May 9, 2025 • 17 mins
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In this episode of Lead Learn Laugh Grow, host Randy Gooch continues his conversation with Dr. Scott Spurgeon, Superintendent of West-MEC. Dr. Spurgeon shares his insights on building organizational capacity through modeling behavior, fostering relationships, and demonstrating effective leadership. He discusses his bold vision for West-MEC, aiming to double its size and become a national leader in career and technical education. Dr. Spurgeon also touches on the importance of pursuing excellence, adapting to change, and his faith's role in guiding his leadership journey. Key takeaways focus on leading with purpose, learning continuously, and growing both personally and professionally.
More about Scott. CTE educational leader with 19+ years of senior district-level administration and 9 years of building leadership across diverse educational settings. Currently serving as Superintendent/CEO of WEST-MEC, a public CTE district in Arizona serving 45,000+ students across 12 districts. Previous leadership roles include superintendencies in Riverview Gardens (urban, 5,750 students), Belleville TWP (metropolitan, 5,000 students), and interim leadership of Rockwood School District (suburban, 22,700 students, Missouri's third-largest). Additional experience as Associate Superintendent, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, and principal at all levels in districts ranging from 2,500 to 15,000 students. Demonstrated expertise spanning urban, suburban, and rural communities with proven results in student achievement and district improvement. Skilled independent educational consultant collaborating with districts to drive continuous improvement initiatives.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nancy (00:00):
Welcome to Lead Learn Laugh Grow, the podcast where
leadership insights meetpractical wisdom.
I'm Nancy, your ProductionAssistant, and today marks the
second of an inspiring two-partseries featuring Dr.
Scott Spurgeon, Superintendentof West-MEC in Arizona.
In this episode, the focus is onhow to build capacity within an
organization.
Key methods discussed includemodeling behavior, fostering
(00:20):
relationships, and demonstratingeffective leadership.
how faith grounds his leadershipjourney.
Most importantly, you'll hearhis bold vision for
West-MEC—doubling in size whilebecoming a national leader in
career and technical educationexcellence.
Whether you're an educator,business leader, or someone
passionate about developing thenext generation of talent, this
conversation offers valuablelessons on leading with purpose,
(00:43):
learning continuously, findingjoy in the journey, and growing
both personally andprofessionally.
I also Have the absolutepleasure of introducing today's
host, someone who has spent hiscareer leading, inspiring, and
developing others.
He's a seasoned educationleader, consultant, speaker, and
executive coach with abackground that spans education,
business, and even the military.
(01:03):
As a former chief operationsofficer of a major school
district, a career and technicaleducation innovator, and now the
creator of Results Matter LeaderDevelopment, he's been at the
forefront of leadership andinfluence for decades.
But that's not all.
He's also a John Maxwellcertified Executive Director, a
national keynote speaker, andthe driving force behind this
very podcast.
(01:24):
His passion helping you leadboldly, learn continuously,
laugh often, and growrelentlessly.
So, without further ado, let'sdive into today's episode with
our host, Randy Gooch.
Randy (01:34):
Well, thanks Nancy, and I'm excited today to continue
our conversation with Dr.
Scott Spurgeon so we're gonnadive into it.
I think back to our previousconversation when we were
preparing for this, and youmentioned one I don't even want
to call it technique tool, butone thing that you do when
developing your team You putthem in places and meetings, and
then you go back and you startasking them about.
(01:57):
What was important when youstarted and what's important
today?
Talk about that concept becauseI like that so much because it
definitely shows growth and itshows with that growth,
different levels of engagementand truly being able then to
sort out what is that importantthing.
So if you'd share a little bitmore with that, that I thought
that was a great concept.
Scott (02:16):
So oftentimes in leadership we have certain
groups and committees and.
Folks that we're always surroundourselves with.
But if you can ever get outsidethat group, you never grow any
further than the capacity of theperson who's leading that group.
And so I often encourage myadministrators to really think
critically about when you startthis position.
And then somewhere between threeand six months down the line, if
I've done my job at buildingyour capacity, you'll go back
(02:37):
into those same systems, thosesame groups, and you'll be
asking yourself these questions.
Is this really what we're goingto talk about today?
Is this really something thatyou think is important?
Because six months ago youthought it was the most critical
thing that you're gonna have tosolve, but now three to four
months down the road you'rethinking this is really turtle
conversation.
It's not eagle conversation.
This is something that we couldhave solved, we could move past.
So it's the ability to buildcapacity.
I never, or I rarely ever goanywhere by myself.
(02:57):
I'm always looking to buildsuccession.
I'm always looking to build.
I want someone, if you'retalking to someone that's on my
leadership team, if you ask themthis question, you ask me the
question, you're gonna get thesame answer.
And that's all about repetition.
Excellence is about repetitionover time.
And having someone with you tohear the conversation, to see
your behaviors, to understandyour mannerisms, to know the
questions that you're asking, tobe able to field those questions
and see how you respond maybe inquestions that may not
necessarily be in yourbailiwick, maybe you're not
(03:18):
quite sure about what thatresponse might be.
My job is to build capacity, andyou do that through modeling,
relationships, and leadership.
Randy (03:24):
Excellent.
Let's you mentioned in there,and many years ago when I first
got outta college in themilitary, working with the
headhunter to exit the military,go into the world of work,
business that sort of thing.
One author was real popular, andthis is gonna date me how old I
am Tom Peters and he wrote abook.
It was called in Pursuit ofExcellence.
And the whole concept was thatperfection is a fool's game
(03:47):
because perfection does notexist.
But the pursuit of excellence,that's where it's at.
Share a little bit about thatbecause everything you do, I can
tell I see it.
I see excellence does drive you.
Tell us a little bit more aboutthe role that excellence plays
in your driving you to do whatyou're doing.
Scott (04:06):
I've often an answered this question about, what really
drives me?
And I guess I'm a lot like agreyhound that, that it's good
for me to never catch therabbit.
And'cause once you catch arabbit, you gotta put the dog
down.
And so I'm always in the pursuitof excellence and nothing really
ever satisfies me.
Let's just be honest.
I'm happy and I celebratesuccesses but that success tend
to lead me to want more success.
And so it's not my success, it'sour collective success that
(04:27):
makes a difference.
Because one of the greatestsatisfactions I get is building
the capacity of others to seethem be more successful than
they ever thought they could be.
And oftentimes people don'tunderstand what's inside of them
until you find someone that canpull it out of'em.
And so that pursuit ofexcellence, to me, second place
has always been the first loser.
And growing up, we didn't getninth place ribbons.
You worked hard for the successthat you got, and you earned
that success and you were eitherrewarded or not rewarded.
(04:48):
The value of going through theprocess oftentimes is more
valuable than the result thatyou get at the end.
Sometimes what happened to you10 or 15 years ago, you may not
necessarily understand howdifficult that was or what that
really meant, but 10 or 15 yearsfrom then, all of a sudden you
go through a situation andthink.
God, you know what?
I'm glad I went through that.
But the pursuit of excellence isrepetitious.
It's repetitions over and over.
It's saying the same thing, thesame mission, the same language.
(05:08):
If you put that in front ofpeople more often than what you
want them to change, they'llactually begin to migrate
towards what you want them toimprove or change.
So my pursuit is one of thefear, one of the two fears I
have in life.
Three of'em actually deathheights and the fear of failure.
Randy (05:21):
I love that when you're talking about putting the vision
out there enough and they'regonna catch it versus constantly
dwelling on the deficit.
Scott (05:29):
A great example I'll use is we were working to improve
reading performance and one ofmy previous districts, and one
of my non-negotiables is nomatter where the kids were when
they left the classroom, everyone of my students had to have a
book in their hands.
I had some teachers that wouldcome up and say, Dr.
S Corson, I don't know why we'redoing this'cause the kids won't
read the books.
I said if they hold'em longenough, they'll get tired of
holding'em.
They'll open it up and startreading.
Sure enough it happened and ourreading results went skyrocketed
because many of our kids wantedto read the nonfiction books,
(05:49):
whereas they had difficultyreading some nonfiction.
once they see the success buildsconfidence.
Confidence builds success.
Love it.
Randy (05:54):
How do you balance preparing students for so many
of the emerging very high techopportunities while still
maintaining those programs forthose traditional trades and
industries?
Scott (06:06):
CTE is the, probably the most AI proof institution in
this country.
It's, it'll be a long time,probably some somewhat years
down the road before you find AItechnology that's gonna be able
to come and fix your HVAC systemthat's out or wire a house and
things like that.
we can't be everything toeverybody.
We can be everything tosomebody.
And so we have to recognizewhere our strengths are.
And you have to understand thecapacity of your organization.
if you don't understand thecapacity of your organization,
(06:27):
sometimes our expectations areso far outta whack that we set
ourselves up for failure rightfrom the very beginning.
And so when you recognize thesuccessful processes and systems
that you have in place, andthat's shown by data.
Then you understand what systemsor parts and pieces that you can
improve.
It allows you to recognize thevalue of the organization, each
individual member, and thesystems you have in place that
produce the intended resultsthat you get.
you don't fix what's not broken,but you can improve what's
(06:50):
already good
Randy (06:51):
You were talking previously about your
three-tiered partnership modelwith business and industry.
Take a moment or so just todescribe what that is.
I know you've put a lot of workinto it, but I think there's a
lot of people out there thatmight listen to this, that to
some extent struggle withimplementing something like
that.
Maybe not the concept so much,but it, so talk as much about
(07:11):
the implementation.
As the concept.
Scott (07:15):
I'll start off by saying that right now Westpac's about
three fourths of the way donethrough producing business and
industry playbook becauseoftentimes business industry and
those folks that work to developrelationships and collaboration
with westec have no idea whereto start.
And so we're developing thatbusiness initial playbook to
show you step by step the thingsthat are most important and how
you actually establish thoserelationships.
From that standpoint, we lookedat our partnership model simply
because we had business andindustries that were coming in
(07:37):
at the very end of the secondsemester.
Participating in mock interviewsand cherry picking our students
off without actually producingor providing any assistance and
giving our system any support tohelp produce those students till
they were beginning theinterview.
So two years ago, we developedthe leadership model concept,
which was level one is aboutimpressions.
Every single person at everyorganization should have an
elevator speech.
When someone asks you, Hey, whatis West Mac?
(07:59):
Everybody should be able to tellyou that the value westec bring,
Westec brings the great thingsthat are happening and really at
a high level, what Westec doesand how we produce the pipeline
for students in specificindustries.
The second piece is aboutengagement.
So what are the next steps to beable to get someone involved?
Are they participating in careerliteracy?
Are they bringing their conceptof business industry to the
classroom?
Are they an HVAC techniciancoming in to teach an entire
week on the wiring of thesystems?
(08:21):
So are you participating in mockinterviews?
Are you helping students preparetheir resumes their
conversations, those kinds ofthings.
That's about engagement, but thetrue strategic leadership piece.
Is we're gonna sit down in aroom, two people that can just
get together and say yes, andwe're gonna work on ways in
which you're gonna provide 50%of your support.
We're gonna give you 50% ofours, and we're gonna develop a
model of effectiveness.
we're gonna show an ROI returnon investment is the partnership
that we're doing at the end ofthis year producing the intended
(08:42):
results?
If not, what needs to bemodified change or do we walk
away from the partnershipbecause it's not a good match?
And we've done both.
We've walked away frompartnerships because it just
doesn't work.
But we've also increased thepartnership because it's gone so
well.
So it's about that two truestrategic partnership in the
fact that business and industryare coming to the table,
education is coming to the tableand we're saying what
collectively and collaborativelycan we do together to make this
partnership work?
In Times past, and Randall, thisbeing an education for a number
(09:03):
of years, 10 years ago we cameto the table and business and
industry and other educationalpartners were telling us what we
were gonna do.
Right now, as I call it, theperfect storm, we are in the
greatest opportunity of ourlifetime in career and technical
education that if we don't makea difference and make some
different decisions now and moveCTE forward, we will have lost
our opportunity, I think of alifetime.
Randy (09:21):
I a hundred percent agree with you, and I've seen some
progress in that, but it stilltroubles me we're still missing
some of that opportunity.
When it is ripe, it is trulyripe.
Ripe.
Very true.
Love that you mentioned.
When we talked earlier about aauthor by the name of Steve
Barber, greater Than Yourself,And talk a little bit about his
(09:41):
influence on your leadership andsome of the principles that he
talks about that have beenmeaningful for you.
Scott (09:47):
I, you've probably sat through many interviews and
you'll have candidates that willtell you they're a servant
leader.
And again, I go back to mysaying that I is older, I get
the less, I pay attention towhat people say and more
attention to what they do.
And so I try to model that inreality.
And I really pick out a coupleof folks on my leadership team
and I try to spend as much timeas I can taking them to, whether
it's.
Community events or conferencesor whatever.
And I try to give everythingthat I have of myself to that
person in leadership, buildingtheir capacity so that one day
(10:09):
when I walk away, they'll begreater than I ever probably
could be, because they'll havethe ability to have the
information that I've been ableto give them and what I've
learned along my journeys andthe educational piece to be able
to take that to the next level.
so I always try to keep someone,or two folks under my wing to be
able to give them everything ofmyself and my leadership
learnings along the way so thatone day they'll be creative than
me.
Randy (10:26):
Hey so how do you deal with hiring and bringing people
into your team?
Obviously positionally, they arebelow you.
That might be extremelytalented, extremely smart,
actually maybe smarter than you.
That happens to me quite a bit.
I run into a lot of peoplesmarter than me.
Do you find that a threat as aleader, or how do you manage
that?
Scott (10:47):
I've typically taken on the philosophy, a couple things.
Number one is.
Leaders really need to do thebest job that they can at
developing a succession plan todevelop the leaders with inside
the system.
Because oftentimes, excellencecan be replicated across new
opportunities if you build theright system and have that in
place.
But secondarily, sometimes byonly hiring those that look like
the organization never gives youthe opportunity to change what
(11:07):
the organization looks like.
So there are times in certainpositions where I don't
understand that we need somedifferent thinking or different
viewpoints is I tend to hirefolks that we want our
organization to look more like.
And so the threat of someonebeing smarter or better prepared
it doesn't bother me in any waywhatsoever because I'm learning.
So in baseball, there were acouple of areas of my hitting,
and that was always my bestaspect was my hitting.
There were a couple areas that,that my stride was a little too
(11:28):
long and I couldn't see theoutside fastball in the outside
corner.
So I found the two bestprofessional baseball players
that I worked with when I waswith the Astros.
I videotaped them and I wenthome at night and for about two
weeks I watched that videotapeover and over again to learn to
understand what are you doingdifferently than what I'm doing
right now to see your success,that I can't see the success.
And it completely changed myroute with my front foot, and
what I saw in the outsidecorner.
So again, I'm looking for thegreat success stories.
(11:50):
I'm looking to learn from thosethat can teach me.
A new perspective or to take mythinking outside of where it
currently is.
They're building capacity of me.
Am I scared of that?
Hey, listen, when I walk away,you my job.
Take it.
Good luck.
Randy (12:00):
When you leave Westec, what do you hope that the
lasting impact will be and wheredo you want to see it be after
you leave?
Scott (12:11):
I've always prided myself and my wife as the same way as
that.
We've always gone intoorganizations and when we left
them, they were always betterthan where we found them.
And so one of my visions forWestec as I depart, is I really
wanna double westec size, So I'dreally like to see Westec double
in size.
When I took over, it was about26 to 2,800 students.
On our central campus, andagain, we serve about 47,000 CTE
students in 130 high schoolshere in the West Valley of
(12:32):
Phoenix.
But I'd like to see Westecdouble in size.
I would also like to see us withmultiple innovative programs in
the areas of healthcare,transportation technology
manufacturing.
I would like to see westexstepping out on a limb to be the
leader.
In career in technicaleducation, not only in the state
of Arizona, but across thiscountry and recognized
internationally for the workthat we do in career and
(12:52):
technical education andproducing high quality industry
professionals coming out, doinggreat work for our business and
industry.
Where I would like to see it goafter I lead is I'm hoping that
the person that comes in afterme several years from now can
take the baton of the excellenceand the greatness that we
produced and begin looking atthings differently because at
that time, there's gonna be,different business in the
industry.
And the world will be adifferent place in five, six
years, maybe.
Maybe one year, maybe two years,and it could be quite different.
(13:14):
And so I'm hoping that I'm ableto build the capacity in the
organization that could benimble enough.
Just like Westec, we're verynimble.
That's what makes us sosuccessful.
We're so nimble.
We could spin on a dime.
K 12.
Comprehensive systems havedifficult time'cause there's so
much red tape and bureaucracythey have to work through.
But to give Westec theopportunity to continue to grow
and expand and to be a value addto the communities that we
serve.
That's one legacy I wanna leavethree legacies, double be more
(13:37):
innovative and be a value addand seen by the community as a
value valued community partnerin producing great CTE
professionals for the workforce.
Randy (13:45):
Does faith play a role in your leadership?
Scott (13:48):
Absolutely.
God has blessed me in so manyways from birth until to where I
sit today and going through thehills and valleys of life.
The experience and the journey,as I said before, is oftentimes
more beneficial than the resultor the reward that you get at
the end.
And god has blessed me in manyways and being able to play
professional baseball.
He has blessed me in my jobs, myfamily, my colleagues that I
work with, the situations thatI'm in, the growth of that I've
(14:09):
been able to accomplishthroughout my career.
And without him, I would beabsolutely nothing.
The blessings all come from him.
And when I show up just for thismeeting, I pray before this
meeting that he gives me thewords and the inclination and
the remembrance of the thingsthat I've gone through in the
past to be able to say whatneeds to be said.
I'm very committed to my God inheaven.
And I believe he leads, guides,and directs every step of my
path.
Randy (14:26):
I too am a person of faith and I don't find there any
way to separate that and justthat that attitude and that
lifestyle of gratitude.
So grateful for theopportunities that God has
provided.
And when I do have a person onthe podcast that it's obvious
that faith plays a part oftheir.
Their leadership, theirlifestyle.
I like to talk about that aswell.
Scott (14:46):
Without him I would be nothing, may not even be here.
Randy (14:49):
Understand and concur with that and have some similar
experiences.
When you first started atWestec.
what would you tell yourself?
Scott (15:00):
Because I'm a visionary person, I would probably tell
myself is don't allow turtlethinking to interrupt the
flights of the Eagles as theysoar.
Because far too often, and I dothis in my leadership talks is
know as quickly as you canwhat's most important and do
that thing because noteverything is.
And so turtle thinking is not adisrespectful term.
It's just simply saying thatsome people have different
(15:21):
capacities because what may bedifficult for me may not be
difficult for you.
So you have to understand thatwhen you have a vision,
oftentimes those of lowercapacity will throw obstacles
and detours in your way, justsimply because they have no
other no, no other means to getyour attention.
And doesn't necessarily meanthat's a negative thing, but
oftentimes the low capacitythinking tends to get a lot of
the attention and it can't getyour attention when you're
looking at producing a bigvision and getting people to
(15:43):
understand how to move andgroove within, inside that
vision, inside that system.
And so you have to understandthe turtle vision because
there's a place for that, butyou can't allow it to detour you
or throw up obstacles in yourway to be able to achieve the
vision that you've set for youand or the organization.
Randy (15:57):
Excellent.
I think God came through in yourprayers.
you've described, you've talkedvery coherently on so many ways
and really I love that turtle,that eagle.
Scott thank you.
It's inspiring for me to sithere and listen to this because
it's good to be in the presenceof Eagles.
Yes.
And there, there's an energythat comes from that.
(16:17):
So I appreciate that.
I appreciate the work thatyou're doing there.
I think, you have so much to sayand there's so many people out
there that can benefit from whatyou're saying.
Scott (16:27):
I was blessed.
We had a group in not too longago, and I'll just leave the
groups nameless or whatever.
the gentleman came up and heasked me, he said, just
confidentially, he goes, what doyou get out of this?
He said, you didn't charge usanything.
You've been with us all day forboth days.
My job is to take its CTE to thenational narrative and the more
folks I'm able to be, to bringinto the great things that are
happening here, theconversations you'll take back
to your own organizations willcontinue to spread CTE and the
(16:48):
importance of CTE.
Across this nation.
So if you ask me what I get outof it, it's more about what you
get out of it and my ability tobe able to take and replicate
these, this great success andexcellence across the country.
And the second person in thatgroup who was a former community
college president after the, wewere at the third school and he
came up and he said, I justwanna tell you, I've really
watched your mannerisms and howyour faculty and staff and your
organization approaches you andhow you talk to'em.
He goes, you are the real deal.
(17:09):
He goes, I see you.
And they see you.
And I said, what is what youget.
People ask me all the time,Scott, how are you?
And I said, I'm the same all thetime.
'cause nobody has the ability toaffect how my day goes.
Randy (17:17):
I appreciate your time.
I know you're extremely busy.
Just know that you're doinggreat things and everybody I
talk to about CTEI, I point themto you.
Nancy (17:25):
Thanks for joining us on Lead Learn, laugh Grow.
If you enjoyed today's episode,be sure to follow wherever you
get your podcasts and share itwith a friend who's passionate
about growth.
Connect with me on LinkedIn orvisit RM leadership.com to
continue your leadershipjourney.
Until next time, keep growing.
Welcome to Lead Learn Laugh Grow, the podcast where
leadership insights meetpractical wisdom.
I'm Nancy, your ProductionAssistant, and today marks the
second of an inspiring two-partseries featuring Dr.
Scott Spurgeon, Superintendentof West-MEC in Arizona.
In this episode, the focus is onhow to build capacity within an
organization.
Key methods discussed includemodeling behavior, fostering
(00:20):
relationships, and demonstratingeffective leadership.
how faith grounds his leadershipjourney.
Most importantly, you'll hearhis bold vision for
West-MEC—doubling in size whilebecoming a national leader in
career and technical educationexcellence.
Whether you're an educator,business leader, or someone
passionate about developing thenext generation of talent, this
conversation offers valuablelessons on leading with purpose,
(00:43):
learning continuously, findingjoy in the journey, and growing
both personally andprofessionally.
I also Have the absolutepleasure of introducing today's
host, someone who has spent hiscareer leading, inspiring, and
developing others.
He's a seasoned educationleader, consultant, speaker, and
executive coach with abackground that spans education,
business, and even the military.
(01:03):
As a former chief operationsofficer of a major school
district, a career and technicaleducation innovator, and now the
creator of Results Matter LeaderDevelopment, he's been at the
forefront of leadership andinfluence for decades.
But that's not all.
He's also a John Maxwellcertified Executive Director, a
national keynote speaker, andthe driving force behind this
very podcast.
(01:24):
His passion helping you leadboldly, learn continuously,
laugh often, and growrelentlessly.
So, without further ado, let'sdive into today's episode with
our host, Randy Gooch.
Randy (01:34):
Well, thanks Nancy, and I'm excited today to continue
our conversation with Dr.
Scott Spurgeon so we're gonnadive into it.
I think back to our previousconversation when we were
preparing for this, and youmentioned one I don't even want
to call it technique tool, butone thing that you do when
developing your team You putthem in places and meetings, and
then you go back and you startasking them about.
(01:57):
What was important when youstarted and what's important
today?
Talk about that concept becauseI like that so much because it
definitely shows growth and itshows with that growth,
different levels of engagementand truly being able then to
sort out what is that importantthing.
So if you'd share a little bitmore with that, that I thought
that was a great concept.
Scott (02:16):
So oftentimes in leadership we have certain
groups and committees and.
Folks that we're always surroundourselves with.
But if you can ever get outsidethat group, you never grow any
further than the capacity of theperson who's leading that group.
And so I often encourage myadministrators to really think
critically about when you startthis position.
And then somewhere between threeand six months down the line, if
I've done my job at buildingyour capacity, you'll go back
(02:37):
into those same systems, thosesame groups, and you'll be
asking yourself these questions.
Is this really what we're goingto talk about today?
Is this really something thatyou think is important?
Because six months ago youthought it was the most critical
thing that you're gonna have tosolve, but now three to four
months down the road you'rethinking this is really turtle
conversation.
It's not eagle conversation.
This is something that we couldhave solved, we could move past.
So it's the ability to buildcapacity.
I never, or I rarely ever goanywhere by myself.
(02:57):
I'm always looking to buildsuccession.
I'm always looking to build.
I want someone, if you'retalking to someone that's on my
leadership team, if you ask themthis question, you ask me the
question, you're gonna get thesame answer.
And that's all about repetition.
Excellence is about repetitionover time.
And having someone with you tohear the conversation, to see
your behaviors, to understandyour mannerisms, to know the
questions that you're asking, tobe able to field those questions
and see how you respond maybe inquestions that may not
necessarily be in yourbailiwick, maybe you're not
(03:18):
quite sure about what thatresponse might be.
My job is to build capacity, andyou do that through modeling,
relationships, and leadership.
Randy (03:24):
Excellent.
Let's you mentioned in there,and many years ago when I first
got outta college in themilitary, working with the
headhunter to exit the military,go into the world of work,
business that sort of thing.
One author was real popular, andthis is gonna date me how old I
am Tom Peters and he wrote abook.
It was called in Pursuit ofExcellence.
And the whole concept was thatperfection is a fool's game
(03:47):
because perfection does notexist.
But the pursuit of excellence,that's where it's at.
Share a little bit about thatbecause everything you do, I can
tell I see it.
I see excellence does drive you.
Tell us a little bit more aboutthe role that excellence plays
in your driving you to do whatyou're doing.
Scott (04:06):
I've often an answered this question about, what really
drives me?
And I guess I'm a lot like agreyhound that, that it's good
for me to never catch therabbit.
And'cause once you catch arabbit, you gotta put the dog
down.
And so I'm always in the pursuitof excellence and nothing really
ever satisfies me.
Let's just be honest.
I'm happy and I celebratesuccesses but that success tend
to lead me to want more success.
And so it's not my success, it'sour collective success that
(04:27):
makes a difference.
Because one of the greatestsatisfactions I get is building
the capacity of others to seethem be more successful than
they ever thought they could be.
And oftentimes people don'tunderstand what's inside of them
until you find someone that canpull it out of'em.
And so that pursuit ofexcellence, to me, second place
has always been the first loser.
And growing up, we didn't getninth place ribbons.
You worked hard for the successthat you got, and you earned
that success and you were eitherrewarded or not rewarded.
(04:48):
The value of going through theprocess oftentimes is more
valuable than the result thatyou get at the end.
Sometimes what happened to you10 or 15 years ago, you may not
necessarily understand howdifficult that was or what that
really meant, but 10 or 15 yearsfrom then, all of a sudden you
go through a situation andthink.
God, you know what?
I'm glad I went through that.
But the pursuit of excellence isrepetitious.
It's repetitions over and over.
It's saying the same thing, thesame mission, the same language.
(05:08):
If you put that in front ofpeople more often than what you
want them to change, they'llactually begin to migrate
towards what you want them toimprove or change.
So my pursuit is one of thefear, one of the two fears I
have in life.
Three of'em actually deathheights and the fear of failure.
Randy (05:21):
I love that when you're talking about putting the vision
out there enough and they'regonna catch it versus constantly
dwelling on the deficit.
Scott (05:29):
A great example I'll use is we were working to improve
reading performance and one ofmy previous districts, and one
of my non-negotiables is nomatter where the kids were when
they left the classroom, everyone of my students had to have a
book in their hands.
I had some teachers that wouldcome up and say, Dr.
S Corson, I don't know why we'redoing this'cause the kids won't
read the books.
I said if they hold'em longenough, they'll get tired of
holding'em.
They'll open it up and startreading.
Sure enough it happened and ourreading results went skyrocketed
because many of our kids wantedto read the nonfiction books,
(05:49):
whereas they had difficultyreading some nonfiction.
once they see the success buildsconfidence.
Confidence builds success.
Love it.
Randy (05:54):
How do you balance preparing students for so many
of the emerging very high techopportunities while still
maintaining those programs forthose traditional trades and
industries?
Scott (06:06):
CTE is the, probably the most AI proof institution in
this country.
It's, it'll be a long time,probably some somewhat years
down the road before you find AItechnology that's gonna be able
to come and fix your HVAC systemthat's out or wire a house and
things like that.
we can't be everything toeverybody.
We can be everything tosomebody.
And so we have to recognizewhere our strengths are.
And you have to understand thecapacity of your organization.
if you don't understand thecapacity of your organization,
(06:27):
sometimes our expectations areso far outta whack that we set
ourselves up for failure rightfrom the very beginning.
And so when you recognize thesuccessful processes and systems
that you have in place, andthat's shown by data.
Then you understand what systemsor parts and pieces that you can
improve.
It allows you to recognize thevalue of the organization, each
individual member, and thesystems you have in place that
produce the intended resultsthat you get.
you don't fix what's not broken,but you can improve what's
(06:50):
already good
Randy (06:51):
You were talking previously about your
three-tiered partnership modelwith business and industry.
Take a moment or so just todescribe what that is.
I know you've put a lot of workinto it, but I think there's a
lot of people out there thatmight listen to this, that to
some extent struggle withimplementing something like
that.
Maybe not the concept so much,but it, so talk as much about
(07:11):
the implementation.
As the concept.
Scott (07:15):
I'll start off by saying that right now Westpac's about
three fourths of the way donethrough producing business and
industry playbook becauseoftentimes business industry and
those folks that work to developrelationships and collaboration
with westec have no idea whereto start.
And so we're developing thatbusiness initial playbook to
show you step by step the thingsthat are most important and how
you actually establish thoserelationships.
From that standpoint, we lookedat our partnership model simply
because we had business andindustries that were coming in
(07:37):
at the very end of the secondsemester.
Participating in mock interviewsand cherry picking our students
off without actually producingor providing any assistance and
giving our system any support tohelp produce those students till
they were beginning theinterview.
So two years ago, we developedthe leadership model concept,
which was level one is aboutimpressions.
Every single person at everyorganization should have an
elevator speech.
When someone asks you, Hey, whatis West Mac?
(07:59):
Everybody should be able to tellyou that the value westec bring,
Westec brings the great thingsthat are happening and really at
a high level, what Westec doesand how we produce the pipeline
for students in specificindustries.
The second piece is aboutengagement.
So what are the next steps to beable to get someone involved?
Are they participating in careerliteracy?
Are they bringing their conceptof business industry to the
classroom?
Are they an HVAC techniciancoming in to teach an entire
week on the wiring of thesystems?
(08:21):
So are you participating in mockinterviews?
Are you helping students preparetheir resumes their
conversations, those kinds ofthings.
That's about engagement, but thetrue strategic leadership piece.
Is we're gonna sit down in aroom, two people that can just
get together and say yes, andwe're gonna work on ways in
which you're gonna provide 50%of your support.
We're gonna give you 50% ofours, and we're gonna develop a
model of effectiveness.
we're gonna show an ROI returnon investment is the partnership
that we're doing at the end ofthis year producing the intended
(08:42):
results?
If not, what needs to bemodified change or do we walk
away from the partnershipbecause it's not a good match?
And we've done both.
We've walked away frompartnerships because it just
doesn't work.
But we've also increased thepartnership because it's gone so
well.
So it's about that two truestrategic partnership in the
fact that business and industryare coming to the table,
education is coming to the tableand we're saying what
collectively and collaborativelycan we do together to make this
partnership work?
In Times past, and Randall, thisbeing an education for a number
(09:03):
of years, 10 years ago we cameto the table and business and
industry and other educationalpartners were telling us what we
were gonna do.
Right now, as I call it, theperfect storm, we are in the
greatest opportunity of ourlifetime in career and technical
education that if we don't makea difference and make some
different decisions now and moveCTE forward, we will have lost
our opportunity, I think of alifetime.
Randy (09:21):
I a hundred percent agree with you, and I've seen some
progress in that, but it stilltroubles me we're still missing
some of that opportunity.
When it is ripe, it is trulyripe.
Ripe.
Very true.
Love that you mentioned.
When we talked earlier about aauthor by the name of Steve
Barber, greater Than Yourself,And talk a little bit about his
(09:41):
influence on your leadership andsome of the principles that he
talks about that have beenmeaningful for you.
Scott (09:47):
I, you've probably sat through many interviews and
you'll have candidates that willtell you they're a servant
leader.
And again, I go back to mysaying that I is older, I get
the less, I pay attention towhat people say and more
attention to what they do.
And so I try to model that inreality.
And I really pick out a coupleof folks on my leadership team
and I try to spend as much timeas I can taking them to, whether
it's.
Community events or conferencesor whatever.
And I try to give everythingthat I have of myself to that
person in leadership, buildingtheir capacity so that one day
(10:09):
when I walk away, they'll begreater than I ever probably
could be, because they'll havethe ability to have the
information that I've been ableto give them and what I've
learned along my journeys andthe educational piece to be able
to take that to the next level.
so I always try to keep someone,or two folks under my wing to be
able to give them everything ofmyself and my leadership
learnings along the way so thatone day they'll be creative than
me.
Randy (10:26):
Hey so how do you deal with hiring and bringing people
into your team?
Obviously positionally, they arebelow you.
That might be extremelytalented, extremely smart,
actually maybe smarter than you.
That happens to me quite a bit.
I run into a lot of peoplesmarter than me.
Do you find that a threat as aleader, or how do you manage
that?
Scott (10:47):
I've typically taken on the philosophy, a couple things.
Number one is.
Leaders really need to do thebest job that they can at
developing a succession plan todevelop the leaders with inside
the system.
Because oftentimes, excellencecan be replicated across new
opportunities if you build theright system and have that in
place.
But secondarily, sometimes byonly hiring those that look like
the organization never gives youthe opportunity to change what
(11:07):
the organization looks like.
So there are times in certainpositions where I don't
understand that we need somedifferent thinking or different
viewpoints is I tend to hirefolks that we want our
organization to look more like.
And so the threat of someonebeing smarter or better prepared
it doesn't bother me in any waywhatsoever because I'm learning.
So in baseball, there were acouple of areas of my hitting,
and that was always my bestaspect was my hitting.
There were a couple areas that,that my stride was a little too
(11:28):
long and I couldn't see theoutside fastball in the outside
corner.
So I found the two bestprofessional baseball players
that I worked with when I waswith the Astros.
I videotaped them and I wenthome at night and for about two
weeks I watched that videotapeover and over again to learn to
understand what are you doingdifferently than what I'm doing
right now to see your success,that I can't see the success.
And it completely changed myroute with my front foot, and
what I saw in the outsidecorner.
So again, I'm looking for thegreat success stories.
(11:50):
I'm looking to learn from thosethat can teach me.
A new perspective or to take mythinking outside of where it
currently is.
They're building capacity of me.
Am I scared of that?
Hey, listen, when I walk away,you my job.
Take it.
Good luck.
Randy (12:00):
When you leave Westec, what do you hope that the
lasting impact will be and wheredo you want to see it be after
you leave?
Scott (12:11):
I've always prided myself and my wife as the same way as
that.
We've always gone intoorganizations and when we left
them, they were always betterthan where we found them.
And so one of my visions forWestec as I depart, is I really
wanna double westec size, So I'dreally like to see Westec double
in size.
When I took over, it was about26 to 2,800 students.
On our central campus, andagain, we serve about 47,000 CTE
students in 130 high schoolshere in the West Valley of
(12:32):
Phoenix.
But I'd like to see Westecdouble in size.
I would also like to see us withmultiple innovative programs in
the areas of healthcare,transportation technology
manufacturing.
I would like to see westexstepping out on a limb to be the
leader.
In career in technicaleducation, not only in the state
of Arizona, but across thiscountry and recognized
internationally for the workthat we do in career and
(12:52):
technical education andproducing high quality industry
professionals coming out, doinggreat work for our business and
industry.
Where I would like to see it goafter I lead is I'm hoping that
the person that comes in afterme several years from now can
take the baton of the excellenceand the greatness that we
produced and begin looking atthings differently because at
that time, there's gonna be,different business in the
industry.
And the world will be adifferent place in five, six
years, maybe.
Maybe one year, maybe two years,and it could be quite different.
(13:14):
And so I'm hoping that I'm ableto build the capacity in the
organization that could benimble enough.
Just like Westec, we're verynimble.
That's what makes us sosuccessful.
We're so nimble.
We could spin on a dime.
K 12.
Comprehensive systems havedifficult time'cause there's so
much red tape and bureaucracythey have to work through.
But to give Westec theopportunity to continue to grow
and expand and to be a value addto the communities that we
serve.
That's one legacy I wanna leavethree legacies, double be more
(13:37):
innovative and be a value addand seen by the community as a
value valued community partnerin producing great CTE
professionals for the workforce.
Randy (13:45):
Does faith play a role in your leadership?
Scott (13:48):
Absolutely.
God has blessed me in so manyways from birth until to where I
sit today and going through thehills and valleys of life.
The experience and the journey,as I said before, is oftentimes
more beneficial than the resultor the reward that you get at
the end.
And god has blessed me in manyways and being able to play
professional baseball.
He has blessed me in my jobs, myfamily, my colleagues that I
work with, the situations thatI'm in, the growth of that I've
(14:09):
been able to accomplishthroughout my career.
And without him, I would beabsolutely nothing.
The blessings all come from him.
And when I show up just for thismeeting, I pray before this
meeting that he gives me thewords and the inclination and
the remembrance of the thingsthat I've gone through in the
past to be able to say whatneeds to be said.
I'm very committed to my God inheaven.
And I believe he leads, guides,and directs every step of my
path.
Randy (14:26):
I too am a person of faith and I don't find there any
way to separate that and justthat that attitude and that
lifestyle of gratitude.
So grateful for theopportunities that God has
provided.
And when I do have a person onthe podcast that it's obvious
that faith plays a part oftheir.
Their leadership, theirlifestyle.
I like to talk about that aswell.
Scott (14:46):
Without him I would be nothing, may not even be here.
Randy (14:49):
Understand and concur with that and have some similar
experiences.
When you first started atWestec.
what would you tell yourself?
Scott (15:00):
Because I'm a visionary person, I would probably tell
myself is don't allow turtlethinking to interrupt the
flights of the Eagles as theysoar.
Because far too often, and I dothis in my leadership talks is
know as quickly as you canwhat's most important and do
that thing because noteverything is.
And so turtle thinking is not adisrespectful term.
It's just simply saying thatsome people have different
(15:21):
capacities because what may bedifficult for me may not be
difficult for you.
So you have to understand thatwhen you have a vision,
oftentimes those of lowercapacity will throw obstacles
and detours in your way, justsimply because they have no
other no, no other means to getyour attention.
And doesn't necessarily meanthat's a negative thing, but
oftentimes the low capacitythinking tends to get a lot of
the attention and it can't getyour attention when you're
looking at producing a bigvision and getting people to
(15:43):
understand how to move andgroove within, inside that
vision, inside that system.
And so you have to understandthe turtle vision because
there's a place for that, butyou can't allow it to detour you
or throw up obstacles in yourway to be able to achieve the
vision that you've set for youand or the organization.
Randy (15:57):
Excellent.
I think God came through in yourprayers.
you've described, you've talkedvery coherently on so many ways
and really I love that turtle,that eagle.
Scott thank you.
It's inspiring for me to sithere and listen to this because
it's good to be in the presenceof Eagles.
Yes.
And there, there's an energythat comes from that.
(16:17):
So I appreciate that.
I appreciate the work thatyou're doing there.
I think, you have so much to sayand there's so many people out
there that can benefit from whatyou're saying.
Scott (16:27):
I was blessed.
We had a group in not too longago, and I'll just leave the
groups nameless or whatever.
the gentleman came up and heasked me, he said, just
confidentially, he goes, what doyou get out of this?
He said, you didn't charge usanything.
You've been with us all day forboth days.
My job is to take its CTE to thenational narrative and the more
folks I'm able to be, to bringinto the great things that are
happening here, theconversations you'll take back
to your own organizations willcontinue to spread CTE and the
(16:48):
importance of CTE.
Across this nation.
So if you ask me what I get outof it, it's more about what you
get out of it and my ability tobe able to take and replicate
these, this great success andexcellence across the country.
And the second person in thatgroup who was a former community
college president after the, wewere at the third school and he
came up and he said, I justwanna tell you, I've really
watched your mannerisms and howyour faculty and staff and your
organization approaches you andhow you talk to'em.
He goes, you are the real deal.
(17:09):
He goes, I see you.
And they see you.
And I said, what is what youget.
People ask me all the time,Scott, how are you?
And I said, I'm the same all thetime.
'cause nobody has the ability toaffect how my day goes.
Randy (17:17):
I appreciate your time.
I know you're extremely busy.
Just know that you're doinggreat things and everybody I
talk to about CTEI, I point themto you.
Nancy (17:25):
Thanks for joining us on Lead Learn, laugh Grow.
If you enjoyed today's episode,be sure to follow wherever you
get your podcasts and share itwith a friend who's passionate
about growth.
Connect with me on LinkedIn orvisit RM leadership.com to
continue your leadershipjourney.
Until next time, keep growing.
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