Intentional Leader with Cal Walters

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, former CEO of Popeyes, shares her insights on servant leadership and turnaround strategies in the restaurant industry. She reflects on her family's influence, emphasizing the importance of values and faith in leadership. Cheryl discusses her transformative time at Popeyes, highlighting a franchise-focused approach that led to significant growth and success. She also dives into practical hiring practices, the essence of relationships, and her vision for legacy, encouraging everyone to dare to serve in their own lives.

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

Stephen Shedletzky engages with people in meaningful ways so that we connect with depth and live in a more fulfilled world. With a knack for sharing the right words at the right moment, he delivers evidence-based content in a provocative, captivating and light-hearted way. Feeling stifled on his corporate track, Stephen was struck by Simon Sinek’s vision of a more inspired, safe and fulfilled world. He joined Sinek’s team in 2012. What started as a position answering fan email, Stephen now leads Brand Experience and the team of Igniters to ensure every product, partnership and communication reflects the organization’s most deeply held beliefs. As an Igniter himself, he guides leaders and organizations to adopt the mindset and actions needed to lead in the Infinite Game. A dedicated aide to the Simon Sinek team and those they serve, Stephen is first in line to support those who seek to discover, articulate and bring their WHY to life. With the right mix of passion and professionalism, Stephen was an obvious choice to narrate the audiobook for the 2017 best-seller Find Your Why. He co-hosted the Start With Why Podcast, with more than 715,000 downloads in over 180 countries. Stephen graduated from the Richard Ivey School of Business with a focus in leadership, communication and strategy. He brings the message to inspire to people and organizations around the world and serves clients in nearly every industry. Stephen lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife and two children. For show notes, visit www.calwalters.me

Lisa Fain is the CEO of the Center for Mentoring Excellence and an expert in the intersection of cultural competency and mentoring. Her passion for diversity and inclusion work fuels her strong conviction that leveraging differences creates a better workplace and drives better business results. Lisa brings her energy, enthusiasm, and engagement to any group, facilitating lively workshops and training, and delivering interactive speeches with practical steps that can be implemented right away. As Senior Director of the Diversity and Inclusion function at Outerwall, Inc., Lisa spearheaded the development, establishment, and implementation of its diversity initiative. Prior to assuming that position, she worked as Outerwall’s in-house counsel, coaching leaders and partnering with Human Resources to establish fair and effective policies and practices that would sustain the organization as it grew in size, revenue, and renown. For almost a decade, Lisa practiced law in the Chicago office of a major multinational firm, where she counseled employers on creating inclusive policies and practices. While in that role, she served as Master Trainer, training thousands of employees at a variety of companies, large and small, on how to create a better workplace. Lisa is also an executive coach, specializing in individual and group coaching for professional women looking to design and live their best personal and professional lives. She is a certified mediator. She graduated with a B.S. in Social Policy from Northwestern University and holds a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law.  Lisa lives in Seattle, WA. She loves to hike and explore the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two daughters. Check out Lisa’s new book, Bridging Differences for Better Mentoring, co-authored with her mom, Lois J. Zachary.

Today, on July 13, 2020, we pay tribute to Chris Goeke. Chris was a husband, brother, son, dear friend, and leader among leaders. On this episode, we remember a man that made us laugh, feel special, believe in ourselves, grow in our faith, be okay with not knowing, and live more intentionally. Even from a young age, Chris was adventurous and born to be a leader. He grew up in Apple Valley, Minnesota where he loved building forts in the woods behind his house and often gathered and encouraged his friends. He excelled in school through all his years and was active in music, mock trial, and various sports. As he grew older, his faith in God grew and he participated in many church activities and mission trips. He was accepted into West Point with the class of 2008, where he graduated 6th in his class. After college, Chris was commissioned as an infantry officer and complete Airborne School and Army Ranger School.  Chris married the love of his life, Kelsey, and they settled into life together at Fort Bragg, NC, where Chris joined Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment on May 18, 2009. In September 2009, Chris deployed with his unit to Afghanistan and would lead a platoon in combat.On Tuesday, July 13, 2010, Chris was killed in action while repelling an insurgent attack on an Afghan police compound in Kandahar City.  10 years after his death, we come together to remember Chris and honor his lasting impact on our lives.  Chris, we love you and miss you.  You truly were the best among us, and we carry you with us wherever we go.  Visit www.calwalters.me for full show notes.