Intentional Leader with Cal Walters

Today, I am so privileged and honored to bring you insights from a true hero of mine, Lieutenant General (Ret.) Robert Caslen, who currently serves as the 29th President of the University of South Carolina.  Go Gamecocks!  General Caslen served 43 years in the United States Army.  His military career culminated in 2018 as the 59th Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point. Under his direction as Superintendent, West Point was recognized as the number one public college in the Nation by Forbes Magazine and the number one public college by U.S. News and World Report. Through the establishment of Centers of Excellence at West Point, General Caslen connected the operational Army with West Point research and intellectual capital. He refined West Point’s leadership program by making professional ethics a priority and essential part of leadership and character development. He worked tirelessly to expand the diversity of cadets and faculty alike, and he dramatically expanded West Point’s minority and women populations to reflect the demographics of the Army that West Point’s graduates help lead. Working with the Director of Athletics, he revamped the athletic program, made it self-sustaining, and fielded 25 competitive intercollegiate teams. He created partnerships with the NCAA and Department of Defense to conduct research into preventing and treating concussions and traumatic brain injury that have led to significant improvements in prevention and care. He stood up the Army Cyber Institute to build expertise and Army leaders prepared for the new cyber fight. And, fulfilling a pledge he made soon after becoming Superintendent, he led a sweeping reversal of Army’s football program and developed a culture of excellence through winning with character, culminating in Army defeating Navy in 2016 for the first time in 14 years, and beating both Air Force and Navy in 2017 to win the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy for the first time in 21 years. For full show notes and bio, visit www.calwalters.me

I’m really excited to bring you an inspiring interview with Joel “Thor” Neeb.  Thor is the CEO of Afterburner Inc., a global consulting firm, and the bestselling co-author with Chris Stricklin of Survivor’s Obligation, which was recently named a 2020 Benjamin Franklin Award Finalist. As a former F-15 pilot, Thor has flown over 2,500 missions. He provided escort for the President, protected our nation's borders, and was named the Top Instructor Pilot at the Air Force Flight Training Headquarters, training thousands of pilots for the United States and 25 allied countries around the world. He was the tactical leader of 300 of the most senior combat pilots in the Air Force and he oversaw the execution of a $150M/year flight program. In 2010, Thor was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer and given about a 15% chance to live. Instead of giving up, Thor decided to give back. He started a youth outreach program in San Antonio that has grown to help more than 15,000 at-risk kids. Their efforts have been featured on every news channel for 100 miles and one national media outlet. In 2012, he was selected out of 62,000 people to receive the Air Education and Training Command National Public Service Award. Thor completed the New Zealand Ironman Triathlon in March of 2015 to commemorate the five-year anniversary of his Stage IV cancer diagnosis and to raise awareness for the rare and deadly cancer that he battled. Thor has also competed in American Ninja Warrior. For full show notes, visit https://www.calwalters.me/

Is your way of thinking the best way to think?  This is a question Dr. Ryan Gottfredson asks in his brand new book, Success Mindsets, currently available in audio and E-book format and scheduled to be released in print form on May 5, 2020. While many have focused narrowly on different mindsets, Dr. Gottfredson pioneered a widespread study and synthesis of all critical mindsets for achieving success. On this podcast episode, we explore 4 specific mindsets each person can cultivate to achieve greater success: a growth mindset; an open mindset; a promotion mindset; and an outward mindset. Dr. Gottfredson is a mental success coach and cutting-edge leadership consultant, author, trainer, and researcher. He helps improve organizations, leaders, teams, and employees by improving their mindsets. In addition, Ryan is a leadership and management professor at California State University-Fullerton (CSUF). Dr. Gottfredson did his undergraduate work at Brigham Young University, and he holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Human Resources from Indiana University.  Connect with Dr. Gottfredson on LinkedIn and find his work on ryangottfredson.com.   Find full show notes at https://www.calwalters.me/.  

Today, I’m excited to bring you an interview I did with Dr. Kevin Kniery, Dr. Tom Hustead, and Dr. Scott Steele.  This is a rapid-release bonus episode for medical leaders during a time of crisis as the world combats the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Kevin Kniery is a vascular surgery fellow in New York City and he is the co-host of two podcasts—Behind the Knife and Audible Bleeding. Dr. Kniery is one of my best friends and a West Point classmate.  Dr. Kniery got his MD and MPH from Tulane University.  Dr. Tom Hustead graduated from West Point in the top 3% of his class and received his medical degree from Case Western University School of Medicine. As a retired Army Colonel, highlights from his distinguished career include deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, being awarded Flight Surgeon of the Year for his service in combat, Outstanding Faculty of the Year for his medical teaching, and board selection as Department Chair for a family medicine residency department. As a result of his appointment by the Army Surgeon General to be the “face of military medicine” to recruit and share the Army Medicine story, Dr. Hustead recognized a need and developed a passion for teaching physicians across the country to be effectively engaged leaders. In his final appointment in the military, Dr. Hustead was the commander/CEO of a NATO military medical facility at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Belgium. Dr. Hustead currently practices as a family physician at Hardin Memorial Health and serves as Medical Director for their employed medical group. Dr. Hustead also co-founded The Referent Group, which provides leadership training, coaching, and resources for healthcare leaders.  With an emphasis on servant leadership, Dr. Hustead’s core conviction is that effective leadership is never about the leader but should be focused on creating a culture where those being led can flourish.  Dr. Scott Steele is the Chair of Colorectal Surgery at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, OH. As a graduate of West Point, he was an active duty Army officer, serving as the Chief of Colorectal Surgery at Madigan Army Medical Center, Fort Lewis, WA. He has served 4 combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, being awarded the Combat Medical Badge amongst others. His contributions to the medical literature include over 140 peer-reviewed articles, 60 invited reviews and book chapters, 12 national practice parameters, guest editor for 5 volumes dedicated to colorectal disease, and currently is an editor on 4 textbooks in colorectal surgery. We recorded this interview on March 28, 2020, a time when our nation’s entire medical ecosystem is mobilizing for war against the COVID-19 pandemic. While many Americans are working from home to blunt the spread of the virus, healthcare clinicians and administrators are working around the clock to prepare for the coming tsunami of patients. The scope and the scale of the coming fight is unprecedented in the healthcare community. Whether the US can successfully “flatten the curve” or not, this pandemic will stretch US healthcare capabilities—and its workers—to the limit. Strong leadership will be needed at every level to address the physical and psychological stresses our healthcare professionals will experience in the coming weeks. I hope that the insights and proven leadership principles offered by Dr. Hustead and Dr. Steele can provide healthcare leaders clarity in this prolonged and all-consuming fight to beat COVID-19. 

Doug Crandall is a graduate of West Point and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has led multiple units in the Army, and spent time in operations at Amazon.  For five years, Doug taught leadership, advanced leadership, and leading organizations through change at West Point, where he won the Excellence in Teaching Award and exceeded the academy average in every area of teaching feedback during each semester that he taught.  In this interview, you’ll see why Doug was such an effective teacher at West Point.  He’s very approachable and an incredibly gifted story teller.  His stories and personal examples have a way of sticking with you.  He’s the co-author of four books: Permission to Speak Freely, Say Anything, Leadership Lessons from West Point, Hope Unseen, which is the inspiring story of Scotty Smiley, the US Army’s first blind active-duty officer.  Three of Doug’s books were Amazon Top New Releases, and his books have sold more than 60,000 copies worldwide and continue to gain momentum in Europe and Asia. Doug has also published articles in the International Journal of Servant-Leadership and written case studies for both Stanford and Harvard business schools.  He was a Founding Partner of the “Blue Rudder” Leadership Development Company, where he delivered high impact leadership development programs throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. He currently works at The Referent Group, a company in the healthcare leadership coaching industry.   For full show notes, visit https://www.calwalters.me/

Today, I’m super pumped to bring you an interview 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 ©. You can follow, or connect with, Joe on LinkedIn here. Find out more about HigherEchelon at their website or on LinkedIn. Full show notes are at: https://www.calwalters.me/

Last year, I read a lot of books, but one book that made a particularly lasting impact was The Go-Giver.  A special thank you to Graham Cochrane and his podcast for introducing me to this book.  The Go-Giver tells the story of an ambitious young man named Joe who yearns for success. Joe is a true go-getter, though sometimes he feels as if the harder and faster he works, the further away his goals seem to be. And so one day, desperate to land a key sale at the end of a bad quarter, he seeks advice from the enigmatic Pindar, a legendary consultant referred to by his many devotees simply as the Chairman. Pindar takes Joe (and us as the reader) on a journey, where Joe meets 5 “go-givers” and learns the 5 counter-intuitive laws of stratospheric success. I’m honored and excited to bring you an interview with Bob Burg, co-author of The Go-Giver.  Bob is a sought-after speaker at company leadership and sales conferences sharing the platform with today’s business leaders, Olympic athletes, broadcast personalities, and even a former U.S. President. Bob is the author of a number of books on sales, marketing and influence, with total book sales of well over two million copies. The Go-Giver, coauthored with John David Mann, itself has sold over 925,000 copies and has been translated into 28 languages.  It was rated #10 on Inc. Magazine’s list of the Most Motivational Books Ever Written, and it was on HubSpot’s 20 Most Highly Rated Sales Books of All Time.  The American Management Association named Bob one of the 30 Most Influential Leaders, and Richtopia named him one of the Top 200 Most Influential Authors in the World. Go to https://www.calwalters.me/ for show notes!

Today, I am bringing you an interview with former Navy Captain, best-selling author, and a true leadership expert, David Marquet.  Here are a few quotes about David Marquet: “I don’t know of a finer model of this kind of empowering leadership than Captain Marquet." Dr. Stephen R. Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People “To say I’m a fan of David Marquet would be an understatement. I’m a fully-fledged groupie. He is the kind of leader who comes around only once in a generation. He is the kind of leader who doesn’t just know how to lead, he knows how to build leaders. His ideas and lessons are invaluable to anyone who wants to build an organization that will outlive them.”  Simon Sinek, author of Start with Why, Leaders Eat Last, and The Infinite Game I can relate to Dr. Covey and Simon’s thoughts on David.  He is a true leadership hero for me, so it was really special to get to do this interview.  A little bit of David’s story for those that are unfamiliar.  He graduated in the top of his class at the US Naval Academy, graduated #1 from his nuclear power school class and the submarine officer basic course.  David has always been a brilliant guy, but over his years in the Navy, he learned that being a great leader is not all about being the smartest guy in the room.  After years of proving his competence, David was awarded his very own command of a nuclear submarine.  He was told he’d be taking over the USS Olympia, so he spent an entire year studying every aspect of the ship, becoming an expert on all the ship's capabilities.  But about two weeks before taking over the Olympia, he was reassigned to take over the Santa Fe.  He knew nothing about the Santa Fe, for its crew had a reputation for being the worst in the fleet.  With only two weeks before taking over, he knew his typical leadership approach of being the smartest person in the room and just giving orders wasn’t going to work.  So aboard a nuclear submarine – a place that few would feel comfortable taking a lot of risk and doing experiments – David tried an entirely different approach to leadership.  Instead of viewing his crew as followers that simply followed his orders, David empowered them to think, to take initiative, and he ultimately developed them into leaders.  He moved from the leader-follower model he had been taught to viewing everyone as a leader.  And the results were truly remarkable.  His leadership turned the ship around.  They went from worst in the Navy to receiving the best evaluation in Navy history. Even after David departed the Santa Fe, it continued to win awards and promoted a disproportionate number of officers and enlisted men to positions of increased responsibility, including 10 subsequent submarine captains.  When Stephen R. Covey visited the ship, he said it was the most empowering organization he’d ever seen and wrote about David’s leadership practices in his book, The 8th Habit. David first shared his leadership principles in the #1 Amazon Bestseller, Turn the Ship Around!  A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders.  Fortune magazine named it the #1 must-read business book of the year, and USA Today listed it as one of the top 12 business books of all time.  And, on February 4th, David is releasing his new book, Leadership is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say and What You Don't, which I have had the chance to read and it is truly an incredible book.  Some books given you a nugget of wisdom here and there, but David’s books challenge me in a special way and help me take my leadership approach to a new level.  His books are transformational and paradigm-shifting.  Leadership is Language has been endorsed by Adam Grant, General (ret.) Stanley McCrystal, and Liz Wiseman, author of Multipliers.  You can connect with David Marquet at his website, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  Find full notes at calwalters.me. 

Have you read the book Daddy Saturday? About a month ago I picked it up and finished it in 48 hours. Not only did the book convict me as a parent, but it also inspired me to do better and equipped me with practical tools to be more engaged with my daughter. After the book impacted me, I reached out to the author, Justin Batt, and asked him to come on my podcast. He generously agreed, and today I’m excited to bring you that interview! As you will see, Justin has a lot of wisdom about parenting and is just an all-around inspiring guy.  He’s a husband (his wife is an entrepreneur and runs a successful bridal boutique in Charleston, SC), a father of 4, and the Founder and Chief Dad Officer (as Justin likes to say) of Daddy Saturday and the Daddy Saturday Foundation, which is a movement all about intentional parenting and engaging your kids (which sounds simple, but it can be tough in a busy world).  Even if you’re not a father, the principles Justin teaches may challenge the way you think about time and help you turn the mundane into more meaningful moments. Daddy Saturday started in Justin’s backyard and is now an international movement.  With an ambitiously awesome goal to impact 10 million fathers in the next 10 years and eliminate fatherlessness, Justin travels internationally and around the US (including speaking at TEDx) inspiring fathers to be more engaged. It’s important to note that when Justin refers to fatherlessness, he isn’t just referring to children without fathers; he is also talking about fathers (like me at times) who are physically present, but mentally or emotionally absent.  Somehow, Justin does all of this when he’s not at work.  In addition to being a highly sought after business advisor and healthcare consultant, he is also the President of Growth and Revenue for Kameleon Partners, LLC, the global leader in Life Sciences Account Management and Electronic Health Records Enablement. Justin also has a retail startup that ranks in the top 10% of U.S. businesses, and he is a partner in the real estate app ZoomOffers. Consistent with the principles he teaches, Justin competes regularly in Spartan obstacle course races and has inspired his kids to join him for the challenge. Check out Justin’s interview on the Spartan Up podcast, hosted by Joe De Sena, the Founder and CEO of Spartan Race. I hope you get a lot out of this interview.  I know I sure did Let me know what you think in the comments below! Also, a special thank you to my good friend Ryan Brence for contributing to the content and questions in this episode.  I sincerely appreciate Ryan’s assistance and couldn’t do this without his encouragement and support.

In life, we face endless options about how to spend our time. With social media and the internet, we have never been so aware of these options, and the barrier has never been lower for people to share their opinions about what we should be focusing on (like this post!). We also live in a world where everything is urgent, needs to be done now, and we ignore the fundamental reality of trade offs — saying yes to something invariably means saying no to something else. With these obstacles, how do we decide what is important and remain focused on the most essential things in life? On this episode, I share what I have discovered on my journey to live a life prioritizing the important over the urgent. It is not always easy, but it is absolutely worth it. Successful people — meaning people whose lives are in line with their deepest values — spend most of their time in Quadrant II. Over time, small deposits in these important, non-urgent tasks of Quadrant II can produce incredible results. But the opposite is also true. Neglecting Quadrant II activities can lead to long term regrets and more urgent matters (e.g., health issues or relationship problems). I hope this episode of the podcast will help you think more about the important things in your life, prune away the non-essential, have the courage to say no, and truly put first things first. For full show notes, visit https://www.calwalters.me/