episode is going to blow your mind. your mind. It is absolutely incredible. If you're in a leadership position or ever want to be a leader, lock in, friends, because we got one for you today. With all that said, and no further ado, let's get on to my good friend, Cujo.
I have been so incredibly excited to chat with you because a mutual friend of ours, Chris Paradiso, met you, spent time with you, and since that moment hasn't stopped talking about you. And mostly positive. No, I'm kidding. And I just read your book, Debrief to Win, and I just want to dig in. So I appreciate your time that you're spending with us here today.
Yeah, listen, thank you very much. I mean, so Mr. Paradis has been singing your praises and I've been looking forward to this. We do all kinds of different things, but this is this is the kind of thing that I like to do almost the most. And I'm really excited to be able to present like an idea thought coming from what it is that you read and debrief to win your listeners to help them and what it is that they're doing. I think it's the exact right audience for what it is we're talking about. So this fires me up.
Awesome. So where I want to start is in most of these, I turn into basically personal consulting, just so you know, like I basically do the podcast. So I get free personal consulting. So many people reach out to me today. My life as well. It's freaking hectic, right? Like there's so much coming at us. And we talked a little about it before. You said you got so much going on, you know, in your brain. So do I. Much of your philosophy is, my understanding is taking time post-action to reflect, as the title of your book, Debrief to Win, taking time to think about what happened. And I know for a fact that the vast majority of leaders, of executives, of sales individuals, we just don't do that.
Why is reflection important for leaders?
We take action, and then regardless of outcome, we just move on to the next action. So my first question is actually kind of hyper-tactical. How do we build that time in? How do we actually stop ourselves or slow ourselves down enough to reflect, to kind of debrief on action? 17?
As long as you want. Okay, good. I'll tell you what, the brute force method seems to be probably the entrepreneurial spirit. Like, let's just go out there and attack and dominate and do whatever it takes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Like, I'm on fire with this concept and we're just going to go and we're going to make mistakes along the way, but we're just going to keep on plying forward. And eventually, we're going to win at this thing just because we've just been so... Power focused and energetic all the way through. And that's definitely an option. And I think both you and I have been have been squarely focused on that kind of an option in the work that we do. And so it kind of makes sense to us. And there you go. And it can be successful. Question is, is the best option?
And that's a really worthwhile question for all of us to think about. Like, is brute force the best way to move forward? Or is there something else that's missing that could make this whole experience of building and leading a little bit better? So I would contrast
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the key qualifications of Cujo?
0:00–3:19
2
Why is reflection important for leaders?
3:19–15:02
3
How can we create a culture of psychological safety?
15:02–15:50
4
What lessons can we learn from failures?
15:50
5
How do we address losses in a team environment?
14:45–27:19
6
What is the role of vulnerability in leadership?
27:19–41:04
7
How can ego affect organizational culture?
41:04–44:31
8
What practices can enhance team learning?
44:31–50:57
Speakers
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