Retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Robert Wray told business owners and executives gathered at the Cover Your Assets 360 event in Baton Rouge on Wednesday that if they follow his advice—to focus on their mission, skills development and understanding as leaders—they can increase their business’s success by 20%.
“The way you manage your life and your energy and the energy of the people around you can make that 20% difference,” said Wray, the event’s keynote speaker. “You have to have a thorough visceral, spinal column-like understanding of the business you are in, and that’s the first job of the leader.”
The invitation-only, daylong event focused on risk management. Along with Wray’s keynote address, events included presentations on law, accounting, risk management, finance and health care, with the goal of helping business leaders develop strategies to navigate risks to their companies.
Wray received a Bronze Star for meritorious service under enemy fire, and was the chief operating officer over an organization of 180 Navy ships leading 10,000 people in 24 time zones. While on Navy Reserve for 20 years, Wray worked as an entrepreneur starting several businesses, and is considered an expert on organizational transformation.
Leadership can be broken down into four categories, Wray said, like the legs of a table: A leader’s understanding of their business, their mission, their skills and their will to make what they want to happen, happen.
There is a difference between management and leadership, Wray said. While the former is necessary for a business’s day-to-day activities, the latter is needed for growth and innovation, he said.
“If you have all management you’ll have lots of stability, lots of routine, but the company will become stagnant,” he said. “If you have all leadership, all ‘let’s change and innovate and be different,’ there will be great possibilities, great emotions, but the place will fall apart. You have to strike the balance.”
Wray encouraged attendees to spend at least one hour alone, simply assessing their knowledge of their business and their personal missions, and then to consider the skills they might want to develop to better lead their organizations. He stressed leaders need the will and determination to reach their goals.
“The older I get and the gnarlier I get, the more I am convinced in small business and in large businesses, in running countries and running baseball teams, that will is the most important part that the leader provides,” Wray said. “Leadership, remember, is about change. Humans don’t like change, and what overcomes that resistance to change is the determination and the will of the leader.”
Other speakers at the CYA 360 event, which was held at The Renaissance hotel, included Peter Bush, Horizon Wealth Management co-founder; Kevin Sendlenski, managing director at BDO Capital Advisors; business merger expert Camm Morton; and Melissa Terito, director of Sentinel Pension & Payroll. Event sponsors included Business Report, Phelps Dunbar LLP, Horizon Wealth Management, Stun Design and Interactive, Faulk & Winkler and Sentinel Pension & Payroll.
—Deanna Narveson
