November 7, 2023 • 31 mins
What does it take to transition from a two-decade military career to a leadership role in higher education? Our highly respected guest, Dr. Brian M. Clark, offers a candid look into this journey, illuminating the resilience and determination it took to navigate this transition. Dr. Brian Clark reveals how his military-honed leadership skills and experiences have not only been instrumental in his current role as the Director of Education at the College of Biomedical Equipment Technology (CBET) but also in bringing out the best from his team.
This episode also delves into the essentials of the RBLP Resilience Building Leadership Program, a groundbreaking certification program making ripples in the healthcare industry. Dr. Clark guides us through the program's seven-week course, the three levels of certification, and the career-defining credentials one can obtain. We also discuss the program's rising popularity and its ongoing impact on the healthcare sector. Finally, we touch on the often-overlooked aspect of leadership - compassion and understanding in our interactions with others. Join us for an episode brimming with personal experiences, professional advice, and an exploration of a transformative leadership program. Prepare to be inspired!
This podcast is sponsored by The College of Biomedical Equipment Technology. You can find out more information about this outstanding institution at CBET.EDU.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (00:01):
Welcome to another enlightening episode of
HTM on the Line podcast, thepodcast that is for HTM by HTM.
I'm your host, bryant HawkinsSr.
What does it take to transitionfrom a two-decade military
career to a leadership role inhigher education?
(00:21):
Our highly respected guest, drBrian M Clark, offers a candid
look into this journey,illuminating the resilience and
determination it took tonavigate this transition.
Dr Clark reveals how hismilitary-homed leadership skills
and experiences have not onlybeen instrumental in his current
(00:43):
role as the director ofeducation at the College of
Biomedical Equipment Technology,but also in bringing out the
best from his team.
This episode also delves intothe essentials of the RBLP
Resilience Building LeadershipProgram, a groundbreaking
certification program makingripples in the healthcare
(01:05):
industry.
Dr Clark guides us through theprogram's seven-week course, the
three levels of certificationand the career-defining
credentials one can obtain.
We also discuss the program'srising popularity and its
ongoing impact on the healthcaresector.
Finally, we touch on the oftenoverlooked aspect of leadership,
(01:29):
compassion and understanding inour interactions with others.
Join us for an episode brimmingwith personal experiences,
professional advice and anexploration of a transformative
leadership program prepared tobe inspired.
Brian, welcome to HTM on theline.
(01:58):
I'm so glad to have you on myshow, I guess how you doing
tonight sir.
Dr. Brian Clark (02:02):
I'm doing great , Brian.
Appreciate you having me.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (02:05):
Before we get started, can you please tell
our listeners a bit aboutyourself and your background?
Dr. Brian Clark (02:12):
Sure, I'm the director of education at the
College of Biomedical EquipmentTechnology, also known as CBET.
I actually just retired from 20years active duty service as a
chief medical sergeant in theAir Force.
My specialty was actually inmunitions, so building, testing,
maintaining bombs and missiles.
(02:32):
Now I'm in higher educationright.
I've been teaching and buildingcurriculum for college
accredited courses since 2010.
I've been with CBET for aboutfour and a half years now as an
adjunct professor and curriculumdeveloper and now, of course,
the director of education, andsince 2010, I've kind of knew
(02:54):
that education development wasmy passion, so ended up being
something that I started to doalmost as a hobby, kind of like
a side hustle, if you will, formy own self-fulfillment, and
then now it's kind of turnedinto my next career.
So I look forward to seeingwhere this takes me.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (03:15):
So you retired from the military.
You look kind of young to beretiring man.
Dr. Brian Clark (03:20):
Today is actually my 40th birthday today
and yeah, I'm actually onterminal leave, so technically
I'm not retired for a couplemore months.
But yeah, it's kind of new tome growing some facial hair,
picking the clothes out that Iwant.
It's weird.
But yeah, 40 today.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (03:41):
Wow.
So how is it adjusting to thatcivilian life going?
Dr. Brian Clark (03:47):
Honestly, I don't know yet.
I'm still trying to figure itout.
To be completely honest, it'sone of those things where I've
been in that military mindset,military mentality for over 20
years.
So trying to get out of that isjust a learning curve, trying
to get onto a new type ofroutine, but I'm enjoying it so
(04:09):
far.
I look forward to the freedomsthat I didn't even know I was
missing out on, so it's beengood.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (04:17):
How do you balance your new professional
life with your personal life?
I know, being in the military,everything probably was
structured, so how do you goabout balancing life now that
you're on this new side ofthings?
Dr. Brian Clark (04:31):
Yeah, I'm still trying to figure it out.
To be completely honest, youwant to help me out, that Kind
of give me some tips.
But yeah, like I said earlier,it's just a change in complete
lifestyle, honestly, because Ican select where I want to live.
Like I said, simple things likeif I don't want to shave today,
(04:54):
I don't have to, or I pick outthe clothes, I can take time to
see and do things with my kidsthat I normally wouldn't have
had that opportunity in the past.
I was deployed and separatedfrom my family a lot, I think
the last eight years the totalof four years I was gone, so
it's a lot, and so now I don'thave to worry about missing them
(05:16):
anymore.
So I definitely look forward tothat.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (05:19):
Tell us about your journey from Starting
in the military to your role asa director of education at CBET
.
Dr. Brian Clark (05:28):
Yeah.
So in 2010, I was lucky enoughto be selected to be an
instructor for our munitionstechnical training and so for
two years I was teaching brandnew airmen coming in how to, you
know, build and spec, maintainweapons and I really found a lot
(05:49):
of self satisfaction from thatand I realized, hey, this is my
passion, I want to do this whenI am eventually done with the
military.
I ended up doing that job forfour years total, kind of moved
through some different positions, but then I got pulled back to
my normal career fields.
Luckily, at the toward the endof my career, I got an
(06:10):
opportunity to be a director fora leadership Academy for the
Air Force and that kind of gotme back in the education realm,
which I was.
I was thriving, I loved it andI was like, hey, at this point I
probably need to startcontinuing my education.
At that point I started my, mydoctorate in education, and
(06:30):
pushed through for that.
The last couple of years I didget pulled back to my career
field, the last couple ofassignments and but I still was
teaching with CBET on the sideand I kind of knew that that
there was going to be potentialopportunities for me when I did
finish and so I completed mydoctorate about a year, about
(06:51):
two years prior, two years ago,and it lined up for a position
with CBET they.
They were happy to bring me onin a full time role like this,
and here I am.
So, although I don't have aspecific background as a BMET, I
do have a lot of background inISD, structural design,
(07:13):
curriculum development.
Obviously I have.
I have tons of on the podiumand virtual teaching experience
that helps me in this role aswell.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (07:22):
So should I call you Dr Brian Clark?
I apologize by not making thatmention when I first introduced
you.
Dr. Brian Clark (07:30):
Brian, we're past that.
It is Brian.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (07:36):
Now, how do the leadership skills you
probably have acquired over theyears in the military Can apply
to your new role as a directorof education?
Dr. Brian Clark (07:45):
Well, I think leading people is leading people
, whether it's the military ornot.
I think as a leader, you got tobe credible, approachable,
authentic and treat people withdignity and respect.
And I think if you do that andyou find the talents that other
people have, no matter what theyare, and you allow them to
(08:06):
showcase those, showcase thosetalents and give them a little
bit of freedom and autonomy todo things and sometimes learn
the hard way Maybe they makesome mistakes, that's OK, but if
you do that, you will besurprised at what people will
will come up with and do, andand and begin to enjoy, really
enjoy being at work, which is isa challenge in itself.
(08:28):
So I think if you do all thosethings, you can be successful,
regardless of what industryyou're in just taking care of
people and the people take careof business.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (08:40):
What type of advice can you give to veterans
who are transitioning from themilitary to the civilian
workforce?
Dr. Brian Clark (08:50):
Sure.
Well, first off, it's never tooearly to start networking.
I read a statistic not too longago that it said 85 to 90
percent of new hires weredirectly done through some sort
of networking.
So either friend of a friend,possibly even like a LinkedIn
connection, something like that,that means only 10 to 15
(09:11):
percent, or people come in witha straight resume, and so you're
putting yourself at adisadvantage if you are not
making those networkingconnections early and showcasing
your abilities and what youbring to a team not only
technical skills, but those softskills that that people really
want to have.
You know, people that arecoachable and loyal and are good
(09:33):
members of the team.
If you can do that and you cankind of make those connections,
people will hook you up.
And not only that, but thereare so many different agencies
that are designed specificallyto help veterans get into the
civilian workforce.
So if you're not utilizingthose Veterati is one example,
(09:54):
Using corporate partnerships,that is another those are just
too many.
But if you're not doing that,then then you you are setting
yourself up for for a hardertransition than it needs to be
you said that you are the newdirector of education for CBAT,
which stands for the College ofBiomedical Equipment Technology.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (10:14):
Now, this is an online school, correct?
Dr. Brian Clark (10:18):
Yes, we're completely online, which is you
know it's.
It's unique for what we do, butthe great thing about all
online schools is you have a lotof freedom and flexibility.
So if you're already workingfull time or you don't have
exact schedule that is going toline up with a brick and mortar
(10:40):
type school, this is a greatoption, and there's a lot of
different programs that we havethat that can really help people
get their foot forward into aHTM field.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (10:56):
What advice could you possibly give to an
educator who may be looking totransition from a traditional
teaching to online teaching?
Dr. Brian Clark (11:06):
Unless you just started teaching.
I would say that most educatorsin some capacity got a taste of
decent learning due to COVID,so you probably can kind of
anticipate what to expect forthe most part.
However, yes, the schedulesounds good.
You get some more flexibility,but there are some challenges
(11:29):
because you have to understandthat you are not making the same
interpersonal connections thatyou are in a classroom setting,
so you need to be able to dothat in a virtual setting which
takes deliberate action.
You have to really make surethat you are engaging with the
students, probably more than youwould have to if you had them
in the classroom themselves, andsome people really like the
(11:51):
flexibility of working from homeand teaching from their office.
Some people don't like thatbecause there's too many
distractions, they don't get theinterpersonal connections.
So it's something that if youare thinking about getting into
some kind of adjunct professoronline teaching, you have to
think about what is going to bebest for you and where you are
going to perform at your best.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (12:13):
Now can you possibly share maybe a case
study or a successful story ofstudents who have thrived in
your online learning environment?
Dr. Brian Clark (12:22):
I've been with CBET for, like I said, four and
a half years and because it's asmaller school, I've become
familiar with pretty much allthe students in some capacity,
and because we have such a greatemployment placement and
student services team shout outLisa, leslie, leslie, olivia.
(12:44):
They're so awesome that that Iget to see those journeys kind
of come through and people reachtheir goals with that
employment at the end of theireducation.
So when I see all those comethrough, every single one of
those is success story to me andit really kind of gets
(13:06):
fulfillment.
When we get to the end of theprograms and we see the end, of
course surveys and people aresaying nothing but great things
about their instructors, theirexperience with the school.
And not only that, but the jobplacement side is.
You know, you can't really beatit and I know I'm a little bit
biased, but I think that we havethe greatest job employment
(13:28):
team that we that have anycollege what advice would you
give parents?
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (13:35):
because, by your school being online, most
likely a lot of parents are notfamiliar with online schooling,
even though COVID introduced theworld to it for a year or two.
What advice would you offer toparents navigating the world of
online education?
Dr. Brian Clark (13:52):
Well, obviously , first you got to do some
research, right, you got to look, look at schools that are going
to meet your needs, and alsoit's important for students or
parents to kind of take a lookat society and see where where
it's going and where the needsare going to be Right, and you
(14:13):
want to make sure that you'regetting an education you know
you can your bang return oninvestment for something that's
going to propel you to yourgoals, and there's a lot of
great, great options.
But when you really think aboutsome things that they're
definitely not going anywhere.
Healthcare is one of them, andit's only going to get more
prevalent and there's going tobe even more job opportunities,
(14:36):
especially when we start lookinginto it type roles in
healthcare settings.
There there's all kinds ofdifferent things that people I
think are not fully aware oftheir options, and so it's
important to look through thereand also kind of take a look at
your financial goals to rightway.
How much school am I going toneed to be able to get this
certain income?
(14:57):
Well, there's some really greatoptions in the healthcare
fields that I think peopleprobably are not even aware of.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (15:04):
The College of Biomedical Equipment,
technologies and online school.
Let's talk about graduates.
How many graduates you think?
Well, you don't think.
You know how many graduatesdoes CBET put out a year?
Dr. Brian Clark (15:19):
So it fluctuates because we have a lot
of business to businesspartnerships, but we right now
have pushed out somewhere around700 students and I think we
have currently 350 activeenrolled at this moment.
And keep in mind this is arelatively new college.
(15:40):
We've only been around forabout five years now so and it
is increasing every term that westart.
We are, our numbers are bumpingup and we are the pushing out
more BMETs to the field than anyother college in the country.
So that's saying a lot for arelatively new school.
But we're trying to keep on thecutting edge of technology and
(16:03):
ways to make sure that we'retraining our new BMETs to be
able to go out to the field and,you know, really just show what
they got right off the bat.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (16:14):
Wow, 700, that's amazing.
The local Bob Mayer Collegehere graduated three last year
last spring three, let's kind ofswitch lanes a little bit.
Min, you talked prior togetting on here about RBLP
Resilience Building LeadershipProgram.
(16:34):
What's that about?
Dr. Brian Clark (16:37):
So, if you look across all certifications,
usually there's some kind ofprep training, prep course,
followed by certification, andso I'd like to say kind of
clarify what certification isfor.
So certification is aprofessional certification is a
(16:57):
credential that verifiessomeone's knowledge, skills and
abilities to perform a specificjob.
All right, so you might be anIT certification or it might be
a BMET certification.
Well, in this case, it's aleadership certification, and so
we recently teamed up with RBLP, who provides the
(17:18):
certifications for resiliencebuilding leaders, and so what we
do is we teach corecompetencies on resilient
strategies, leadership skills,crisis management, emotional
intelligence, adaptability, teambuilding, high stress
situations, things of thatnature.
And why is that important?
(17:38):
Well, just like an ITcertification or a BMET
certification, you can provethat you are a resilience
building leader with thiscertification.
So it is provided in a sevenweek course, so each week has
specific topics that are hit andat the end of the seven weeks
(18:00):
you will receive a certificatesaying you completed the
training and that opens you upto get the certification.
The certification itself isactually through RBLP.
There's three different levelsOne being for frontline
supervisors, one for middlemanagers and then one for senior
leaders.
However, the training itselfthat we're going to provide.
(18:22):
Our first cohort is gonna bestarting on 8 January.
But once you're done with theseven weeks and you do get the
certificate that you completedit, you can enroll to take one
of these certification exams.
And the unique thing aboutthese exams is it's not a
written test, it is an oral exam, and so, dependent on the level
(18:44):
of certification that you'regoing for will determine the
content of that exam.
Obviously, the higher level isgonna be a little bit more in
depth than the frontlinesupervisor level.
Now, tying that all back in, whyis that important?
You know, if you look at thehealthcare industry, you're
talking about an industry thatis full of high stress, high
(19:07):
emotion, situations that aregoing to create stress, anxiety
on a team, and so, as leaders,you have to be able to get your
team to work together through todiversity and hopefully come
out stronger on the other side.
Now, if you don't do that, thenthat's where you're gonna start
(19:28):
having problems with keepingteams and retaining talent,
because people are going to notbe able to feel like they can
deal with the stresses becausethey don't have a boss or leader
that really kind of helps themincessant for success.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (19:46):
And so this is something that's separate
from the CBET program, right,this is something that-.
Dr. Brian Clark (19:54):
This is something completely separate.
Now you can do itsimultaneously if you like, but
this is gonna be an additionalcertification that you can get.
It's another resume boost.
It's another marker that youcan put to say hey, not only am
I BMET certified or whatever thecase may be, you don't have to
(20:15):
be BMET certified to take thiscertification but you take this
and now you're saying hey, notonly am I a certified BMET, but
I also can lead some teams, soyou can feel confident that you
can hire me and I can run andreally not only just manage, but
really lead people to success.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (20:35):
And you mentioned certification, so will
this also come with somecredentials behind your name,
or-.
Dr. Brian Clark (20:42):
Absolutely Yep.
So for RBLP, obviously, if youget the front line supervisor,
you would get the RBLP afteryour name.
If you are middle manager, it'sRBLP-C, and then the senior
leader is RBLP-T, and if youhave the T, then you also can
become a trainer.
And that's one thing that a lotof people like to do is they
(21:04):
like to get the certification.
Now they have the credentials,but they can also go in and
train people in their workcenters on the ins and outs of
how to be the lead and buildresilient teams.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (21:18):
I don't know if you can share this
information or not, but couldyou possibly share some of what
you may teach them, or is theresome kind of way you can give a
little snippet of what will goon in this program?
Dr. Brian Clark (21:32):
Sure.
So each week you will get somepre-reading and there will be
one live webinar a week, okay.
So one nice thing about thistraining is you don't have to
submit any assignments.
It's really just the reading,preparation and then the webinar
where you and the instructor ifyou go through CBET, it will be
(21:54):
me go through all of the corecompetencies of that particular
module.
Okay, so, for instance, in thebeginning you're going to start
talking about strategies.
You know how do you develop anddevelop resilience in a face of
adversity, right?
So you talk about situationsand you're going to talk about
real life examples of how to besuccessful in a situation or not
(22:18):
.
And the nice thing about it isbecause there are other members
in the class that you can kindof cross talk and learn from
each other as well.
It's not just a direct, it'snot me telling you how to be a
leader.
It's discussing on hey, theseare the situations that we've
been in before.
This is what's helped me getthrough these and how I've been
successful.
And it could be something alongthe lines of you know a crisis
(22:38):
or how to pivot if you have aquick change of direction from
your boss.
You know those type of thingsare all going to be brought up
throughout the course of thatseven weeks.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (22:52):
This class is really interesting.
I never heard of a program likethis.
Is this a one of one, or hasthis been going on for years?
Dr. Brian Clark (23:02):
So RBLP has been picking up traction pretty
quickly because it's becomingwidely known.
I think I looked at theirLinkedIn the other day and
they've got over 10,000followers and last time I
checked they have in between twoand 3,000 people that have been
certified at this point.
So it's becoming recognizableby industry and, like I said, it
(23:28):
is one of those things whereyou know you can say on your
resume I'm a great leader or I'ma great communicator, but now
you have credentials to not onlysay it but you can prove it
right.
So it's just another thing thatyou can do and you can add that
will not only help you in thetraining and development piece
but also could potentially helpyou in future promotion
(23:50):
opportunities.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (23:52):
I know you said supervisor director.
So what type of leaders I mean?
So you can say team leader,director, regional director, or
is there a limit to what type ofleaders can take this program,
or is it just whoever's a leader?
Dr. Brian Clark (24:11):
So it, as mentioned before, there's the
three buckets, if you will.
So when we're looking atfrontline supervisors, you're
talking about new to supervisingprobably one to five people
that they're directly reportingon, right.
So just small teams.
Maybe they don't have a lot ofexperience as a leader or
(24:33):
supervisor yet, but this is agreat opportunity to gain some
skills early that can reallybenefit them later on as they
grow and they get into thosehigher levels, with leading
people who are leading teams,right.
So it's really going to be thefirst level is for those people
that are technical experts andthey're just going in now
(24:55):
they're going to be leadingpeople to train them correctly
and make sure that they'regetting the job done.
And then, when you go up tomiddle managers, that's going to
be a little bit more like yoursupervisors of supervisors, and
so you have, like your engineers, that are going to have teams
(25:15):
of more than one to five people,maybe it's several, maybe
they're over several departmentsthat are going to be
responsible for.
Hey, not only now am I makingsure that my leaders are
prepared, but they are preparedto lead the teams alongside them
and that a lot of that kind ofgoes into the communication and
(25:37):
the direction and making surethat there is clear guidance.
Those type of things are goingto be really important once you
start getting those middlemanagers and then when you get
up to the higher level excuse me, the highest level, the senior
leader level, that's going to belike your directors, so that's
going to be your top leveldirectors.
(25:58):
That in really in any industryor organization.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (26:02):
So, basically, what you're saying,
though, depends on your level ofleadership.
That's how your classes will bedivided up, so everybody
probably won't be in the sameclass then, or will they?
Dr. Brian Clark (26:17):
So that's a great question.
So the training itself is thesame regardless.
So no matter if you're comingin to get the frontline
supervisor certification, youwill still receive all of the
training.
That's how it's designed.
The only difference is when yougo to take the certification
exam.
(26:37):
It will go into more in depthon the core competencies.
Now, to give you an idea, theseven weeks the first four weeks
are going to be really kind ofbased on foundations and then
the last three weeks are reallygetting into the in depth
(27:03):
material of the course, which isgoing to be really more geared
towards those higher levels.
But it does not prevent thelower level applicants to go
through that training.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (27:14):
Okay, Now I know you mentioned the class is
going to be online.
When they do the sitting oralexam, will that be online or
will they have to go to a centerand sit before someone?
Dr. Brian Clark (27:27):
It can be done of one or two weeks.
You can do it from your ownpersonal computer or you can go
to a certified testing examlocation.
However, I recommend just doingit from your laptop and getting
a company place in your homethat you know you're not going
to get distracted, and that'sgoing to be the best way for you
(27:48):
to perform if you do it thatway.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (27:51):
In my opinion, we have to take some
CEUs, or so, yes, there are CEUs.
Dr. Brian Clark (27:58):
However, the nice thing is, rblp pushes out
stuff for their app and so it'seasily to track and you can just
basically make notes or markoff as they put out material,
whether it's reading or videosor links.
Sometimes it's YouTube's videoson resilience or leading teams
or something that's relevant, soit's really easy to keep up
(28:19):
your CEUs.
It's not like something you aregoing to have to try to go
outside of your way to obtain.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (28:26):
Say, I'm a young leader and I took the RBLP
, got my certification.
What do I do now if I want toget to that next alphabet that
you mentioned I think it was Cis the second level.
Yes, how do you go about thatthen?
Do you just go back to you andtake more courses, or what, if
(28:46):
you want to get to the nextlevel?
How would that work?
Dr. Brian Clark (28:49):
So you would not have to go through the
course again unless you feltlike you needed to.
What you would do is, as longas you were up to date with your
CEUs, right, you're stillcredentialed.
You would contact RBLP and youwould prove that, hey, I meet
the minimum work requirementsfor the CE certification for the
(29:11):
middle manager.
And once they give you thethumbs up, you would be able to
take the certification exam at adiscounted rate to be able to
get that next levelcertification.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (29:24):
Great, but Brian, I appreciate you coming
on.
Htm on the line man.
I used to ask this one questionfor everyone at the end.
To wrap things up, Is there apersonal mantra or a piece of
wisdom you would like to sharewith our audience?
Dr. Brian Clark (29:41):
I really do value empathy and compassion,
and one thing that I tell myteam members when I get a chance
is hey, let's do this exercisereal quick.
I want you to imagine you'rewearing a backpack, right, and
every single one of yourstresses is in the form of a
(30:03):
rock.
So small rocks, small stresses,big rocks, big stressors in
your life, and put them in thatbackpack, all right.
So now you've got this backpackfull of rocks.
It's heavy, right.
It's weighing you down.
And you look around.
You look at other people thatare just passerby eyes or people
you work with.
They're wearing backpacks too,but you don't know how much
weight is in that backpack.
Some people carry a lot ofweight and they carry very well
(30:27):
and you would never know.
So make sure that you're takingcare of people.
Have some compassion.
Understand that people aregoing through things, no matter
what they may look like.
They may look like they havethe perfect life, maybe not.
So get to know people, havesome compassion, know that we're
all carrying weight.
I think if you do that, peoplewill appreciate that and really
(30:50):
kind of gravitate towards you.
So that's, that's I guessthat's my word of wisdom.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (30:55):
Well said, well said Well.
Once again, thank you, drBryant Clark, and you're welcome
to come back anytime.
Thank you very much for beingon the show, bryant.
Dr. Brian Clark (31:06):
Hey, thanks, brian, I appreciate you.
Welcome to another enlightening episode of
HTM on the Line podcast, thepodcast that is for HTM by HTM.
I'm your host, bryant HawkinsSr.
What does it take to transitionfrom a two-decade military
career to a leadership role inhigher education?
(00:21):
Our highly respected guest, drBrian M Clark, offers a candid
look into this journey,illuminating the resilience and
determination it took tonavigate this transition.
Dr Clark reveals how hismilitary-homed leadership skills
and experiences have not onlybeen instrumental in his current
(00:43):
role as the director ofeducation at the College of
Biomedical Equipment Technology,but also in bringing out the
best from his team.
This episode also delves intothe essentials of the RBLP
Resilience Building LeadershipProgram, a groundbreaking
certification program makingripples in the healthcare
(01:05):
industry.
Dr Clark guides us through theprogram's seven-week course, the
three levels of certificationand the career-defining
credentials one can obtain.
We also discuss the program'srising popularity and its
ongoing impact on the healthcaresector.
Finally, we touch on the oftenoverlooked aspect of leadership,
(01:29):
compassion and understanding inour interactions with others.
Join us for an episode brimmingwith personal experiences,
professional advice and anexploration of a transformative
leadership program prepared tobe inspired.
Brian, welcome to HTM on theline.
(01:58):
I'm so glad to have you on myshow, I guess how you doing
tonight sir.
Dr. Brian Clark (02:02):
I'm doing great , Brian.
Appreciate you having me.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (02:05):
Before we get started, can you please tell
our listeners a bit aboutyourself and your background?
Dr. Brian Clark (02:12):
Sure, I'm the director of education at the
College of Biomedical EquipmentTechnology, also known as CBET.
I actually just retired from 20years active duty service as a
chief medical sergeant in theAir Force.
My specialty was actually inmunitions, so building, testing,
maintaining bombs and missiles.
(02:32):
Now I'm in higher educationright.
I've been teaching and buildingcurriculum for college
accredited courses since 2010.
I've been with CBET for aboutfour and a half years now as an
adjunct professor and curriculumdeveloper and now, of course,
the director of education, andsince 2010, I've kind of knew
(02:54):
that education development wasmy passion, so ended up being
something that I started to doalmost as a hobby, kind of like
a side hustle, if you will, formy own self-fulfillment, and
then now it's kind of turnedinto my next career.
So I look forward to seeingwhere this takes me.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (03:15):
So you retired from the military.
You look kind of young to beretiring man.
Dr. Brian Clark (03:20):
Today is actually my 40th birthday today
and yeah, I'm actually onterminal leave, so technically
I'm not retired for a couplemore months.
But yeah, it's kind of new tome growing some facial hair,
picking the clothes out that Iwant.
It's weird.
But yeah, 40 today.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (03:41):
Wow.
So how is it adjusting to thatcivilian life going?
Dr. Brian Clark (03:47):
Honestly, I don't know yet.
I'm still trying to figure itout.
To be completely honest, it'sone of those things where I've
been in that military mindset,military mentality for over 20
years.
So trying to get out of that isjust a learning curve, trying
to get onto a new type ofroutine, but I'm enjoying it so
(04:09):
far.
I look forward to the freedomsthat I didn't even know I was
missing out on, so it's beengood.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (04:17):
How do you balance your new professional
life with your personal life?
I know, being in the military,everything probably was
structured, so how do you goabout balancing life now that
you're on this new side ofthings?
Dr. Brian Clark (04:31):
Yeah, I'm still trying to figure it out.
To be completely honest, youwant to help me out, that Kind
of give me some tips.
But yeah, like I said earlier,it's just a change in complete
lifestyle, honestly, because Ican select where I want to live.
Like I said, simple things likeif I don't want to shave today,
(04:54):
I don't have to, or I pick outthe clothes, I can take time to
see and do things with my kidsthat I normally wouldn't have
had that opportunity in the past.
I was deployed and separatedfrom my family a lot, I think
the last eight years the totalof four years I was gone, so
it's a lot, and so now I don'thave to worry about missing them
(05:16):
anymore.
So I definitely look forward tothat.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (05:19):
Tell us about your journey from Starting
in the military to your role asa director of education at CBET
.
Dr. Brian Clark (05:28):
Yeah.
So in 2010, I was lucky enoughto be selected to be an
instructor for our munitionstechnical training and so for
two years I was teaching brandnew airmen coming in how to, you
know, build and spec, maintainweapons and I really found a lot
(05:49):
of self satisfaction from thatand I realized, hey, this is my
passion, I want to do this whenI am eventually done with the
military.
I ended up doing that job forfour years total, kind of moved
through some different positions, but then I got pulled back to
my normal career fields.
Luckily, at the toward the endof my career, I got an
(06:10):
opportunity to be a director fora leadership Academy for the
Air Force and that kind of gotme back in the education realm,
which I was.
I was thriving, I loved it andI was like, hey, at this point I
probably need to startcontinuing my education.
At that point I started my, mydoctorate in education, and
(06:30):
pushed through for that.
The last couple of years I didget pulled back to my career
field, the last couple ofassignments and but I still was
teaching with CBET on the sideand I kind of knew that that
there was going to be potentialopportunities for me when I did
finish and so I completed mydoctorate about a year, about
(06:51):
two years prior, two years ago,and it lined up for a position
with CBET they.
They were happy to bring me onin a full time role like this,
and here I am.
So, although I don't have aspecific background as a BMET, I
do have a lot of background inISD, structural design,
(07:13):
curriculum development.
Obviously I have.
I have tons of on the podiumand virtual teaching experience
that helps me in this role aswell.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (07:22):
So should I call you Dr Brian Clark?
I apologize by not making thatmention when I first introduced
you.
Dr. Brian Clark (07:30):
Brian, we're past that.
It is Brian.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (07:36):
Now, how do the leadership skills you
probably have acquired over theyears in the military Can apply
to your new role as a directorof education?
Dr. Brian Clark (07:45):
Well, I think leading people is leading people
, whether it's the military ornot.
I think as a leader, you got tobe credible, approachable,
authentic and treat people withdignity and respect.
And I think if you do that andyou find the talents that other
people have, no matter what theyare, and you allow them to
(08:06):
showcase those, showcase thosetalents and give them a little
bit of freedom and autonomy todo things and sometimes learn
the hard way Maybe they makesome mistakes, that's OK, but if
you do that, you will besurprised at what people will
will come up with and do, andand and begin to enjoy, really
enjoy being at work, which is isa challenge in itself.
(08:28):
So I think if you do all thosethings, you can be successful,
regardless of what industryyou're in just taking care of
people and the people take careof business.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (08:40):
What type of advice can you give to veterans
who are transitioning from themilitary to the civilian
workforce?
Dr. Brian Clark (08:50):
Sure.
Well, first off, it's never tooearly to start networking.
I read a statistic not too longago that it said 85 to 90
percent of new hires weredirectly done through some sort
of networking.
So either friend of a friend,possibly even like a LinkedIn
connection, something like that,that means only 10 to 15
(09:11):
percent, or people come in witha straight resume, and so you're
putting yourself at adisadvantage if you are not
making those networkingconnections early and showcasing
your abilities and what youbring to a team not only
technical skills, but those softskills that that people really
want to have.
You know, people that arecoachable and loyal and are good
(09:33):
members of the team.
If you can do that and you cankind of make those connections,
people will hook you up.
And not only that, but thereare so many different agencies
that are designed specificallyto help veterans get into the
civilian workforce.
So if you're not utilizingthose Veterati is one example,
(09:54):
Using corporate partnerships,that is another those are just
too many.
But if you're not doing that,then then you you are setting
yourself up for for a hardertransition than it needs to be
you said that you are the newdirector of education for CBAT,
which stands for the College ofBiomedical Equipment Technology.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (10:14):
Now, this is an online school, correct?
Dr. Brian Clark (10:18):
Yes, we're completely online, which is you
know it's.
It's unique for what we do, butthe great thing about all
online schools is you have a lotof freedom and flexibility.
So if you're already workingfull time or you don't have
exact schedule that is going toline up with a brick and mortar
(10:40):
type school, this is a greatoption, and there's a lot of
different programs that we havethat that can really help people
get their foot forward into aHTM field.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (10:56):
What advice could you possibly give to an
educator who may be looking totransition from a traditional
teaching to online teaching?
Dr. Brian Clark (11:06):
Unless you just started teaching.
I would say that most educatorsin some capacity got a taste of
decent learning due to COVID,so you probably can kind of
anticipate what to expect forthe most part.
However, yes, the schedulesounds good.
You get some more flexibility,but there are some challenges
(11:29):
because you have to understandthat you are not making the same
interpersonal connections thatyou are in a classroom setting,
so you need to be able to dothat in a virtual setting which
takes deliberate action.
You have to really make surethat you are engaging with the
students, probably more than youwould have to if you had them
in the classroom themselves, andsome people really like the
(11:51):
flexibility of working from homeand teaching from their office.
Some people don't like thatbecause there's too many
distractions, they don't get theinterpersonal connections.
So it's something that if youare thinking about getting into
some kind of adjunct professoronline teaching, you have to
think about what is going to bebest for you and where you are
going to perform at your best.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (12:13):
Now can you possibly share maybe a case
study or a successful story ofstudents who have thrived in
your online learning environment?
Dr. Brian Clark (12:22):
I've been with CBET for, like I said, four and
a half years and because it's asmaller school, I've become
familiar with pretty much allthe students in some capacity,
and because we have such a greatemployment placement and
student services team shout outLisa, leslie, leslie, olivia.
(12:44):
They're so awesome that that Iget to see those journeys kind
of come through and people reachtheir goals with that
employment at the end of theireducation.
So when I see all those comethrough, every single one of
those is success story to me andit really kind of gets
(13:06):
fulfillment.
When we get to the end of theprograms and we see the end, of
course surveys and people aresaying nothing but great things
about their instructors, theirexperience with the school.
And not only that, but the jobplacement side is.
You know, you can't really beatit and I know I'm a little bit
biased, but I think that we havethe greatest job employment
(13:28):
team that we that have anycollege what advice would you
give parents?
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (13:35):
because, by your school being online, most
likely a lot of parents are notfamiliar with online schooling,
even though COVID introduced theworld to it for a year or two.
What advice would you offer toparents navigating the world of
online education?
Dr. Brian Clark (13:52):
Well, obviously , first you got to do some
research, right, you got to look, look at schools that are going
to meet your needs, and alsoit's important for students or
parents to kind of take a lookat society and see where where
it's going and where the needsare going to be Right, and you
(14:13):
want to make sure that you'regetting an education you know
you can your bang return oninvestment for something that's
going to propel you to yourgoals, and there's a lot of
great, great options.
But when you really think aboutsome things that they're
definitely not going anywhere.
Healthcare is one of them, andit's only going to get more
prevalent and there's going tobe even more job opportunities,
(14:36):
especially when we start lookinginto it type roles in
healthcare settings.
There there's all kinds ofdifferent things that people I
think are not fully aware oftheir options, and so it's
important to look through thereand also kind of take a look at
your financial goals to rightway.
How much school am I going toneed to be able to get this
certain income?
(14:57):
Well, there's some really greatoptions in the healthcare
fields that I think peopleprobably are not even aware of.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (15:04):
The College of Biomedical Equipment,
technologies and online school.
Let's talk about graduates.
How many graduates you think?
Well, you don't think.
You know how many graduatesdoes CBET put out a year?
Dr. Brian Clark (15:19):
So it fluctuates because we have a lot
of business to businesspartnerships, but we right now
have pushed out somewhere around700 students and I think we
have currently 350 activeenrolled at this moment.
And keep in mind this is arelatively new college.
(15:40):
We've only been around forabout five years now so and it
is increasing every term that westart.
We are, our numbers are bumpingup and we are the pushing out
more BMETs to the field than anyother college in the country.
So that's saying a lot for arelatively new school.
But we're trying to keep on thecutting edge of technology and
(16:03):
ways to make sure that we'retraining our new BMETs to be
able to go out to the field and,you know, really just show what
they got right off the bat.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (16:14):
Wow, 700, that's amazing.
The local Bob Mayer Collegehere graduated three last year
last spring three, let's kind ofswitch lanes a little bit.
Min, you talked prior togetting on here about RBLP
Resilience Building LeadershipProgram.
(16:34):
What's that about?
Dr. Brian Clark (16:37):
So, if you look across all certifications,
usually there's some kind ofprep training, prep course,
followed by certification, andso I'd like to say kind of
clarify what certification isfor.
So certification is aprofessional certification is a
(16:57):
credential that verifiessomeone's knowledge, skills and
abilities to perform a specificjob.
All right, so you might be anIT certification or it might be
a BMET certification.
Well, in this case, it's aleadership certification, and so
we recently teamed up with RBLP, who provides the
(17:18):
certifications for resiliencebuilding leaders, and so what we
do is we teach corecompetencies on resilient
strategies, leadership skills,crisis management, emotional
intelligence, adaptability, teambuilding, high stress
situations, things of thatnature.
And why is that important?
(17:38):
Well, just like an ITcertification or a BMET
certification, you can provethat you are a resilience
building leader with thiscertification.
So it is provided in a sevenweek course, so each week has
specific topics that are hit andat the end of the seven weeks
(18:00):
you will receive a certificatesaying you completed the
training and that opens you upto get the certification.
The certification itself isactually through RBLP.
There's three different levelsOne being for frontline
supervisors, one for middlemanagers and then one for senior
leaders.
However, the training itselfthat we're going to provide.
(18:22):
Our first cohort is gonna bestarting on 8 January.
But once you're done with theseven weeks and you do get the
certificate that you completedit, you can enroll to take one
of these certification exams.
And the unique thing aboutthese exams is it's not a
written test, it is an oral exam, and so, dependent on the level
(18:44):
of certification that you'regoing for will determine the
content of that exam.
Obviously, the higher level isgonna be a little bit more in
depth than the frontlinesupervisor level.
Now, tying that all back in, whyis that important?
You know, if you look at thehealthcare industry, you're
talking about an industry thatis full of high stress, high
(19:07):
emotion, situations that aregoing to create stress, anxiety
on a team, and so, as leaders,you have to be able to get your
team to work together through todiversity and hopefully come
out stronger on the other side.
Now, if you don't do that, thenthat's where you're gonna start
(19:28):
having problems with keepingteams and retaining talent,
because people are going to notbe able to feel like they can
deal with the stresses becausethey don't have a boss or leader
that really kind of helps themincessant for success.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (19:46):
And so this is something that's separate
from the CBET program, right,this is something that-.
Dr. Brian Clark (19:54):
This is something completely separate.
Now you can do itsimultaneously if you like, but
this is gonna be an additionalcertification that you can get.
It's another resume boost.
It's another marker that youcan put to say hey, not only am
I BMET certified or whatever thecase may be, you don't have to
(20:15):
be BMET certified to take thiscertification but you take this
and now you're saying hey, notonly am I a certified BMET, but
I also can lead some teams, soyou can feel confident that you
can hire me and I can run andreally not only just manage, but
really lead people to success.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (20:35):
And you mentioned certification, so will
this also come with somecredentials behind your name,
or-.
Dr. Brian Clark (20:42):
Absolutely Yep.
So for RBLP, obviously, if youget the front line supervisor,
you would get the RBLP afteryour name.
If you are middle manager, it'sRBLP-C, and then the senior
leader is RBLP-T, and if youhave the T, then you also can
become a trainer.
And that's one thing that a lotof people like to do is they
(21:04):
like to get the certification.
Now they have the credentials,but they can also go in and
train people in their workcenters on the ins and outs of
how to be the lead and buildresilient teams.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (21:18):
I don't know if you can share this
information or not, but couldyou possibly share some of what
you may teach them, or is theresome kind of way you can give a
little snippet of what will goon in this program?
Dr. Brian Clark (21:32):
Sure.
So each week you will get somepre-reading and there will be
one live webinar a week, okay.
So one nice thing about thistraining is you don't have to
submit any assignments.
It's really just the reading,preparation and then the webinar
where you and the instructor ifyou go through CBET, it will be
(21:54):
me go through all of the corecompetencies of that particular
module.
Okay, so, for instance, in thebeginning you're going to start
talking about strategies.
You know how do you develop anddevelop resilience in a face of
adversity, right?
So you talk about situationsand you're going to talk about
real life examples of how to besuccessful in a situation or not
(22:18):
.
And the nice thing about it isbecause there are other members
in the class that you can kindof cross talk and learn from
each other as well.
It's not just a direct, it'snot me telling you how to be a
leader.
It's discussing on hey, theseare the situations that we've
been in before.
This is what's helped me getthrough these and how I've been
successful.
And it could be something alongthe lines of you know a crisis
(22:38):
or how to pivot if you have aquick change of direction from
your boss.
You know those type of thingsare all going to be brought up
throughout the course of thatseven weeks.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (22:52):
This class is really interesting.
I never heard of a program likethis.
Is this a one of one, or hasthis been going on for years?
Dr. Brian Clark (23:02):
So RBLP has been picking up traction pretty
quickly because it's becomingwidely known.
I think I looked at theirLinkedIn the other day and
they've got over 10,000followers and last time I
checked they have in between twoand 3,000 people that have been
certified at this point.
So it's becoming recognizableby industry and, like I said, it
(23:28):
is one of those things whereyou know you can say on your
resume I'm a great leader or I'ma great communicator, but now
you have credentials to not onlysay it but you can prove it
right.
So it's just another thing thatyou can do and you can add that
will not only help you in thetraining and development piece
but also could potentially helpyou in future promotion
(23:50):
opportunities.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (23:52):
I know you said supervisor director.
So what type of leaders I mean?
So you can say team leader,director, regional director, or
is there a limit to what type ofleaders can take this program,
or is it just whoever's a leader?
Dr. Brian Clark (24:11):
So it, as mentioned before, there's the
three buckets, if you will.
So when we're looking atfrontline supervisors, you're
talking about new to supervisingprobably one to five people
that they're directly reportingon, right.
So just small teams.
Maybe they don't have a lot ofexperience as a leader or
(24:33):
supervisor yet, but this is agreat opportunity to gain some
skills early that can reallybenefit them later on as they
grow and they get into thosehigher levels, with leading
people who are leading teams,right.
So it's really going to be thefirst level is for those people
that are technical experts andthey're just going in now
(24:55):
they're going to be leadingpeople to train them correctly
and make sure that they'regetting the job done.
And then, when you go up tomiddle managers, that's going to
be a little bit more like yoursupervisors of supervisors, and
so you have, like your engineers, that are going to have teams
(25:15):
of more than one to five people,maybe it's several, maybe
they're over several departmentsthat are going to be
responsible for.
Hey, not only now am I makingsure that my leaders are
prepared, but they are preparedto lead the teams alongside them
and that a lot of that kind ofgoes into the communication and
(25:37):
the direction and making surethat there is clear guidance.
Those type of things are goingto be really important once you
start getting those middlemanagers and then when you get
up to the higher level excuse me, the highest level, the senior
leader level, that's going to belike your directors, so that's
going to be your top leveldirectors.
(25:58):
That in really in any industryor organization.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (26:02):
So, basically, what you're saying,
though, depends on your level ofleadership.
That's how your classes will bedivided up, so everybody
probably won't be in the sameclass then, or will they?
Dr. Brian Clark (26:17):
So that's a great question.
So the training itself is thesame regardless.
So no matter if you're comingin to get the frontline
supervisor certification, youwill still receive all of the
training.
That's how it's designed.
The only difference is when yougo to take the certification
exam.
(26:37):
It will go into more in depthon the core competencies.
Now, to give you an idea, theseven weeks the first four weeks
are going to be really kind ofbased on foundations and then
the last three weeks are reallygetting into the in depth
(27:03):
material of the course, which isgoing to be really more geared
towards those higher levels.
But it does not prevent thelower level applicants to go
through that training.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (27:14):
Okay, Now I know you mentioned the class is
going to be online.
When they do the sitting oralexam, will that be online or
will they have to go to a centerand sit before someone?
Dr. Brian Clark (27:27):
It can be done of one or two weeks.
You can do it from your ownpersonal computer or you can go
to a certified testing examlocation.
However, I recommend just doingit from your laptop and getting
a company place in your homethat you know you're not going
to get distracted, and that'sgoing to be the best way for you
(27:48):
to perform if you do it thatway.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (27:51):
In my opinion, we have to take some
CEUs, or so, yes, there are CEUs.
Dr. Brian Clark (27:58):
However, the nice thing is, rblp pushes out
stuff for their app and so it'seasily to track and you can just
basically make notes or markoff as they put out material,
whether it's reading or videosor links.
Sometimes it's YouTube's videoson resilience or leading teams
or something that's relevant, soit's really easy to keep up
(28:19):
your CEUs.
It's not like something you aregoing to have to try to go
outside of your way to obtain.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (28:26):
Say, I'm a young leader and I took the RBLP
, got my certification.
What do I do now if I want toget to that next alphabet that
you mentioned I think it was Cis the second level.
Yes, how do you go about thatthen?
Do you just go back to you andtake more courses, or what, if
(28:46):
you want to get to the nextlevel?
How would that work?
Dr. Brian Clark (28:49):
So you would not have to go through the
course again unless you feltlike you needed to.
What you would do is, as longas you were up to date with your
CEUs, right, you're stillcredentialed.
You would contact RBLP and youwould prove that, hey, I meet
the minimum work requirementsfor the CE certification for the
(29:11):
middle manager.
And once they give you thethumbs up, you would be able to
take the certification exam at adiscounted rate to be able to
get that next levelcertification.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (29:24):
Great, but Brian, I appreciate you coming
on.
Htm on the line man.
I used to ask this one questionfor everyone at the end.
To wrap things up, Is there apersonal mantra or a piece of
wisdom you would like to sharewith our audience?
Dr. Brian Clark (29:41):
I really do value empathy and compassion,
and one thing that I tell myteam members when I get a chance
is hey, let's do this exercisereal quick.
I want you to imagine you'rewearing a backpack, right, and
every single one of yourstresses is in the form of a
(30:03):
rock.
So small rocks, small stresses,big rocks, big stressors in
your life, and put them in thatbackpack, all right.
So now you've got this backpackfull of rocks.
It's heavy, right.
It's weighing you down.
And you look around.
You look at other people thatare just passerby eyes or people
you work with.
They're wearing backpacks too,but you don't know how much
weight is in that backpack.
Some people carry a lot ofweight and they carry very well
(30:27):
and you would never know.
So make sure that you're takingcare of people.
Have some compassion.
Understand that people aregoing through things, no matter
what they may look like.
They may look like they havethe perfect life, maybe not.
So get to know people, havesome compassion, know that we're
all carrying weight.
I think if you do that, peoplewill appreciate that and really
(30:50):
kind of gravitate towards you.
So that's, that's I guessthat's my word of wisdom.
Bryant Hawkins Sr. (30:55):
Well said, well said Well.
Once again, thank you, drBryant Clark, and you're welcome
to come back anytime.
Thank you very much for beingon the show, bryant.
Dr. Brian Clark (31:06):
Hey, thanks, brian, I appreciate you.
Popular Podcasts
1. Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
2. Start Here
A straightforward look at the day's top news in 20 minutes. Powered by ABC News. Hosted by Brad Mielke.
3. Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.