#106 Anthony Randall - Practicing Excellence: Aligning Passion, Purpose, and Precision - Tales of Leadership

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, what I have learned is that it's hard to put
the chaplain into the rangerand it's even harder to get the
ranger out of the chaplain right.
And so you know, I had to learnthat it was okay that I could
actually be both right and howto bring that identity full
circle, your view.

(00:25):
But when I was at the Airborneand Ranger Training Brigade,
when I left the battalionchaplains and religious affairs
specialists they gave me thatshepherd's crook and they said
you've been a shepherd to us anddown.
Each side of the shepherd'scrook is four words, and what I
try to teach chaplains all thetime is like listen, you've got
four roles.
You have to be a pastor.
So whatever religious faithgroup you come out of, you've
got to be able to preach andteach the truth of your
scriptures right and understandthat and be a theologian.

(00:47):
Second, you've got to be apriest.
You've got to be able to bringthe holy.
You've got to be able to bringthat sacred presence right.
You know we're the ones thatcan baptize and marry and bury,
and so how do you bring thatpriestly presence into those
times and spaces?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
priestly presence into those times and spaces.
You're listening to the Tellsthe Leadership podcast.
This podcast is for leaders atany phase on their leadership
journey to become a morepurposeful and accountable
leader what I like to call a pal.
Join me on our journey togethertowards transformational
leadership.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
All right team.
Welcome back to the Tales ofLeadership podcast.
I am your host, josh McMillian.
I am an Army leadership coach,I'm the founder of McMillian
Leadership Coaching and, mostimportantly, I am the host of
the Tales of Leadership podcast,which you are listening to.
And I have a mission to be abetter leader, the best that I

(01:43):
possibly can and I plan to dothat by bringing on other pals
what I like to call purposeful,accountable leaders those who
lead with integrity, intentionand create an impact.
And I also plan to use thisplatform to continue to
self-study the leadership habitsthat will help me be a better

(02:04):
leader, which I plan to sharewith you all absolutely free.
Why?
Because I want to build betterleaders that this world needs
now what I like to callpurposeful, accountable leaders,
with the goal of impacting 1million lives in the next 10
years by creating powerfulleadership concept.
And before we start again, Iwant to provide you some free

(02:25):
tools.
You can go tomcmillianleadershipcoachingcom
slash tales of leadership.
You'll be able to find everysingle podcast episode that I've
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(02:46):
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(03:06):
And then always make sure yousubscribe to McMillian
leadership coaching so that wayyou get notified whenever I
release a new podcast episode ora new article.
But on today's episode we areinterviewing Dr Anthony Randall.
He is a transformational leader, speaker and and the president
and founder of Vanguard 21,where he drives leadership

(03:29):
excellence through executivecoaching and development.
With over 28 years of highperformance leadership, he's
coached more than 17,000professionals across the US Army
, special Operations Command,major League Baseball and
Fortune 500 companies.
He is a retired Army LieutenantColonel with six combat tours.

(03:51):
He served as an Army Ranger, achaplain and an ethics
instructor.
His international bestsellerPracticing Excellence, restoring
Civility, faith and trust,leadership in the public square
reflects his passions forethical leadership.
He loves martial arts.
He's also an ICF professionalaccredited coach for PCC, a

(04:15):
keynote speaker, and he's justinspired every day to help build
other leaders by aligningpassion, purpose and precision.
So let's bring on Dr AnthonyRandall.
Anthony, welcome to the Tellsthe Leadership podcast.
Brother, how are you doing?

Speaker 1 (04:32):
Good, josh, great to be here.
Thank you for the invitation.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
A mutual connection connectedus and I think this is going to
be a great episode because youreally do have a very
interesting story, not only fromthe military, but also in a
faith based leadership and avery successful entrepreneur
author.
So, kind of like, try to getall of that in one episode is

(04:57):
going to be a challenge.
We're just going to have fun,yeah, fun, yeah.
So I think I always lovestarting off with the same two
questions for everyone, becauseit kind of sets the tone is if
you could provide, just like anoverview of who you are and then
set the barometer of what youbelieve leadership is.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Okay, so hey, my name's Anthony Randall and spent
about 30 years in leadership.
So started out at the UnitedStates Military Academy, west
Point, graduated from there Ibarely got into West Point, I
barely got out of West Point Ialways tell people that, so
that's my academic prowess therebut privileged to go to the

(05:35):
82nd Airborne Division, spentseveral years there and then
decided to get out of themilitary that's part of my story
, if we get into that tonight.
Went in the corporate world,did very well there for a few
years and was called intofull-time ministry.
So went back to seminary andpastored a church for a few
years, came back on active dutyand spent 15 years as an army
chaplain in conventional andspecial operations units and

(05:58):
then had the privilege to dosome ethics teaching and
character development as welland retired as the garrison
chaplain at fort benning aboutfour years ago this month
actually.
So, uh, it's been a greatjourney.
Uh spent a lot of time inprofessional sports, college
sports, and uh built aleadership development executive
coaching company calledvanguard 21 and that's what we

(06:18):
do today.
So today we've got a great teamof 13 folks and we're a full
spectrum, world-class leadershipdevelopment and executive
coaching company.
So we kind of have three potswe do corporate, private, public
sector, we do dod and then wehave our own international
coaching federation coachingacademy where we actually run
five different professionalcoaching certification courses.

(06:40):
So people come to us to getcertified as professional icf
coaches.
So I want to think about theArmy operational concept.
We're in that institutional,operational and personal
development domain.
So I guess doctrine hasn't leftme after all these years.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
Yeah.
So that's awesome too is thatyou're certifying ICF,
international CoachingFederation.
So I was part of, I think, theArmy's first cohort when they if
you're familiar with that theArmy coaching program and I had
the blessing of having a jobthat allowed me some flexibility
to actually do that and it'spaid dividends.

(07:15):
I think it just like myleadership development, not only
like for my own personal growthand like me just being
passionate about like learningthe science of leadership, but
leading civilians.
So I left.
I was an infantry guy for likethe last 10 years of my life.
I was a hammer.
The world was my nail um, as asmost barrel chest and freedom

(07:37):
fighters are Right.
And then I had to go put on adifferent hat and lead civilians
for the first time and youdon't have influence or any
authority.
How do you do that?
You do that and going throughthat army coaching program.
It would have made me such abetter company commander and a
platoon leader if I had thatopportunity earlier in my career
I agree.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
I think that goes to your second question of how do I
define leadership, and I defineit simply leadership is
influence.
I mean, I still operate off ofthe, the leadership definition
we were all taught in the army30 years ago when I was a leader
to pride.
You know purpose, direction andmotivation and, and you know,
accomplish the mission, takecare of people.
But leadership in its mostsimplest form is influence.
You either positivelyinfluencing people, negatively

(08:20):
influencing people, or you haveno influence on people.
So I think, barrel it down toone word right there.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
Yeah.
So ADRP and I always have thispulled up because this is like
one of the key policies that Ialways go back to influencing
people by providing purpose,direction and motivation to
accomplish the mission andimprove the organization
influence.
And when I started this journeyof trying to become the best
leader that I possibly could notjust like for the army right,

(08:49):
but like for my own self and formy family I kept going back to
that word influence, influencingand how do we influence others
as a leader and that's very hardin my terms I always kind of go
back to you inspire people.
Of John Quincy Adams.
He has one of the best quotesI've ever heard A leader, if you

(09:12):
can help others see themselvesto become more, do more, be more
, then you are a leader, andthat's not an exact quote of his
, but I always kind of go backto that.
If I can inspire other peopleto go, push beyond their comfort
zone, that's leadership.
So I love your definition ofleadership as well.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
Yeah, and that goes right back into coaching.
Right, I mean most people.
The number one comment we getafter the first day of our
coaching course, which we do, bythe way, in person 50% of our
coaching courses are virtual andasynchronous, but we do a one
week intensive in person becausethe magic is in the room when
we bring high performance to theroom.
Man, it's just magical.
You can't do that with 70people on MS teams stabbing

(09:54):
themselves in the eyes with apencil, but so we love getting
people in a small group.
And the number one thing peoplesay all the time after that
first day is oh I definitelywasn't coaching before.
I was calling myself a coach,but I was not coaching.
And once you go through atransformational coaching
program and process like ours,your leadership style will shift

(10:15):
and grow and change.
And it is because coaching istruly about drawing potential
out of people.
And to draw potential out ofpeople you have to do that
through creativity and curiosityand be invested in people.
And so a lot of people thinkcoaching is telling you how I
did it 10 years ago and youshould do it my way.
That doesn't work so well.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
You always go back to like the three Cs and it's
funny we haven't even dived intolike your backstory yet, but
this reminds me of when I was inOTC um, uh, jrtc a bunch of
acronyms for non-militarylisteners is joint readiness
training center, uh and observercoach, trainer and I had.
This was the best job, handsdown, that I've.

(10:57):
I ever had the opportunity todo one because the army messed
up and they gave me a keys to myown Humvee and that was just
the best time of the world.
Never getting the chance todrive myself around and then
basically getting full reign inthe box at JROTC, but being
embedded with platoons andcompanies, especially before I
had a company, and just beingable to observe.

(11:20):
And I wouldn't say I was verygood at the coaching part, but I
knew doctrine pretty well so Icould help train and I could
provide mentorship.
And towards the end of that timeI really started mastering the
coaching aspect of like hey, I'mhere, I'm embedded with you,
I'm going to sleep with you inthe field.
And I agree to your point whereyou just said is that there's

(11:42):
just an intangible lessons thatcan be learned when people are
pulled into a room and we're notseeing each other through a
screen because you can pick upon the emotion.
There's a level of like, justenergy, that you can pull off of
people, especially like-mindedpeople when you're in the same
room together yeah, it's a levelof understanding heuristics,

(12:03):
and we teach heuristics in ourcourse.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
We teach that active listening is part of also
reading tone and tact and tempoof voice, eye, movement, body
language, and so we teach atransformational coaching
approach that actually helpspeople listen to people's
physiology, to their mindset, totheir bodies, their emotions,
and so that's why we reallybelieve that you coach the

(12:25):
person, you don't coach theproblem, uh, and so you have to
do that transformationally.

Speaker 3 (12:32):
Yeah.
So kind of starting back atlike your career.
Um you, you spent, you know,over 20 years in in the military
.
What pulled you in to go serve?
Because I think everyone haslike a really good story of why
they chose to serve.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Yeah, well, april 19th was just a few days ago.
So my eighth great-grandfatherwas at Lexington and Concord.
He was a Massachusettsmilitiaman.
That was part of the firstskirmish there that started the
Revolutionary War.
And my fifth great-grandfatherwas a POW, was also a
Massachusetts militiaman,captured by the Confederacy in
the Civil War and spent most ofthe war in a POW camp.

(13:08):
So we've got a long lineage onmy side of the family of serving
our nation.
My father served in the AirForce.
He was enlisted in the 1960s inEurope and so I always kind of
had that sense of service, likeour mutual friend Brabs.
I grew up in scouting and sothere was this sense of um.
We had a really strong scouttroop really, you know, centered

(13:30):
on values and characterdevelopment and training boys to
be men right through throughcharacter development and um,
and so it was that sense ofservice.
And so I'll just never forget,uh, two, two things.
During desert storm I tried toenlist when I was 17.
And I think my dad about lockedme in the house you know, he's
like finish the night and Iremember a recruiter came over

(13:52):
and this was back in the late80s, early 90s, 1990.
And this recruiter gave me thatclassic be all you can, be
trifold.
And he opened it up and therewas airborne some dude jumping
out of a plane.
There was Ranger, you know,some poor Ranger sucking it
through a swamp, you know.
And then there were specialforces and that guy was just
doing something cool, becausethey always get to do that stuff

(14:12):
.
And I asked the recruiter I saidI want to do all three of those
.
How do I do all three?
And he's like well, let's justslow down there a little bit you
know, I was like I'm notinterested if you can't tell me
I can do those things.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
So it was uh that's how you went to 82nd first, so
that's like your right.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
So, uh, working my way through high school, I
started looking at the serviceacademies and, um, I want to go
to West point.
I'll never forget the marketingpackage they sent back in the
day where I have I still havethe poster of the States and
eight by 11, and it had four,you know, great generals, a
couple of presidents on there,like President Grant and
President Eisenhower, and itsaid much of the history that we
teach at West Point was made bythe people we taught.

(14:50):
And I said, oh well, that'swhere I'm going to college.
So, so that's how I started mymilitary career, through the
academy and, very blessed, mydaughter's a cadet there today.
So, and then, and then, my sonjust accepted an Air Force ROTC
scholarship to college.
So we're continuing that path.
Josh, how about you?
What got you into it?

Speaker 3 (15:11):
So it's an interesting story and it's going
to tell you a lot about youngerJosh.
So I had a torn ACL and lateralmeniscus.
It was during football season,right September, I decided that,
hey, my knee's.
During football season, rightSeptember, I decided that, hey,
my knee's just hurting too much.
Today, mom, I'm going to take asick day.
That happened to be onSeptember 11th and I remember

(15:34):
sleeping in that day, kind ofjust feeling sorry for myself,
like, hey, I just had this majorsurgery.
And then my mom wakes me up ateight o'clock and I was like,
mom, what doing?
I was like you need to come seethe tv, you need to, you need
to see this.
And I never felt, um, like thatbefore.
I grew up in rural west virginiaand appalachia and if you're

(15:55):
part, come from there.
It's very small knit community,uh, a lot of like local
relatives, uh, in a good way, avery good family, traditional
community.
And it was like, hey, apersonal attack.
I felt that someone outside mysphere of influence that I could
affect just attacked my familyand that started pulling me

(16:17):
towards a sense of service,towards something greater than
myself, and then I was dead seton.
I was going to go be a Marine.
That's what I wanted to do.
Um, I was like, hey, I want togo challenge myself the most
that I possibly can.
And which branch of service cando it?
Uh, not the Coast Guard, notthe Air Force.
I don't like swimming.
So it was between the Army andthe Marine Corps, and Marine

(16:37):
Corps just had better uniformsin my mind.
Uh, and then last minute, Idecided to go to the army
because I wanted to go to rangerschool.
I was like, well, you can't dothat as a Marine.
Um, but that's why I chose toserve and that's why I always
love hearing people who haveserved like what their story was
, what drove them to that.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
That's awesome.
Yeah, I was about 30 secondsaway from becoming a Marine, so
I was like I like I said I was,you know, I barely got into West
Point and I barely got out, soI was a third alternate and so
it was the last day that youcould find out from the academy
if you received an appointment.
And I was out playing baseballin the yard with my brother just

(17:15):
playing catch and I had myfour-year Marine ROTC
scholarship to Boston Universityon the countertop and I was
going to go run it to the 5o'clock mail and I was just
waiting, waiting to see ifsomething came in the mail for
us, and, uh, my dad came out onthe phone.
He's like, hey, he's likethere's a phone call for you.
And it was actually ourCongressman who, like,
personally, called me, Wow, yeah.

(17:36):
And he was like hey, is thisAnthony Randall?
And I'm like yes, sir, it is.
He's like, well, he's like thetwo guys in front of you have
turned down their appointment.
So I'm offering you anappointment at West Point and
I'm sitting here with the carkeys in my hand and the envelope
in my hand as I'm talking tohim, you know, and I'm like well
, sir, you know, I reallyappreciate that, but I've got
this.

(17:58):
And then I had like that FerrisBueller's Day Off moment, you
know, and Ferris B Rooney.
My dad slaps the phone out ofmy hand.
He's like what are you doing,man?
He's like pick up the phone andtell the congressman you're
going to West Point.
I was like yes, sir, so youknow.
So that's how I almost became a.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
Marine.
But I've always had a greatdeal of respect for the Marines.
They've never changed theirmindset around the recruiting is
like hey, it is a privilege tobe a Marine, it's not a right.
You can try out.
You may not make it, but what?
What really sets them apart istheir standards and discipline.
And if you look back at theKorean War right right after

(18:44):
World War II, hey, this was thegreatest war ever fought.
We're never going to needstanding armies again.
We've invented these thingscalled nuclear bombs, which
allows for strategic deterrence,so we're never going to fight
another land war.
Well, about another 10 yearsgoes forward, give or take, and
then the Korean War starts offand army brig brigades, like

(19:05):
tire combat brigades, weregetting wiped off the face of
the earth.
But the Marine Corps had theleast amount of casualties
during that time.
Why?
Because they never allowedtheir standards to drop, and I
think it's holds through totoday.
I've never.
I work with a good buddy ofmine.
He's active duty Marine withinthe special operations command
and I have never seen someonewho's more driven and

(19:28):
hardworking than he is.
But I've never seen a badMarine If that's a if, if that's
even possible I've never seen abad Marine.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yep, I think you make a great point and I think any
of your listeners that areactive duty today in that
tactical or operational, evenstrategic space, if you have, if
they haven't read this kind ofwar by TJ Fehrenbach on the war
this is going to be, it's notnear peer, it's a peer.
And the PLA does not fight bythe same rules that we fight

(19:57):
under.
They don't fight under the samejust war principles and they
don't have the same concept ofwar.
We have a Clausewitzianperspective of war.
They have a Confuciusperspective of warfare and
combat and you need to read SunTzu.
So if you've got listeners outthere that haven't read this
kind of war and they haven'tread Sun Tzu and they haven't
read Musashi's the Book of FiveRings, and if they haven't got
into some classical thinkingfrom the eastern part of the

(20:21):
world, they're going to sorelybe in a bad spot, you know.
So I a hundred percent agreewith you.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
Yeah, yeah, and they, they culture, not even from
like a warrior ethos level too,but like just from a civilian
side, within like fortune 500companies.
Right Like theft.
We'll just go from there.
Do you think it's morally andethically right to steal
someone's intellectual property?
And then there's a great bookat war If you've got a chance to

(20:50):
read that which essentiallytalks about like a lot of the
intellectual property that hasbeen stolen over the years.
But if you look at it from likea cultural perspective, like
from Asia, hey, it's your faultthat I stole that because you
did not protect that well enough.
And to me, like that just blowsmy mind because it's a red line
.
You don't.
You do not lie, cheat or steal.
That's just things that wedon't do as leaders, or is like

(21:13):
good Christian men.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
Yeah, I mean it's important to understand our
cultures, right?
I mean, did you spend time inIraq and Afghanistan?

Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah, more in Afghanistan and a little bit in.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
Afghanistan.
You know it's different thantalking to a leader in Iraq, and

(21:48):
they think differently than wedo, and it's just.
It's their worldview, and sounderstanding those concepts is
incredibly important.
As a warrior, don't even getdown that road, wherever you
want to take it, josh.
But you've got me on thewarrior ethos now.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
Well, that's something that I kind of want to
start digging into too is like,before we do that, I want to
kind of like prep thebattlefield, Like so you go, you
join the army, you become thebrand new second Lieutenant.
I think that the army does agreat job of helping build
leaders at a very junior age andyou're given so much
responsibility, especially inother branches, Like I was given

(22:23):
a platoon in Afghanistan with28 soldiers, four strikers, four
mat Vs my own cop, that I hadto run and I was 20, 22 years
old.
That's a lot of pressure, likeriding on people.
So you graduating West Pointand you getting ready to start
your army career what was thatlike?

Speaker 1 (22:44):
So I have a lot of stories that Lieutenant Colonel
Randall would like to tellSecond Lieutenant Randall, you
know, and now, unfortunately, mydaughter gets those right.
So sometimes we havedaddy-daughter conversations,
but sometimes we have likeColonel Randall, cadet Randall
conversations, right?
So you know, I would just shakemy head at second lieutenant

(23:04):
randall about a million timesover today, right, we all, we
all learn and grow and haveopportunities to be transformed.
I think one thing that the usarmy does incredibly well uh,
probably our entire militarydoes incredibly well is I can I
can attribute my transformationas a young lieutenant to a
captain and starting to figurethings out because of

(23:25):
non-commissioned officers and Ican pinpoint that on two
non-commissioned officers and Ican pinpoint that to two platoon
sergeants that I had thatgrabbed me by the back of the
scruff and said, hey, you're agood dude and you got a ton of
energy and you want to do thisthe right way, but you need a
little shaping right.
And you know, those guys becamelifelong friends and

(23:48):
unfortunately, I buried one ofthem in Arlington 13 years ago.
But those guys became lifelongfriends.
So I think that's what ourmilitary does best and that's
why I think we need to invest somuch money in human development
and talent development andleader development in our NCO
Corps, because NCOs make greatofficers and I'm very thankful
for the NCOs I've always hadaround me.

(24:10):
I mean just not as a platoonleader, but you know, throughout
my entire career I can probablyname more NCOs that have
impacted me in my life thanofficers in my military.
What about you?

Speaker 3 (24:22):
No, it's the exact same.
So when I joined in 2008 towhere I'm at right now, I am the
leader that I am today solelybased on non-commissioned
officers.
Not based on officers Cause Iwill tell you that I've had some
that have had horrible examplesand if I would have followed
them, I would have went down atransitional mindset of viewing

(24:42):
people as stepping stones to getto where I wanted to go,
because, unfortunately,sometimes that is the nature of
the culture within the officerranks because we're only there
for a year or two, ncos staythere.
They they're like Thanos Ifyou're a Marvel fan, they're
inevitable, right?
But when I first showed up andtook over my platoon in

(25:04):
Afghanistan, my platoon Sergeantat the time was a Sergeant
promotable and, to kind of giveyou a little bit of backstory,
we probably share some trauma,right Is that they deployed to
44 soldiers.
When I took over, there was 28and I met my platoon at their
Memorial and I remember meetinghim and just how stoic he was
and then how calm, cool,collected.

(25:26):
He was asking me questions, butvery good questions, about
things that I should havethought through before I was
getting ready to take a platoonto combat and I just stepped
back to myself and I reallystarted reflecting on like, who
am I as an individual and aleader and what do I actually
bring to the team, especiallythis team right now?
And he mentored me.
Sometimes exactly like you justsaid, he would pull me out of

(25:49):
the talk and we would have verystern words with each other,
because sometimes SecondLieutenant McMillian can be very
stubborn and headstrong,probably much like Second
Lieutenant Randall was, but ithas shaped me, of who I am and
you can clearly trace that ofwho I am today because of key
individuals and non-commissionedofficers that I've had

(26:11):
throughout the ranks.
And that's a great point oflike as a leader, and I think
it's universal of in business tofind those people who have
influence within theorganization and gravitate
towards those individuals.
Don't try to pave away, becausewhenever you show up somewhere,
you're never going to be asubject matter expert and if you

(26:33):
are, then you're letting yourego take control, because that's
just not how it is, unlessyou're just a natural born
Douglas MacArthur.
But that's a key point and 100%I fully agree with you.

Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yeah, I think there's five principles that any young
leader if they're a youngplatoon leader, a company
commander, a young NCO out therethat I've always tried to
practice, and this is what Iwould tell Lieutenant Randall
today, right, if I had thatchance to grab hold of him.
The first thing is observe,right.
I think that's why emotionalintelligence is so incredible.
When you get into your firstorganization, you need to

(27:10):
understand organizationalawareness, and organizations
have written rules and unwrittenrules, and many times the
unwritten rules that get you introuble, right?
So you got to have EQ, you'vegot to use empathy and you've
got to use social awareness toreally learn what the written
and the unwritten rules are.
And the only way you're goingto learn the unwritten rules is

(27:30):
by earning the trust of peoplearound you and them sharing with
you.
Hey, we want to see you do wellhere.
I think the second piece that Ialways share with people
understand the differencebetween influencers and those
who lead with influence.
I mean, there's all sorts ofinfluencers out there on social
media, right, there's peoplethat can post 15 posts a day on
Instagram or LinkedIn orwhatever, and they're

(27:51):
influencers.
But what I'm really interestedin is who is the leaders of
influence.
Who are those influentialleaders that get things done?
And there's a big differencebetween the, the barracks lawyer
, right, or, or the NCOs, or theNCO that's been there forever
and you know, oh, he's so-and-so, she's so-and-so, and then

(28:11):
there's the influential leadersto get things done.
That's two, I think.
The third one is and this goesback to observe is find your
terrorists early.
Right.
Every organization hasterrorists and they will do
anything to destroy yourorganization.
So I think one, one piece of oflearning a new organization is
man, find the terrorists and getrid of them, because they will,

(28:33):
they will take you down.
That's their whole mission inlife.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
I love that and I wish I would have known that,
like I always kind of dig intothe parental principle is that
wherever organization you'regoing to take control kind of
dig into the parental principleis that wherever organization
you're going to take control,there's a 20 of your population
that is going to absorb 80 ofyour time.
And if you can find themunfortunately that's the nature
of the beast it's going tohappen, it's inevitable, and
root them out early.
It will save you so much time.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
And I love how you say find your terrorists, yeah
find the terrorist man andyou're talking about trout
fishing over the weekend withyour daughter.
I think leadership's a lot likefishing you're're going to pull
20% of the fish in the boat andthey're going to do everything
for you, right?
They are going to think youwalk on water, you do everything
great.
There's only 20% in anorganization that they think you
do everything wrong and they'regoing to do everything they can

(29:20):
to destroy the organization.
The person that wins theorganization is the person that
gets the other 60% of the fish.
So you have to and I had afriend of mine, rod Olson, who
shared that with me.
He's a great football coach anddoes leadership coaching with
folks, so you've got to know howto fish that 60%.
20% are always going to be onyour side.
20% are going to do everythingthey can to stop you.

(29:40):
It's whoever wins the 60% rightand that comes through.
Just you know leading well.
So I think the fourth piece tothat is I always tell people
find your knight to the roundtable right.
Find the four or five peoplethat are going to, you know,
draw that blade and lay it downon that table and you know that
they trust you, they respect you, you trust them, you respect

(30:02):
them, you've got their loyalty.
Find your mountain.
And then the fifth one thatI've learned the last few years
of doing coaching the last 10years or so is create a coaching
language and a coaching culture, just like you did as an OCT.
When we can use a coachinglanguage and a coaching culture
that asks powerful questions,that empowers people, that

(30:23):
flattens out the organization,that that encourages people to
become better decision makers ontheir own because of who they
are, I think that's super, superpowerful.
And you know, you mentionedbeing an OCT.
We've had the privilege to runa couple coaching courses for
for First Army and and the OCTsthat from First Army that are
coming to our courses.
They're like this is the way weshould be doing OCT across the

(30:45):
board, like your guys' coachinglanguage, your coaching model,
your coaching process.
This is how we should betraining units, and so I'm just
a big believer in transformingorganizations through more
coaching and less directing.
There's a time and a place forthe knife hand.
There's a time and a place forauthoritative command that saves
people's lives.
But if you want to developteams and work yourself out of a

(31:09):
job, implement coaching intoyour organization.
Come, get coaching certifiedand build your leadership kit
bag.
You know, those are my fiveprinciples.
What do you think?

Speaker 3 (31:18):
What are yours.
So I'm going to steal yourprinciples.
So I think that with me it'sall about a linear path, right?
Leadership's a marathon.
I think, really, for me it allstarts off at yourself, like
self-leadership, like being ableto wake up every morning, fill

(31:41):
your cup up, go do PT, do thethings that serve you so you can
have a clear mental mind, andthen creating feedback loops
within the organization.
So I think what you just saidis absolutely critical and I
like how you laid out themethodology.
For me, whenever I take over anorganization, the first thing
that I want to do is to clearlylay out what the goals and

(32:05):
expectations are, not just evenfor the team, but like for me.
This is what you should expectfor me.
I'm laying out all the cards onthe table.
This is how I lead.
This is how I communicate.
I had a great boss as a littleside story.
Share I won't say his name, butshare a picture of him with
each one of the emotions in hisface.
He has a resting something faceright.

(32:27):
So he's like here's a slide ofme angry, here's a slide of me
mad.
That was the best ever, becauseit broke the ice, because he
wasn't very personal.
He was an introvert by nature.
But I think having that upfront and then, like you just
said, I call it, stop Silence mymind, I take a tactical pause.
I'll observe my surroundings,I'll understand where there's

(32:49):
friction points within anorganization and then I'll
pursue with purpose but thenstrengthen, build relationships
within the organization,understand who can I lean on,
who can I not lean on, and thenstart working together to build
that type of coaching culture.
But as a feedback loop, andwhat you just said there I think
is absolutely critical and Ireally hope that this gets

(33:12):
implemented larger in the army.
I do too Is that when we createa coaching culture, really what
we're doing is we are separatingfrom problem makers to problem
solvers, and what we wantespecially going back to what
you just talked about before asNCOs, we want more problem
solvers as seeds.

(33:32):
So when they begin to grow intothose trees, those ranger
buddies, those accountabilitytrees, they grew up the right
way, if that makes sense,because it's only going to build
more leaders and, like you justsaid, the goal is to put myself
out of the job.
And how do I do that?
I do that by creating moreproblem solvers.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
Yeah, and I mean I've got blood in the game.
I mean literally, you know, Iwant my young lieutenant here in
a little more than a year tohave great NCOs in her platoon,
you know, and she wants to be acombat arms officer.
So she's, she's a BA, she's a,she's a strong kid.
So you know, I think she'sgoing to do just fine wherever
she goes.
But but she, she's going toneed good NCOs around her, and

(34:15):
so I'm I'm a big believer indeveloping.
Developing NCOs and, and youknow, junior officers is
incredibly important.
And I think you know tip of thecap to my friend, bob O'Brien.
I don't know if you knowColonel Bob O'Brien, but I've
known OB for several years.
No, yeah, we were in RangerTraining Brigade together, but
he's the one that's doing thecommand preparation program for

(34:36):
Battalion and Brigade Commandand the way they're doing that
assessment and selection processnow is just absolutely world
class and he's done a fantasticjob leading that.
So it's good to see that we'restarting to can to realize what
to continue developing seniorofficers and senior ncos at
field grade level.
And, uh, you know, they've takena lot of ans principles from
the soft community that you andI familiar with on how we do ans

(34:58):
right.
So, uh, you know you don't.
You're not looking for the mostqualified person, you're
looking for the right person,you're looking for the right fit
, and I think that's incrediblyimportant.
But when I talk about characterdevelopment, one last thing on
the leadership piece is I sharewith organizations all the time.
You have two choices you caneither hire for character and

(35:22):
build a high performingorganization, or you can hire a
bunch of characters and theywill destroy your organization.
Right, and that that goes fromthe locker room to the team room
, to the C-suite, you know boardroom, and that principle is
true anywhere.

Speaker 3 (35:38):
So I kind of want to start circling it back to like
one of your new books that youjust recently released and I
know you wrote a couple of books.
We'll kind of dig into those.
But, like, from your army timewith the different types of
warrior ethos that you wereraised in, not just even with a
conventional army but also beinggoing through ranger school and

(35:59):
then serving as a chaplain inthe soft community, what lessons
did you learn that helps youbuild this practicing excellence
type framework that inspiredyou to write that book?

Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, well, I already heard you say part of it, and
it starts with leading yourselfevery day, right?
People used to always ask meyou know, how do I get through
Ranger School?
Chaplain, like, what's thesecret to Ranger School?
You know, and it's just threeprinciples.
I mean, ranger School is thepremier leadership school for
the army, right?
And if you want to graduateranger school, you do these

(36:32):
three things well, every day.
You got to lead yourself, youhave to lead your peers and you
got to be able to lead a team.
And if you can lead yourselfand lead your peers and lead a
team, then you can graduateranger school barring some sort
of injury or whatever else.
Um, so I think that's the key toRanger School.
But it starts with leadingourselves, understanding who I
am as a person of character,right, how do I think morally?
And how do I think then,ethically, within some sort of

(36:55):
ethos?
And then how do I lead?
And I'm a big believer inemotional intelligence and Dan
Goldman's six different EQleadership styles, primal
leadership we teach a lot ofthat stuff.
So I think for me, josh, that's, that's the, that's where it
begins, um, and you have toremind me of where you want me
to go with that question but soI think, kind of like building

(37:16):
you know warrior ethos, you, youbecause I wanted to pull back
on that thread you spending timewithin the Army.

Speaker 3 (37:24):
You have a very unique background within the
Army.
A lot of people don't becomechaplains after being in the
combat arms and I think I'veonly met maybe three chaplains
that have Ranger tabs and two ofthem were in Ranger school with
me, one of was going through asa stud with me, a student, and
the other one was our chaplainand the other one was our

(37:45):
chaplain and, uh, the other onewas a chaplain that when I was a
company commander in thirdbrigade, 10th mountain.
You have a very uniquebackground between being the
lion and then being the shepherdtoo, if that makes sense.
Walk me through that like as awarrior ethos.
How do you blend those twotogether?
And I think it kind of comesback to like gentleness or

(38:05):
empathy, meekness maybe.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
Yeah, what I have learned is that it's hard to put
the chaplain into the rangerand it's even harder to get the
ranger out of the chaplain.
I love that and so you know Ihad to learn that it that that
it was okay that I couldactually be both right and and
how to, how to bring thatidentity full circle.
And so I actually have ashepherd's crook over here.

(38:29):
It's out of your view, but whenI was at the Airborne and
Ranger Training Brigade, when Ileft the brigade, the battalion
chaplains and religious affairsspecialists they gave me that
shepherd's crook and they saidyou've been a shepherd to us and
down each side of theshepherd's crook is four words.
And what I try to teachchaplains all the time is like

(38:50):
listen, you've got four roles.
You have to be a pastor.
So whatever religious faithgroup you come out of, you've
got to be able to preach andteach the truth of your
scriptures right and understandthat and be a theologian.
Second, you've got to be apriest.
You've got to be able to bringthat sacred presence right.
We're the ones that can baptizeand marry and bury, and so how

(39:14):
do you bring that priestlypresence into those times and
spaces?
And the third one is you haveto be a person right, so you
have to be a ranger for me or bea paratrooper, right.
So you've got to be willing todo whatever your troops are
doing every single day.
So if they go on combat patrols, you want to go on combat
patrols.
If your company is going on ayou know 20K ruck, then you

(39:34):
better be on that 20K ruck,right, and be a warrior, right.
So that's the third one, andthen the fourth one is to be a
prophet, and you know as much asI did.
You know 4,000 plus hours ofcounseling.
As a chaplain, I probablyenjoyed much more the times
where I had to put on thatprophetic hat and speak truth to
power.
I had to call out the moral andethical choices that were being

(39:55):
made, the immoral and unethicalchoices that potentially could
happen.
And speaking truth to power tocommanders, to NCOs, to people
that outranked me, to peoplethat were my same rank, to
people that were subordinate tome.
Because, as a chaplain, I don'tthink we should carry rank.
I think there's too manychaplains in the military that
hide behind their rank.
I think chaplains in the US Armyshould not have rank.

(40:17):
You can give us that pay grade,so you can pay us what we are,
but I think the only thing thatshould be on a chaplain's
uniform is whatever yourreligious affiliation is,
because when I'm talking private, I address them as a private.
When I'm talking to a four-stargeneral, I talk to them like a
four-star general, and and Ithink that's part of being a
shepherd.
Going back to how you blendthose two together, uh, our last

(40:38):
name, randall, comes from fromwhat we know, the 15th century
saxon area of england.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
Uh, the best name ever it Our name was.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
Wrenwolf.
It means runner of wolves, itmeans wrangler.
Yeah right, wrenwolf, right.
So we were a tribe of shepherdsbut we actually our tribe
hunted down wolf packs andkilled them before they got to
the sheep.
So I've had that story and Ithink that's why legacy and I
think all of our stories are soimportant.

(41:07):
It's so important to tell yourstory from West Virginia.
That's why legacy and I thinkall of our stories are so
important, so important to tellyour story from West Virginia.
It's so important to find outevery soldier story, because our
stories give us foundation andgive us root in understanding
who we are.
So that'd be two.
The third piece is martial arts.
I've done martial arts.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
Got a little cauliflower here going on.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
And so you know I don't know if you can tell by my
ears, but you know I was.
You know, oh yeah, I got bothof them going.
So you know, I've been on themat for 30 years training and
rolling and some of the bestministry I've ever done is doing
, you know, jujitsu and doingBJJ and that kind of stuff with
soldiers, and so having thatwarrior ethos has always been
part of who I am.

(41:41):
I've been a martial artist for30 years, so that's always been
part of it.
For what I learned from thesoft community is, you know
again, you mentioned the wordmeekness Meekness is not
weakness and some of the mosthumble, soft-spoken, gentle
people that you've ever seen,with their spouse and their kids
, and you know even the way theylead their soldiers.

(42:03):
I'll tell you what they're thelast dude that you want to be on
the pointy end of a spear on.
You know what I'm saying Likeyou are going to get diced up,
and so I think it's that.
I think it's that, that warriorethos, and that's why when you
look into any different martialart, you know, or any any
different warrior classthroughout history, there's
these virtues of courage andwisdom and justice and

(42:24):
temperance and faith and hopeand love, and you get into the
martial arts, the martial way,and there's integrity and
respect and honor andself-discipline, you know, and
proportionality.
Last plug here and then I'llshut up.
I think every single formationin the army should be doing
combatives at least once ortwice a week.
There are too many warriors outthere in our army today that

(42:46):
have not been punched in theface enough and, and you know,
you've got to know what it'slike to get punched in the face
and you've got to know howyou're going to respond after
you get punched in the face.
And if we can teach ourwarriors how to fight hand to
hand, that will help them withjust war theory.
I mean, jiu jitsu isproportionality?
I was rolling with a blue belttoday, right, and so my

(43:07):
proportional response to what hedid was based upon what kind of
threatening situation he wasputting me in.
But he's a blue belt, you know.
I'm a brown belt, you know.
And then I'm rolling with ablack belt today, my
proportional response to what hewas doing with me was
completely different.
And so I think, when youunderstand time and space
physiologically, any weaponsystem that you put in

(43:30):
somebody's hand is just anextension of understanding the
time and space of how we move.
The IDF has demonstrated thatwith subterranean warfare.
I helped write the SubterraneanDoctrine Manual a few years ago
and I wrote thepsychological-spiritual piece

(43:51):
spiritual peace and they incombat that the study of Krav
Maga made their soldiers moreconfident and more competent and
more trusting in a tightfighting force in a subterranean
complex, because they wereconfident on how to fight and
win hand to hand.
And as all the technology thatwe've seen in Ukraine, all the
technology that we've seen in inthe Middle East, all the
technology we know coming out ofPLA, at the end of the day,
when you watch those videos inukraine or when you watch the

(44:12):
israel, gaza hezbollah fight,what wins close combat overmatch
?
What still wins to this day,even with all the great
technology, all the stuff brabsis building, you still have to
win close combat overmatch,which means you're going to have
to kill, potentially, anotherhuman being at close range and
you're going to know how torespond after that.
So, anyways, I'll get off mycombatives soapbox, but I'm a

(44:35):
big.
I'm a big fan of of combat arts, combat sports.
Everybody should be doingsomething like that.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
Team.
Let's take a quick break fromthis episode and I want to share
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Coaching.
So what do I do?
I help leaders discover theirpurpose, create a long-term
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(45:04):
regardless of where you are inlife, one fact is true you are a
leader of others, you are aleader of your family and, most
importantly, you are a leader ofyourself.
To lead others well, thatstarts by leading yourself well.
If you want to learn more, youcan go to
mcmillianleadershipcoachingcomand schedule a free call today.

(45:25):
Back to the episode.
So it's funny.
I think we share a lot ofsimilarities, one of which is
that my daughter shares a lot ofthe same characteristics and
traits as your daughter does,and I know she may follow me
down the road of being in themilitary.
So I'm so passionate about oneof the reasons you know why I

(45:47):
run this podcast is that I knowshe listens and that she will
listen.
So now she can hear otherinfluential people talk about
leadership and understand hey,there's better ways to lead out
there.
And then what you just said,too, about like within the soft
community, like especially atthe top level tier.
Some of the most dangerouspeople that I've met like have a

(46:08):
body count higher than youcould imagine are some of the
most passive people in the world.
Why?
Because it kind of goes back.
What is that guy who wrote 10rules for?
I can't think of his name rightnow.
It'll come to me, but it talksabout being a monster and then

(46:31):
learning how to control it.
Oh, I think a lot of that kindof comes down to a warrior ethos
, but having a direction or afunnel towards that.
So when I do need to turn intoa monster and I do need to open
that Pandora's box, I'm going tounleash it on something with

(46:53):
purpose and not just wield it asa flaming sword and cut
everyone.
And I think that the specialforces community does an
excellent job and I think partof that through is just the
ability to train and also tocontinue to build, like that
adaptive mindset and the agilemindset through their selection
process.

(47:13):
But I agree with you too islike there's so many people out
there right now and I always saylike deeds, not words, you can
say everything you want to me atthe end of the day, when it's
time to go and one of us isgoing to get punched in the face
, I guarantee you I will win.
I remember here's a here's afunny story when we were doing
like KLEs with a Taliban, uh,and I knew that there were new

(47:37):
military age males that willcome into our sure is.
And we would just be sittingthere and I was talking to the
village elders and I'm like heybro, do you know this guy?
He's like Nope, never seen himbefore.
He's like so he's never grownup here before in his life.
Like no, okay, interpreter,come here.
I want you to tell him thatthis is my battle area, that I

(47:58):
am the HDMI FC of this area andthat if he steps out of line, I
will put him in the ground.
But I wouldn't do that normallywith other people.
Right, like I had a veryfunctional, a very directive
force, but I kind of go back tothat was something that I've had
to learn to control over theyears, because I've always been
filled with like passion,especially when it comes like

(48:21):
service my country, or somethingthat aligns with who I am and
my values, but being more meek,and the Bible, to be honest with
you like has done tremendousand kind of helping me learn
what meekness truly is and youalso sum that up beautifully is
that it's not weakness.
It's actively listening topeople on your team, then moving

(48:44):
out with purpose, it'sevaluating the environment and
making sure you're makinginformed decisions and, at the
end of the day, it's keeping aservant heart, understanding
that as a leader, right, I makedecisions that are unpopular,
but I do it for the greater goodand I do it to make sure that
my son and my daughter have ageneration that is better than
the current one that I'm inright now.

(49:04):
So all of that kind of goesback to like the warrior ethos
and you summed that upbeautifully and I think that the
warrior class that we've grownup in, those lessons learned,
need to be injected into thecivilian space.
So how, how do you do that Likewithin your coaching company,

(49:25):
vanguard 21, of teaching theseprinciples that you learned in
the military, through bothcombat arms and as a chaplain,
into transitioning into thecivilian world and like a
Fortune 500 company or evensports?

Speaker 1 (49:40):
Yeah, I'm going to take a couple steps back because
it might answer the questiongoing forward.
But you mentioned, you know,scripture.
I just spoke at the ManeuverCenter of Excellence's Preparing
the Soul for War Symposium acouple weeks ago, great
conference.
The chaplains that put it ondid a great job and Seventh
Ranger Regiment did a great jobwith it.
And one thing I talk about isthat you know, there's four

(50:02):
aspects of the warrior, offorging the warrior soul there's
preparation, there's practice,there's protection and there's
perseverance.
And the preparation piece is aspiritual, theological,
existential, philosophicalgrounding in how do I respond to
evil?
There is evil in the world andthere's also good, and so every

(50:27):
warrior has to understand howthey're going to resist evil and
how they're going to respond toit.
Asking the question in themidst of combat, or asking the
question preparing to go tocombat, or asking the question
dealing with and I write aboutthis in Restoring Faith and
Trust of Leadership and Civilityto the public square, going

(50:48):
into the public square andtrying to restore civility in
our public square and in oursocial environments.
Understand evil's real right.
There are terrorists out therethat want to, you know, disrupt
the public square.
There are people in thiscountry that want to destroy our
democracy and our constitutionand our way of life.
There are people around thisworld that want to disrupt what

(51:10):
everyone wants, which is, youknow, I just want to, you know,
peace, happiness, love a spouse,have kids, you know, have life
right.
They want to flourish as humanbeings.
So, anyways, let me back up realquick.
So we all need to understandhow to address the problem of
evil, right?
So I do that through mychristian faith.
I understand that I serve a Godthat is all powerful, he is all

(51:32):
just and he is all loving, andthat evil has tried to destroy
that ever since.
Evil fell, right and we justcelebrated Easter yesterday,
right so I think good and evilactually interacted and meshed
with each other on the cross andit was the perfect goodness of
Christ, the son of God, takingall the evil of the world, the

(51:55):
most evil that could ever comeupon it, and he defeated that.
Now, that's just my view.
You have to find your ownreligious, theological,
spiritual, philosophical,existential view of
understanding good and evil.
But I know this view ofunderstanding good and evil, but
I know this Good will never bedefeated by evil, because evil
is a derivative of good, and soif I know that I am created in

(52:16):
the good image of God and God'sperfect image, then I know I've
been created with a purpose andso that helps me understand how
to resist and respond to evil.
So the two great virtues thatcome out of understanding that
one comes from the Stoics soCicero very much influenced
Augustine and Ambrose, who wereChristian theologians that
justice is the greatest virtueand understanding an all just

(52:40):
God.
A thousand years later, whenAquinas comes around says wait a
minute, and the apostle Paultalks about this in scripture.
So Augustus and Ambrose areriffing off of Paul and Jesus.
No, love is the greatest virtue.
So my understanding of how Iaddress the problem of evil is
that I serve an all just and anall loving God.

(53:00):
How does that impact me as awarrior?
That allows me to resist evil,because I know it can't overcome
good, and allows me to respondto evil in a just and loving way
.
So what does that help me do?
It allows me to love myself,which means I'm gonna leave
myself, leave my peers and leavemy team every day.
It means I'm gonna love myfellow warrior.
We wouldn't have sexual assaultissues in the military if we

(53:21):
recognize that you're my brotherand she's my sister and we're
all taking care of each otherhere, right and and.
So that love helps me love myfellow warrior, which is why I'm
willing to sacrifice for myfellow warrior, my left and my
right.
Right.
It allows me to love theinnocent right, the soft
principle of de oppresso liberto free the oppressed.
So understanding God's lovehelps me free the oppressed.

(53:43):
It helps me love the oppressedand the coerced and the
manipulated and the imprisonedand the downtrodden.
It allows me to love theoppressed and the coerced and
the manipulated and theimprisoned and the downtrodden.
It allows me to love theinnocents on a battlefield and
make sure that I useproportional response, that this
is war and war is hell andsometimes innocent people are
going to die.
But if I understand that I canrespond proportionally and

(54:03):
discretionarily, I'll do my bestto do that.
And then it allows me to bejust.
It allows me to be just.
It allows me to justly kill myenemy with surprise speed and
violence of action, and I can dothat justly and I can do a
surprise speed and vital actionand I can do it with audacity.
And I can do it to impose mywill, to use Clausewitz to

(54:24):
impose my will on the enemy anddefeat them.
And and I would just one lastthing I'll say on that I'll turn
back to you is that I think thenumber one thing that our
military leaders have got to getaround is that sixth principle
mission command, which isaccepting prudent risk.
What what you as a commander inAfghanistan and what commanders

(54:44):
at every level, from platoonleader to to general officer, is
we were, we weren't told toaccept prudent risk.
We thought the six principlemission command was to mitigate
risk altogether, to be riskaverse, and guess what?
You can't do that in a peerthreat, large scale combat
operation.
You have to do the other fiveprinciples of mission command to

(55:06):
build a high performance team.
Because all of those sixprinciples of mission command
are is six principles of how youbuild a high performance team
to win on the battlefield.
But you've got to acceptprudent risk to win in a
peer-to-peer fight, not be riskaverse.
And that's a huge paradigmshift that we've got to get
people to understand that youcan through justice and love,

(55:28):
through just war theory, throughproportionality and use and
bellow.
You can kill with speed,surprise and violence of action.
You can do it audaciously todefeat the enemies of our nation
and to protect the greatestassets that we have, which is
our blood and treasure.
The American soldier, theMarine and the sailor and space
person and Air Force guy and galand coastie and all that.

(55:50):
There you go, I'm done, thereyou go.

Speaker 3 (55:53):
I don't know if this is like the right term, but I'm
calling Space Force SpaceRangers just because, like Buzz
Lightyear, I think that would bethe coolest thing in the world.
Like to be a Space Ranger.
If I'm Ranger qualified and Ijoined the Space Force, does
that make yeah, it doesn't makeme a Space Ranger.
I love what you framed there atthe end.

(56:14):
Honestly, everything you justsaid is deeply.
There's so much wisdom in that,accepting prudent risk and
mission command I see not onlywithin combat arms but really
across all DOD, especially whenit comes to innovative new

(56:36):
disruptive technologies.
If you ever read Innovator'sDilemma of how these big Fortune
500 companies die, they diebecause they don't accept that
disruptive technology and whenit's there it's too late to act.
I think drones me and Brad wejam on this all the time right,
like I build them for SOCOM.

(56:57):
He writes the requirements forthe world.
But one of the biggest thingsthat I see now is that the DOD
is hesitant to embrace these newtechnologies.
To kind of give you like anunclass level of how disruptive
a small little fpv drone couldbe.
One pilot, uh, in ukraine couldpotentially take out an armored

(57:18):
brigade um one one person ifhe's equipped well enough with
the right drones and assets,could take out an entire brigade
, that's a entire uS Armymechanized or armor brigade that
would have to go defeat thatthreat.
Now we just have one person todo it.
So from there, but when you lookat it from an innovative
standpoint, from the trainingstandpoint, from range command

(57:41):
like this is an unknown.
We have to mitigate all therisk.
Well, you can't mitigate allthe risk because that is
physically impossible.
If we're going to mitigate allthe risk, that means we're not
taking action.
Mission command is getting atthe heart of understanding what
the risk is, mitigating it to apoint where I am physically,
mentally, ethically okay withmoving forward with this.

(58:02):
And here's the question Ialways ask myself if I were
going to do this, would I not dothis with my team?
And the answer is no, then Iwould relook at it and I would
try to mitigate the risk.
And now a better question iswould I allow my son or daughter
to go do this if they wereserving, especially being a
father now?
But it also allows us to makemore rapid decisions, exactly

(58:24):
what you just said.
It builds greater trust withinorganizations and it builds
leaders faster because you'regiving them more influence,
you're giving them more tools,you're giving them the autonomy
to make those hard decisions atthe point of friction.
All of that is absolutelybeautiful and I really, really
wish and I hope that our armyand our country as a nation can

(58:47):
learn to accept risk andunderstand that you can't
mitigate it to absolute zerobecause it's physically
impossible.
We have to understand what it isand move forward, and a great
example of that, too, is SpaceX.
If you've ever read Elon Musk'sbook about how he started all
these different companies, hefailed so many times with his
rocket launches and he juststarted deleting things, like

(59:08):
with the heat shields.
He took over like eight, 20pieces of a heat shield because
he's like, hey, these are justredundant parts, they aren't
needed, and because of those hewas able to basically assume the
risk right off the risk andcontinue to fly, and he was able
to make the Falcon nine and allthese other Raptor engines
actually work, where NASA hasbeen spinning their wheels.

(59:30):
We went to the moon in the 60sand 70s.
What have we done since then?
In like 70 years?
We should be like havingcruises in space like fifth
element by now, but we literallyhaven't been back to the moon
in time, and it's all because ofrisk, and I get it like every
life is as precious it truly is,and I view it from that way.

(59:52):
But fortune favors the bold.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
You have to take the action so I think, just
transitioning to the second partof your question is how do we
do that in a corporate space?
Right, if you've got civiliansout there listening to go,
that's, that's great, until thatwarrior stuff.
But you know, if you know, ifvanguard came and worked with
our company, you got to tone itdown a little bit, right?
So I think it's the same.
It's the same approach, with itwith a different, a different

(01:00:14):
lens.
And restoring civility to thepublic square is is all about
raising up leaders of characterwho think for themselves.
You know, our public square hasbeen overwhelmed with educated
derelicts, right With bullypulpits and with talking heads
Square has been overwhelmed witheducated derelicts, right with
bully pulpits and with talkingheads, and they want to consume
that information space to telleverybody what to think and what

(01:00:37):
we do to restore Civility.
The Public Square is we helporganizations build high
character, high culture,organizations where people
matter, where human flourishingis part of their baseline values
, where their talent developmentprocess is about drawing
potential out of people at everylevel and allowing people,
empowering people to grow intowho they can become as leaders.

(01:01:00):
And so you restore civility tothe public square by teaching
people how to think, how tothink critically, how to think,
how to think, how to thinkmorally, how to think ethically.
You create high trust,character, individuals, by by
you know, aligning with certainvalues and principles of your
company or organization, andthen you teach them how to lead

(01:01:21):
well, you teach them how to leadwith emotional intelligence,
you teach them how to coach theperson and not the problem,
right, and so we restore thecivility of the public square by
raising up leaders.
And I'll tell you what when youraise up leaders of character
and you build high-character,high-culture organizations, your
terrorists will stand out allday and they have a choice
either continue to try todestroy that organization or

(01:01:42):
leave, or they do something thatallows you to exit them out the
door right.
And so that's what we need todo.
We need to do that allows youto exit them out the door right,
and so that's what we need todo.
We need that collectively.
We need to restore the publicsquare and again, everyone has a
seat at the table, everyone hasa voice, but you've got to do
it with mutual respect and trust.

(01:02:04):
It goes back to Tocqueville,who wrote a great book a couple
hundred years ago.
People should read it.
But it goes back to Tocqueville, who wrote a great book a
couple hundred years ago.
People should read it.
But it goes back to Tocquevilleand it goes back to some of the
founding fathers.
And this concept Os Guinnesstalks about it this golden
triangle of freedom.
And the golden triangle offreedom operates off of three
principles freedom, virtue andfaith.

(01:02:25):
The problem with our publicsquare today is most people just
exercise all the freedom theywant to you right, without,
without virtue, or instead ofbeing leaders of virtue, they're
virtue signalers right, andfaith has been completely cast
aside.
You know, we put more faith inourselves and in politics today
than we do god.
So the golden triangle offreedom is actually a principle.

(01:02:48):
You can take from toteville acouple hundred years ago that
the golden triangle of freedomis actually a principle.
You can take from Tocqueville acouple of years ago.
That this golden triangle, itholds itself in tension with
freedom, with virtue and withfaith.
So that's what we do in thecorporate space, man.
We build high performance, highculture, high character teams
and we teach organizations howto transform leaders, how to
forge excellence and win.
There you go.

Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
I have to ask educated derelict?
I love that term and I think Iknow what you're going with that
, but could you kind of quicklyelaborate on that term?
Sure.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
Yeah, an educated derelict.
I mean I just saw some reportsin the Wall Street Journal about
this that these Ivy Leaguegrads that can't, you know, put
two sentences together.
Right, it's.
I mean, I'm an academic, Iguess to a degree.
I have a doctorate, I've gottwo master's degrees, I've gone
to some really greatuniversities out there outside
the classroom and apply what youthink you're learning, and I

(01:03:45):
think today we have a lot ofeducated derelicts.
They are too smart for theirown good.
Right.
We say in the church you know,you're so heavenly minded,
you're no earthly good.
And so I think that's whateducated derelicts are.
I mean, when we send our kids tosome of these institutions and
they're brainwashed with, youknow, primarily Marxist and

(01:04:05):
other philosophies and ways ofthinking that killed hundreds of
millions of people in the 20thcentury, when people want to
debate certain things in thepublic square about democracy in
America and the Constitutionand our way of life here, the
first question I ask them ishave you ever been outside of
the United States?
How many countries have youbeen to?
What countries have you been to?

(01:04:26):
How long have you ever beenoutside the united states?
How many countries have youbeen to?
What countries have you been to?
How long have you lived there?
Right and and, uh, I would tellyou, folks that have traveled
around the world typically havea much better understanding.
Whether I agree or disagreewith them, they at least have a
better concept or understandingbecause they've been around the
world.
But we have a a lot of a lot offolks that you know are
educated derelicts.
I can explain it, man.

Speaker 3 (01:04:49):
I agree a hundred percent is that title
certifications, all of thosethings are not going to make you
a better leader.
It's not going to make youbetter at your jobs per se.
There's a part of beingeducated which is good, but that
teaches you book answers right.
The only way to like trulylearn is through experience and,
like I have learned thisthroughout my military career

(01:05:12):
I'm an infantryman they put mein po aviation as my first job
as an acquisition officer onavionics for different aircraft.
I've jumped out of helicoptersand that's about the extent of
which my experience lies.
But I jumped into it fully andI learned and I went to the
people with influence.
I asked open-ended questions toelicit that feedback that I

(01:05:34):
needed and I relied on my team'sstrengths to cover my
weaknesses and I focused on mystrengths and then I went to in
the drone space and I've been inthe drone space now and I
continue to succeed with thosesame types of principles.
I have a master's degree insystems engineering.
I have all of these things, butthose lessons that I learned in

(01:05:54):
the school only helped me bemore of a critical thinker.
I think that education helps youbecause it provides you that
wisdom and tools, but when youonly rely on education to lead,
it's a crutch.
And I think it kind of leadsback to what we were just
talking about before isaccepting risk, like if you lead
on education, well, the booksays you can't do that.
Okay, what was the actualproblems that show me in a

(01:06:17):
policy or regulation that saysthat we can't do that?
Is that just an assumption oris that something that you've
read in some textbook?
But I'd love now to kind oflike transition, because I
haven't even got a chance to askyou about your book yet,
because I feel like I could havea conversation with you for
like three hours.
But Practicing Excellence.
So it's a new book that youjust released now and I think

(01:06:39):
this is a beautiful transitionpoint too as a society, right?
First of all, what justinspired you to write the book?

Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
I think, because, like most people, I just got fed
up with what our public squarelooks like today and you know,
left, right and indifferent.
You know you go to Europe.
The public square used to bethat center point in town where
people could bring and expresstheir opinions and read
declarations, and fellowship andgather and fellowship and
gather and make laws and passlaws and do all of these things.

(01:07:10):
And so, for me, practicingexcellence is all about helping
people understand how to livelife a more excellent way, and
what I have found is that youcan live a more excellent way in
life when you align yourpassion for life with your
purpose, which is your gifts andabilities and skills and your

(01:07:31):
precision.
So our passion is what gives usthat fire, that fuel, that
calling right To go out thereinto the public square and find
out what our true potential is.
We do that purposely.
When we take the skills andtalents that we've been given,
either innately or the ones thatwe develop or learn or, you
know, gather through experienceand education.

(01:07:51):
We purposely use those giftsright to fulfill our passion,
and then we find the mostprecise way to do that.
We find our wheelhouse.
How do you do that withprecision in any environment
that you get placed in.
So even for you, you're aninfantry officer, you've got a
master's degrees in systemengineering, you're an
acquisitions guy and you getthrown into.

(01:08:12):
You know PEO avionics, that'sokay, guess what?
You can still operate, josh, inthere with your passion to
serve.
With the gifts that you've beengiven, you can passionately and
purposely serve with precisionin that space.
You just need to learn sometechnical things about that
space.
But who you are as a leader ofcharacter, how you think

(01:08:35):
critically and how you lead isstill going to transform that
space, brother, it's just youbeing willing to be coached.
Hey, coach me up on avionics,man, I just jump out of them.
You guys teach me how to flythem right and being humble,
showing up humble and hungry tofigure that out.
So that's what practicingexcellence is.
People read that book.
They're going to.

(01:08:55):
You know the most basic sense.
It's about aligning yourpassion, purpose and precision,
understanding who you are as aleader character, how you think
and how you lead.
Uh, but you know there's,there's great stuff in there,
some a lot, of, a lot of funnyarmy stories in there.
There's great corporate stories.
There's stories about my timewith the Pittsburgh pirates and
with working in collegebasketball with national
championship teams.

(01:09:15):
Um, there's, there's a lot ofstuff in there on leader
development and coaching and howto coach.
Uh, there's, you know, achapter in there on beach
jiu-jitsu and epistemology.
If you like big words and bigdoctoral level constructs,
there's a couple chapters inthere for you.
If you just like great stories,there's chapters in there for

(01:09:36):
you too.
Very blessed, it was an Amazonbestseller and then it just won
the 2025 International ImpactBook Award for Social Change.
So I believe that, yeah, I'mvery blessed to receive that
award and I have a keynote forthat.
I have a keynote calledPracticing Excellence that I
give.
I'm giving it next Monday to aschool district awards ceremony

(01:09:59):
for about 300 people, but I'malso giving it in two weeks to
the American Hockey CoachesAssociation for about 500 D1 to
D3 college hockey coaches andtalking about how you practice
excellence, build ahigh-performing, winning team.
So, yeah, it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (01:10:16):
Are you ever going to find yourself in the national
capital region?
Like giving one of thosespeeches.

Speaker 1 (01:10:22):
I hope so.
Yeah, I would love to come givethe Forging a Warrior's Soul
keynote.
That keynote is specificallyfor the DOD enterprise space and
talking about war fighting andwinning our nation's wars.
But yeah, I'd be happy to comeup and speak on practicing
excellence in the NCR.

Speaker 3 (01:10:42):
Yeah, I'd love that.
If you do get a chance, like inthe near future, please let me
know, because I want to come bea part of that, 100%, absolutely
.
So I think you've had such along history and I think that
you're very disciplined.
You've always practicedexcellence.
Because you practice what youpreach right, we have to lead

(01:11:02):
ourselves before we can show upand lead our family,
organization, lead teams.
What practices have you learnedthat you continue to sustain
today?
Like, how do you continue towork towards excellence in your
own mind?

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
Well, I just want to make sure everybody understands
that you know, learning topractice excellence comes from a
lot of failure.
So you know, again, I made alot of mistakes as a young, as a
young officer, as a youngleader, right, things that that
I'm thankful.
People help me adjust and makechanges.
So you know, that's the otherbook I wrote.
Practice Makes Permanent,Practice does not perfect,

(01:11:39):
practice makes permanent.
So make sure that what youpractice is excellent, right?
So you know, when it comes toleading yourself, I think I'm
about transformational coaching.
So you know, I'm about coachingthe whole person mind, body and
soul.
I mean my morning, from mytradition, again, other people
have their tradition, which Irespect.
My morning tradition beginswith meditation, it begins with

(01:12:00):
prayer, it begins with thestudies of my scriptures and
figuring out how does that applyto my world?
Right, you know, I don't let mycalendar control me, I control
my calendar.
So there's even tonight my wifeand I are talking about
negotiables and non-negotiables,right, there's certain
non-negotiables that I have thatare surrounding my family, that

(01:12:20):
it doesn't matter what ourcompany is doing.
That's a non-negotiable with myfamily.
So I think also and I spoke onthis last week in Austin to the
CFO leadership council there inAustin, that this difference
between work-life balance andwork-life rhythm, I think
work-life balance is a completefallacy.
If you're trying to dowork-life balance, then work or

(01:12:43):
life is always stealing fromeach other and there's this
constant negative tension ofstealing from one to pay the
other.
And so what I found and againthis might probably come from my
martial arts background or frommy faith background, but I
really, you know, love the studyof nature, study of water,
study of wind, but our livesshould be like work-life rhythm,

(01:13:05):
right, and like it, just likean ocean wave.
We were in New Zealand atChristmas.
I was teaching my kids how tobody surf and the, you know,
south Pacific Sea is pretty epicand I was teaching them how to
read the waves right.
How do you read the waves?
Read the resonance of the waves, read the strength of the waves
and watch the resonance.
There's a rhythm to it.
I grew up skiing in Colorado.
You can to this day, man, Ilove jumping in a good mogul

(01:13:28):
field and I can pick a zip lineand go, you know, a couple
hundred yards just poundingthrough moguls, because you read
the terrain, you read how themoguls are shaped and formed and
you find a rhythm.
Jiu-jitsu is the same way.
There's a rhythm to trainingthere's there's an ebb and flow
of giving space and taking space, you know, with your opponent.
And so work-life rhythm therethere's times of high intensity,

(01:13:50):
there's times of rest, there'stimes of high intensity, rest.
You've got to find yourresonance.
All of us have a differentresonance, right?
Some people like jazz, right,some people like grunge metal,
like I do, right, so he's kid,you know.
So we all have a differentresonance.
So I would say that I hope thatanswered your question there.
Work-life rhythm, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:14:11):
I think it did.
And it's funny, like you and Ishare the same thing, typically,
like, morning routines aren'tgoing to make and break you
right, like, if you wake up atfour in the morning or you wake
up at 4.30 in the morning, it'snot going to make you more
successful in the day, justbecause, like you've had this
shared hardship of waking upearly in the morning.
Morning routines are personaland I think they should be

(01:14:31):
personal to you, like how you domeditation and prayer and
scripture.
I like to start my day off withthe worst thing I could
possibly think of and that's tosit in my cold plunge at 40
degrees.
Why?
Because it fills me withdopamine.
And then two like, I'mimmediately awake, I'm alert,

(01:14:51):
and it's the one thing that Idon't want to do every morning
and it helps me kind of start myday because, like, hey, I'm in
deliberate discomfort.
I chose that and I alwaysquestion it every single morning
, but for me that starts off mymorning routine and then I'll go
read.
But I love how you like talkabout balances, fallacy, and I a
hundred percent agree with you,and it took me so long to learn

(01:15:12):
this because I was trying to bethe best army officer I could
be.
I was trying to be the bestfather that I could be, trying
to be the best husband that Icould be and I never could.
Uh, and like the level of likecortisol and stress that was
just building up in me, like itwas to a point of where I'm
getting out of the army, I'mdone with it.
And then I, my wife, myaccountability partner, ranger

(01:15:32):
buddy, the love of my life, itsteered me back onto it and then
I really started like lookingback and like, okay, how can I
do this?
I have to reframe it as theharmony and that's how I kind of
see it of like I have theseareas of my life.
They're all spinning plates,each one spinning in a different
cycle.
Some need attention, some aregood where they're at and I just

(01:15:54):
have to be okay with that.
And I have to learn how youtalk about reading the water.
I have to understand which areaof my life is starting to
wobble and needs to beintentional, and then I'll move
out with purpose.
There's cycles to it and if youcan understand that, then you
can accomplish more, especiallywith more responsibility.

(01:16:15):
So I think you nailed thequestion, brother, and I guess
one of the last questions thatI'd love to do, because we talk
about harmony, right.
So tomorrow I'm going tochaperone my son's field trip
into DC and I volunteered forthat so I have 10 little
munchkins that I'm going to bewalking through the natural
history museum, so that shouldbe pretty entertaining.

(01:16:36):
What's next for you?
So you wrote two awesome books,you have an amazing coaching
company.
You've had such a historiccareer within the military,
especially the non-traditionalpath.
What are you working on now?
What keeps you inspired?

Speaker 1 (01:16:55):
Yeah, I think it's on a personal level and I think
it's being a good adult parent.
So, you know, we've got youknow, my daughter will graduate
the academy here in a year.
My son's about to start, youknow, college, and then we've
got a younger son who's about tostart high school.
And one thing that my wife andI have really always talked

(01:17:16):
about is, you know, we lovebeing parents and I pray and
hope that we've been, you know,kind of good, okay, parents, you
know, with these kids.
But now I want to be a reallygood adult parent and I want to.
You know, how do we make thattransition well, and how do we
continue to have a loving andtrusting and respectful
relationship with our, with ourchildren, as they now become

(01:17:38):
adults and they become their owndecision makers and and you
know people and and whatnot.
So I think, uh, on the horizonright now, that's the big one
for me personally.
Professionally, we'recontinuing to scale our company.
We would, we would love toscale our company in the next
level.
Uh, one of my desires is tohelp veterans get into the

(01:17:59):
business space and becomeentrepreneurs.
Uh, and so you know, we justit's a blessing to be able to
bring on people on our team whoare veterans, who want to get
into coaching and leadershipspace.
We've been able to do that.
So to continue to scale thecompany would be important.
And then, on my personal level,next 12 months is to get my

(01:18:19):
black belt in Brazilian JiuJitsu.
So I've, you know, I've got ablack belt in Taekwondo, I've
got a black belt in JapaneseJiu-Jitsu, I've got a black belt
in Judo, and none of thosecompare to the seven surgeries
and the five back procedures andthe 15 years I've had of doing
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
So that's one of mynon-negotiables.
I can skip my road march, I canskip my lift, but I'll tell you

(01:18:41):
what man, from 1130 to 130,mondays through Fridays, I am on
the mat doing BJJ.
That is my, that's my resonance, and so that's one of my
lifelong goals, because it'sabout practicing excellence,
it's about mastery, right.
And you know, as we say, youhave a white belt mentality and
you just keep rolling until thatwhite belt turns black.

(01:19:02):
So we're almost, we're almostthere, so there.
So that's kind of some of thethings I've got on on the
horizon oh, that's awesome,brother.

Speaker 3 (01:19:10):
that's inspiring too, of like understanding clearly
what you need to do for yourfamily, business, and then
personal too, like we justtalked about work, family, self,
a harmony, a resonance betweenit, and you blended that
perfectly.

Speaker 2 (01:19:31):
It's time for our final show segment that I like
to call the killer bees.
These are the same fourquestions that I ask every guest
on the Tales of Leadershippodcast Be brief, be brilliant,
be present and be gone.

Speaker 3 (01:19:43):
Question one what do you believe separates a good
leader from an extraordinaryleader Practice?
Question two can you recommendone book or a resource that has
helped shape you on your journey?

Speaker 1 (01:19:56):
Primal Leadership by Dan Goleman.

Speaker 3 (01:19:58):
Okay, awesome For someone just stepping into their
first leadership role.
What should they focus on nowto be successful?

Speaker 1 (01:20:07):
Character.

Speaker 3 (01:20:09):
Last one, this is the hardest one when can listeners
find you and how can they addvalue to your current mission
and also find your books?

Speaker 1 (01:20:18):
Yeah, wwwvanguardxxicom.
You can find my books on Amazon.
And if you'd like to come toone of our professional coaching
courses, if you'd like us tocome in and do leader
development and executivecoaching with your organizations
and teams, or if you're lookingfor a great keynote speaker,
then just head on over to thewebsite, wwwvanguardxxicom.

(01:20:42):
And again, we're here to serve,so that's our mission.
We love to transform leaders,forge excellence.
Andcom.
And again, we're here to serve,so that's our mission.
We love to transform leaders,forge excellence and win, and
we'd love to do that with you,and I appreciate you having me
on, josh, thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:20:53):
Anthony, this has been an awesome opportunity.
I'm glad that Brabs was able toconnect us.
I feel like I could have a muchmore of a bra conversation with
you, but that's the bestconversation.
It's one of the best podcasts,I think, that I've filmed
recently.
So thank you for taking thetime with me.
Please tell your wife Thank youfor allowing her to share you

(01:21:15):
with me for this podcast.
So I appreciate it, brother.

Speaker 1 (01:21:18):
Absolutely.
Well, I'll bring the bourbonand cigars, and you bring the
fishing poles and we'll go catchsome more rainbow trout and set
up a fire and tell stories.

Speaker 3 (01:21:25):
Awesome brother.
Hey, have a great night.
Thank you again All right, Josh.

Speaker 1 (01:21:28):
thank you, Take care.

Speaker 3 (01:21:32):
All right.
Team Phenomenal episode with DrRandall.
The only reason that I kind ofcut it a little bit short is
because I have a chaperone tripwith my son and looking at the
clock right now, it's about 10o'clock at night.
I have to be up at four in themorning, so I need to get some
level of sleep.
But time for an after actionreview.

(01:21:53):
What are the top three takeawaysthat I took from this podcast
episode?
There's a lot.
Some of them correlate withother episodes that I've had,
and that's okay because I thinkthat there are themes or threads
within leadership.
But this one stands out througha couple things.

(01:22:13):
The first one was the fiveprinciples.
Leaders, specifically in thiscase junior lieutenants, come
into an organization and kind ofquickly understand what they
need to do the five keyprinciples to make an impact as
quick as possible.

(01:22:34):
And the first one is to observe, understand what the written
rules are and what are theunwritten rules.
That's paramount and thedichotomy between those two is
also critical.
Every organization you work inthere's bylaws, right, there's a
culture, and those are writtendown somewhere.
You know what they are.
But there's unwritten rulesLike don't eat Shirley's pudding

(01:22:58):
in the refrigerator becauseshe's going to get absolutely
mad, which you should never doanyway.
Right, because you're apurposeful, accountable leader.
You would never do that.
But understanding what thoseare.
Number two understanding thosewho have influence.
Read any John Maxwell's books.
One of the easiest ways tolearn to make an impact quickly

(01:23:21):
in an organization is to reallysilence your mind, take a
tactical pause, observe yoursurroundings and what that O
means.
Observe your surroundings, andthe stop acronym is look around
and see who's talking and who'slistening.
Uh, when people are talking,find the people with influence
and then gravitate towards themand then pursue with purpose.

(01:23:42):
Number three is find yourterrorists.
I love that.
Every organization exactly whathe just said is going to have
20% of the people who hate you,20% of the people who love you
and 60% of the people that areindifferent.
Your goal is to capture as muchof that 60% as possible,

(01:24:03):
because the last 20%, no matterwhat you do, is never going to
trust or respect you, and that'sokay.
That is the burden ofleadership.
You need to understand that.
It's not a popularity contest.
What you are doing is tough, itis challenging, requires
complex decisions to be made,sometimes in the split decisions

(01:24:24):
, and there's always going to bepeople mad at you.
That's the burden of leadership.
But understand who thoseterrorists are in your
organization and weed them outas quickly as possible because
you can make a bigger impact.
And number four find yourknights.
I think those two should behand in hand.
Who are the people in the innercircle, and not in a bad way,

(01:24:44):
right, the inner circle meanspeople that you trust with your
life.
Me, as a combat arms background,I looked at everyone in my
platoon as a knight.
We would do individual soldiertraining.
We would do squad leveltraining.
We would do platoon leveltraining.
We would do company leveltraining, brigade all the way up
to battalion, live fires andjoint readiness training, center

(01:25:06):
sessions for 30 day fakedeployments, right To go to be
deployed.
So when the time came, everyonethat was on my platoon or
everyone that was in a companyof mine I trusted with my life.
That's what I mean by find yournight.
Don't find yes, people that youcan put in your circle that
will tell you what you want tohear.

(01:25:26):
Find people that will tell youwhen you're messing up, that
will hold you accountable butwill also be there and have your
back, especially whenchallenging times come up.
And then the last one is, andprobably the most important,
creating a coaching language andethics within your company.

(01:25:46):
Creating a coaching culture isabsolutely critical because if
you can do that, it does acouple things.
First of all, it shifts themindset from a company of
there's a problem, how am Igoing to solve it?
To a problem solvingorganization.
There there is a problem.
Here are three ways I think Ican solve it.

(01:26:08):
Let me talk to my leadershipand see which one is best.
When you coach, you're coachingindividuals, you're not coaching
problems exactly what Randalljust talked about.
And number two, you're helpingto foster new leader growth.
When you coach people, guesswhat?
They're going to fail.
Everyone is going to fail.

(01:26:29):
But when you come in with avery hard hand and you just
start nailing everyone to theground, right, that is going to
create a culture and a climateof fear.
You're not going to getanything accomplished.
So what do you need to do?
You need to have a coachingculture, allow people to fill in

(01:26:50):
an incrementally iterate onthat meaning to continue to
improve, and that's tonguetwister.
So say those two words threetimes fast.
And the last two majortakeaways I had and I'll kind of
keep these short is missioncommand Bottom line.
You cannot mitigate risk toabsolute zero.

(01:27:12):
The only way to do that is tosit in your nice climate
controlled room covered up in ablanket, watching the great
British baking show, becausethat's probably what I would do
with my wife, right, likethere's no risk in that.
Maybe we could potentiallyovereat some nice pastries.
But what I mean byunderstanding risk in life

(01:27:36):
there's so much risk that we doin a given day.
If you're in a leadership role,understand.
Your job is not to mitigatedown to absolute zero risk.
Your job is to understand whichones are critical and what are
the likelihoods of risk and whatare the consequences of the
risks.
Track those, mitigate them downto an acceptable level and then

(01:27:57):
go move out.
Go do your job, move the needleand move the company towards
success.
And the last one is balance.
I hate the word balance Becauseit is impossible and it only
creates a dopamine-infueledculture where we're always
trying to chase those 50-metertargets.
Balance is impossible.

(01:28:18):
If anyone tells you that youcan have balance in life,
they're lying to your face.
What you need to do is findharmony, and I always think of
this metaphor that I learnedfrom Ula, david Braun and, I
think, troy Amdahl they coinedthis metaphor, and it's
beautiful of a circus, right?
So you have this clown who'sspinning seven plates.

(01:28:39):
My plates happen to be centeredaround seven F's of faith,
family, fitness, fun, finance,field and fulfillment.
Those things, things areimportant to me.
And understanding that everysingle plate is spinning a
little bit faster or a littlebit slower than the others,
there's a point in time wherethose plates are just spinning
alone.
You don't need to do anything,you don't need to focus or be

(01:29:02):
unintentional, it's doing itsthing.
And there's times where thoseplates begin to wobble and they
require you to begin to spinagain.
That's the purpose of harmonyunderstanding that and building
it.
Understanding those cycles isgoing to make you so much more
successful, especially when yougain more title and influence.

(01:29:24):
Stop chasing balance, startchasing harmony and understand
in which areas your life iscritical and where you are
within those given spaces.
All right, team, do me a favorIf you like the content that I'm
pushing out there.
It would help me immensely.
If you like, share, subscribeto this podcast wherever you

(01:29:45):
listen.
I love to hear feedback fromyou guys.
So if you're listening to thisright now, go to tells the
leadership on buzzsprout orMcMillian leadership coachingcom
and leave me some feedback.
Follow me on social media attells of leadership.
If there's any other JoshMcMillions out there, I promise
you that is not me.

(01:30:06):
Apparently, people like tocatfish me.
I don't know why.
I am not that successful inlife.
I'm just very passionate aboutleadership.
But go follow me on socialmedia and if you want to support
the show, you can do that bygoing to tells, the
leadershipbuzzbrowncom, and I'malways looking for a show
sponsor that aligns with my corevalues.
As always, team, I am your host, josh McMillian, saying every

(01:30:30):
day is a gift.
Don't waste yours.
I'll see you next time.

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#106 Anthony Randall - Practicing Excellence: Aligning Passion, Purpose, and Precision

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#106 Anthony Randall - Practicing Excellence: Aligning Passion, Purpose, and Precision