Join the conversation as Bryan Sisk, a seasoned US Army veteran, unveils the tapestry of leadership that's been woven through his 20 years of military service and beyond. He shares his own story and casts a light on the qualities that make for steadfast leaders in any field. Currently, Bryan is the Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive at Memorial Hermann Health System, one of the largest integrated healthcare delivery systems in Southeast Texas, 32,000 employees, including 12,000 nurses.
This episode takes you behind the scenes of resilience and dedication, where Bryan's narrative intersects with the relentless spirit of nurses during the pandemic and the innovation that has since reshaped healthcare. We celebrate the unsung heroes on the front lines and the sparks of change they've ignited, leading to new practices prioritizing well-being and patient care. It's a heartening reminder of the need for cultures that champion innovation and the significance of empowering those dealing directly with life's most critical moments.
Connect with Bryan Sisk:
-Website: https://lnkd.in/eQuQyxTy
✅ SHARE THIS PODCAST
✅ GIVE A 5-STAR REVIEW
✅ SUPPORT
-Leadership Resources: https://linktr.ee/McMillionLeadership
My Mission: I will end toxic leadership practices by equipping leaders with transformational leadership skills.
Together, we will impact 1 MILLION lives!!!
Every day is a gift, don't waste yours!
Joshua K. McMillion | Founder MLC
Join the conversation as Bryan Sisk, a seasoned US Army veteran, unveils the tapestry of leadership that's been woven through his 20 years of military service and beyond. He shares his own story and casts a light on the qualities that make for steadfast leaders in any field. Currently, Bryan is the Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive at Memorial Hermann Health System, one of the largest integrated healthcare delivery systems in Southeast Texas, 32,000 employees, including 12,000 nurses.
This episode takes you behind the scenes of resilience and dedication, where Bryan's narrative intersects with the relentless spirit of nurses during the pandemic and the innovation that has since reshaped healthcare. We celebrate the unsung heroes on the front lines and the sparks of change they've ignited, leading to new practices prioritizing well-being and patient care. It's a heartening reminder of the need for cultures that champion innovation and the significance of empowering those dealing directly with life's most critical moments.
Connect with Bryan Sisk:
-Website: https://lnkd.in/eQuQyxTy
✅ SHARE THIS PODCAST
✅ GIVE A 5-STAR REVIEW
✅ SUPPORT
-Leadership Resources: https://linktr.ee/McMillionLeadership
My Mission: I will end toxic leadership practices by equipping leaders with transformational leadership skills.
Together, we will impact 1 MILLION lives!!!
Every day is a gift, don't waste yours!
Joshua K. McMillion | Founder MLC
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. Alright team, welcome back to the Tells the Leadership podcast. I am your host, josh McMillian, an active duty army officer and the founder of McMillian Leadership Coaching, and I'm on a mission to create a better leader what I like to call a purposeful, accountable leader or a pal and my vision is to impact one million lives in the military and civilian workforce in the next 10 years by promoting transformational stories and skills. On today's episode, I'm going to be bringing you a transformational leader dare I say a purposeful, accountable leader a pal, brian Siske.
Speaker 1:Brian is a 20 year veteran of the US Army and has spent most of his career working to improve medicine for military service members and veterans. His career evolved from bedside nursing to preventative medicine. From 2008 to 2018, brian served in several leadership roles, including chief nurse executive at the Central Texas Veterans Healthcare System in Temple, one of the largest and fastest growing VA health systems in the country. Most recently, he was chief nurse executive at HCA Healthcare TriStar Division Network in Tennessee, a large regional healthcare system where he oversaw operations of more than 4000 nurses. Brian is a purposeful, accountable leader. Let's go ahead and bring him on the show, brian. Welcome to the Tales of Leadership podcast, brother. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm doing well, how are you doing?
Speaker 1:It's already a great episode, because the last one that I filmed I totally forgot to plug in my microphone, so this is already a better one.
Speaker 2:You're already starting on a good foot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this is an absolute honor and a privilege to get to talk to you about something that I'm deeply passionate about leadership. But if you could go ahead and just start to provide an overview to our listeners, who is Brian's disc?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I think I would first and foremost say I'm a Christian. That's been something that's really guided me through a lot of spots in my life that you know, I can only give credit to God in that space. But, father, love my family. You know, it's one of those things. I'll talk probably a little bit more about it here in a minute. But join the army at 17. And my wife's been with me for 35 years and I'll tell you that's one of the things I'm the most proud of and then have to say veteran and advocate.
Speaker 2:I think those are the things that would probably describe me the most 35 years of marriage is awesome, man.
Speaker 1:I think that's like a counter cultural norm nowadays of the average lifespan of a marriage and I look at kind of the lens of just my friends and family that I know I've been married now for 12, 13 years of Sophia ever listens to this. You probably get mad at me, but it's like it's crazy because that's such a long time and it's flown by so quickly In 13 years to me seems like just flip the switch and I can't imagine 35 years. So congratulations, that's, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Now, thank you, it's, you know, I still. I look back now and I retired from the army in 2008. And it's, it's just one of those things that the years go by quickly, man, enjoy them.
Speaker 1:So I always love starting off right with this question and I think it's unique because I have everyone from entrepreneurs to major business owners, to veterans, to active duty, and it's just defining leadership in your terms. And then how has that changed over the course of the years? So like Brian just starting off in the army and then Brian now, how has that matured?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'll tell you it's. You know, I don't know that I could put one thing on. It's more of a concept for me because I really used to be enamored with the fastest, the most skilled you know, that person who was just wracked and locked in all the time, and what I have found and really grown to appreciate is more about the potential of somebody, and so, really finding somebody who can smile, who's dependable, who's hardworking, you really get your back. I feel like we can invest in that individual, wrap the services around them that they need and they're going to be successful, and that's the individual that's really going to take you where you need to go, because we don't do anything in life independently, right? So you really got to surround yourself with individuals that have potential. Make sure that you align things, that they need to make sure they can achieve what they need to achieve in the world's right.
Speaker 1:I love that and I think that that's one of the best definitions. It's simple too and that's why I follow the rule kind of keep it simple. Stupid, the kiss rule, and I probably ever use that acronym all the time. But you're never going to achieve anything in life unless you surround yourself with people of high caliber, of quality, reputation, that have a hard work ethic and are willing to push through the tough times. But investing in those and that's what I love, because that you just talked about and I want to make sure we kind of hit on that is there's a concept of the parental principle and the first time I ever heard that of that.
Speaker 1:A leader invests 20% and 20% of his workforce or her workforce and those 20% of the individuals in the team can produce 80% of the results. And I never thought about that before that our time is so valuable, especially as a leader, as we continue to grow, and the more time that we can invest in those that have the best chances of meeting the most potential of themselves and within the organization can create a ripple effect in the organization that that individual is now a coach and a mentor for other people. So you're replicating yourself and to me. That is a powerful lesson that I had learned, so that that is a beautiful definition. I thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it really is a logarithmic relationship, right, because if you invest in somebody and they invest in somebody, before long you have like influence. You know a large number of people, especially if you, if you have the opportunity to really do that and connect it with something you're passionate about. And it doesn't have to be I mean not saying everybody has to go to work and love everything they do right but there's always an opportunity to find something every day that you're passionate about. And if you can find people and link them that way, sky's the limit.
Speaker 1:So start off with where did your leadership journey begin? Where do you think it started?
Speaker 2:So you know it's.
Speaker 2:It's funny because I think I answered this question differently every time I'm asked it because it goes back a ways.
Speaker 2:But you know I can remember the first time that I thought, wow, somebody wants my advice on something and you know I might be like stepping into this leadership realm, was when I was a retention NCO, and so here I am, an E5 on an extra duty type thing. You know, talking to people about their careers and you know, having a conversation where they legitimately wanted like my opinion. You know there's a lot of things you do or you just got to kind of check the block and touch base with individuals. But then you have some of these conversations like, wow, these individuals are like really care about what I'm thinking. I've got to step my game up because I want to be that person that's worthy of that right. And it's just one of those things that has kind of snowballed throughout my career is I really do think that I've got to invest in myself so that way I can invest equally that amount into others, and I think those are those really important things.
Speaker 2:I learned that really early had an amazing individual when I took that retention NCO. You tend to spend more time with your company commander in that job, so so, yes, that's probably when that was and you know that's. You know that's probably 30 plus years ago at this point.
Speaker 1:So well, it's been a bit so a retention NCO. For anyone who's listening, could you kind of just quickly define the importance of that role within like a battalion or brigade?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. So so I didn't know what I was getting into. To be honest with you, it's one of those things they tap you on the shoulder. It's like, oh, you're gonna be the tension.
Speaker 1:It's like when they told me that I was going to be the unit movement officer of the UMO, I was like, oh, that sounds fun, until I figured out what it involved.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of hours. But yeah, it's just the individual. So at the time anybody who was coming into their window where they could get out of the military, it's really sitting down with them making sure they understood the benefits of staying in, having some conversations about you know if you wanted to change jobs, what were those options, what jobs were open and could you know you kind of match them with the opportunities they were looking for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's beautiful. And then a lot of the times that maybe someone doesn't have an a military background. I'm trying to get better at that. When I say an acronym or something pops up that's just not common to kind of define that. So understand what we're talking about. So what drove you to being in a healthcare and healthcare profession? What drove you to want to join the Army and serve in that capacity before working for non-profit and for-profit companies?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so probably not the most inspiring story, to be honest with you. So I grew up in construction. My dad owned an electrical contracting company. I could probably wire a house independently by the age of 14.
Speaker 1:I spent a lot of time on the job with my dad.
Speaker 2:One day, my dad took me aside and he said hey, I don't want you working with your hands.
Speaker 2:your whole life You've got to go find something that you can do that is not working with your hands, and that was a little bit foreign to me, right? I mean, my whole family was in construction, good living, right, I mean, love that, love my group, my family. They do great things. But I didn't really know what to think of that, to be honest with you, because I didn't want to go to college, didn't know what I wanted to do, and so took the Asvab at school, scored well, had a recruiter call me up one night and said hey, you want to be a Russian linguist? I said sure, let's do that. Told my dad hey, listen to your advice. I'm going to join the Army and be a Russian linguist. Oh, and I'm getting married here and since I'm 17, can you sign the paperwork so I can, I can join? But yeah, I can imagine now one of my kids coming to me saying that hell, at that time I didn't appreciate that, that discussion, but I certainly do now.
Speaker 2:But so I that did not go well, I am told that I have this southern accent, but there was just some syllables that I could not. I couldn't get past the oral part because every Friday you tested, you know, on the module that you learned, and and so it came to the point where they offered me two jobs or to get out. One was an electrician, so imagine that scored high in that, and the other was computer programming. And back then not everybody had a computer. I don't even know that, I mean, I'd seen a few computers but and so I'm like I'll do that. But what that less. What that taught me is I was going to go into another job and I was not going to fail my wife or my family, and I was going to go into this thing and be the hardest worker there and and I needed to be, because when I got there, total fish out of water and and I struggle, but I stayed late in the pit, early to the pit and did everything I could to make sure that.
Speaker 2:I was doing the right thing. And I tell individuals quite often I failed so much that the NCOs that were there I mean I mean I was working so hard they were really pulling with me. I mean, you know, in your advanced, your advanced training that's not always the case, right, but but really developed this support network. And when it came time to graduate, the part of graduation was you had this about a half a day test that you had to go through and I did it in about 45 minutes.
Speaker 2:Because, I had seen everything in the whole, every error that could be done. I had done them like 15 times so I was just able to go through and one shot and fix top to bottom the whole script and walk out of there, and it happened so fast. The NCO at the time took me aside and he said well, hey, we're gonna have to check this. This is wrong.
Speaker 2:For four or five of them got together and and sure enough, they're like you're good. And so what it taught me is it's worth it, the energy that you put into it. It's hard, it's not fair. Pick a word Doesn't matter, it's worth it, and I've really carried that throughout. I mean, it's been one of those things that I'm always striving to be the hardest worker in the room.
Speaker 1:I love. I love that story and and kind of a similar, same vein and I think we probably come up from a similar, similar backgrounds. I don't know if my twang sticks out or not, but I'm from rural West Virginia. I try really hard to not let the twang take over.
Speaker 1:But if you hear my dad like yep, I know exactly where you're from Exactly, but I remember vividly going to college and not having any scholarships, not knowing that I need to take any tests the ACT. I just found a way to do it and when I was at college there was called the Oasis payments. It was basically an installment for the first semester to go there, and then I found creative ways to pay for school like an RA, join the National Guard. But that first semester I'll never forget. And my dad just went through a divorce at this time of how am I going to pay for the school? And I called dad like dad, we owe Marshall University $4,000 in the next two weeks or my college career's over, and Cole Minor hardly any savings. He found a way to pay for my school and at that moment in time, school was always just a luxury to me at that point, until that moment happened. And then he told me son is like hey, I'm investing in you, don't waste it.
Speaker 1:And every single day I would always focus, do the tests, do the best that I could study for them, not go out with my friends and drink. I was focused on getting the best possible grades that I could and it was from the lenses that I had something more important than having you know, fun with my friends, that there was a future, that I was working towards and people were investing in me. So I need to be unreasonable. And there's a quote by Winston Churchill. It kind of sums up your story beautifully Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm, and as you continue to work through those failures, you found what you're passionate about, and that that's the beauty about leadership. Whatever you choose, whatever your profession is, you're going to fail and you're going to stumble several times. Trust me, if you were to saw me in ranger school, you'd be like who is this dude?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, and that's the thing is, you know, and as we continue through my career, obviously I didn't end up as a computer programmer because I'm a nurse there was a point that I that I've really taken for granted up until just really a few years ago I didn't want to go to college. I think I said that earlier. Right, it's like going to figure this thing out. I thought, hey, being in computers, that'd be a good job and that's kind of what I'll do. And I had a company commander in one of my first units take me and about four other guys out. And he's like hey guys, here's a paint roller, a little three inch paint roller bucket of paint broom, and it's 100 degrees in August in San Antonio.
Speaker 2:I need you all to go out and repaint the stripes on the parking lot and so, oh, we were so mad, I mean, we were just livid and we're like, we're in the army, what are we doing? So we're out there painting stripes, doing our thing, and after a couple of days of that, you know, captain Garland Payne comes and he says, hey, y'all want to do this your whole life. And we're like, well, no. And he goes Well, you're not really qualified, the way I see it, to do anything else. You might want to go to college. And he said if you'll go, sign up for college classes, I'll let you off this detail. Oh, wow, and. And I and I, and at the time we were angry about that and I did not realize what a passion for learning I had. And I wouldn't have realized that, I don't think, had he not seen something in me. And you know, in the army you can do things like that to get to somebody.
Speaker 2:I don't know that I have that same tool or would use something like that nowadays, but it got to me and it was something that I realized, like I said years and years later, that that really was the start of something cool and ultimately started going to night school started getting you know a lot of college up under my belt and then had one, an officer recruiter, come up to me and say hey, you know, we've got this great opportunity for those in your situation who want to be a nurse. So the army packaged me up, sent me off to nursing school and it's the best thing that's ever happened to me. It's just, it's been truly found my passion in life. It really aligned well.
Speaker 1:Your time in the military. What were some of the challenges that you had to work through? And then how did you navigate and become successful ultimately, some of the biggest challenges that you had to face.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know I there's a couple of individuals that I mean I could name for probably 30 minutes that just that I mean talk about the things they did for 30 minutes that you know. I take a look at my first hospital chief nurse. He took me aside and he said hey, you know, here's the thing never quit learning.
Speaker 2:Any learning opportunity comes up, you know you're going to take. You're taking advantage of it. You know be first in, last out. You know all the things that I think you tell as a military officer. You tell just about everybody new coming into your unit right.
Speaker 2:But then he said he said he said two things that I tell people this day. He said number one no matter what job you're in, at some point you walk out the door and don't come back. You retire, you change units. And he said the thing you walk out this door with is your family. He said so, take care of your family and they'll take care of you. And I mean I still, I have goosebumps right now. I mean I remember where I was standing when he told me that, oh well. And then the second thing he told me he said hey, in health care there's a lot of tough decisions. Come in your way. And he said always put the patient first. That's why you're here, that's what we do. And as long as you put the patient first, the rest of it will work out. He said err on the side of the patient and you're going to be fine. And those are two things. To this day, I tell just about everybody that I interact with.
Speaker 1:My wife is a nurse and I know the level of of servanthood that has to go along with that, because being a nurse and I can say this just from some of the times that my wife, she's going to get mad at me, but I'll say that anyway when we were stationed out at Fort Lewis Washington, she would come home, you know, at midnight and just be crying because her job was so stressful.
Speaker 1:Throughout the day, people just saying horrible things, her working on the psych ward with people with mental disabilities and just being completely exhausted and the amount of love and compassion that you have to give to those people is the truest definition, I believe, of being a servant, of servant leader, and I don't think a lot of people understand that, but it was definitely highlighted during COVID and I think that now more than ever there's a balance that has to be maintained in the healthcare industry, at least from my perspective, of not losing sight of the patient. The patient is first of how and how. You just said that and I'm really curious how did COVID and I know we're kind of getting off topic of your life how did COVID impact the healthcare industry from your side.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, I can talk about nurses. I mean you just can't talk about COVID without talking about the impact to your point. You know, individuals who worked late came in lots of extra shifts. You know, first, the first part of this was scary. We didn't know what this thing was right, we didn't know how it spread.
Speaker 2:We didn't know how to contain it, but they came to work every day. And it's just something that I look back now and incredibly challenging time cannot be understated. But I just look back and you know, unfortunately right now, like healthcare heroes has almost come, become a cliche. But I'm telling you, if you put yourself back in those moments that was real and I mean, and it was really about individuals wouldn't go home to their families and they don't want to transmit whatever this was to their, you know, spouses and but the dedication to the patients was like, I mean, nothing you could imagine is every day showing up, being there for the patients. You know that everything changed so fast, but it didn't deter them.
Speaker 2:You know we had a lot of nurses leave and nurses enter. I mean it was. It's just been this dynamic environment. But what has happened since, I think, has opened up just a ton of opportunity. And so we came through this period where we kind of had to hit the reset button for lots of reasons. But now we see a lot of innovation in the industry. We're seeing some telehealth, we're seeing robots in our hospitals, we're seeing just changes in the way we document, so to take some of the workload off the nurse we're seeing, you know, advancements and some of the admin functions, we're seeing advancements and what we do with our leaders and how we develop them.
Speaker 2:So, really, right now, I think the the potential in the environment is amazing, and that's what I'm excited about, because now what you're seeing is nurses are actually driving some of that innovation where I don't know that we drove as much as we did prior, but now that voice is elevated and it really is. It's and I tell everybody this all the time I don't have any good ideas, but there's 12,000 individuals out there that have a lot of great ideas, so we just got to listen to them and really harvest those things and figure out how to make it happen, right.
Speaker 1:So, Alright team, let's take a quick break from this podcast and I want to 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. And 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 1:Back to the podcast. That is a beautiful point and I really want to make sure that that gets highlighted. As a leader of an organization, you don't have the best ideas. You just don't because you're not seeing the problem from the tactical level, in the trenches, in the Fox hole, you're seeing it from more of an aerial perspective, like where I work right now for the army cost schedule performance and everything that I look at is through the lens of cost schedule performance. How is this going to impact the cost? How is this going to impact the schedule? How is this going to impact the performance?
Speaker 1:But what we don't look at is how is this going to impact the soldier this thing that I'm building, who has to actually use it when the bullets are snapping by their head? How is it going to impact the soldier? And I think that it's absolutely critical to not farm, because that's probably a bad word, but to have a culture that is safe enough to, where constructive candor can can foster and people can come to you, regardless of their rank or their title, with ideas Like hey, sir, I know we do this system for filing patients or information or whatever it is, but there's this new innovative practice that I saw at another hospital that I think could save us time. That's awesome, let's, let's look into that. But how do you foster that kind of culture within, within the healthcare?
Speaker 2:So you know it's it really is about. You know your strategy has to be invoked by your environment right.
Speaker 2:And so you take a look at the organization you work for. There are just basic things that the organization is going to bring to the table. So you know at you know at moral hermware, where I work now, we're really looking at. You know how we define wellness. Well, wellness is more than I need to take a break, you know, and I have a hard day, so I need to take 15 minutes and take a break and have a nice space to go do that. It's about your financial health. It's about having access to counselors 24 seven. It's about weight loss. It's about a lot of different things that I don't know, that we paid a lot of attention to in the past and in fact, some of these things, like with, with mental health, we didn't want to talk about those, right, because as professionals, holy moly, you can't put that on the table because something bad might happen to me professionally.
Speaker 2:So you keep it in and it makes it worse where we have effective ways to deal with it and work with it and it doesn't make you less of a person, that makes you human, and so it's okay to talk about it and so so you know you have that baseline, like here's the organization and the commitment to the community and all that. But then you've got to elevate the voice of the individuals, like you're talking about and we really talk about. You know, nurses want to grow in their skill and talent. Nurses want to be a part of reimagining the environment they work in and they want to excel. They want to be the best at what they do at any given time. Nobody wants to come into the hospital and leave with something they shouldn't have, right, like an illness or an infection or something like that.
Speaker 2:And nurses, you know you look through COVID to now they want to be the best at what they do, get you healthy, get you back on the road, take care of your bio, psychosocial needs, and so it's, it's listening to. That's a big bucket and that's a big challenge, right? But if you leverage the voice of the nurse through rounding, talking to your people, we have we have eight magnet designated facilities and that's all about elevating through our committee structures where we have staff, led committees, who are able to elevate the concerns from their unit all the way up to their facilities. And now we're putting in place across our 17 hospitals, putting in place a what we're calling a shared Congress, so now each of the representatives can come from their facility and bring the things that's most important to them and we can prioritize that as a system. So we can, we can act on it. So a lot of surveying, a lot of work by leaders, but it's it's energy that is well spent.
Speaker 1:I love that. That is the best way to grow an organization is to create that kind of buy-in from, from your team. If, if people say something but it's not actually implemented or at least looked at, then you're going to lose them. So you asking your team, other outside of your, your hospital, and bringing those thoughts to the table and then kind of weighing them, which ones has the most impact now and where should we align our tools is absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 1:And there was something else that you said that you know kind of touched a vein and with me being the military, us both being in the military of mental health. And there's a quote and I don't know who to attribute to but it's kind of always stuck with me is it takes strength to ask for help, it takes courage to seek support. And when I first joined the military, mental health was something that you never wanted to touch with the 10 foot pole and like if you go see behavioral health it's because you're getting chaptered out of the army or you're. You're just not a fit soldier. And then I went on a combat deployment and I've seen actual side, the negative side effects of PTSD and what it can do to soldiers, not just temporarily trying to commit suicide, successfully committing suicide but the negative impacts that it can have over their, their life.
Speaker 1:And that is a battle that we have to learn to win and then understand that it's not just a temporary thing. It comes in waves and it comes in traumatic events like COVID and the healthcare profession that probably created some type of PTSD and, with my wife and my son having asthma, everything got wiped down that first couple months with Lysol wipes groceries. She wouldn't let me go out and get groceries because she's like I know you, you're not going to wash your hands, so I'm going to go do it all, so I was like okay, I'm not going to complain if I don't have to go grocery shopping.
Speaker 1:So I'd love to kind of transition it back to you getting out of the military and then going and working for a for-profit organization and then a government organization and a nonprofit. How are those different and what were some of the challenges that you had to navigate through those?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's so funny because when I got to the point where I was retiring I don't know that I was, you know, 100% ready. But you know, life happens and my wife had had like four surgeries I had a toddler, I think they were at the time two or three, and there was just there was just a lot going on in that space, right, and so, you know, I had my next assignment, kind of you know where I wanted to go, what I was pushing for you know, how that works as far as you position yourself.
Speaker 2:Well and and you know it. Just, it just really came down to a lot of soul searching and so so it did go ahead and exit. But I wanted to stay connected to veterans and soldiers in any way I could. So I transitioned to the VA and so I was with the VA for 10 years, started off in the ambulatory care. Footprint went to the CNO, acno or ACNO-CNO in that system and and absolutely loved it.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've got nothing but great things to say about that healthcare delivery system. Don't believe everything you hear in the press. I'm telling you firsthand.
Speaker 2:But but, then the opportunity came to go to HCA and spent four years there, went to their corporate office and went to a division nursing leadership role, had hospitals in three different states there and you know, lo and behold, a position that I didn't even see coming in. You know, ever opened up at Memorial Hermond for the same role, but here in Texas and with an organization that I knew their reputation well when I was in the VA. I was just in two hours up north here. So it you know when that position came open and it's probably the only thing that could have dynamited me out of where I was. And you know, lord took care of me and opened the doors for me.
Speaker 2:It's been a great fit. I just love, love the mission of what we do. You know we invest hundreds of millions of dollars back into the community. We're looking at how do we open doors for individuals who want healthcare as a career, how do we provide care in school based health clinics that it just comes right out of our core dollars. It's really a mission that I have been so, so happy to be a part of and help to grow that mission, and that's one of those things I'm very passionate about.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. So one thing you've talked about and I don't understand it from the lens of that. I haven't walked through a step yet, but kind of working in VA hospitals and you always look on the news that everything's so bad with a healthcare system. What, from your standpoint, are the challenges? And then, with a brand new service member just getting out, what advice would you give them to kind of navigate the VA system?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I tell everybody you really should take advantage of your VA benefits. You know it's, you know they're, they have an amazing prescription benefits. You know if you have anything service connected, that's that's not out of your pocket. And then if you ever need long term care, there's just nothing. It's nothing that comes close to that. So now you know, in all fairness, it is a little bit harder to navigate than going into to a system. So you have to learn how to work with the system and you have to be patient in that specific. But once you kind of get in with a provider, which is can be a challenge, but once you get into a provider you maintain your appointments. At that point it gets a lot easier to navigate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's one thing that I guess I'm not looking forward to when I retire, but that that is great advice. So you talked about kind of mission alignment in the healthcare, and that's one reason that you went down the path you did for the nonprofit, the profit companies. How is that so critical within the organization that you're currently working for?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's one of those things where you really get to a point in your career where you can be, you can kind of really choose what you want to do at that point and and when this, this opportunity came up, it's a couple of things I have the privilege of working with just some amazing chief nurse officers, some CEOs that are just out of this world and in our, our company leadership, from our president to our CEO, just really dedicated to how do we invest in the communities that we live in? What are the things that we can do to remove barriers? Because if you stop and think about you know we're I don't know if we're the largest, if we're not the largest we're one of the largest employers in Houston and so, if you think of the potential that we have, we want to drive, we want to be the ones that are resetting the norms as far as you know how do I get out of high school and get into a healthcare as a career.
Speaker 2:How do I walk out of a high school and say I want to get a job in that big building when I don't even know what those jobs are? So how do we work within our communities, in our high schools and those who are wanting second careers? How do we remove barriers to employment? Then how do we pay for their schools so they can achieve? You know, I tell everybody I want everybody to be a nurse right now. We need lots of them. But if you choose not to, we're okay with that too. I'd be remiss as a chief nurse if I didn't say that. Right, but we do need lots of specialties.
Speaker 2:It's not just all about nursing, but but yeah, it really is about, and we're doing it. I mean, we're partnering with, with community colleges, high schools, four-year universities. We're looking at how do we, how do you get credit while you're at work, so I can be at work and go into school at the same time. I can park in one parking place and go to school and work, and so so we're we're delivering on those things, and that's what I find incredibly exciting, and we got amazing leaders who rally around that and we want to give somebody more than a living wage so they can return to their communities, and that ultimately impacts their community on a level that you just can't do if you don't invest like that.
Speaker 1:I love that model and I don't think I've had anyone on my show that's kind of to talk, that talks about that. You know, being in Huntsville right now and I see it all the time because this is the home of NASA, missiles in Space, peo, aviation, all these really cool STEM related programs and those programs like BAE, lockheed Martin. What they do is they grow talent with STEM backgrounds in all the way from grade school in this area and build that and foster it to the point where they'll pay for their school and then they already have a job when they're lined up and then it continues to kind of invest back into the community. But I think that is one of the key, essential elements.
Speaker 1:We always talk about taking care of our people, but we forget to look at the whole person holistically.
Speaker 1:Well, taking care of your hospital, taking care of your people, means taking care of your community, and if you want to take care of your community, then you have to be able to give them the resources and the tools and I love how you talked about removing the barriers so people who maybe did not have the best upbringing or the most resources can go pursue the things that they're passionate about, because I've often seen that some of the most passionate leaders in my life had some of the hardest upbringings and childhoods, and I'll share this story with you is that when I took over my platoon in Afghanistan, they deployed with 44, but there were only 28 soldiers when I actually took over.
Speaker 1:Due to some issues combat loss we needed actual soldiers to operate. The three soldiers who volunteered to come to our platoon, which was still basically getting in firefights almost every single day, did it because they wanted to get away from their platoon and get a fresh start, and those platoons were excited to get rid of those people. They were the best soldiers that I had in the platoon, hands down, because I told them, like all I need to know about you is that you volunteered to come here, knowing how dangerous this work is, and I gave them a chance and they shined. So that's amazing. Thank you for that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it really is. It's something that you know not everybody's cut out of. Coming out of high school, I wasn't. I have an incredibly non-traditional. All the way through my doctorate degree, I did almost a whole of it night school.
Speaker 1:That's crazy, that's incredible.
Speaker 2:And so I look back and I think you know a couple of. There's a couple of points in my career we talked about a few of them where somebody really invested in me and, to your point, believed in me, gave me options, and then I mean you can go anywhere you want to go. I mean especially when somebody believes in you, right, and so it really is. So it's bigger than just aligning the opportunity, because a challenge we have in healthcare that we're working to address is it is really hard to have an 18 year old walk on a healthcare unit and then be independent, right, and so that's a unique challenge. So you've got to think about your environment a little bit differently than hey, here's your first day of work, you know, charge on. So how do we develop some training courses and mentors? And you really have to.
Speaker 2:You've got to take a side and say hey, you know, you can't talk like that at work, and it's amazing to me how some individuals have never had somebody in their lives Just say that and just take them under their wing and say, hey, here's what we got to do. You know, in the military, you get that, you get the. Here's how you dress, here's how you walk, here's how you, but but it's a unique environment, right, that doesn't exist outside of somebody in your family who cares about you, saying, hey, brush your hair, right, and we just we're losing that, I think. And so so that's where I think that we have the opportunity, in all professions, to really think about what we're doing a little bit differently, because what we do now we have work shortages everywhere, right, and we can't do the same thing we're doing now and just do it better. That doesn't make any sense All right team.
Speaker 1: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? Resilient 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 a 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. Back to the episode.
Speaker 1:I think that really sums down to now. A days people forgot to lead themselves. I guess, if that makes sense, one of the first lessons that I've learned is that if you're going to lead a team or an organization, you have to first learn to lead yourself. And I think being a nurse what kind of what you're talking about? Self care. Self care is vitally important because if you don't have the ability to recharge your batteries and basically be a battery, then you're not going to go into work and you're not going to give the energy needed to the organization, to the patients, to the people and to everyone around you. So you got to figure out how to kind of balance that workload and your level of maturity too. That 18 year old may get off work and go play Call of Duty all night I know I did that in college until like four o'clock in the morning and then go back into work that day. But you have to.
Speaker 1:You have to learn to lead yourself if you're going to have extraordinary results and I'll never forget every single weekend when I would do my safety briefs when I was a company commander, I would always talk about hey, no one cares this. Badges you have on your uniform, your rank, no one cares about your infantryman, no one cares about that. You are a profession of arms in a professional organization and you are a professional soldier, and there's only so many professions that society has ever known. So when you don't wear the uniform and you're going out there on the weekend, always have that in the back of your mind. So when you're making decisions, are you doing it as a professional? And I'm hoping that that prevented some SIRs or serious reports.
Speaker 2:but I don't know, yeah, but you know, and what's important too is is, as you're looking at you know, how you're building your career pathways. You got to make sure you're taking care of all levels right, because you have you have rock star individuals who are on your union. It's now as nurses who may want to get a master's degree or a doctorate, go into research, you know, go from med surge over into mother baby or into the neonatal intensive care units, and so it really is about the full spectrum, about how do we align these resources so that people can go where they want to go. Because that's one of the things that you know I found, as you kind of exit the military to an environment that's, you know, not the military, it's it's you know. People have a lot more choices, right, and you have a incredibly diverse workforce, especially in healthcare, who really can move, especially nowadays with days notice.
Speaker 2:You know the COVID has made an environment that it's very easy to go from one job to another, and we're all working with this limited talent pool, and so it really is about delivering on getting back to the voice of the individuals you lead. It's delivering on that voice, and it's okay if you try something that doesn't work. Yeah, I mean, and that's the part that, that's the part we don't do well we're very good about hey, we did this and it was, you know, lights out. We don't necessarily do as well when we're saying, hey, we tried this and it was terrible, we learned something and we're going to try again, but but we don't do that part well, and that and I am coming again. I don't know if it's with age or just experience, but I'm coming to find that message is as important as when you have those big ones.
Speaker 1:How do you kind of walk through that? So, when you try something and you fail, how do you learn as an organization and then still try that the alternate pivot do whatever but continue to move forward? How do you work through that as a healthcare?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know it's again when you're in healthcare, you're dealing with humans, so your margin of error is incredibly slim, right and so. So it really is about having the right people at the table and so having your multiple disciplines looking at if we're looking at a practice change or a policy or a new piece of equipment, making sure that you have the individuals that really know what they're doing at the table, and you've got to encourage them to speak up right. I mean, it's like, hey, you know, we're here to do the right thing. We don't want to hurt somebody. So how do we? How do we do? Whatever it is we're going to do, do it in the safest manner possible. And what are those key milestones that we've got to hit to make sure that?
Speaker 1:we are doing.
Speaker 2:How do we measure it? You've got to set your measures on the front end and it has some structure around that so you do know if it worked or not. Because that's the problem you can do some pretty cool stuff and at the end of it you don't know if it worked or not. So having that construct on the front end so that when you do get through on the back end, you know do you want to invest a million dollars because you can save two, you know, in the long run, those are all the types of things that it's very important and not everything works. There's a lot of bright, shiny objects out there and you got to, you got to get your hands on those and get them off pretty quick, right, and that's got to be okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and in the military we always go through the after action review process. So what were we supposed to do? What did we do? And then how can we improve? And having those data points or milestones or anchor points along the way, or rallying points, if you will, is absolutely critical because you're knowing if you make progress, if you're getting to those milestones, or if you're not getting those milestones you're just floundering.
Speaker 1:But having the ability to learn from your mistakes is the difference between quitting and and failing. So failing is not a bad thing, quitting is. If you quit something, then you have lost. In that moment in time when you decide I'm not going to try this anymore, I've done. It's like podcasting. The first one that I did was absolutely horrible, but I had the unreasonable illness about me that I want to continue and I'm going to try to get better. But leadership and I'm reading the book right now by Bernay Brown dare, dare to lead, dare to lead. That's all about being a daring leader and it goes back to a Theodore Roosevelt quote of being the man in the arena. You have to be in the arena because that's where all the battles are fought, but you have to learn how to make understand the mistakes that you made and figure out how to mitigate that risk and then continue moving forward. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:I love it. Yeah, and not be afraid to be authentic. Right, that's the. If you're scared, it's okay to say that you know and it's okay to say we're going to lean forward and do this together, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So kind of walk me through. You know where you're currently at right now, memorial Herman Health Systems.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm the chief nurse for the system. So we have about 30,000 employees, about 12,000 of them are nurses, 17 hospitals. We're in the greater Houston area. If you're not familiar with the greater Houston area, it is quite sizable. I don't know where. It's probably like third largest city in the US. Land mass wise, I think it's the largest city. So, yeah, you could spend two hours driving here and still be in the greater Houston metro. So yeah, it's a. So yeah. So I've been in this job about a year now and you know, I just can't imagine being anywhere else.
Speaker 2:It's just been an amazing experience for me.
Speaker 1:How is Memorial Herman kind of improving healthcare?
Speaker 2:So in lots of ways we are actually taking on the value equation which you know. You hear a lot about value in healthcare and the expensive healthcare and we are actively taking a look at how do we do things to make healthcare more accessible, less expensive, safer, more efficient, really taking on that value proposition and looking at how do we interact differently with payers. So hopefully that helps your premiums come down as we solve some of these issues and really taking that on and also working on being leaders in quality and just about all aspects.
Speaker 1:And you talked about this before and it's absolutely critical. You have an employee base of 30,000 people. That's really inspiring to think about but it's daunting in a way of how do you hire the right person for the job and then how do you coach, train and mentor them to apply those skills without causing burnout? So kind of walk me through the systems that you have for maybe onboarding someone and then how do you train them for the job.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, so again, this is something that I don't think we paid much attention to prior to COVID. It was you. Just you just work until one day you can't work anymore and you walk out the door and we just kind of chalk that up. Yeah, we just kind of chalk that up. To well, we just need another leader, right, and so, yeah, terrible way to do business, by the way. So so, yeah, really, it really is taking a look at being individualistic.
Speaker 2:So it's probably the easiest for me to talk about a new graduate nurse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, I've been in nursing school for two years, done my clinical rotations and then, after I take a test, I'm licensed and can be independent. And if you take a look at everything that individual needs to know, from how to administer med safely to being able to recognize somebody who's decompensating, to how do we, you know, escalate things, you know whether it be a baby who's having a bad heart rate or a mom who's not having the right outcomes. You know, maybe too much blood loss. There's so much in that space to learn. You really have to be intentional about number one assessing the individual to find out what their strengths and weaknesses are, making sure that you align the training program. So I mean you don't need to spend as much time on the things they're strong in. We need to spend an inordinate amount of time building them up in the things they're not and, at the same time, making sure that you do come around on a routine basis to make sure that you are touching those things that are low volume and high risk.
Speaker 2:You know those are the things that you see twice a year. Well, if you only see it twice a year, you got to stop and think. If you don't practice that skill, you don't want to be seeing that in the moment where you have a, you know, a human in front of you that you need to do something with and you need to do the right thing. But the great thing about it is it's the teamwork. That's the one thing I love about nursing. That I've really enjoyed from the military is there is a sense of camaraderie, there's a sense of teamwork, there's a sense of hey, we're all in this together, we're going to pull together, we're going to do the best thing for the patient. And so that's where you wrap. You know less experience with more experienced nurses and make sure that you have that mix on the unit so that you do have that support structure.
Speaker 2:We're looking at really cool things right now with you know, if you don't have that, how do we use, you know, these telepresence robots and how do we use things like tele? You know how can I reach out, even if it's on my iPhone, how can I reach out and ask somebody a question? All of those things are pretty exciting and we're starting to figure out how to use them. It's like any new technology it just takes forever to figure it out, but we're getting there and we're doing some pretty cool things with it. So, yeah, all of those really kind of align with what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:I think, embracing those new innovative technologies, especially now with AI coming out, and having all these different tools at your disposal. That's all they are. They're just tools at your disposal to become a better steward of your profession. And I remember, like just recently this happened where my wife was diagnosed with type one diabetes. We had no clue what was going on, but it blew me away by how quickly she was able to get a response from her nurse using the Army's portal at the time, genesis, having basically a text message back and forth to a healthcare provider, giving them labs in real time, being able to see her labs as they came in, and her being a nurse going in the rabbit hole of all the things that it could happen. And then finally, two weeks in, she was basically able to get diagnosed with type one diabetes because she had certain types of antibodies that a normal type two diabetic wouldn't have.
Speaker 1:But if you go back 10 years, someone goes in ketoacidosis and then, hey, you have type two diabetes and you get treated with insulin or whatever it is. But with her having such a pinpointed diagnosis in such a short period of time and then being able to manage it all within a period of a month was absolutely incredible, and this was also in a very stressful time where we're getting ready to move our family from one duty station to an X, and that's why life's not going to stop. So if you can find a way to optimize healthcare and they begin going back to one of the themes here of putting the patient first well, technology, innovative ways of doing that, investing in people, hiring the right people, coaching and training those people and ensuring they don't have burnout at the end of the day is putting the patient first. Because you're being a steward of your profession and I love that. I kind of would love to go to where you are right now your passion, your purpose, what drives you every day in your job?
Speaker 2:So what drives me? I just love investing in individuals. It's one of the things that I am very purposeful about. So I get up in the morning, kind of have this conversation with God is kind of line my day and then I look at my calendar and kind of do a dress rehearsal of meeting to meeting to meeting. It seems like do kind of a dress rehearsal.
Speaker 2:But I try to be purposeful about say that there's some tension with a situation or an individual. I try to be purposeful about thinking, okay, here is how I'm going to address this individual or that situation today. Because my intent, you know, the world is a tough place, right, it doesn't have to be that at work, but I think if we're not willing to be vulnerable and have, you know, some conversations and lift each other up and smile and, you know, have a sense of humor and do some of those things, then it is going to be a tough place at work, right. And so that's one of the things I try to do is I really sit down in the morning and just take a look at my day, do the dress rehearsal and kind of pinpoint a couple of times in the day. You know I'm not saying it's 100% successful. Right, some things go off the rocker and that's just part of the you know being a human, but I really try to be intentional about that, because this life is short man.
Speaker 1:It kind of goes down to the quote that I have that I use all the time, every day as a gift don't waste yours and it kind of comes back to that. Some of the most traumatic experiences in my life really bounded that down. Is that today's a gift? And I think you and I start the day with the same way. I start off with a Lord's prayer and then ask him to use me as a vessel to allow me to live my life, intended as I should, with his purpose in mind, and that's how I start every one of my mornings.
Speaker 1:But I love how you talked about being purposeful, finding friction points that you know is naturally going to happen in that day, and then already kind of playing through. How am I going to work through this scenario? How am I going to be, you know, the the true, authentic, vulnerable leader that I am, and then being able to work through those? Because if you don't create a safe environment at work and that's such a great point you're not going to get the optimal amount of work from your team. You're going to get subpart work. So you have to be able to create a safe space. So I love that advice. So last question before we get to the final show what advice would you give to an inspiring healthcare professional who is just starting out in the field?
Speaker 2:You know, I would say two things never stop learning because you can't in healthcare, I mean, it is. It is one of those things that I find exhilarating because it does change all the time. The demands change and as you change levels of leadership, there's also opportunity there. So never stop learning. And you bought that's, that's the investment of your self peace. And then the second thing I would say is just don't take yourself so seriously.
Speaker 2:I mean, I wish I'd have figured that out so much younger. I had a our chief of staff right after I had gotten out of the military. He took me aside and he said hey, I don't know how to tell you this, but I'm just going to tell you you don't, you don't have to be such a jerk. And I was like I'm a, I'm being a jerk, I'm like you know, and it really caught me by surprise and so it really made me think differently about wow. I mean, you know, because I had kind of taken some of those things that I had in the military is very exacting, you know, giving people like the op order and you know that kind of get it.
Speaker 2:You know, very outcome driven and that kind of thing, and uh, and I'll tell you if he hadn't done that and I really so it's funny because I sat down and did an action plan on how I'm not going to be a jerk and then I flipped that, that's it. That's exactly what somebody who's not being a nice guy would do, and so so I've really had to pay. Uh, put a a lot of energy into listening to feedback from those around me, and I really cherish those who are willing to take me aside and say hey, do you ever stop and think about how that was perceived? Um, there's a book. It's called the last lecture.
Speaker 1:Um.
Speaker 2:I believe his last name is a posh who wrote it and it's in it. Then there's a part in it where he talks about you have to have a Dutch uncle in your life, and I didn't even know what that was till I read the book. But it's somebody who does. He's not afraid to hurt your feelings. They're just going to tell you the truth and not worry about that because they love you. I mean it's they're giving you the truth because they want you to be better. And so, yeah, just don't take yourself so serious. Uh, invest in those around you and uh, and you're going to be fine.
Speaker 1:Those are the two biggest themes that I got from this episode is one invest in others and I think with you, brian, is that people invested in you so early in life and then now you're investing in others, um, because you have that passion and purpose. And the number two chasing hard things. Throughout this whole episode, what I've seen is a theme of you continuously pushing yourself and growing, and growing, and growing and growing, and, as it so, you gain more responsibility and more influence, but you continue to be a servant leader at heart, which is absolutely amazing and inspiring to me. That is the definition of leadership to inspire people to do more, become more, um, and you, you are doing that. It's time for our final show segment that I like to call the killer bees. These are the same four questions that I ask every guest on the tales of leadership podcast Be brief, be brilliant, be present and be gone. Question one what do you believe separates a great leader from an extraordinary leader?
Speaker 2:The one who's willing to shield those that, uh, he leads from the heat. I love that.
Speaker 1:Question two what is a one resource that you could recommend to our listeners?
Speaker 2:So, uh, you know, it's just interesting. We did uh like our favorite books Lincoln on leadership and that Brené Brown book, dare to lead, and, uh, the last lecture, and make your bed. Can't leave. Make your bed off, yep.
Speaker 1:The all all great books. It's funny we're I'm breaking my rules right now, but we're getting ready to drive across country and I have a backpack full of books and my wife is like why do you have that many books? So I have to read, I don't have to read, um, all right. So question three if you could go back in time and give yourself a piece of advice, what would it be and why?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's, that's what I've mentioned earlier. It's just, don't take yourself so serious. Um, work hard, do the right thing and, uh, mind your mind, your family.
Speaker 1:So last question how can our listeners find you and how can they add value to you? Um?
Speaker 2:so it's easy to find me.
Speaker 2:It's a LinkedIn is uh kind of the most popular at at this point if somebody's looking to reach out and, um, you know, any one of the things that, um, I feel that we hadn't talked on today is is, as individuals are transitioning out of the military, you know those who are looking for our in healthcare, looking for healthcare as a career, one of the things we're really trying to do is how do we open that door, and our organizations so many other organizations are doing that too, um, but I just think it's uh, if we're talking about adding value, um, there really is um for veterans who are getting out.
Speaker 2:We really need to keep that bond going, and I say that, whether it's me or somebody else who's been in the military touch base, um, you know, because you really lose that uh, you know we talk about suicide and healthcare and behavioral health and all that you lose that bond. So so make an effort to to keep that going and and, whether it's joining a, whether you ride motorcycles or you know the VFW or whatever it is, I think those things are very important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think you're spot on. I believe that people get out of the military and they lose that sense of fulfillment, um, and then that's when the darkness kind of creeps in, so that's absolutely amazing, brian, this has been one of my favorite episodes, and I was telling you before I'm not going to be able to record another episode until September, so I think it's going to hold me over until then, but thank you so much for being intentional with me for the past hour, talking about something that I love, which is leadership, and continue to be an inspiring leader, being a purposeful, accountable leader, and thank you for everything that you do.
Speaker 2:Hey, thank you for what you're doing, josh. It's a. It's pretty amazing. You're able to hold down, uh, you know, be an active duty and do something like this, and it's a that that is adding value. So, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Appreciate it, brother. Have a great night. All right, team, it's time for our after action review. That was a great episode with Brian.
Speaker 1:So what are the top three takeaways that I pulled from this? The first one is be a lifelong learner. That's one of the easiest things that you could do, but also one of the hardest things to do because it takes consistency. It doesn't matter if you go get a bachelor's degree, a master's degree or a doctorate degree, like Brian has. It's just means pushing yourself every single day outside of your comfort zone, learning one thing every single day. That's 365 things in a year. And it becomes powerful because you begin to compound upon each other.
Speaker 1:And I started that journey, really two years ago, of learning all these different self help habits to get me out of a rut that I had. And after reading all these books, I started identifying themes, I started applying to my life and then, boom, before you know it, I was able to turn my life around and actually pursue something that I'm passionate and purposeful for, and it all comes down to being a lifelong learner. That is one of the tenets of being a transformational leader, or a purposeful, accountable leader, of having the ability to understand life is a journey. Leadership is a journey. You're never going to know everything, but while you have air in your lungs, continue to grow yourself. The second key takeaway that I have is you need ideas from your team, and this is something that we talk about all the time. And hey, if you've listened to most of my episodes, some of these AAR tips and some of the things I say are repetitive. That is perfectly okay, because what I've started to notice over time is a lot of the trends from purposeful, accountable leaders that I've had the honor to interview are repeating themes, and that is something that you would want to emulate in your leadership philosophy or style, and one of which is being able to pull ideas from your team. And in order to do that, it starts with the culture of your organization. Do you have a safe environment that allows anyone on your team, regardless of rank, position or title, to come to you and give you ideas If they see a problem, are they being quiet or are they coming to you with potential solutions? And, as a leader, regardless of what profession you find yourself in, you have to create that type of environment. And then the last one is and I've never heard this before, but I love it.
Speaker 1:Low volume, high risk. Find the things that you do not do very frequently throughout the year, that are very high risk, and train on those every single day. And a perfect example of this is in combat arms. We do, you know live fire exercises of where we're actually going through and we're clearing rooms or we're clearing a trench or whatever have you? Whatever the scenario is, that is something that you don't do every day. I've been an infantryman. I've been in the Army now for almost 16 years, probably 16 years. I'm horrible at math, but that's beside the point. I've only been to combat for nine months out of those times and out of that time, maybe eight to 10, maybe more I've actually been able to go combat and do my job. It's very low volume, extremely high risk. So we always have to train for that, to make sure we're proficient and we're competent. So when it is time to execute, we can execute.
Speaker 1:Hey guys, do me a favor. If you like this podcast, if you enjoy the content that I am providing, you guys make sure you subscribe, make sure you share this podcast with someone who is just starting out on their leadership journey or is a leader. Write a review. Go to McMillianleadershipcoachingcom, read some of the blogs that I have written and leave me some comments. Let me know how I'm doing and what content I can provide to you to continue to help you on your leadership journey. And then one of the most important things that you can do is make sure you support this podcast. You can go to my podcast link and click support. Greatly appreciate it. Everything that I make from this podcast gets poured back into it so I can continue to make great content for you guys, so you can go out and be the best leader that you can and be the leader that your team in this world needs. As always, I am your host, josh McGillian, saying every day is a gift. Don't waste yours. I'll see you next time.