The clearest lesson John O’Donnell carried from the military into business is that strong decisions are rarely solo acts.

For the President and CEO of Pinnacol Assurance, effective leadership starts with the understanding that no mission succeeds without the people around you.

“You know, I realized that very early on – that you just don’t accomplish anything just by yourself,” he notes. “Once I entered the business world, I took that with me, and I try to be as collaborative as I can with my team and across the organization.”

In his view, that same logic applies inside a modern company, where leaders need teams that can think clearly and act decisively without waiting for permission at every turn.

“So people have to be equipped to make decisions and to take decisive actions on their own,” O’Donnell says on CEO: Behind the Scenes.

“People understand the mission very clearly, but there’s a lot of autonomy and they understand and they have a lot of decision-making empowerment along the way.”

At Pinnacol Assurance, that approach is not about loosening accountability. It is about making the mission clear enough that people can respond well when circumstances change, while keeping the organization aligned around a shared goal.

“We have a very clear and straightforward mission, which is to provide caring protection for employees and their workers in Colorado, and that’s always our north star,” O’Donnell reveals.

“When things shift and markets change and there are different pressures and competitors, we always go back to that.”

Such a mission can only succeed when everyone is on board and when all voices are heard and respected.

“Many times I have had my team convince me that I’m wrong about something and and I encourage them to try and convince me if they think I’m wrong,” O’Donnell says.

“We work very closely and collaboratively, really leveraging, you know, training people and then they would come up with the innovative ideas. This has really helped us evolve during this time.

“It’s amazing how creative people were in using those tools to come up with prototypes that then became mainstream tools that the whole organization could use.”

Underneath it all is a view of leadership that is less about authority than stewardship.

“As a leader, you don’t need to have all the answers. You don’t need to be the smartest person in the room,” O’Donnell explains.

“Everybody who works for me knows a lot more about their role than I do, and I’m oftentimes here to again remove barriers and provide tools and opportunities so things can come together.”

Listen to the latest episode of our CEO: Behind the Scenes podcast with John O’Donnell on Amazon, Apple or Spotify.