I am really glad to say that in addition to my work with Comedy Estonia, I am joining Estonian leadership training company Combat Ready. I’ll be an instructor and working on International business development.

I met these guys in March at sTARTUp Day when I hosted the main stage where Remo and Aleksandr were giving a talk. I read about Combat Ready, saw the presentation, met the guys and I was sold. It was clear to me that the lessons Combat Ready teaches are really good stuff.

You might not know but for the last 5+ years I have been leading Comedy Estonia using the same leadership principles that Combat Ready teaches. I had independently come across the Jocko Podcast and learnt about the principles of Extreme Ownership and used them to cope with the growth of Comedy Estonia.

I believe implementing Extreme Ownership and the 4 Laws of Combat with comedians and admin staff was one of the major contributing factors to the success of Comedy Estonia.

Certainly adjustments need to be made because these are creative people not soldiers or business people, but the fundamentals are the same. A comedian, a soldier or knowledge worker can learn from the same textbook, it’s all about leading people.

From left: Louis Zezeran, Aleksandr Afanasjev, Priit Lilleväli

I am very excited for this new mission! I am humbled that this team would take me on. I have no military experience as my home of Australia is too far away from Russia to worry about such things. I discovered the military guys really had leadership worked out and now the job is to communicate this to everybody. If I made these “military” techniques work with artists, you can make it work with your colleagues.

I am thankful Combat Ready is recognizing my experience and I am very motivated to help them teach this material to all levels of society.

One thing I REALLY like about Combat Ready is the practical Field Training Exercise (FTX), which I think is their special sauce.

Students learn about the fundamentals of leadership and then implement them on the field right away. They are broken off into squads, issued Laser Tag weapons and given training on basic tactics. They then face a series of short scenarios designed to illustrate different leadership principles. We also have experienced Combat Ready crew who act as characters to either heighten tension or force the team into a decision.

The idea of Cover & Move is the same on the battlefield as in the office.

That’s why I like working with these guys. There is no business blah blah stuff, their examples from war make the leadership points really clear.