The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Join 10's of thousands of your fellow learning leaders and receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right... Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12   https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He is also the editor and publisher of the Cool Tools website, which gets half a million unique visitors per month. He co-founded Wired in 1993 and served as its Executive Editor from its inception until 1999. During Kevin’s tenure, Wired won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence (the industry's equivalent of two Oscars). He is the best-selling author of many books including New Rules for the New Economy, The Inevitable, and his latest is called Excellent Advice For Living - Wisdom I wish I’d Known Earlier.  You lead by letting others know what you expect of them, which may exceed what they themselves expect. Provide them a reputation to live up to. Habit is far more dependable than inspiration. Don’t focus on getting into shape. Focus on becoming the kind of person who never misses a workout. "Every great and difficult thing has required a strong sense of optimism," Prototype your life. Try stuff instead of making grand plans. The best way to learn anything is to try to teach what you know. Don’t create things to make money; make money so you can create things. The reward for good work is more work. The more you are interested in others, the more interesting they’ll find you. To be interesting, be interested. Promptness is a sign of respect. The consistency of your endeavors (exercise, companionship, work) is more important than the quantity. Nothing beats small things done every day, which is way more important than what you do occasionally.

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Join 10's of thousands of your fellow learning leaders and receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right... Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12   https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 The Learning Leader Show was first published on April 9, 2015. TODAY marks the show's 8th birthday! To celebrate, I kick off the episode by sharing some key learnings I've gathered over the past 8 years... And then I answer YOUR questions and did a full AMA (Ask Me Anything). If you'd like me to do more AMAs, send me an email: Ryan (at) LearningLeader dot com Here are some key things I've learned after publishing The Learning Leader Show for 8 years... Consistency > Intensity. Showing up to do the work (prep) each day is key. Become part of your routine as a listener. Consistency builds trust. You know you’re going to have a new show for your Monday morning walk or commute. Following your genuine curiosity is attractive. This parasocial relationship is built because as the listener you know I’m following what I’m actually curious about. I own guest selection 100%. They are all my call and my call alone. I only choose guests that I’m deeply curious about. The curiosity-judgemental spectrum. Talking with more people with a wide range of life experiences has helped me view the world from their eyes and be less judgemental. All the way back to episode 3 with Maurice Clarett. Approach people with curiosity, not judgment. The prep works as a forcing function to learn. Same with mindful Monday. I have systems in place to ensure I’m getting a little bit wiser each day. And that learning compounds over time. Create forcing functions on your life to intentionally get better. Don’t just wander from meeting to meeting each week. What are you doing to ensure your learning is compounding? The Charlie Munger quote; go to bed a little wiser than when you woke up. I try to live by that. Relationships with your heroes: General McChrystal. Pat Lencioni. So many others. Being pleasant to work with. Showing up prepared. Being grateful. Following up. All of that has helped me build real relationships with people I admire. The McChrystal trip to Gettysburg. Forewords to books. McChrystal and Lencioni. Dan Pink. The Kat Cole ATL show. Adam Grant. Ryan Holiday. Relationships with listeners. Some amazing friendships have been formed and fostered because of this podcast. So many of my Learning Leader Circle members. Technically they are clients of mine, but lots of them have become genuine friends for life. Communication skill - LISTENING. Thinking. Speaking, Writing. All have improved. Earned the opportunity to speak on hundreds of stages all over the world. Publish books. Meet fascinating people. Listener AMA: Learn 2 Cope (Instagram) – What was the biggest struggle you had transitioning to life after sports? Kevin Janiec (Instagram) – How do you and Miranda balance and align your competing priorities? Samantha Phillips (LinkedIn), Sales Manager at Insight Global – 1. What is 1 of your champagne toasts? (Victory Shot toast) 2. Who is 1 person you have not yet had on your show that you’d like to? Aaron Arnston (LinkedIn) - Congratulations, Ryan!  Truly blazing a trail, we’ll done! You have interviewed hundreds of guests and I have liked every show, can't recall one, not one, show I didn't like...have you ever interviewed guests that didn't make the cut or do you have a filtering process prior to the show that helps with this? Noah Vasilj (Mindful Monday email response): My question is a “3 parter”: What is your favorite part of your job? Do you generally enjoy/love what you do? What keeps you interested and going on the days when you are not at 100%? Brian Causer (Twitter) — Congrats! Love the show, Ryan. One of my top podcasts and I listen weekly. Maybe have two questions... How do you choose your guests? Referral? Follow your curiosity? Also, what is one question you wish someone would ask you that nobody has asked you before? The Greek In The Kitchen (Instagram) — Who is the guest you think about most or has had the most influence on you? Denise Kollias (LinkedIn) Hi! Congratulation! I have been listening to your podcast since 2017 and it has been a Godsend. It has taught me so much and I appreciate all your hard work to continually bring insightful conversations on leadership. My question is what episodes were your favorite to record or the top 5 that you recommend with the greatest impact to help people grow or push through? JP Botero (Instagram) - After 8 years of experience, what would you recommend to the Ryan thinking of creating The Learning Leader Show? Aaron Campbell – After 8 years of exploration along a central theme, how would you finish this sentence: “A great leader is….”

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Join 10's of thousands of your fellow learning leaders and receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right... Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12   https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 Dan Lyons is the New York Times bestselling author of "Disrupted," "Lab Rats," and "STFU: The Power of Keeping Your Mouth Shut in an Endlessly Noisy World." Dan was a writer for HBO's hit comedy, "Silicon Valley," and before that was a journalist at Newsweek, Forbes, and Fortune. The best sales reps spend 54 percent of the call listening and 46 percent talking. The worst reps talked 72 percent of the time. They made calls feel like conversations.  A company called Gong uses machine learning software that analyzes sales calls to find out what works and what doesn’t. Its software vacuums up millions of hours of audio data and then analyzes it to figure out how the best sales reps operate. Gong’s customers use this information to train new sales reps and help underperformers improve. In 2017 Gong analyzed more than five hundred thousand calls and found that sales calls with the best close rates were ones in which reps knew how to be quiet and ask questions instead of making a sales pitch. To be precise, the most successful reps asked eleven to fourteen questions. Fewer than that, and you’re not digging deep enough. More than that, the call starts to feel like an interrogation. Eavesdropping on happiness: The research showed that people who spent more time having substantive conversations were happier than those who spent more time having small talk, and weather conversations. Always Say Less Than Necessary – "When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.” -- Robert Greene Researcher, Mehl joined a team that made a third big discovery: that people who suffer from anxiety and depression use the first-person singular pronouns I, me, and my more than other people. Go OUTSIDE – Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, who hypothesized that our affinity for the outdoors and love of living things have been hardwired into our DNA by evolution and exist as innate parts of our psychological and physiological makeup. Wilson calls this “biophilia,” a name derived from the ancient Greek words for “life” and “love.” It’s the reason people watch birds, melt at the sight of baby bunnies, travel to Yellowstone National Park to marvel at the bison, and rush to the window when a deer wanders into their yard. It’s why walking through Muir Woods among giant thousand-year-old redwood trees takes your breath away. The Talkaholic Scale Test – Prior to writing the book, Dan scored a 50 (the highest possible score)… Meaning he is a talkaholic. AFTER writing the book, he scored a 40, and Dan's wife scored him at 38. Life/Career Advice: Earn attention by doing great work, not by being loud and outlandish. It’s more lasting and will help you build better relationships and a great career.

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Join 10's of thousands of your fellow learning leaders and receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right... Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12   https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 Dr. Mat Duerden is a Professor of Experience Design and Management at Brigham Young University. His teaching focuses on experience design and design thinking. He is the best-selling author of Designing Experiences. His research focuses on experience design in both work and non-work contexts. Mat’s publications have appeared in a variety of journals including Leisure Sciences, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Journal of Adolescent Research, and Journal of Leisure Research. Mat Duerden received a Ph.D. in Recreation, Park, and Tourism Sciences from Texas A&M University and an M.S. in Youth and Family Recreation from Brigham Young University.  Transformational Learning – "The future intrinsic use of the content." Going from theory to putting it into practice. It’s the implementation of the learning that codifies it. What to do at your next leadership retreat? Ask yourself the question, “What do you want them to say when they walk away from the experience?” And design the event based on your answer to that question. One of the must-have qualities needed to be hired as a team leader is humility and curiosity. Curiosity is the fuel for creativity and innovation. Having a broad range of interests is a good sign of curiosity. What do Apple, Costco, and Walt Disney have in common? A high NPS Score... What is NPS? Your Net Promoter Score is the percentage of customers who are promoters (those who scored 9 or 10) minus the percentage who are detractors (those who scored 0 to 6). They have a uniform type of experience Harmonizing Ques... There should be a narrative structure: Build rising action... -- Anticipation, Participation, Reflection, Climax. It's important to solve problems tied to the needs of your customer or your team. The Wonder Switch from Harris III The curiosity is becoming comfortable not knowing The Buc-eee's gas station restroom experience takes the ordinary and turns it into an extraordinary experience. For businesses: Need to develop a brand experience guide for the type of experience you want to provide. Write a brand theme statement that aligns with who we are. HEB Grocery Store: Here Everything's Better Hire the type of people who are curious and want to interact with customers. Curiosity is the fuel for creativity and innovation. A broad range of interests is important.

  Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Join 10's of thousands of your fellow learning leaders and receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right... Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12   https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 Colin Coggins and Garrett Brown are adjunct professors of entrepreneurship at USC’s Marshall School of Business where they teach the popular class they created, “Sales Mindset for Entrepreneurs. ” They are also authors, speakers, longtime sales professionals, and best friends who met while working at enterprise software startup Bitium, which they helped lead to an acquisition by Google. This odd couple first connected over their shared obsession with the importance of selling, and have made it their mission to uncover the unexpected and inspiring mindset of the highest-achieving sellers on the planet. The most impactful sales professionals are learners. They consume information and ask lots of questions that they are deeply curious to know the answers to. They don't go down the list of sales discovery questions. It's from a place of curiosity. "Noone has ever changed the world without moving people." That's sales. An abundance mindset — Collin was meeting with a new sales rep named Matt that worked for you at Bitium. Matt sat down on the couch and loved it. He asked who made it and Collin didn’t know. So he flipped over the cushion, saw who made it, realized they were a potential customer and made a note in his phone to connect with them on LinkedIn and call them. Matt has an abundance mindset. "Great sellers see opportunity where others don't." World-Class sales professionals love the process. When making promotional hires/decisions, "create a culture that's not pulled up. It's pushed up."  When promoting someone to be a manager, look at those who are known to help others. They are pushed to management by the members of the team because they are so helpful. Being a “pathological optimist” — Colin told a story about taking the first flight with his whole family (wife Margot and two young boys) and despite the chaos of crying and trying to take care of young children, Colin loved it and told Margot "it would be a great story one day." She called him a pathological optimist (not meant as a compliment, but he took it as one). Act like a teammate, not a coach: Will Smith’s manager, JL, told him to turn down a $10m offer for a movie called 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag because it didn't help them pursue Will's goal of being a big movie star. (Even though both of them didn't have any money at the time) The Partnership: “Colin, thank you for seeing something in a slightly insecure, overly analytical introvert and deciding to throw in with me.” The class they teach is called “Sales Mindset for Entrepreneurs” Colin & Garrett don’t teach a typical sales class focused how to “build rapport,” “handle objections,” or “ask for the close.” Instead, they help students understand why the most successful people on the planet aren’t successful because of what they do, they’re successful because of what they think. We all sell, every day. Sometimes it's ourselves, sometimes it's ideas, and sometimes it's products. We truly believe that the world would benefit if EVERYONE learned how to sell authentically, whether you're a "salesperson" or not. Great salespeople are not remembered for the statements they make, they're remembered for the questions they ask.  Ask better questions, get better results. As mindset guys, we get a little bit obsessed with one-on-ones when we lead teams, so we geek out when experts like Jeanne shed light on new questions to ask that can help bring out the best in other people. At some point a long time ago, someone studying great salespeople noticed they were mirroring the people they were talking to. So they started training salespeople to mirror the body language of their customers. One MAJOR problem... These great sellers weren't connecting with people because they were mirroring, they were UNCONSCIOUSLY mirroring people 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙖 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣. If you're sitting there thinking about crossing your leg when your customer crosses theirs, you can't possibly be having a good conversation. Science shows that mirroring is a natural inclination when we’re AUTHENTICALLY engaged in a conversation with someone and are relating to them. So instead of ACTING like you’re in a deep conversation by copying someone’s body language, work on caring enough to get into that deep conversation in the first place.

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Join 10's of thousands of your fellow learning leaders and receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right... Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12   https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 David Lieberman, Ph.D., is a renowned psychotherapist and the author of eleven books, including the New York Times bestsellers Get Anyone to Do Anything and Never Be Lied to Again. He has trained personnel in the U.S.  Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: “People do not seem to realize that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.” A person looks at the world as a reflection of themselves. If they see the world as corrupt, they feel on some level that they are corrupt. If they see honest working people, that is frequently how they see themselves. “How someone treats you is a reflection of their own emotional health and says everything about them and nothing about you.” Speaking negatively behind someone’s back orients you to look for the negative in others. Wouldn’t we rather spend time with people who seek the greatness in others? “The less emotionally healthy a person is, the more they denigrate the world to accommodate their own insecurities.” Knowledge is not power. Knowledge is a tool. How it is wielded makes all of the difference. Real power is the responsible application of knowledge. Word usage: Let’s take the example of giving a compliment. A woman who believes what she’s saying is more likely to use a personal pronoun. For instance, “I really liked your presentation.” However, a person offering insincere flattery might say, “Nice presentation,” or “Looks like you did a lot of research.” In the second case, she has removed herself from the equation. The Art of reading the bluff - When a person is bluffing, they are managing others’ impressions to convey the “right” effect and serve a personal agenda. Conversely, the authentic person is not interested in how they come across because they are unconcerned with their image. “People who bluff habitually overcompensate, so you can uncover a bluff instantly by noticing how someone tries to appear.” Relationships: Whenever David speaks to couples, he's always on the lookout when the word we is conspicuously absent from the conversation. We are attracted to positivity. It reflects humility. "Humility connects you to the ownership of mistakes." Humility can recognize a weakness in self. The difference between a sociopath and a psychopath: A sociopath has no conscious. They are very dangerous. A psychopath's wiring is off. They were born that way. Life and career advice: Find a passion that contributes to the world. Don't get too caught up in image or ego. "You can be anything. you're good at. as long as they're hiring." -- Chris Rock

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Join 10's of thousands of your fellow learning leaders and receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right... Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12   https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 Matt Mochary is an operator and an investor. Matt is known as the coach of Silicon Valley’s best CEOs. He works with leaders at many companies, including Coinbase, Opendoor, Bolt, and Clearbit. After selling his startup in 1999 for millions, he surfed, made movies, and then developed the Mochary Method to help leaders excel. Matt's life mantra: “Make Money, Have Fun, Do Good” Matt has coached the leaders of Angelist, Brex, Coinbase, Sequoia, Grammarly, Attentive Mobile, Flexport, Plaid, and Reddit. I was not expecting so much emotion from him when talking about coaching. It’s evident that Matt finds great joy in what he does. I find that inspiring. The components to a coaching conversation... Hold each other accountable. Declare the highest priority actions. Unpack the problems. Ask them how they are complicit in creating those problems? Help provide solutions & action items for each. Then share feedback. Instead of looking for a specific class, find the best teachers and go to them. That’s where the learning happens. In college and out in the real world. "Matt’s coaching has brought me clarity, focus, organization, less stress, and higher performance (me and the team). I have always been skeptical of coaches but I think he can 10x the output of a lot of people and I hope he does!" -- Sam Altman (CEO, OpenAI) “It's often easy to make a decision, but it can be much harder to get your team to invest emotionally in that decision.” “You create buy-in when you make people feel that they are part of the decision and that their input contributes to the final outcome.” “Most companies spend extraordinary resources of time, money, and equity to bring on a new team member, and then almost entirely drop the ball on quickly getting that team member onboarded and up to speed on how the company works so that they can begin making a full contribution. Don’t make this mistake.” “You create buy-in when you make people feel that they are part of the decision and that their input contributes to the final outcome.” “Making a Sale To make a sale effectively, you need to do the following three things: Build trust Identify the customer’s specific pain Sell results, not features” “Why did you leave that job?” Was the candidate promoted, recruited, or fired? Get very curious about why.” “And when receiving appreciation, there is only one correct response: “Thank you.” Do not feign humility by downplaying the act with statements like “It was nothing, anyone could have done it.” No. The person is trying to make you feel appreciated. Anything other than “thank you” will rob them of their goal.” Meetings – ALWAYS start on time. Don’t ever say, “Well let’s wait for everyone to join zoom.”

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Join 10's of thousands of your fellow learning leaders and receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right... Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12   https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 Kim “KC” Campbell (KC = “Killer Chick”) is a retired Air Force Colonel who served in the Air Force for over 24 years. She has flown 1,800 hours in the A-10 Warthog, including more than 100 combat missions protecting troops on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2003, Kim was even awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for Heroism after successfully recovering her battle-damaged airplane after an intense close air support mission in Baghdad. Kim is the author of Flying in the Face of Fear: A Fighter Pilot’s Lessons on Leading with Courage. Notes: On January 28, 1986,  the challenger rocket exploded (killing all astronauts on board). On that day, Kim learned what it meant to serve something bigger than yourself. She decided she wanted to be an astronaut and serve something bigger than herself. A big influence in Kim's life was a high school teacher named Mrs. Kennett. She helped Kim on the speech and debate team. One of her arguments was about women being allowed to be combat pilots. Mrs. Kennett worked to create "power women." Response to Rejection: Initially Kim got rejected by the Air Force Academy because of a low SAT score. In response, instead of quitting and moving on, she wrote a letter to them every week stating why they should accept her... Which they eventually did. "The tough moments make you better." The initial rejection was a blessing in disguise. How to crush the interview process? Prepare... Walk through potential questions and rehearse your stories. Role play with a mentor. Be you. Be real. Be authentic Create a connection with all in the room. Look them in the eye. Be genuine. Like father, Like daughter — just before Kim's final year at the academy, she earned the position of Cadet Wing Commander. This is a position her dad held 25 years earlier. They were the first father-daughter wing commander duo in academy history. A woman in a man’s world: When Kim started pilot training in 1999, there were 33 female fighter pilots in the Air Force. About 1% of fighter pilots. Kim's choice of airplane was the A10 WartHog. The airplane was designed first with the 30 mm Gatling gun on it in mind: capable of shooting 3,900 rounds per minute. The leader sets the culture. They decide what to create and what to allow. Kim was on a combat support mission in Baghdad when her airplane was hit. She had to make a split-second decision about whether to exit the aircraft behind enemy lines or try to fly it back to a safer area... Commanders intent - Your why is the way forward. You allow your team to take action and make decisions. "Explain the why. Explain the context. Let the lower level leaders make decisions and run with it." Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" speech resonates with Kim. "We feel fear and freeze. We can't let fear paralyze us. We need to take action in the face of fear. Remain calm. Acknowledge the fear and move forward."

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Join 10's of thousands of your fellow learning leaders and receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week off right... Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12   https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 Jason Feifer is the editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine. He is also the author of a great new book called, Build for Tomorrow: An Action Plan for Embracing Change, Adapting Fast, and Future-Proofing Your Career. Notes: Define yourself… What is your one sentence? Jason’s is “I tell stories in my own voice.” That’s what he does as the editor-in-chief of Entrepreneur magazine. That’s what he does when he writes books. Records podcasts… Everything. What is your one sentence? What do you do? How to lead through change – Remember... You’ve had time to think about it prior to the meeting, they haven’t. Show some grace. Communicate why the change is happening and how it impacts them. And… “People hate new things, but they love better versions of old things.” People hate loss. Remind them of what’s staying the same, but getting better. In 1348, The Bubonic Plague happened... What occurred as a result? 60% of Europeans died. It led to an opportunity for employment. Prior to that, there were the rich and the poor. The rich had the poor work for them, but did not pay them money. "If a city isn't growing, it's dying. The same is true for people." In your career, "Don't ask for the opportunity... BE the opportunity." The Four Distinct Phases: Panic Adaptation New Normal Wouldn't Go Back The first thing a person should do when navigating change is to identify the thing about themself that is not going to change. This is tough because we naturally identify with the output of our work. If somebody at a party asks you what you do, you’re either going to tell them your job title, your role, the way in which you do your work, or the thing that you create. And that’s natural—it’s a good way to understand ourselves. "We are programmed for loss aversion." "Build a bridge of familiarity from them to you." "That’s something Ryan Reynolds told me. Ryan is an actor who also started an extremely successful advertising agency called Maximum Effort. He also owns Aviation Gin and Mint Mobile. Ryan told me that the thing that distinguishes people is not whether they’re good at something at the beginning (because nobody will be good at something at the beginning), but rather whether someone can tolerate the natural state of being bad at the beginning. When trying something new, there cannot be an expectation of mastery from the start. "Can you tolerate being bad long enough to be good?" In front of you are two sets of opportunities. Opportunity Set A is everything that is asked of you, for instance showing up at your job, things your boss needs done, etc. It is necessary to do a good job at Opportunity Set A. Opportunity set B is everything that is available for you to do that nobody is asking you to do. This could also be at your job, but it could also be something outside of work like taking a class to learn a new skill. With every single thing you do, ask What is it for? This forces you to make sure that the things that you do have a valuable outcome. It’s okay if that outcome looks strange, or if that outcome will come after some time working towards it. We want to know which things we should devote our time and energy to, and we want to understand how to maximize opportunities. Answering What is it for? clarifies that. So, What is it for? Content now is for relationships. People will trust you and like you because of your content. You build a relationship with people when you put something out into the world. Life/Career advice: Try, quit, and learn Life is a series of experiments

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday." Join 10's of thousands of Learning Leaders from all over the world to receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday to help you start your week off right. Full show notes at www.LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12    https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 Mark Fogel is a former US Air Force fighter pilot and current squadron commander in the Ohio Air National Guard. He’s A graduate of the US Air Force Academy and the Harvard Kennedy School, he is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Dayton, and his TEDx Talk called The Culture of a Fighter Squadron is one of the best I’ve seen. Notes: American Fighter Sqaudrons are the most effective teams on the planet. Cockiness is unacceptable. Humility is a critical quality and skill to be part of the team. The subculture is you check your rank at the door. When you lead a mission, you’re in charge of the debrief. I love building a culture where feedback is regularly given both ways. And the trust created amongst the team to be able to do this with psychological safety. The real training and learning take place in the debrief…Spending hours pouring over video, computer graphic reenactments, radio calls, everything… To diagnose exactly what went right and what didn’t and why. The debriefs can last multiple days to describe 10 minutes of action. The person who leads the debrief is the flight leader. That person is not necessarily the most experienced member of the team. Fighter squadrons share the leadership and followership duties constantly. You might have a situation where it’s a 24-year-old lieutenant telling a 2-star General in front of the entire room, “You screwed up and this is why we failed the mission because of it.” This creates a mixture of perfectionism and humility. Building a culture takes time. Trust is built from character and competence. How do you reward and incentivize behavior? You're modeling what you want others to do.