E72 John Teichert

John Teichert is a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general and former Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force, International Affairs and brings a wealth of leadership and strategic expertise. His extensive career spans roles as a combat and test pilot, base commander, and senior defense official in challenging environments like Iraq. With a focus on whole-of-government national security strategy, John has a $240 billion security cooperation portfolio, and he's contributed prolifically to discussions on leadership, innovation, technology, and international affairs. He engages widely with international media and is the founder of Capital Leadership LLC, dedicated to nurturing the next generation of leaders. John is also Amazons #1 best selling author of the book, “BOOM! Leadership that Breaks Barriers, Challenges Convention and Ignites Innovation.” 

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-Book:https://lnkd.in/g52tEAJb 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

You're listening to the Tells the Leadership podcast. This podcast is for leaders at any phase on their leadership journey to become a more purposeful and accountable leader what I like to call a pal. Join me on our journey together towards transformational leadership.

Speaker 2: 0:20

All right team. Welcome back to the Tells the Leadership podcast. I am your host, Josh McMillian. I'm an active duty Army officer, I'm an Army leadership coach and I'm the founder of McMillian leadership coaching, and I am on a mission to create better leaders and become a better leader what I like to call a purposeful, accountable leader or a pal. My vision is to positively affect one million lives in the next 10 years. I plan to do that by sharing transformational stories and skills, and on today's episode I have a transformational leader John Tigard.

Speaker 2: 0:52

John is a retired US Army Air Force Brigadier General and a former Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force and International Affairs, and brings a wealth of leadership and strategic expertise. His extensive career spans roles as a combat and test pilot, a base commander and a senior defense official in challenging environments like Iraq. He has contributed prolifically to discussions on leadership, innovation, technology and international affairs. He engages widely with international media and is the founder of Capital Leadership LLC, dedicated to nurturing the next generation of leaders. John is also an Amazon number one best selling author for the book Boom Leadership that breaks barriers, challenges convention and ignites innovation. Bottom line he is a purposeful, accountable leader and let's bring him on the show and dive into his leadership journey. Sir, can you hear me?

Speaker 3: 1:54

I can hear you and it's a joy to be here with you, josh, thank you.

Speaker 2: 1:58

Yeah, no perfect. We always have technical issues. This is what happens when you have an infantry officer trying to run his own technical podcast. But it is an absolute honor and a privilege to have you on, sir, and I'm looking forward to going through your leadership and your wisdom and the journey that you've been on and where you're continuing to serve today, so I'm excited to see where this goes. Josh, me too.

Speaker 3: 2:20

Thanks so much for taking the time to have me.

Speaker 2: 2:24

Yeah, so I think a great place to start, sir, is just providing an overview to the listeners of who you are.

Speaker 3: 2:30

So I think it starts with my family. I'm married to an amazing lady, Melanie. We've been married for 25 years. Actually, we took the oath of office as fellow ROTC cadets at 17 years old in Cambridge Massachusetts. Together, Again married for 25 years, three kids, including two in college, one who is a ROTC cadet at Baylor and then one son still at home, and we serve together as a family. We always have, and we look forward to continuing to serve into the future together.

Speaker 2: 3:00

That's amazing. So I always love starting off with the definition of leadership. Everyone has their own unique one, and I've had General Petraeus on from the army, I've had civilians, high entrepreneurs. Everyone has a different level and a different definition of leadership. How would you start to define leadership and how has that changed really throughout the course of your career?

Speaker 3: 3:22

Josh, I've been a student of leadership certainly since I was a mid-level captain and very deliberate about being a student, not just in what I read but what I observe.

Speaker 3: 3:33

One of the things that I encourage everybody that's a leader or budding leader to do is to keep a leadership journal, and I didn't start that until I was a Lieutenant Colonel.

Speaker 3: 3:42

But I love the idea of recording the things that I see in myself or the things that I see around me so that I can be a deliberate observer and student of leadership, and I've started doing that, or I started doing that, as a Lieutenant Colonel. Now I've got dozens and dozens of pages for each of my leadership assignments that I go back and review before I start any given leadership position. But really the biggest benefit is being intentional about observing the things that are around me and the way I define leadership is bringing about a positive future that wouldn't otherwise occur without the leader and the position that he or she is in, and it's so important to realize that leaders have this massive impact not just on the mission but, more importantly, on people and the future of the growth of those individuals that can go on and do amazing things, and I love the opportunity to make an influence and an impact by being a leader, and I continue to keep that leadership journal and continue to be a student of leadership throughout the rest of my life.

Speaker 2: 4:46

I have been honored to film, I think, over 80 podcasts episodes now and no one has said having a leadership journal. So I am going to take that and I'm going to continue that in my career. That's an amazing piece of advice and I never would think about that. But being able to deliberately go back, be intentional with your own growth and then capture lessons learned, that's a beautiful piece of advice.

Speaker 3: 5:10

So to me it actually stemmed from when I was a squadron commander. A year in and a guy that was about ready to take over as a squadron commander elsewhere asked me what my recommendations were, and I had plenty, but I was a little bit worried that I had been losing opportunities to capture and remember those things that I wanted to do going forward and those things that I didn't want to do going forward, but ultimately, the idea that as you start journaling, you are far more intentional about observing the things that are going on around you, such that you are indeed a student of leadership and that makes you better every day going forward.

Speaker 2: 5:48

And looking at the website that you have to, you have one of the beautiful definitions like right up front, three words inspirational innovation, integrity filled leader. So I love each one of those and I really want to hit first because I've never seen innovation within the definition of leadership and if you could kind of walk through how innovation plays such a critical role, I think, in a leader's growth.

Speaker 3: 6:13

To me, it is a fundamental element of being a leader, or being a good leader, because leaders aren't just there to mine the store and keep things simmering in the way they always have been. A leader is constantly looking to do a couple of things. Number one, to help the individuals that are within their sphere of influence to become the best possible version of themselves, but also to grow the organization in a way that makes it better over time. And if you are not innovating, then you're just the manager that's mining the store instead of intentionally bringing about a future that wouldn't otherwise exist if you weren't there as the leader that your organization needs you to be.

Speaker 2: 6:54

I love that You're just the manager if you're not an innovator, because leaders have to be able to provide a mission, provide a vision, but also take the team somewhere new. You're always growing. You're always moving forward. I love that advice and I kind of want to start off with where your leadership journey really started. I know you got your bachelor's in science from MIT, which is awesome, by the way. What made you choose to serve your country and join the United States Air Force?

Speaker 3: 7:24

It started back in my hometown of Port Angeles, washington, the very northwest tip of the country. My dad worked for the National Park Service, my mom was a stay-at-home mom and I had this loving family, but also a family that emphasized the importance of citizenship, community and patriotism. And then, literally, I was sitting as an eighth grade boy in our one-screen theater in Port Angeles watching Top Gun and decided that that's what I wanted to do with my life. And I looked around and saw who had the best planes. The strike eagle had just come out and I said, all right, the Air Force has the best planes, that's what I want to do with my life and ultimately that's the plane that I wanted to fly. And that's how I decided ultimately to jump into Air Force ROTC at MIT and then commission into the Air Force to serve ultimately for 33 years, from the time I took that oath as a 17-year-old at the beginning of ROTC until I retired about a year ago.

Speaker 2: 8:17

Wow. It's funny because when I joined the Army I had totally different trajectories, like I wanted to jump out of airplanes. It's like where can I go? That I knew I was going to be guaranteed that I could go to airborne school and do all those crazy things that I wanted to do when I was younger. Now my body is regretting those decisions at an older age. But that is amazing. We get inspired by each one of the individual branches of service and what they're great at, what the strengths are, and that's why we always join. And what I'd like to kind of hit next is your education. So I was looking all the different masters that you have. I think you have four or five different master's degrees and that's inspiring. From the point of that, you are continuing to grow. You're a lifelong learner. What drives you to push yourself, at least in that type of situation?

Speaker 3: 9:08

Let me start by saying that my wife is a chemistry PhD from Berkeley Wow and she constantly reminds me that no number of master's degrees will ever add up to a PhD, so she keeps me humble. At home, she's actually a professor at the Naval Academy of Chemistry an amazing lady. But, frankly, all of us should have this desire to constantly grow. And while getting master's degrees are nice, there's an opportunity constantly not just by journaling, but by reading or by listening to podcasts or by going to lectures that we have an opportunity to constantly be growing. And if we're not, then the world is going to pass us by and we need to be intentional, not just about doing well at the job we've been assigned, but finding ways to develop ourselves intentionally and deliberately now so we're ready for the next challenge in the environment that's around the corner.

Speaker 2: 9:59

I love that, sir. So transitioning in, you're starting off in your Air Force career. You're getting out of an academic leadership role and I see this a lot, but that transition of now you actually have authority and responsibility. What were some of the biggest challenges that you faced going from an academic kind of schoolhouse into the Air Force?

Speaker 3: 10:22

Josh, I actually think that the Air Force does its future leaders a disservice by not giving pilots in particular an opportunity to lead early.

Speaker 3: 10:32

On my first several assignments, I was there as a wingman and then a flight lead, and as a flight lead you may lead individuals in a particular mission at a given time, but you don't have subordinates in the sense that leaders need subordinates to grow and develop.

Speaker 3: 10:49

And it wasn't until I was a mid-level captain and a flight commander where I actually started to have some level of formal authority.

Speaker 3: 10:56

And I actually think it does leaders of the future a disservice by not giving them, at the earliest opportunity, a chance to develop and learn lessons as a leader that you could learn as a lieutenant and I believe that the Navy actually, for their fliers, gives their incense and young lieutenants an opportunity to lead a small cadre of maintenance crews on a ship, and the Air Force does not do that.

Speaker 3: 11:19

And so now you get to a flight commander position or maybe even a Lieutenant Colonel, squadron commander position, and you just haven't had the repetition, the reps, of going through leadership situations and learning and growing as a result of that repetition, and I think that the Air Force does a disservice to the leaders of the future by not giving them that opportunity. But once I started to get the opportunity, josh, I loved it and I started to transition from a mindset of loving the flying part of my job to loving the opportunity to develop mold and help our individuals become the best possible version of themselves while you care for them and their family members. And I loved that. And it was around the squadron commander time where I really started to dedicate myself to a desire to spend the rest of my life developing the leaders that our nation needs.

Speaker 2: 12:09

Yeah, the Army, I think, does a phenomenal job about this of being able to transition out of ROTC. I went to Marshall University. I transitioned out of ROTC. My first assignment was a platoon leader in Afghanistan for 44 soldiers. I had four strikers, four MAPVs, a whole bunch of other stuff here. I was a 23 year old, just rusted into a highly kinetic deployment and given so much responsibility, and I credit that specific situation and scenario for me for the growth that I've won today and, just like you, continuing to push myself and grow every day. But then I also learned in that time I love serving other people and being a servant leader and hearing your story it sounds the same way.

Speaker 3: 12:55

It is, and I'll tell you that there are certain career fields in the Air Force that do that phenomenally Maintenance officers at a young age or defender. Security force officers at a young age get those opportunities to lead very quickly large organizations and they have the privilege of growing up at a young age and getting to have that impact on people. And it takes a while for aircrew to get there, but it is so satisfying to again help people become the best possible version of themselves.

Speaker 2: 13:26

So, growing through your ranks, started getting more authority in terms of leading. But what was the most challenging leadership role that you had in either of your commands from your perspective, and why was it the most challenging?

Speaker 3: 13:38

It actually was during my time as a squadron commander. I was the director of operations in my F-22 test squadron and then I fleeted up to two years as a squadron commander, but right at the end of my time as the director of operations, we had a plane crash that ultimately lost an F-22, but lost an amazing civilian test pilot named Dave Kuhl's Kooley. It happened on March 25, 2009. And then I was already chosen to be the squadron commander that would take command of that organization. About four months later and I remember that I took command I had a new group commander, a young 06 that was my group commander, and he brought me on on day 11 on the job and said dragon, that's my call sign, you're not the guy. And I said, sir, what do you mean by that? And he said you know I don't think that you should be the commander of this squadron, that you're not the right guy. I wouldn't have chosen you. And I said, sir, you should fire me. And he said, no, I'm stuck with you.

Speaker 3: 14:38

And I really was reeling as I went back to my squadron on day 11.

Speaker 3: 14:42

And then I rested on it that night. I talked to my wife about it, I thought about it, I prayed about it and then just to carry that burden for two years, believing that at any moment that I would get fired, and then ultimately not getting fired, getting promoted early out of the assignment that was a blessing. But just to go through those turbulent times where I knew that at least his initial impression was such that I wasn't the right person to lead this organization, out of that tragedy that we had experienced, it was an extremely gut wrenching time and, frankly, it actually helped me develop from a selfless leader perspective, because I believed that night when he told me that, that my career was essentially terminal and at that moment I believe that I didn't need to do anything to help my own career because it was done and I could just be the type of leader that my organization needed me to be and ultimately that developed the habit patterns of selflessness that I credit carrying my leadership style through since that moment onto this point.

Speaker 2: 15:43

I wrote that down lead like no one is watching. I love that because it feels like you have no, there's no, pressure on you. When you get in a position like that Worst case scenario, you, you don't progress. Obviously, you did, sir. You had a highly successful career in the United States Air Force. But what I've seen leaders who have like that toxic mindset of where they set negative cultures within their organizations. They can produce negative leaders. But there's always those rare few and you're one of them, sir that has been able to switch their mindset and instead of like, okay, if I have nothing to gain here, I'm going to go be the best possible leader that I can. And that has always been the glue that I've seen for phenomenal leadership is just being authentic. And then coming in with the question of like, how can I add value to the team today versus the agenda, how can I get promoted to the next ranked today? And that's always separated amazing leaders in my eyes is just that one, that one small change.

Speaker 3: 16:48

It is, josh. It really is this opportunity that you can either focus, in your position, on moving through the ranks, or you can focus on creating this legacy of impact on individuals and their families so that they can go on and do great things in or out of the military. And you think about the latter and the type of impact and influence and, ultimately, joy that you can have in creating environment where other people rise to go on and do great things in a variety of areas of their life. That is what true leadership is about.

Speaker 2: 17:23

Have you ever heard the term serve from a John Maxwell? When I read this is just stuck with me. It's success versus significance and I have.

Speaker 3: 17:33

Yeah, I have. There's actually a book that I recently reread half time and essentially it's talking about someone in my type of position where you're only about halfway through your productive career. I serve for about 30 years in the military. I have about 30 more productive years to go, but the idea, the subtitle of that book is from success to significance. But I actually don't like that type of subtitle or thinking, for certainly people like you and I that served in the military, because we've hopefully been doing something that had not just success but significance in the first half of our lives and ultimately we should use that to parlay additional significance into the second half of our lives.

Speaker 2: 18:18

Yeah, to me at 100%. So if you can discover what you're passionate about and what your purpose is of, why we're put on this planet because we're all designed by God for greatness and purpose I truly believe that and when we can connect those two, then we can start seeing significance in our life. And it's not about growth that we can achieve Like some of the richest people in the world, some of the friends that have. They have a lot of money but they're not happy. They have success but they do not have significance. And when we can add value to other people, when we can be the inspiration and delight for other people, it fills our cup up. And when our cup is full, we can overflow it and give it to other people.

Speaker 3: 18:59

You're spot on, josh, with that, and I believe actually that tees up an interesting thought about leadership that applies to the human condition. Fundamentally, I believe that people desire two things in their lives they want to be cared for or loved that servant type of leadership and people want to be part of something that is greater than themselves. And now that takes servant leadership, for the first part, and communication of the right type that ties the specific mission of what you are doing in your organization to something that really matters, such that you can provide your subordinates that element of significance. And if you do both of those things as a leader, if you care for people and you communicate in a way that helps them understand their significance, then there is no limit to what you can do in your organization and what those individuals can go on and do with the rest of their lives.

Speaker 2: 19:53

All right, team, let's take a quick break from this podcast and I wanna personally invite you to our private Facebook community that I call Purposeful Accountable Leaders, or PALS, and PALS is a community dedicated to inspiring and developing servant leaders by sharing transformational stories and skills exactly what tells the leadership is all about. My goal is to build a community of like-minded leaders that can share lessons, learn, ask questions and celebrate wins when it happens. My mission in life is clear I will end toxic leadership by sharing transformational stories and skills, and you will find countless transformational leaders in this group. Many of them I have had the honor to serve with in the military. If you want to find a community that can help you grow both personally and professionally, we would love to have you. You can simply search Purposeful Accountable Leaders on Facebook or click the Leadership Resources tab in the show notes to join. I am looking forward to seeing you guys and continuing to grow together on our leadership journey.

Speaker 2: 20:56

Back to the podcast. Podcast could be over right there with that piece of advice. That's amazing, sir. So you commanded some very large organizations. I think your largest command was the 11th wing at Joint Base Andrews over 17,000 personnel. That's incredible. Just that amount of authority and responsibility. When you get to that level of strategic leadership, how do you manage all the competing tasks that you have?

Speaker 3: 21:25

Josh, I believe that a leader only does a few things.

Speaker 3: 21:29

They cast a bold vision, they set wide boundaries so that the individuals under their command can achieve that mission in the best way based on their expertise.

Speaker 3: 21:40

They resource that vision, they break down barriers to achieve that vision and then they get out of the way. And it's just like anything else where you've got to resist as a leader, especially as you move up the chain of command. You've got to resist the desire or the inclination to get too involved, because once you do, then now you're taking the opportunity for initiative and creativity away from the members of your team and you've got to be very deliberate about what are the things that you can uniquely do based on your position in that leadership role and then delegate down the rest. Again, using that model of you've got a vision, you set the boundaries, you resource, you break down barriers and you get out of the way. And it really is just an opportunity for you to think about how you can uniquely provide benefit or advantage for your organization. And then you create expectations for those under you to do those other things that you're not specifically uniquely qualified or advantaged by doing.

Speaker 2: 22:46

It creates a problem solving organization. When you could do those things, have a bold vision with a mission statement, with a vision and a thread of how we're going to get there with the left and right limits and keep them wide, I don't care how you get to the end state, as long as it's ethically correct, morally correct, then we are on the right track, because how you do something may be different than me, but if we still get to that desired end state, it's the same. And resourcing it, breaking down barriers and getting out of the way and it goes back to how you, I think how you define leadership is inspirational innovation. So, like those two things, when we can have innovation and creativity, the organization can grow exponentially. And it doesn't matter, I think, even in terms of culture or terms of profit, if you're in a civilian organization. That is the key, I think, to a thriving organization is building that culture of problem solving organization. Everyone is a thinker and a doer at the same time.

Speaker 3: 23:48

I'm a firm believer that the more the leader can unlock or unshackle the talent that exists amongst their people, the better that organization is going to be. I, as a wing commander at Andrews, am not going to be the expert, not even close at all of the subsets of our mission, but if I can do the things that I'm uniquely qualified to do and then get out of the way after breaking down barriers and resourcing the experts that are within those areas, then now I am creating a situation where their talent is unlocked, they are motivated, they have the opportunity to employ their creativity and now, in almost every case, I am dazzled by the type of solutions they come up with that if I was prescriptive, I would have never considered.

Speaker 2: 24:36

Yeah To having those types of commands and then also commanding in test wings. So I know from a standpoint, operationally and in a controlled environment, one of the key things that we have to do as leaders is managing risks. Yep, how did you manage risks in a testing organization? And then how did you manage risks in an operational organization?

Speaker 3: 25:02

Essentially, josh, it's the same thing, that there's three essential steps to proper risk management. The first step is to understand or survey the risk. The next step is to mitigate the risk in every way that is reasonable and possible, and then the last step is allowing the decision maker at the right level to accept the residual risk. But it starts with understanding and then it moves on to that mitigation, and then you've got to make the decision, based on your command climate as the leader, who's going to accept the residual risk. And if you're fairly diligent about doing those three steps, then now you are doing everything you can whether in a test or an operational organization or whatever the mission may be to make sure that you are buying down the risk to the appropriate level and then allowing the residual risk to be accepted at the right level.

Speaker 2: 25:55

Hmm, I love that advice. So getting ready 30 years in the United States Air Force is an absolute incredible feat. It really is. That is inspiring to me. I think I'm at 16 or 17 years in the army right now and to get to that point, you know, one day at a time I'm continuing to grow. But someone at 30 years in the military, that's inspiring, regardless of the rank that you were able to achieve, which you've achieved with the highest ones. But you transitioned out of the United States Air Force at a certain point and you quickly, I think, transitioned and had a purpose and a plan. Could you walk me through that piece of you transitioning out of the Air Force? Were you lost at that time? Did you know what you wanted to do?

Speaker 3: 26:40

Josh, about 10 years ago I started to have the inclination that maybe there was something that I could do that was more impactful to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and I never felt that it was time or the place was right to get out.

Speaker 3: 26:54

But I started to have this urge that maybe there was something else out there.

Speaker 3: 26:59

And as I developed through the ranks, I started to get more and more convicted that there was indeed something else, just based on the skill set and the experiences that I had and my concern that to some extent our nation was headed in the wrong direction.

Speaker 3: 27:14

And actually about two years ago I was dialed into the Air Force Thunderbird Change of Command, the demonstration team for the Air Force, and a guy was taking command, Astro Elliot, who I had been a mentor for for about a decade. And when he was on stage giving his Change of Command speech, he pointed at some point to the huge American flag behind him on the stage and he said this if that starts to falter, you do not walk away. You engage with everything you've got and you fight to bring it back. And it was essentially that moment where I realized that I needed to engage with everything I've got to fight to bring it back in order to achieve, as a lifelong desire, the support and defend the Constitution of the United States. And so, a year ago, I retired from the Air Force. I had a couple of things that I knew I wanted to do in the short term, but ultimately I knew that jumping in the political world was the right first step in this half of my life to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Speaker 2: 28:14

And transitioning from a heavy leadership role into a heavy political role. Have you had any challenges kind of managing that? And I know that leadership can overcome any type of political barrier and your background will obviously stand that test of time. But have you run into any issues between politics and leadership?

Speaker 3: 28:37

I'm only two months into my campaign. Things are going great and, by the way, I absolutely love it. Maybe the most surprising thing about what I'm doing now is how much I enjoy the same kind of things that I enjoyed when I was a wing commander or senior defense official of our nation to Baghdad or running the National Fair for the Air Force. I love communicating with people and conveying either information or inspiration, or raising the level of the dialogue, and during this journey, and once I get elected and take my office on January 3, 2025, my motto or my mindset is that I'm providing leadership.

Speaker 3: 29:15

I'm not there to provide politics, and here's what I mean by that that I see the at least the current version of politics in the world today, and whether it's at the state level, in most states or certainly in Washington DC, leadership and politics is diametrically opposed. Leadership is essentially about being selfless and politics is about being selfish, or leadership is about opportunities for mutual benefit, while politics is this zero sum game where I win so that you lose, or if you win, I lose. Leadership is about raising the level of the dialogue, uniting and inspiring, and politics is about sowing seeds of fear, doubt and division. They are diametrically opposed, and so politics has gotten us into the mess that we're in as a nation, and they're not going to get us out. Leadership is going to get us out. In my intent as a campaigner, as a candidate and then ultimately as a United States senator, is to bring leadership not politics to the realm and ultimately use that to wrestle our nation back to where we belong.

Speaker 2: 30:22

So I love that. I think that that is your motto that you just expanded on. Leadership is not politics, and that is refreshing and beautiful to hear, I think, from someone who has the aspirations to take on the fight of going into the political realm. That is something that I don't think I would ever do. I don't think I have the patience to do it. So Godspeed to you, good sir. But continuing on that theme, collaborative conservation when I was going through, I guess, linkedin stocking you to make sure that I was able to ask the right questions, I came across that term and I've never really heard that before. Could you expand upon that?

Speaker 3: 31:03

Josh, first of all, thanks for stocking me. I appreciate it. I would encourage other people to stock me on LinkedIn or at tykertformarylandcom. But, be that as it may, I call myself a collaborative conservative, and here's what I mean by that that I am conservative in my values, in my principles and my policies, but I'm also mission oriented, and that means that we've got real problems that require real solutions, and those real solutions require working with a variety of people, and so, while I have these values and principles that I never intend to relinquish or to compromise on, there is plenty of space of shared interests and values where the solution set to real problems lie, and I need to explore that space and encourage other people to do so alongside of me, so we can solve the real, pressing problems that we face as a nation.

Speaker 2: 31:55

I think, continuing on that too, what leadership traits not just universally to you, but within politics, I think are essential, especially now, in the divisive time that we live in.

Speaker 3: 32:07

When I was the senior defense official in Baghdad, I was there deployed for 14 months, from May of 2020 to July of 2021. It was a fairly violent time in Iraq. We were getting rocketed regularly. It was during COVID, but I took that position about the same time as a new chief of defense chairman of joint chiefs of staff for the Iraqi military took his position, a guy named General Abdul Amir Urala, and Urala was a guy that was known as extremely aligned with Iran. I'm convinced that he would have slit my throat if given an opportunity, but one of my roles was to meet with him weekly and try to find ways to have productive professional relationships that are beneficial to the Iraqi military but to the United States.

Speaker 3: 32:51

And before I started talking to Urala and he was an intimidating figure I game plan or role played with my team and we came up with the intent or desire to focus on two things. Number one, to resonate or to relate as a human being. Everybody is a human being. Everyone has desires, goals, fears. They've got family, they've got friends and there was ways to relate to them at the human level.

Speaker 3: 33:18

And then we looked at his interests, or Iraq's interests, and our interests, and, instead of lingering on the things that made us different or that didn't overlap in those Venn diagrams of interests, we decided to focus very intentionally on the overlap. And if you think about what goes on in Washington DC, that we all are swearing an oath, even those up on the hill and those staffers up on the hill, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and back with Urala, we had massively productive professional meetings every single week. If I could do that with Urala, by focusing on shared humanity and mutual interests, then how could we not do exactly the same thing alongside of Americans up on the hill and elsewhere in Washington DC, by focusing on exactly the same thing?

Speaker 2: 34:08

And team. Let's take a quick break from this episode and I want to share a leadership resource with you, and that is the resiliency based leadership program. Rblp's vision is to create a worldwide community of practice committed to building and leading resilient teams. So why do you need to build and lead a resilient team? Teams are the key to individual and organizational growth, regardless of being in the military or in the civilian workforce. Building collective teams allows for exponential growth and the team's ability to overcome adversity, adapt and, most importantly, grow. And in bottom line, up front, resilient teams are just stronger together. And here's the fact 99% of the people who take that course recommended to others, and I'm one of them. I would just completed my certification and I highly recommend this. And the great news is it's most likely free to you. And if you're in the military, it is 100% free to you. And if you want to learn more, you can look in the show notes for this episode and find the link and use the discount code J-M-C-M-I-L-L-I-O-N, and that is also in the show notes.

Speaker 2: 35:19

Back to the episode. I wonder if you could walk me through the culture that you are inspiring and wanting to change. So I think, now more than ever. We need to learn how to give authority back to our parents, be able to stand up to our near peer threats that we have and, working within SOCOM now, I can confidently tell you that there are amazing men and women every single day that are doing amazing things for this country that I'm just honored and blessed to continue to serve. But what is your I guess pillars, if you would, and how we could begin to change our culture back to continue to inspire the world and bring hope?

Speaker 3: 36:06

Josh, one of the things that concerns me is that the biggest threat that America faces is not the pacing challenge of China, it's not Iran, it's not Russia, it's North Korea, it's our own dysfunction, and instead of cultivating and exploring that big overlapped area where almost everybody on the hill probably shares some level of objectives or interests, we satisfy ourselves by yelling about the things that make us different. We need to get back to realizing that the world is a dangerous place, that we've got real problems in education, in the economy, in public safety, in national security, and we need to be very intentional about exploring those areas where the solution set is rich with overlap, instead of just being satisfied with yelling about what is different from one another from the opposite sides of the aisle.

Speaker 2: 37:04

I wrote that down, the overlap and that connection to working with the individual in Iraq From a standpoint of at a tactical level, when I was embedded with an Afghan company in the platoon we were during the middle of Ramadan, kinetic firefights. Almost every single day we had an interpreter, but that single interpreter was the cultural thread between us and them. And before the well was toxic I'll just say that when I'm not going to throw a unit out there, but before we got there that well was toxic and I began to bridge that gap exactly how you did. I was intentional with the time and when I went in I found how we could relate to one another. And then I figured out that sweet spot.

Speaker 2: 37:49

And I never thought about the overlapping interests, but I figured out how can I help you and how can you help me? And I guess, to use a poor analogy, but Michael Scott from the office, how can we do a win, win, win. But I absolutely love that. But transitioning now outside of your inspiration within politics, I know you just recently wrote a book called Boom Leadership that Breaks Barriers, challenges. I can't remember the title of it now.

Speaker 3: 38:21

It's Boom Leadership that Breaks Barriers, challenges Convention and Ignites Innovation.

Speaker 2: 38:28

Would you mind just sharing to me and the listeners of what that book is about?

Speaker 3: 38:35

So it is a leadership and innovation book for any level of leader, in any position, in any realm, and it stems from my experiences when I gave up command at Joint Base Andrews in 2018.

Speaker 3: 38:49

I had eight days to drive my family across country and take command at Edwards Air Force Base, there in the Mojave Desert where we do our primary flight test for the Air Force, and when I showed up at Edwards, this was my third time there I was appalled that this place that was responsible for cutting edge technology, the next generation of aerospace for our nation was mired in the muck of bureaucracy, and we made it our number one priority to break down those barriers and change the culture fundamentally at that organization and spark a culture of innovation.

Speaker 3: 39:24

And if you read some of the purveyors of cultural change, like John Cotter, you may believe that cultural change takes five to 10 years, and I was not satisfied with that. And we found some ways, very intentionally and aggressively, to essentially change the culture from one of a bureaucratic mess into the pace that our innovative organization in the United States Air Force and we did so in about six months and that innovation culture continues. In fact, we had more innovative activity amongst our base of about 11,000 people than the rest of the Air Force combined and that book is a tale of that journey and about how to break down barriers of any sort and create innovation in any organization. And I think that it's an interesting story, with tales about aerospace and Chuck Yeager, a little bit of stories about joint base Andrews in Iraq and MIT and some other places I had been. But I think it's an entertaining and chock filled book with opportunities to learn and grow as a leader at any level.

Speaker 2: 40:26

I haven't got an opportunity to read that book yet.

Speaker 3: 40:29

Come on, Josh. What's the deal? Read it.

Speaker 2: 40:32

I know it's on my list. I may or may not have already bought the book. I can't wait to dig into that. And you just said something that is absolutely critical. You cannot.

Speaker 2: 40:46

It doesn't take five to 10 years to change the culture of an organization and I think a lot of people outside of the military do not understand that fact Because, being in the military, I have only ever been in a leadership position between one year maybe to 14 months. As you progress, you have more time and a position, but in the Army it's one year and I move. And that one year you can go through the whole gambit of leadership, of restructuring the culture within your organization, setting a climate that is productive and fosters problem solving. You can do all of that, but it takes intentionality and I love it from your standpoint of such a strategic level of leadership through all the wisdom and lessons that you've learned in your background, especially academic background, of innovation and STEM, marrying that with leadership. And I'm excited to read the book from that standpoint Because that's going to be absolutely amazing nuggets of wisdom. And how could you share one thing from the book that you would be willing to share?

Speaker 3: 41:52

Now. So let me give you a couple, and the first one is essentially what our definition of innovation was, or how we were going to unlock and unleash our team, and we create a cycle that we call the listen, consider, act cycle, and essentially it goes back to that idea that leaders don't do much other than bold vision, wide parameters, breakdown barriers, resource and get out of the way. But if we have a team of 11,000 people, then the best way to allow your organization to turbo charge is to start creating a culture where any member of the team believes that if they've got an idea, someone is listening, someone will consider it and someone will act appropriately. It doesn't mean we're going to get to yes, but it means that somebody truly is going to listen, consider and then act appropriately. We had something that we called the summer of waivers, where there are a ton of things that get in the way of individuals down the trenches that are doing the job, and we said throughout this summertime if you've got a waiver because a rule is getting in your way, then submit it. Nobody between you and me, as the wing commander, can say no. They can recommend no, but they can't say no, and ultimately, that waiver has to get up to me very quickly and in about a month or two we had waived over a hundred things that were getting in people's way.

Speaker 3: 43:16

Interestingly enough, I tell the tale about Chuck Yeager.

Speaker 3: 43:20

He was in the middle of test pilot school when he was called out to fly the X1 and ultimately to break the sound barrier. And he breaks the sound barrier and then some bureaucrat said hey, wait a second, chuck Yeager, you haven't graduated from test pilot school, you can't be a test pilot. So he went back to test pilot school and literally they almost washed him out until someone said, hey, this is stupid, we've got to waive this. He already has done tests more than anyone else ever had on the planet and they waived it. But just think about the types of stupidity that exist in a bureaucracy where, just because a rule was written in one set of conditions, it's applied to every set of conditions, even though it doesn't make any sense, and ultimately it's getting in the way of your people and their well-being and their ability to achieve the mission. And we, as leaders, one of the things we can do is find a way to break down those barriers, and the summer of waivers was a fun way that we did that.

Speaker 2: 44:16

So Chuck Yeager is an alum from West Virginia, so born and raised in West Virginia, the Yeager Airport in Charleston, west Virginia, so that's near and dear and close to my heart. That's awesome.

Speaker 3: 44:29

Yeah, I still keep in touch with his widow, victoria. She's a wonderful friend. In fact I was on a speaking engagement with her this summer there in West Virginia. She showed me some of the stomping grounds of Chuck.

Speaker 2: 44:40

What parts of West Virginia were you at.

Speaker 3: 44:42

So we are based out of Charleston, but then we did some driving down and I can't remember the name of the college but we spoke to some junior ROTC cadets about an hour and a half to the south and then we spent some time there in Charleston proper with some friends of hers and it was just a great time to hear some of those tales from General Yeager and to befriend Victoria, who she and I and Chuck had spent some time together alongside of my wife at the 75th anniversary of test pilot school back in 2019.

Speaker 2: 45:12

All right. So now, starting to think long term, you get into the Senate, you start crushing it within politics. Five to 10 years from now, where do you want to be? What type of change do you want to continue to bring inspiration and growth, just personally, for you? Where do you see yourself in five to 10 years when you're leadership journey?

Speaker 3: 45:32

Josh, my lifelong mission statement is to maximize my impact on people in our nation, and I've got 30 productive years to do that in this realm of elected or appointed federal public service. I don't exactly know how it all is going to transpire, but I go back to that oath of support and defend the Constitution of the United States and that's a lifelong mission for me, and we're going to see how this election cycle goes and then we're going to see how I can continue to maximize my impact on people in our nation. I'll tell you one of the things that I learned to love, both as a SAS student when I wrote a thesis on building partner capacity, and then my experience as the SDO dad and Baghdad and then running international affairs for the Air Force, is that I love a whole of government, national security strategy and policy, and so the opportunity down the road to continue to use that interest and I believe that unique skill set I have to maximize impact on people in our nation is something that I intend to pursue.

Speaker 2: 46:31

So one of the last questions I want to ask you, sir, is someone who's getting ready to follow in your footsteps, maybe that cadet who's listening to this, the university I said Marshall University because that's where I went getting ready to start their leadership journey, start their career. What advice would you give them?

Speaker 3: 46:50

That's an awesome question. I'll tell you Marshall. By the way, I was inspired by watching we Are Marshall recently, and I think it's Brad Smith who's the current president. I actually got to meet him with Victoria when I was out there a few months ago. He's a West Virginia boy that laughed and did amazing things in the corporate world and then had this passion to come back and serve in his alma mater and the community that he left.

Speaker 3: 47:15

Now he's a great man. If you get a chance to spend some time with him, you will be inspired, and, frankly, that tees up the answer to that question, which is find something that you believe can give your life higher purpose and meaning, and there's a variety of ways that you can do that. I've chosen to do that in a variety of ways Through service in the military. I happen to preach and I enjoy the opportunity to do some of that around the world as well and to serve my Lord, but find something that you enjoy, that you have a skill set commensurate with and something that allows you to fulfill your higher purpose, and those elements are the elements that give life the joy and the purpose and the meaning and the fulfillment that you will have if, ultimately, you weave those things together.

Speaker 1: 48:05

It's time for our final show segment that I like to call the Killer Bs. These are the same four questions that I ask every guest on the Tellos of Leadership podcast Be brief, be brilliant, be present and be gone.

Speaker 2: 48:22

Question one what do you believe separates a good leader from an extraordinary leader?

Speaker 3: 48:28

Genuine care and concern for people and their families.

Speaker 2: 48:32

Number two what is one resource that you can recommend to our listeners?

Speaker 3: 48:37

Never stop growing, learning and reading to develop yourself, to be ready for the next challenge of your life.

Speaker 2: 48:45

Question three if you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be?

Speaker 3: 48:51

When I was young, I was too focused on the immediate mission and not as focused as I should have been on learning the greater context of the world around me.

Speaker 2: 48:59

I love it All. Right. Last one, sir how can our listeners find you and how can they add value to you?

Speaker 3: 49:06

I so appreciate that. Track me down on LinkedIn, buy boom the book. Track me down on tykertformarylandcom. And specifically for my campaign, I ask people to do four things. Number one pray for me. Number two follow along. Number three share with your network if you like what you see. And number four donate as you see fit.

Speaker 2: 49:31

Sir, this has been an absolutely amazing podcast. Genuinely, I have learned a ton. I've taken over six pages of notes, so I'm looking forward to adding this to my leadership journal that I am now going to start, inspired by you. Again, sir, absolutely honored and privileged to be able to talk to you about something I'm deeply passionate about. And happy holidays, and tomorrow, at the Reef Lang, where you will be, I will continue to pray about you know, taking my family there and just being grateful for the opportunity to serve and continue to be a leader.

Speaker 3: 50:04

Josh, your interview was awesome and it truly is the case for those that serve. We stand on the shoulders of giants and I look forward to recognizing some of those giants at Wreathacroth, america, tomorrow at Crownsville Veterans Cemetery.

Speaker 2: 50:17

Sir, have a great night and thank you again.

Speaker 3: 50:19

You too, Josh Thanks.

Speaker 2: 50:24

All right, team, it is time for our after action review. What a phenomenal episode, and I really can't say this enough. But I love podcasting because I have the opportunity to just talk to some of the most amazing people. Think about that. I just had an opportunity to talk to someone who has spent over 30 years serving their country. That is almost half of where I'm at right now in my service. I'm only halfway there, right. I have 16 years of service to my country. That's just inspiring. And his level of commitment and resolve to continue to serve is truly inspiring. And I can tell you, you know, getting an opportunity to talk with John before and after the podcast. He is who he says he is. He is an inspirational, innovative leader and he has a lot of wisdom, an absolute metric ton of wisdom, to share.

Speaker 2: 51:17

So the first key takeaway that I have is a leadership journal. So I journal all the time and if you guys want to journal, this is just a free plug. I don't get any money out of this. There's this digital notebook it's called Remarkable and I use it to organize my thoughts, because I have about a thousand different notebooks that I use. But it's absolutely worth the money, at least for me, because it organizes all the notebooks that I have and I use it especially for my podcast to take notes on. But leadership journal it's absolutely critical for us to document our thoughts, especially in the moment. So we always have this concept of a green book in the Army and that's our leader book. That is what we always carry around with to take notes on, and I catch myself often when I'm in a meeting or something, in presentation, if you will, and someone says a quote that just sticks with me. I like to write that down. But having a leadership journal is, I think, absolutely essential because it allows you to take deliberate notes and you can go back and review those notes at a later date and then you can be intentional about the growth that you want. So have a leadership journal, get your green book, make sure that you take it everywhere you go, not just for notes to stay organized, but for growth, purposeful growth.

Speaker 2: 52:41

The next key takeaway that I have is how do we build a resilient organization? Well, I got five steps for you, john shared, and they're absolutely brilliant. The first one is having a bold vision. We talk about it all the time, but as a leader, especially as an organizational leader, one of your key jobs is coming up with a mission and coming up with the vision. The mission is why we're doing that, and any good mission statement always has the five W's who, what, when, where and why. But we also have the vision. Where are we taking the company Now? We're connecting head and hand head, hand, heart alignment.

Speaker 2: 53:20

Remember the triple H rule that I always like to talk about. Leaders create the bold vision. They allow their organization to see where they want to go. Then, number two they have wide boundaries for their organization. Having wide boundaries delegates authority down to your team. Hey, stay within the bounds of what I told you to get to that desired in state and make sure it's not morally, ethically wrong and we are on the right track. And a number three has a leader, especially where you find yourself is resource. Make sure, when you give the right authority to your team, that you are appropriately resourcing your team, because you cannot give authority and not resource, because your team will fail and if they fail Is your fault because you did not give them the resources to do so. And a number four is break barriers. I love this because it goes back to the concept of the rule of a sledgehammer, and I don't know if you guys can see it or not you probably can't, but if you're watching the YouTube live vision, I have a sledgehammer my back and my setup, and having a sledgehammer mindset is something that I pride myself on, because I will absolutely Destroy obstacles that are in my way and my team's way, because that's what leaders do they remove barriers that only they can remove in.

Speaker 2: 54:45

The last step is just to get out of the way. If you grow in your leadership, One of the things you're going to quickly learn you cannot be everywhere at all times and if you continue to do that, you are going to tap out on your leadership journey. I see this more now clearly than I ever have. To grow as a leader means to delegate effectively and not delegate because you don't want to take the responsibility of doing stuff that is actually your job. It means delegating the right task, the right people, so the organization can grow, you can stretch and you can begin to make other leaders purposeful, accountable leaders. So those five steps real quick have a bold vision, give wide boundaries, resources appropriately, break down those barriers and get out of the way, and if you can do that, you're going to increase innovation, you're going to create a creative organization that delegates authority down to the lowest level, and you're going to be able to unlock the time, talents and treasures of other people In your organization.

Speaker 2: 55:49

And the last key takeaway that I have here is having tough conversations. Having tough conversations is just a big thing. You're going to do it, you're going to run into it, but critical to doing that negotiating. Critical to doing that is learning how to relate. You can relate to anyone, and John shares a story of being able to relate with his Iraqi counterpart that probably had ties to Iran. That's tough, probably one of the toughest conversations Anyone can have, and I know from a standpoint of having conversations with an international partner in Afghanistan.

Speaker 2: 56:25

Those tough conversations are hard, but we do it when we show up as our true, authentic sales with no agenda. We're transparent and we find the things that bring us together and hey, doesn't our country need that right now? Find the connections that bring us together versus the things that divide us. It's all about hunting the good stuff and if you can do that, then it's Others interests overlapped with your interest. And there's a sweet spot and I talked about it in this podcast and I will shamelessly plug the office as much as possible, but it's a win, win, win, as Michael Scott would like to say. A team, if you like this podcast, do me a favor. It would mean the world to me. If you share this podcast, give it a five star review.

Speaker 2: 57:15

Rate this podcast on any platform. You listen to it and go support the channel, and you can do that by going to mcmillianleadershipcoachingcom. You can find ways to support it there, or you can go to our hosting service At tells of leadership back slash bus sprout dot com. You can also go to mcmillianleadershipcoaching and find a whole list of additional leadership resources in the form of blog articles that can help you grow as a leader, and you can read a blog article specific to this episode, because I want to produce content for you guys to be the best leader you can, to go, inspire other people and change this world. Let's change the culture of this world of a servant leadership versus a selfish leadership. As always, team, my name is Josh McMillian, your host, and I'm saying every day is a gift, don't waste yours. I'll see you next time.