Intentional Leader with Cal Walters

Today, I’m super pumped to bring you an interview on goal setting I did with the first person to ever introduce me to the concept of high performance at West Point, Dr. Joe Ross (Retired, US Army). Joe has a Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Walden University and a Masters of Education in Psychology and Athletic Counseling from Springfield College. Dr. Ross is also a 1995 West Point graduate, where he was a three-year letter winner and co-captain of the 1994 Army Football team. As an Infantry Officer, Joe led 144 soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division and deployed to Kosovo in 2001. The Secretary of the Army commended Joe’s unit for capturing two insurgents on the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) top ten most wanted list and bringing the Serbian and Albanian leadership together to start a dialogue of reconciliation. Joe also managed all logistics for over 1,000 personnel, directed human resources for over 4,000 personnel, and helped write the Soldier’s Creed. In 2009, Joe joined the Army Football coaching staff as the Special Teams and Fullback Coach, where he helped lead Army Football to the 2010 Armed Forces Bowl victory. At West Point, Joe also served as the Director of the Military Enhancement Program and was asked to collaborate on a Presidential committee to review and design procedures for wounded warriors in transition. Joe is now the President and Co-Founder of HigherEchelon, Inc., an Organizational Performance consulting firm with offerings in leadership, technology, and engineering to both public and private sector clients. Joe has consulted with Fortune 100 companies, college and professional sports teams, top tier Universities, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense. Joe led the creation of Higher Echelon’s flagship program, The Resilient and Adaptable Leader ©.

Today, I’m really excited to share my conversation with Josh Bowen, Founder of 3x5 Leadership, an incredible platform for leadership development.  As you will see during our conversation, Josh is genuinely passionate about making people and organizations better through leader development.  His website has had over 330,000 visits and impacts over 8,000 leaders on a consistent basis.  Josh is a graduate of West Point and earned his Masters in Organizational Psychology and Leadership from Columbia University.   He is member of the 2020 DoD Reads Board of Advisors and a co-host of the DoDReads podcast.  He’s also a husband, father, and active duty Army Officer.  On this episode we discuss his passion for leadership development, how 3x5 Leadership started from humble beginnings, his process for reflection and capturing lessons, some of his crucible leadership moments, feedback, his favorite books and much more.  For show notes, go to calwalters.me, where you will find links to the books he mentions and the 3x5 leadership material we discuss during this episode. 

Today, I’m very excited to share a special conversation I had with my pastor, Chris Atwell.  Chris Atwell is the Lead Pastor of Vision and Instruction at Portico Church in Charlottesville, Virginia, which he planted in 2004. Chris is also an area leader in Acts 29’s U.S. North Atlantic Network. He serves as the Dean of Students at Grimké Seminary. Chris is married to Jenn, and they have three daughters. This is my first time sitting down with a pastor or religious leader on this show, but it was really special for me.  No matter what your faith background, I hope you’ll enjoy this conversation about a faith that has really had a big impact on my life and worldview. Chris gets quite vulnerable with us and shares his battle with cancer, how he dealt with suffering, his perspective on leadership in the non-profit space, and his views on peacemaking—something that is always relevant but certainly relevant right now in the US.  For show notes, visit calwalters.me 

Today, I am so privileged and honored to bring you insights from two great leadership minds, Lieutenant General (Ret.) Robert Caslen, who currently serves as the 29th President of the University of South Carolina, and Dr. Mike Matthews, Professor of Engineering Psychology at the United States Military Academy. President Caslen and Dr. Matthews bring over 80 years of combined experience to their brand new book, The Character Edge: Leading and Winning with Integrity. This was such a fun conversation for me.  The amount of collective wisdom and knowledge between these two men is amazing.  We talk about their book, how someone can develop character and recover from setbacks, the difference between resume and eulogy virtues, the first servant leader President Caslen encountered, positive psychology, my results from the Values-in-Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS), the work Dr. Matthews did with Angela Duckworth on grit, Coach Popovich, and the amazing example of 1LT Daniel Hyde.  For show notes, visit https://www.calwalters.me/

Cheryl A. Bachelder is a passionate restaurant industry executive and former CEO of Popeyes® Louisiana Kitchen, Inc. Cheryl is known for her crisp strategic thinking, franchisee-focused approach, superior financial performance and the development of outstanding leaders and teams. Cheryl joined Popeyes, Louisiana Kitchen, Inc., in November 2007, after serving as an active member of the Board for a year. She brought more than 35 years of experience in brand building, operations, and public-company management at companies like Yum Brands, Domino’s Pizza, RJR Nabisco, The Gillette Company, and The Procter & Gamble Company. At Popeyes, Cheryl promptly established a Road Map for Results. This strategic framework led to market share gains of eight points, improved guest ratings, and increased restaurant margins (400 basis points in seven years). The improvement in restaurant performance led franchisees to remodel the system and accelerate new unit growth both in the U.S. and abroad. In eight years, the enterprise market cap grew from less than $300 million to over $1.3 billion. At fiscal year-end 2015, Popeyes’ system-wide revenues were $3.1 billion. These revenues were generated by over 2,539 restaurants operated by 360 franchisees and more than 60,000 restaurant employees in the United States, three territories, and 27 foreign countries. Ms. Bachelder created a culture based on the Popeyes Purpose: to inspire servant leaders to achieve superior results. This purpose was expressed in the six principles of how they worked together. The Popeyes team focus was to serve the franchise owners well; together they pursued a bold ambition for the enterprise. This produced exceptional performance results. In March 2015, Ms. Bachelder published a book chronicling the tenets of the Popeyes turnaround, entitled Dare to Serve, Second Edition – How to drive superior results by serving others. Ms. Bachelder has served on the board of directors for Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, Inc., since 2006; board of directors for Pier 1 Imports, Inc., since 2012; the advisory board of Agile Pursuits Franchising, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Procter & Gamble, since 2009; and the International Franchise Association since February 2015. She also served on the board of directors for True Value Company from 2007 – 2012 and on the board of the National Restaurant Association May 2009 – 2012. In November 2014, Cheryl was certified as an NACD Board Leadership Fellow. Prior to serving as Popeyes CEO, Ms. Bachelder revitalized brand performance in both retail and consumer goods companies. She was president and chief concept officer for KFC Corporate (2001-2003), creating growth plans for the U.S. business in collaboration with the franchise owners. From 1995 – 2000, Ms. Bachelder served as vice president of marketing and product development for Domino’s Pizza, Inc. She was the brand architect responsible for contemporizing the restaurant chain’s image and launching the innovative Heatwave bag which improved product quality and drove strong same-store sales growth for five consecutive years across 5,400 units. Prior to her restaurant experience, Ms. Bachelder served as general manager of the LifeSavers Division of RJR Nabisco. Her early career years included brand management roles at The Gillette Company and The Procter & Gamble Company. In September 2015, Cheryl was awarded The Norman Brinker Award from Nation’s Restaurant News. She has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, and was named by CNBC’s Jim Cramer as one of his “21 Bankable CEOs” for 2014. In 2012, she was recognized as “Leader of the Year” by the Women’s Foodservice Forum, and received the Silver Plate Award from the International Foodservice Manufacturers Association. Ms. Bachelder holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration, and a Masters of Business Administration in Finance and Marketing, from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. She has been married for over 35 years to Chris Bachelder and they have three grown daughters. On this episode, we discuss her incredible father, Daddy Max, her family’s dinner conversations that contributed to her and all of her siblings being CEOs, the impact of her faith on her leadership, her journey being a female executive, how she integrated life as a business leader with family, how she turned Popeyes around by leading differently, and much more.  Visit https://www.calwalters.me/ for show notes.  

Patrick Lencioni is founder and president of The Table Group, a firm dedicated to providing organizations with ideas, products and services that improve teamwork, clarity and employee engagement. Lencioni’s passion for organizations and teams is reflected in his writing, speaking and executive consulting. He is the author of 11 best-selling books, which have sold over 6 million copies and been translated more than 30 languages. His capstone book, The Advantage, is the pre-eminent source on organizational health. After sixteen years in print, his classic book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, remains a weekly fixture on national best-seller lists. Released in 2016, The Ideal Team Player is a much-anticipated follow-up to his team book and also a Wall Street Journal best-seller. The wide-spread appeal of Lencioni’s leadership models have yielded a diverse base of speaking and consulting clients, including a mix of Fortune 500 companies, professional sports organizations, the military, non-profits, schools and churches. Pat addresses thousands of leaders each year at world-class organizations and national conferences. Consistently the top rated keynote speaker at major events, Pat shares his insights and inspires his audiences through his accessibility, humor and story-telling. The Wall Street Journal said he is "one of the most in-demand business speakers." Named in Fortune magazine as one of the ‘ten new gurus you should know,’ Pat and his work have been featured in USA TODAY, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Harvard Business Review, to name a few. Prior to founding his firm, he worked as a corporate executive for Sybase, Oracle and Bain & Company. Pat lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and four sons. Pat is really excited about a brand new concept he and his team are launching this week called the 6 Types of Working Genius. This is an incredible tool that helps you and I identify what we are really good at and those parts of work that make us most frustrated.  Pat had me take the assessment and we discuss my results and his results.  We also dive into the organizational health movement, how to create what he calls “vulnerability-based trust” on your team, why the right kind of conflict on a team is a sign of health, and much more.  Show notes at www.calwalters.me.  

Justin Whitmel Earley is a father of four sons, a mergers & acquisitions lawyer, a husband to Lauren and citizen of Richmond, VA. All the while, he’s trying to figure out how to live a life of love in an age of chaos. By that he just means that while his whole life he has wanted to live for an outward purpose, he has also struggled his whole life with his own tendency towards inward disorder, and the habits of a culture that seem to exacerbate those tendencies. ​ The Common Rule is born out of his own struggle with that. He is a former non-profit worker in China who suffered an anxiety collapse in the middle of becoming a father and a lawyer. At the time he was living with a lot of hopes and dreams about what he could do, but his day to day life was absolute chaos. It was in his crash that he realized that his hopes and dreams were not enough - he needed a reformation of everyday habits. He needed a set of guardrails that could save him from myself, and keep him pointed at his vision.   It was in the wake of that dark phase of life that friends and family helped him get on a healthy routine of daily and weekly rhythms which not only saved his life, but unexpectedly introduced him to a whole new way of life. The Common Rule is a version of those daily and weekly practices. ​His effort now is to offer the hope and joy that he’s found to the epidemic of anxiety, depression and overwork of so many well-intentioned people. It is a communal way of forming your life in the love of God & neighbor, amidst a culture beset by individualism and consumerism. ​Whether you're an office worker trying to figure out how to make it, a stay-at-home parent trying to figure out how to stay sane, a church trying to figure out how to be missional in America, or an organization wanting to reform its work culture, Justin has something to say to you. He would love to share with you the way the most ordinary habits of love can create extraordinary lives of light

Jason B.A. Van Camp is what Malcolm Gladwell would refer to as an Outlier; an exceptional person who is successful not just because of his personal accomplishments but his will to win and unique ability and willingness to unlock the potential of others. A decorated Green Beret, world traveler, and loyal friend, Jason has mastered the art of storytelling that reflects many of his own life adventures. Jason is honored to be the Founder and Chairman of Mission Six Zero. Jason was born in Washington D.C. and raised across the Potomac River in Springfield, Virginia. In 1995, Jason was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point. While at West Point, Jason played Linebacker for the Army Black Knights football team, served a two year LDS-Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints mission to Russia, and, upon graduation, won the prestigious General Loeffke Award for Excellence in Foreign Languages. After graduating from West Point, Jason volunteered to attend U.S. Army Ranger School in Fort Benning, GA where he earned his Ranger tab (2002). Jason then began a one year tour to Korea serving a few miles from the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) between South and North Korea.  Immediately after serving in Korea, Jason was deployed with the 101st Airborne Division in the invasion of Iraq (2003). In 2006, Jason won the coveted Green Beret and began serving as a Detachment Commander with 10th Special Forces Group in Fort Carson, Colorado. As a Detachment Commander, Jason led his team on close to 300 combat missions to kill/capture high value targets as well as created and commanded one of the largest Foreign Internal Defense Force in U.S. history, training nearly 4000 Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers in hand to hand combat, raid and patrolling techniques, unconventional warfare and personal security detail tactics as well as deploying these forces on the battlefield. During his 14 years in the U.S. Army, Jason has won numerous awards, notably the Bronze Star with V device for Valor as well as two additional Bronze Stars during numerous combat rotations as a Special Forces Detachment Commander in the Middle East and Africa. In 2013, Jason earned his MBA from Brigham Young University and it was there that he developed a passion for entrepreneurship. Jason believes in servant leadership, the art of determination, and the power of storytelling. This philosophy has served him well in his life and has made him an experienced speaker and proponent of Mission Six Zero’s Total Warrior model. Jason is passionate about his experiences and his stories resonate with any audience; students, athletes, businesspersons that wants to be “passionate about passion.” Jason is married to his wife, Elizabeth, and they have a daughter, Claire Jane, and a son, Jack. Jason also enjoys traveling, the history of the Roman Empire, the study of religion,  supporting DC professional sports teams, and helping veterans through his non-profit organization, Warrior Rising. For show notes, visit calwalters.me 

Susan Packard is co-founder of Scripps Networks Interactive (NYSE: SNI) and former Chief Operating Officer of HGTV. She was the 2nd employee of SNI and helped to build the company to a market value of over $15 billion. SNI’s media portfolio includes popular lifestyle television brands HGTV, Food Network, DIY Network, Cooking Channel, country music network Great American Country (GAC) and the Travel Channel. Packard held a variety of senior positions during her tenure at SNI. In addition to being COO of HGTV, she created and served as president of Scripps Networks New Ventures, where she oversaw the development and launch of DIY Network, and online interactive platforms. She was also president of worldwide distribution for the Scripps cable brands. She began her cable career at HBO, then moved to NBC and was part of the start-up team for CNBC. In 1994 she joined HGTV and became Chief Operating Officer in 1995. Under Packard’s helm, HGTV became one of the fastest growing cable networks in television history. Today HGTV is available in more than 99 million U.S. homes and distributed in 175 countries and territories. She has been recognized by industry peers, colleagues and employees as an innovator, role model and mentor. She received the Woman of the Year award by Women in Cable & Telecommunications (WICT) and was profiled in Modern Visionaries, a book chronicling the contributions of women to the cable and telecommunications industry. Contemporary Economics, a high school textbook, profiled her as an entrepreneur in the field of media specialization. CableWorld magazine honored her among “The Most Influential Women in Cable” numerous times. In 2008 she was inducted into the Cable Hall of Fame. Packard was the first woman elected to serve on the board of directors of Churchill Downs, Inc. (NASDAC: CHDN), the owner and manager of the Kentucky Derby and other horseracing properties. In that capacity, she served on the Audit, Strategic Planning, and CEO Succession committees. Her first book, New Rules of the Game, was written to help women navigate and lead in the workplace. In 2019, Penguin/Random House published Packard’s new book, Fully Human, Three Steps to Grow Your Emotional Fitness for Work, Leadership and Life. The book offers a fresh, new framework for growing one’s emotional intelligence. For show notes, visit www.calwalters.me

Mike Erwin is the Founder & Executive Director of Team Red, White & Blue (Team RWB).  Team RWB’s mission is to enrich the lives of America’s veterans by connecting them to their communities through physical and social activity.  He is also the CEO of the Character & Leadership Center, and the Co-founder & President of The Positivity Project—a non-profit organization with the mission to empower America’s youth to build positive relationships. With 425 partner schools, the organization reaches 260,000 children daily. He is the co-author of LEAD YOURSELF FIRST by Bloomsbury Press (2017). The book focuses on how solitude strengthens people’s character—and their ability to lead with clarity, balance, and conviction. Mike is also a Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, assigned to the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he serves as an Assistant Professor in Leadership & Psychology. He also serves as the founding Chairman of the Board for Father Vincent Capodanno High School, outside Fort Bragg, NC. Mike graduated from West Point in 2002 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics. He was commissioned as an Intelligence Officer, serving in three combat tours with the First Cavalry Division and 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne). His service includes deployment to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004–2005 that involved the Battles of Fallujah and Najaf. Mike also deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in 2006–2007 and 2009. On those tours, he worked with NATO forces, to include serving as a lead intelligence planner for one of the largest NATO-led combat operation in history. Mike earned two Bronze Star Medals from these tours. Following his third deployment, Mike attended the University of Michigan from 2009–2011, where he studied positive psychology and leadership under the tutelage of the co-founder of Positive Psychology, Dr. Chris Peterson. He went on to serve as an Assistant Professor in Psychology & Leadership at the U.S. Military Academy from 2011–2014. While assigned to West Point as a Major, Mike served as a lead planner for the Bob McDonald Global Leadership Conference and was the aide-de-camp to the Class of 1951 Chair for the Study of Leadership, held by Jim Collins and then Tom Tierney. For show notes, visit www.calwalters.me