Former Navy SEAL officer Chris Fussell has spent the past four years adapting strategies he learned in the military to the corporate world.

He's the chief growth officer of retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal's consulting firm, the McChrystal Group, which has worked with companies like Intuit and Seagate Technologies to streamline management and communications systems.

Fussell and McChrystal wrote a book on their philosophy, "Team of Teams," which they recently discussed on Tim Ferriss' podcast.

Fussell explains to Ferriss that the best advice he received early in his military career stays with him to this day. One of his mentors taught him that you should always have three people that you're paying attention to within your organization:

• Someone senior who you would like to emulate
• A peer who you think is better at the job than you are
• A subordinate who is doing your previous job better than you did

This roster is always subject to change, Fussell says, and you don't need to let the people you're following know that you're doing so.

"If you just have those three individuals that you're constantly measuring yourself off of and who you're constantly learning from," Fussell says, "you're gonna be exponentially better than you are."

You can listen to the full, in-depth podcast interview at Ferriss' website or iTunes.