#88 David Goode - (Ret) Air Force Colonel & Senior Consultant at Chick-fil-A - Tales of Leadership

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to the Tales of 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.
All right team, welcome back tothe Tales of Leadership podcast

(00:22):
.
I am your host, josh McMillian,an active duty Army officer
with over 16 years of leadershipexperience and a leadership
coach, and I'm on a mission toend toxic leadership by
promoting a better leader what Ilike to call a purposeful,
accountable leader, and I planto do that by sharing
transformational stories andskills.

(00:44):
And on today's episode, I amgoing to be bringing you a
transformational leader DaveGood.
Dave is a principal operationlead for Chick-fil-A in Atlanta,
partnering with operators andoperator groups to execute their
strategy and achieve theirvision and their goals.
He currently serves 30operators with 35 restaurants in

(01:06):
Charleston, south Carolina, andin Newport News, virginia, and
Virginia Beach, virginia.
Prior to his current role wherehe works at in Chick-fil-A, he
served over 30 years in the AirForce, retiring at the rank of a
colonel in 2022.
And during his Air Force career, he commanded at a group and at

(01:27):
squadron levels.
He has held various operationaland staff positions, including
logistics, strategic developmentand legislative affairs.
He volunteers as a board memberfor Georgia Veterans Service
Foundation.
You'll get that.
Theme throughout this episode isthat he is a servant leader and
he's also a mentor at theuniversity of georgia, and one

(01:49):
of the themes that I got throughthis episode, before we bring
dave on, is that he continuouslychases hard things.
He chases growth, bottom line.
Dave is a purposeful,accountable leader.
Let's bring him on to tells theleadership is a purposeful,
accountable leader.
Let's bring him on to Tales ofLeadership, dave.
Welcome to the Tales ofLeadership, brother.
How are you doing?

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Hey, I'm good man, I'm doing very well.
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yeah, it's an honor and privilege, and I mean every
time that I get to talk aboutsomething that I'm passionate
about, it's a good day.
And the pedigree that you havecoming onto this show.
I know it's going to be a greatepisode because you have a lot
of wisdom to share.
But, with that being said, justkind of take the time to
provide an overview to thelisteners of who you are.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
Again, thanks for having me.
This is very cool, lookingforward to the opportunity to
talk about leadership.
So a little bit about me.
So I currently work forChick-fil-A.
I'm basically a businessconsultant.
The title is operations lead,but essentially I'm an internal

(02:57):
business consultant and Isupport owner operators within
the company.
So I've been doing that forabout a year.
Transitioned from the Air Forcelast year, last October I
retired after a 30 year career.
So pretty, pretty abrupttransition there, going from

(03:18):
defense to restaurant.
I have no experience in therestaurant industry.
We can talk about that a littlebit too, if you'd like.
So yes, I did 30 years in theAir Force mostly sort of
logistics, did a little bit ofstrategy development and some
legislative work.
Things like that Married.
My wife and I have been marriedfor 23 years and we have two
daughters.
I have a daughter who is 19, incollege.

(03:38):
We live in Athens, georgia.
She goes to the University ofGeorgia, so it's kind of cool.
I've got my college kid 10minutes down the road.
Then I've got a 17-year-oldwho's a junior in high school.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
I have to ask the question because I was LinkedIn
stalking you, because I alwayslike to watch these podcasts.
You went to school at Georgiaand you went to school at Auburn
.
What's your favorite football?

Speaker 2 (04:04):
team.
I'm absolutely a Georgia man.
I don't know if you can see ithere.
I got the bulldog going thereYou're living in Athens, you
have to be all Georgia.
So I grew up in South Georgiawhere there's a lot of Auburn
fans, a lot of Georgia fans, soI was familiar with Auburn.
I was really a Georgia fan.
I enlisted for four years outof high school and then came

(04:24):
back, went to the university ofgeorgia because they had a good
like scholarship program there.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Well, then when?

Speaker 2 (04:29):
I went back on active duty.
This was back in the day.
This is really going to date mebecause, like every, everything
is online now.
You can get degrees fromanywhere.
Back then, like auburn was oneof the few schools that offered
a, an online or distance m and.
I was embarrassed to tell thestory, but they would send you.
You would record a videotape andyou would send the videotape

(04:50):
and it would let you do yourpresentations and they would
send you videotapes to theclasses.
It evolved to DVDs.
That's how advanced it was, butthat's how I got my MBA in 2002
from Auburn.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
That's amazing.
So when I spent most of my timeat forgive me now, I can't
think of the name I think it'sFort Moore.
It used to be Fort Benning, ifI'm wrong.
I'm sorry, but it was rightbeside Auburn, but it was in
Georgia, so there was alwaysthat.
You know who's the team in thatarea.

(05:24):
So when I saw you went to bothof those schools I was like, oh,
that'd be an interestingquestion to bring up.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Yeah, I play on it depending on who I'm talking to.
If I'm working with an Auburnguy, I'll play on the Auburn
side but, mostly it's Georgia.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
So you have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to
leadership, and what I wouldlove to kind of start off with
with just the question is is howdo you define leadership and
how, how has that changed kindof over the years?

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, yeah, that's a great question.
I don't know if I necessarilydefine it because I think, like
most things, it depends.
It depends on what you're doingand kind of what role you're in.
What I valued as a leader in themilitary is quite different
than what I value as a leader inthe corporate world, and really

(06:16):
with Chick-fil-A, which is kindof a bit of a niche within the
corporate world as well.
But I think, if I look atcommon threads amongst all of it
, to me it's having an outwardmindset and selflessness and
humility, being focused ontaking care of others and caring
about others more than you careabout yourself.
If, if I look back at theleaders that I had in the

(06:39):
military that I really reallyrespected and the ones that that
stand out to me, that I reallyreally respect and the ones that
stand out to me, they were veryselfless and they were very
humble and they were moreinterested in opening doors for
other people than for themselves, necessarily, and I see the
same thing in the corporateworld.
I see a lot more of it atChick-fil-A because that's the
kind of company it is, but stillit's that same thread of just

(07:05):
being focused more on othersthan on yourself.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
I love the term of outward mindset because so one
of the key problems that I'mtrying to address is the
difference between a toxicleader and a transformational
leader, and that's just anotherway of thinking about it.
Is that an outward mindset ishow can I add value to the team,

(07:29):
the organization, people aroundme, versus having, you know,
like an inward mindset, how canthe people and the team benefit
me to get to my goals?
I never, never, thought of itthat way.
I love that.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah.
So, starting off with yourleadership journey, I really
want to kind of take it back.
Is you know, why did you decideto join the Air Force in 1992?

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, yeah.
So I grew up.
It's not the greatest patrioticstory I would love to say,
because you know, I wanted todefend my country and I wanted
to serve.
There was an element of that.
But I grew up in a really smalltown, not a lot of opportunity,
and to me it was the vehicle outof that town and to grow Right.
So I was just like, okay, howdo I grow from this little small

(08:16):
town kid without a lot ofoptions?
And I thought the Air Forcecould give me some options and
it did so.
When, often you know, Ienlisted, I was an aircraft
maintainer.
I probably wasn't the bestmechanic in the world but I
really enjoyed the Air Force andI like the system of aircraft
maintenance and I like the ideaof you know what we were doing

(08:40):
and how it all fit together.
All that really interested me.
But as a young E2, e3, nobodyreally cared about my opinions,
right, just wanted me to go workon the airplane, which is not
the part I was the greatest at,I probably didn't have the most
passion about.
So I did my four years andactually I got out.
I got my DD214.

(09:00):
I didn't do any of the programsthrough the Air Force.
I just said I'm going to dothis on my own.
So I this was old school.
I picked up the phone.
I was calling university saying, hey, do you have a slot in
ROTC that I could get into andfortunately when I called the
University of Georgia they didand so I decided to pursue that.
So I knew I love the Air Force,I like the idea of it, but I

(09:23):
wanted to have more influence.
I wanted to have, you know,just to have a seat at the table
, I guess.
So so I went to ROTC, didanother two years, because I'd
already done like a few yearsdoing night school and things
like that while on active duty.
So I did two more years and then, commissioned as a lieutenant,
went back into the same careerfield, which in hindsight was

(09:44):
really fortuitous, because thenI'd laid that foundation, I knew
sort of how it worked at theground level.
Now I was getting into themanagement side of it.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
So, being prior service, there was always a
distinction between militaryofficers who walked that path
before and officers who kind ofjust came there.
They had one.
They had the institutionalknowledge, or at least the
foundational knowledge, to besuccessful.
But they also had almostinstant rapport, in a way, Like

(10:12):
when you talk to your, your teammembers, I guarantee you that
they automatically listened toyou, versus like a brand new
second Lieutenant who came inwas was kind of giving orders.
They had to really gain theinfluence from their, their
platoon sergeant, at least fromin the army.
We have our counterpart, whichis the platoon sergeant.
So I really want to kind of hiton that, because that that is a

(10:34):
key point.
And I did not know that youwere prior service.
So wow you, you got to the rankof E2 and then you go chase
hard things, figure out how toget a master's or a bachelor's
degree, not even using some ofthe programs you know, like
green to gold and other thingsthat I'm aware of.
Then you stay in 30 more yearsand retire at the rank of a

(10:55):
Fulberg Colonel.
That's an amazing career, sothat's awesome.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
I just want to say that yeah Well, thank you, I
appreciate it.
Yeah, I never really thinkabout it.
I guess when you say it likethat, you know it was a great
journey.
And I'll be honest, you know,probably like most of us, I
didn't.
If you had told me I was goingto do 30 years, even when I went
back in as a lieutenant, Iprobably wouldn't have believed
you.
But you know, I felt like aslong as I was continuing to grow

(11:23):
, then it was something I wantedto continue to do and you know
that took me all the way to thatpoint.
There's many reasons why Idecided to transition over to do
something else, but it allcomes back to growth Just
wanting to, you know, continuethroughout my career and
throughout my life to grow.
I think you know, if we stopgrowing, you know if you're not

(11:45):
growing.
you're dying, so I don't want tobe dying.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
So I always think of it from the mindset is that
you're either planted for areason either you feel that
you're being buried or you're.
But you have to kind of changethat mindset.
You're, you're planted for areason, and then you're planted
because you're growing and maybe, like in the season of life
that you're in, you don'tunderstand it at the time, but

(12:09):
you had the foresight and thekind of understanding to to to
chase that, so that that istruly awesome, like getting to
talk to someone who's had such ahistoric career.
But when you first joined, asyou know, second Lieutenant,
what were some of the challengesthat you had to face,
specifically as, like, a juniorofficer, and how did you?

Speaker 2 (12:29):
work through those.
Yeah Well, I mean, it'sprobably like any job where
we're, you know, especially aleadership position where you
have the authority, but youdon't necessarily have the
knowledge to be able toeffectively exercise that
authority.
You know, you do have to leanon other people, and I think
that's where sometimes somepeople can go astray a bit.

(12:50):
You know where you, you knowyou, you think you think you
have all the answers.
I think the key is realizingyou don't have the answers.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
Right.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
And you know.
You know that as well as I doand finding the people that can
help you.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
You know, find the answers, find the people that
have the answers, exercise theauthority in the right way and
depend on other people peoplewho have influence within the

(13:28):
organization, and then gettingclose to them to a way of where
you can use them as a soundingboard for some of your ideas,
but also being able to win themover to kind of help within the
organization.
It took me a long time to kindof fully grasp and understand
that.
I finally understood it when Itransitioned over into
acquisitions.
It took me a long enough timeto do it, but that's awesome.

(13:49):
Can you think of one specificstory when you were a junior
officer that you had to workthrough?

Speaker 2 (13:55):
Oh gosh, there were so many.
I came in in the aircraftmaintenance career field so you
get a lot of responsibilityearly.

Speaker 1 (14:02):
So I I don't know 440 people in my first job as a
second lieutenant now keep inmind I had a chief, an e9 it was
probably really running theplace.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
You know, um, it's just I, I was the, the oic, um,
but they, they do, the air forcedoes a really good job of
taking junior officers andpairing you with senior NCOs.
Yeah, I mean, I guess the storythat comes to mind when you ask
that.
So I was a first lieutenant atRAF Lake and Heath in the UK and

(14:36):
this was a case of learning tobe careful what you say and how
you exercise your leadership,because I'm riding around and it
was a golf cart or a gator orsomething.
I can't remember specificallynow, but I'm with one of my
senior NCOs.
I think he was a senior mastersergeant, e-8 at the time,
retired E-9,.
Dave Calandra, salt of theearth, great guy, still a good

(14:56):
friend.
We're riding around.
I think I'm a first lieutenant.
I may be a junior captain.
I junior captain, I can'tremember, but there were guys.
It's England, so it rains a lot, right?
So there were guys standingaround smoking outside of the
munition storage area to bombthem.
I mean it was a smoking area.
I mean it's legit what they'redoing with their smoke.
But they're getting rained onand so I'm like man, it's kind

(15:16):
of, you know I get where youknow we're moving away from
tobacco.
We don't want to encourage this.
It kind of sucks that theseguys are sitting out there in
the rain.
They're going to smoke anyway.
You know, it would be nice ifwe could take care of them.
It was just a passing comment.
The next day I come in andthere's this beautiful
glass-encased likeplexiglass-encased structure

(15:39):
where these guys smoke and itwas just smoke rolling out the
bottom of it because they wereall in there smoking and I'm
like, where did this come from?
So I go in and I see Dave,senior master at planner.
I said Dave, what happened?
He said hey, don't ask.
And so immediately I knew thisis not going to end well.

(16:01):
So it turns out they had done aspirit mission.
They got a 40 foot truck and atruck and a 40-foot trailer and
they had gone into base housingand stole one of the security
forces, reallocated one of thesecurity forces' gate shacks and
they had moved out of there.
He's like well, you said it'd benice if they had something to
work in.
I said, well, yeah, but Ididn't intend it's to steal a

(16:22):
gate check.
But it was.
He was exercising leadership.
I learned a lesson about beingcareful what you say yeah you
know, that's incredible.

Speaker 1 (16:33):
so I remember when I was in uh, afghanistan and my
platoon, we had an outpost andwe had everything gym equipment
wise other than a squat rack.
Yeah, our battalion commanderhad like this epic gym and they
had a crisp yard and the crispyard is like basically equipment
that would be getting put, sentout to outposts through our

(16:54):
logistics team.
So, opposite as I by my platoonis like we really want a squat
rack and I was thinking you knowwhat, I'm going to go find you
guys at Squat Rack.
So we take control, we go toour battalion cop and we
basically do like a missionwithin the cop to acquire and
find the Squat Rack.
And I go to the crisp yard, weacquire, we find the Squat Rack

(17:18):
and then my battalion S3, Ithink he's out of the army now.
The time was major, major bookout, retired as as a Fulberg
Colonel.
Book out meets me at the gatewhen we're getting ready to
leave and he's like Josh, Iwatched you the entire time on
the raid camera, I knew whatyou're doing and he's like go
put the squat rack back.
So it's, it's funny.

(17:39):
That story kind of reminds meof that.
Is that I?
I didn't necessarily saysomething.
But someone said ooh, you knowwhat?
I'm going to go find a squatrack for you guys and maybe get
in trouble along the way.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Right, right, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:54):
So how did your leadership style mature being a
junior leader and I know there'sthat pivot point of when we
become a field grade.
That's why I love talking topeople who have that military
experience how did yourleadership style kind of morph
or change as you made thattransition into a field grade
officer?

Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yeah.
So I think back to when I was ayoung CGO and you're looking
around at role models, you'retrying to find examples of how
to lead right and there weresome good examples.
There were some not goodexamples and early on the career
field I was in sort of has areputation for being a little

(18:38):
bit of a dog-eat-dog careerfield and I think I tried to
emulate some folks and Iprobably wasn't true to who I
was.
You know you try to be hard andyou know you try to be that
grizzled.
You know you're trying to belike the grizzled lieutenant,
colonel, or when you're thelieutenant and it's just not.
You know it's not genuine.

(18:59):
And as times change, the AirForce changes, you know the Army
changes, the culture changes.
You have to.
So as I got older I started torealize by seeing some other
leaders that I reallyappreciated.
So you don't have to be thatway.
You know you can.
You can lead and care forpeople at the same time.

(19:19):
And the next step was realizinghey, actually you can just be
yourself.
Realizing, hey, actually youcan just be yourself.
And that took a while for me toget to that, to be comfortable
enough.
Where you are good enough, youknow they put you there for a
reason and take the lessons youlearn good and bad from others,
but then be your own leader.
You know you can read booksabout leadership, you all these

(19:41):
things but ultimately beyourself and just just be true
to yourself.
And I think once I realizedthat I kind of turned a corner
as a leader.
I was more comfortable justbeing who I was and I didn't
have to be somebody else.
And I think that's where Itruly started focusing on the

(20:03):
welfare of others versus my ownadvancement.
And you know it's not aboutbeing in charge when I was young
.
It was about being in charge asI got older.
Like you know, you can be aleader and not be the person in
charge you can be the person incharge and not be a leader.
Yeah, but it takes a little bitof age and I don't know if it's
wisdom or what, but it'sexperience.

(20:25):
You learn that over time and Idon't know if it's wisdom or
what, but it's experience.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
You learn that over time.
I had a blessing, in a way, tohave a job that really set me up
for my two company commandsthat I had.
I was an observer coach trainerat Fort Polk, louisiana, and I
got to see I believe it was like26 different rotations.
I was embedded with thatcompany commander at the hip and
I got to see the good, know,the good, the bad and the ugly,

(20:49):
and I saw all these differenttypes of leadership styles.
But what I, what I did isexactly what you just said is I
just pieced them all together oflike, hey, this is what works,
this is what doesn't work.
And at the end I got to do adeliberate AR with each one of
the companies and I asked themthem, you know, sidebar
conversation what do you likeabout your company commander?

(21:09):
What are some of the policiesthat he has that he likes?
And I, when I walked into mycompany command my first one, I,
you know, I confidently knewwho I was and one thing that has
always kind of set me apart, um, at least in that company
command space, from a lot of mypeers is that I was not afraid
to be who I am and me nowworking in SOCOM as an APM.

(21:34):
I am not afraid to be who I amand I believe that when you can
do that, leadership doesn't haveto be lonely.
I don't know if you ever heardthat quote by John Maxwell.
Yeah, so many people, I believe, think that leadership has to
be a desolate job, that you'resitting on top of this
mountaintop and you're makingdecisions and everyone's going

(21:57):
to hate you and that's just theburden of leadership.
There's a portion of that, Ibelieve, at times of where you
have to make tough decisions andpeople are just not going to
like you for them.
But that's the responsibilitythat you have because of the
authority that you possess.
But I believe if you canauthentically be yourself, you

(22:20):
can enjoy leadership.
And when you can do that, whatyou just said is really the
sticking point you can open youreyes, see the whole battlefield
and realize, oh man, there arethese people out here and I'm
going to go make their day asbest as I possibly can.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah, I love that yeah, I I became less directive.
Yeah, the more.
The longer I was in and themore senior I became from a
position or rank perspective, Iwas less directive.
I was more collaborative.
I was probably less brash as aas a Colonel group commander

(22:54):
than I was as a captain flightcommander, you know.

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Oh, a hundred percent .
I remember me as a youngLieutenant.
I was like knife handedeveryone especially when I was
in Afghanistan, like infantrycombat arms, knife hand, knife
hand.
And as I'm getting older I don'tknow if I'm just mellowing out,
but I am so much more matureand I like the, the military, at
least in the infantry side.

(23:19):
We always say tactical patients.
I have developed the ability tojust have amazing tactical
patience and just let theenvironment kind of mature
around me.
So that's a nugget, being ableto mature and have that wisdom
to be in the military.
I guess in the army they havethis concept of mission command.
Do they have that in there?

Speaker 2 (23:41):
Yeah, yeah, that's it .

Speaker 1 (23:44):
Mission command, allowing other people within
your organization, giving themthe authority and the power to
operate, but you just keep themin the left and right limits of
making sure that they'reexecuting the intent, the
desired end state of what you'retrying to work towards.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yeah, absolutely my last job in the Air Force.
I was a group commander at ShawAir Force Base in South
Carolina.
So big F-16 base it's a combatcoded wing.
So I mean you're doing the realstuff, super busy, constantly
deploying Kind of a stressfuljob by nature.
But what I found so I'm thegroup commander, I've got five

(24:22):
squadron commanders.
I got a lot of energy out ofjust blocking and tackling.
I used to tell them I'm thegroup commander, I've got five
squadron commanders, I got a lotof energy out of just blocking
and tackling.
I used to tell them I'm not thequarterback you guys are, I'm
just I'm your left tackle, tellme where to push to clear out a
running lane for you.
And that's what my job is.
I'll use these for good to help, you know, to help you.
And and that's how I mean,there were some times you you

(24:43):
know you had to do some thingsthat were part of the job, but
for the most part that was theapproach and I got more energy
out of doing that than I everdid, out of just being in a
directive position, and ithonestly it helped me carry over

(25:04):
to my, to what I do now, whichis much more influence based
than it is authority based.
I had the position authority butI didn't exercise it in the way
that I could have.
I tried to push that down andpush that to the squadron
commanders.
I felt like that was a good wayto run an organization.
I had people say what's it liketo run a 2,000 person
organization?
I can't run a 5 personorganization.

(25:26):
They run a 2 000 personorganization.
I can't run a five personorganization.
They run a 2 000 personorganization.

Speaker 1 (25:30):
You know, I'm just there to help them that's a
great point, um, and you knowI'm experiencing it right now is
that I was a company commanderand it's it's funny, when you
were a lieutenant you wereleading more people than I was
in the army as a um, an hhccompany commander.
So a seasoned company commanderhad 250, some soldiers a normal

(25:53):
infantry battalion has like 600and some you.
You coming straight into theair force with over 400 um
airmen.
Uh, it is is absolutelyincredible with the just amount
of responsibility that you hadthrusted on you.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Yeah it was probably a very bad idea.
It probably should have beenmuch smaller than that, but we
made it work.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
One of the questions that I have is when you were in
that senior role, how did youkind of mentor the junior
soldiers that you had underneathyou, of grooming them to become
that next leader?

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Yeah, so that's the hardest part, right, because
when you're in that position thejob naturally pulls you away
from that, right, you know itcan pull you to your computer,
to your email.
You're constantly working with,with your boss and with your
peers.
So it's a real.
You have to be very intentionaland very deliberate, I think,

(26:53):
to make sure that you are makingthose connections.
Yeah, and the ways that we didit and I'll say we because it's
kind of me and the chief, our E9, we would make sure, you know,
anytime there were new peoplecoming to the organization, we

(27:14):
always spoke to them.
You know there was a class theyput together for new members, we
would make sure we did thatone-on-one and it wasn't the,
you know, like you said, theknife hand thing.
We tried to be genuine withthem and kind of explain from
our perspective you know howmuch we appreciate them and all
that, and then it's just a lotof.

(27:34):
You know, it's kind of oldschool.
But management by walkingaround, I mean just going around
and talking to people and justbeing present, no-transcript,
and showing them that you're notthis mythical picture on the

(27:56):
wall.
I mean, you're actually aperson.
But it's hard.
That was probably the hardestthing I found in the job was
that there was this constantpull to keep you from doing the
things that you really enjoyed.
I would say my last year Iprobably drove my exec crazy
because I had a back door in myoffice and I would sneak out of

(28:17):
it.
So I would do some emails and Iwould sneak out.
She's like where did you go?
I'm like I got in my car and Iwent and drove around.
I drove down to the weaponsload barn and talked to some
guys or did this or that.
I would just disappear becauseI could, you know, and I knew
that was the most important partof the job you know next to
training those or developingthose squadron commanders.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
I thought that was really important, so that is an
amazing nugget the higher you goin rank, the more you have to
fight for white space on yourcalendar.
And so often people, becauseit's hard, they don't try to do
that, they don't take the timeto genuinely believe.

(28:59):
That's when the culture beginsto sour, because the individuals
around you, unfortunately, theymodel and they emulate the
behaviors they see above.
So if you are taking the time,regardless of how busy you are,
to go and see time and I'll justuse soldiers because I'm in the

(29:21):
army of spending time withsoldiers.
They will make the time to do it, and that was always been a pet
peeve of mine is that seniorleaders not taking the time to
counsel junior leaders andspending the time of kind of
developing them.
We always talk about, you know,developing team members or
soldiers or airmen, but we neverdo it.

(29:43):
So kudos to you for forcingthat within your calendar, cause
it's hard and I guarantee youthat may have some very long
days, but it was worth it.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
And I, you know, I can only imagine like so I was.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
You know I was at group level, but I can only
imagine wing level.
It's more difficult.
You know once you get up abovethat and, truthfully, you know
once you enter the generalofficer ranks that looks really
hard.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
Yeah, your calendar is from five in the morning to
like 10 o'clock at nightsomething going on yeah, that
was part of when I was doing thecalculus on okay, when do I
retire?

Speaker 2 (30:18):
what you know what's next?
Part of it was, honestly, I'mlike this is probably the last
time I wasn't going to promoteto go, but I would have gone to
staff or something like that.
It's like this is probably thelast time I wasn't going to
promote to geo but I would havegone to staff or something like
that.
It's like this is probably thelast time that I have the the
autonomy to go, sneak out a backdoor and hop in my car and go,
go see, airman, I'm going to besitting in the cubicle at the
Pentagon or something.
I was like I just felt likethat I wasn't going to get a

(30:43):
chance to do that much anymoreand that, to me, was the
pinnacle of military leadership.
So I was like, okay, it'sprobably, you know, it's
probably time to go.
And now in my current role, nowI get to interact with young
people in restaurants, so I getfed by that same energy and
young leaders in restaurants andthings.

(31:03):
So so I'm getting to do thosethings that I really enjoy, just
in a different environment.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
All right, team, let's take a quick break from
this podcast and I want topersonally invite you to our
private Facebook community thatI call Purposeful Accountable
Leaders, or PALS, and PALS is acommunity dedicated to inspiring
and developing servant leadersby sharing transformational
stories and skills exactly whattells the leadership is all
about.
My goal is to build a communityof like-minded leaders that can

(31:32):
share lessons learned, askquestions and celebrate wins
when it happens.
And my mission in life is clearI will end toxic leadership by
sharing transformational storiesand skills, and you will find
countless transformationalleaders in this group, many of
them I have had the honor toserve with in the military.
If you want to find a communitythat can help you grow both

(31:54):
personally and professionally,we would love to have you.
You can simply searchPurposeful Accountable Leaders
on Facebook or click theLeadership Resources tab in the
show notes to join.
I am looking forward to seeingyou guys and continuing to grow
together on our leadershipjourney.
Back to the podcast, so I wouldlove to kind of hear, knowing

(32:14):
some of your background.
You worked in congressionalaffairs, so walk me through.
You do has an impact on the bigpicture.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
I got to be involved in some really cool things so as
a LL is what we call in the AirForce Legislative Liaison.
So I was the logistics,readiness LL guy.
So for everything logistics andreadiness, I was sort of a link
between, you know, congress,mostly the Hask and Sask, but
there were some you know anystates that had a military base,
in particular an Air Force base?

(33:04):
You know they?
you know, we had interactionswith them.
So I was the link between themand sort of the you know, the
senior levels of the Air Force.
So if, say, the Hask wanted towrite something in the NDAA on a
particular subject, I would gofind the experts over here in
the Pentagon and I'd find thestaffers over here at Congress

(33:26):
and I'd bring them together tomake sure that what they were,
you know, say, writing in theNDAA, didn't paint us in a
corner over here.
That's just one example of thekind of the linkages that you
drew.
But I really enjoyed it becauseand this leads to my career
choice that I'm doing now I hadfreedom and I had autonomy and I

(33:47):
was empowered.
The Air Force.
Basically the way I felt was wevalue what, we value your
opinions, we value your judgmentto be able to make important
decisions without having to goup the chain.
I was a was I a LieutenantColonel, I think, at the time,

(34:07):
but I was you know I was pullingtogether three and four stars
and senators and congressmen andhaving conversations with
mostly staffers but, you know,making decisions that had
long-term effects for the AirForce and so I got a lot of
satisfaction out of that.
I thought it was a really,really interesting job.
I did it for two years and Ithink that's about the longest

(34:32):
you want to do it, because thenyou've probably seen most
everything once and then youstart going through.
You can get cynical in thatenvironment.
A hundred percent Too long right, so I did it for two years.
It was enough to make medangerous, but it really helped
me for the rest of my careerunderstand how decisions were

(34:53):
made and the impact of what wewere doing at the tactical level
to the big picture.
So it was really, really great.
I wish everybody had theopportunity to at least you know
, have some experience with that.

Speaker 1 (35:07):
Yeah, that's an interesting kind of pathway
within the military and, as I'mseasoning, you know, selfishly,
that is a potential area one daythat I could go do.
So that's the beauty aboutpodcasting I can ask a retired
colonel of how they enjoyedtheir experience.
Yeah, yeah.

(35:27):
I thought it was great.
So walk me through yourtransition.
You spent 30 years, well,actually probably more than that
, probably closer to like 33years, 34 years, with your
enlisted time as an airman, andthen you get out.
How long did it take you tokind of find what you wanted to

(35:47):
do, that passion, to where youcurrently are right now?

Speaker 2 (35:51):
Yeah, yeah it is.
It's a process I knew.
So, if I go back, it was abouta year out.
I knew when I was going toretire, submitted my paperwork.
So now the clock's starting totick and I really didn't know up
front what I want to do.
I knew what I didn't want to doand that's where I started.
And I knew and we all approachit differently because you know

(36:14):
we're all wired differently Iknew, and we all approach it
differently because you knowwe're all wired differently I
did not want to do whateverybody else had done.
I didn't want to go into, youknow, government contracting.
You know I wouldn't want to bea government contractor.
I really didn't want to go intoaviation.
And it's not that I didn'tappreciate or enjoy those things
.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
I just felt like I didn't run its course.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
You know I was done with it.
I just felt like I didn't runits course.
You know I was done with it.
And that growth thing we talkedabout, I didn't really feel
like, you know, going to companyX and you know, you know,
running a program or somethingwas going to be growth and so I
knew I didn't want to do that.
I, my background was a littledifferent, so I didn't have a
technical background.

(36:54):
A lot of folks in my careerfield are engineers or they have
technical backgrounds and itlends themselves to doing that.
I had a business background, anundergrad business.
I'd done MBA.
I did some internships while Iwas in the Air Force with UPS
and Microsoft and differentfolks.
I knew I was kind of interestedin dabbling into that world.

(37:16):
So I was looking atopportunities.
I'm like okay, so I know Idon't want to do government
contracting.
What do I want to do?
I looked at first to.
You know I was in central SouthCarolina.
I looked at Charlotte.
I said, well, charlotte's a bigbanking town.
Maybe I'm going to do bankingright, pretty naive.
So I was looking at location andjob.

(37:37):
I'm sorry, I was looking atlike job, company location and I
had a friend who was a retired07.
He said, man, you're doing itall wrong.
He said you need to flip thescript, figure out where you
want to live, where you're goingto be happy living, and then
let let the job stuff workitself out.
That's a pretty risky way tolook at things, but I'm going to
try it.
So I had a little faith and Idid.

(37:58):
I decided you know, we live inAthens, georgia.
That's where I'd gone to school.
I'm like, okay, you know, Ilove Athens, I want to go back
there.
Then our daughter later made thedecision to go to UGA.
But then I'm like okay, I'mmoving to a college town.
What am I going to do?
Right?
So I narrowed down.
I said I'm going to be inGeorgia.
What companies are big inGeorgia?
You know, I have this wholeprocess, this system I've worked

(38:20):
out.
But then the way I actually gotthe job was a friend of a
friend, like like normallyhappens, right, a friend of a
friend introduced me to someonethat was a retired Air Force
colonel and he happened to workfor Chick-fil-A.
And he happened to work forChick-fil-A.
Chick-fil-a wasn't even on myradar at the time, but he

(38:43):
mentored me just as a retiredguy that had walked the path
before me.
After about six months he saidhey, are you interested in doing
what I do?
And what he did included allthe things that I enjoyed as a
group commander being a coach,being a mentor, being an advisor
, being a problem solver.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
But it didn't include all the things that I didn't
enjoy.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
I wasn't going to run a large, you know I wasn't
going to have.
I have no direct reports andI'm an individual contributor,
but I get to use influenceauthority.
I thought, okay, that actuallysounds interesting.
So the more I learned about it,the more I got excited about it
and realized that, yes, therestaurant industry is
completely different than themilitary, but at its essence,
leadership is the same thing.

(39:24):
It's still about solvingproblems.
I don't know if luck's theright word, but there was.
There was a little bit of luckor a divine intervention or
whatever it happened to be, butit was also a a lot of, a lot of

(39:44):
hard work too, because if youare going to go into con
government, contracting oraviation or something as a, as
an air force guy, well you'vegot contacts.
You know all your friends arethere all the people you work
for there.
You're going to go corporate.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
It's doable but you have to build that network in
like a year.

Speaker 2 (40:05):
It's a lot of using LinkedIn.
I use the heck out of LinkedInjust to do informational
interviews and get to knowpeople.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
Find out what.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
I didn't want to do Talk to people that are doing
certain things and say how doyou like it, what do you like
about it, what do you not likeabout it?
What's a day look like in yourlife and you go, okay that
sounds great, or scratch thatoff the list, Cause that doesn't
sound like something I'd wantto do.
You know, and you just doresearch.
I felt like looking, figuringout your second career was a
full-time job in and of itself.
So that's your.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
if you're doing it right, you're very, very busy as
you're preparing to transition.
You know it gives me anxietybecause one day I'm going to
have to put on, take off theuniform and luckily that is not
going to come anytime soonbecause, like you, I still have
a deep passion of what I do andI absolutely love what I'm doing
and I'm I'm, I'm seeing theactual impacts, and that that's

(41:00):
the critical thing is that whenI stop seeing the impacts and I
stop enjoying what I'm doing,then that's when it's time to
hang it up.
But I still love what I'm doing.
And I noticed a themethroughout this whole whole
episode, and everyone has atheme.
Your theme is chasing growth.
Yeah, e2, you go get yourbachelor's degree and you figure

(41:22):
out a way to do it not takingany of those you know
traditional paths that mostpeople take, and you continue to
just chase growth, chase growth, and then you get your master's
degree through a very archaicway, which, which was hard.
But I love that is that you hadthis burning desire to continue

(41:43):
to grow and now where you're atin a very seasoned, you know
position through a lot ofexperience, you still have that.
How did you maintain that?

Speaker 2 (41:54):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know, man, it's just like you
said, it's the desire tocontinually grow.
I know, when I went toChick-fil-A it's small things,
right, and this is going tosound silly, but I had always
been like an Android guy.
I never touched Apple.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
But when I went to Chick-fil-A they offered me.
I said I'm going.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
Apple?
Yeah, because I want goingApple.
Yeah, because I want to trysomething new.
I just want to stretch myself,and now's the time to do it, if
you're going to try new things.
My kids thought I was losing mymind because when I was in the
Air Force, I kept myself inbetween some pretty tight
parameters.
When I retired, they're likeDad, you're wearing orange shoes
.
What are you doing?
You've never worn orange shoesbefore.
I'm like I don't know.
They look fun.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
I'm a Crocs man now.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
That's right, I'm getting outside of my zone.
So you know, it's not alwayseasy Because you go from being
the person I won't say I had allthe answers, but generally when
you've been doing something fora while, you either have the
answers or you know where to getthem.
And now I may be the oldest guyin a room but I have the least

(43:03):
amount of knowledge in the roomand you just have to be
comfortable with that.
You go okay, that's fine, I'mgoing to work my way up to this.
And that's where you get thatchallenge every day and you get
that little fire in your bellyto learn and to pedal a little
faster.
So some days I feel like thatlieutenant all over again trying
to learn, you know, and at 51years old I feel like that's

(43:27):
healthy to have that drive.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
I think it's healthy and I think it's something that
we as humans kind of crave in away, so we don't have that level
of complacency.
And I had that within theinfantry is I saw what my career
was going to be and it was juststagnation, like, yeah, I was

(43:50):
going to be able to work withsoldiers, which I absolutely
loved doing, but I saw my careerpath and a lot of the work that
I had to do and it just nolonger excited me.
But I knew I wanted to stay inthe military because I love to
serve and I read a great book, Ithink it's called the A Team
and it talks about S-curve.
So when we do something, wealways experience resistance and

(44:13):
we have slow growth.
But when we start to continueto do something consistently, we
have slow growth.
But when we start to continueto do something consistently, we
have exponential growth.
And at a certain point in timewe choose to either stagnate and
stay in that current position,which I think a lot of people do
, because they feel comfortable,or they do what you do, dave,
and you chase something else andyou continue to do that and

(44:36):
it's building upon each otherevery single time to where
you've had a highly successfulcareer and you probably shared a
lot of fruits from those labors.
But the amount of work andethics that has kind of went
into that.
And the other thing, too that wehaven't even talked about is
the character and reputation.
So you, you talk aboutnetworking, networking,
networking.

(44:56):
It's hard to do that when youhave such.
You don't have the bestreputation Right, and being 30
plus years in the military andI'm learning this is that my
name already carries weight.
When I walk into a room, evenif someone hasn't met me, they
know who Major McMillian is.
Probably they have a goodunderstanding of who I am and

(45:18):
that already formulates theiropinions of them.
And that's a nugget that Iwanted to go back to.
You never know when you'regoing to be working for, for
someone or with someone, and I'mnot saying that from a way of
trying to manipulate thesituation.
Yeah, but going back to thepoint of just being yourself
don't be someone that you're not, and everything will work out

(45:38):
in the end.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
Right.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
Right, well, I love that brother, so I got to ask
you Chick-fil-A.
Why are the lines so long?

Speaker 2 (45:48):
The food's so good.
I hope that's the reason.
I hope that it's fast andaccurate.
I hope that it's clean and safe.
I hope that you get genuinehospitality and the food tastes
good.
All those things combined iswhat brings people in the door.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
It's what brings me in the door?

Speaker 2 (46:05):
I'm still a customer.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
I'm telling you right now, chick-fil-a is my favorite
restaurant One because italigns for fast food, it aligns
with my core values of what Iwant my family to kind of be
surrounded by.
But you always know what you'regoing to get.
You're going to get greatservice, you're going to get
great food and exactly what youjust said, and it's going to be
a great facility.
And what always blows my mindis just the system.

(46:28):
It can look like it'sabsolutely crazy, but you're,
you're probably going to havequick service.
So I've drove across thecountry now like four or five
times and I only stop atChick-fil-A.
My kids are like McDonald's.
I was like, no, no, we're goingto Chick-fil-A, I'll pay that
little bit extra because I knowwhat I'm going to get.
Yeah to get.

Speaker 2 (46:47):
Yeah, you know the bathroom is going to be clean.
You know you're going to get.
You know people are going totreat you well.
I will tell you one thing youmade me think back to that I
didn't mention before when wewere talking about why.
You know why I went toChick-fil-A.
One thing that I did learn whenI was researching you know,
retiring and transitioning andthe areas where people tend to

(47:07):
have problems a lot of peoplewhen they go from the military
to the corporate world.
It's purpose.
You know, you've had purposeand you've been in a
principles-based, values-basedorganization your entire career.
And now you go somewhere whereit's about, you know,
stockholder wealth.
You know, and it's about profit.
And so I was thinking where canI go in the corporate world

(47:33):
that's still principles basedand values driven?
And, man, did I land in theright spot?
I mean, chick-fil-a.
Is that in spades?
I won't turn this into a bigChick-fil-A session.
I'm not representingChick-fil-A or the Cathy family
here, but you know, the firstthree words in the Chick-fil-A's
purpose statement is to glorifyGod.
Yeah, Wow.

(47:54):
You know, I don't know of anyother company that that's bold.

Speaker 1 (47:59):
You know it's bold yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Yeah, and you know, it's.
They say it's a people companythat sells chicken.
You know, which is a littlecampy when you first hear it,
but then when you do it, you go.
Actually, that's true, they doa lot of things in the community
, they do a lot of things forpeople.
Chicken's, the vehicle thatdrives it, whether it was
Chick-fil-A or whether it wassomewhere else.
I was looking for somethingthat filled that void so I

(48:22):
wouldn't find myself going.
Why am I getting up every day?
Why am I doing this?

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Those are some of the questions that I really wanted
to dig into is because everysingle time I come to
Chick-fil-A, the quality of theperson who works there is always
top notch, and I know there'ssome magic there.
Maybe you can't share theproprietary, like hiring, but
when you're looking for theculture of how you're hiring

(48:48):
someone, what is that selectioncriteria?
Because I guarantee you there'ssome wisdom there.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
Yeah.
So what's interesting and whatI learned is you know you have
Chick-fil-A the company, andit's a franchise arrangement, so
you have owner operators thatown their restaurants and so
they're responsible for hiringso the person, the team member
that's taking your order and ispreparing your food they're
actually employees of that owneroperator.

(49:16):
I think where the real magic is, chick-fil-a Inc hires really
good operators and they reallyare focused on supporting.
Everything is subordinated tosupporting that operator.
So so my job specifically is agood example.
So I have 29 operators with 36restaurants, because some have

(49:38):
more than more than one, but butmy entire existence is to to
serve them.
I'm there to help solveproblems for them, almost like
when we talked about legislativeliaison yeah we hear that
go-between between Congress andthe Air Force.
I'm that go-between between thatbusiness owner out in that
community and Chick-fil-A Inc.
And I'm there to serve them andto help them clear those

(50:02):
roadblocks and be that lefttackle and do all the things to
solve problems for them, and Ithink that's the real magic.
So if you're taking care ofthem, they're taking care of
their team and if they're takingcare of their team, their team
is taking care of thosecustomers and so it really does
work very well.
It's almost that invertedpyramid that we still talk about

(50:25):
in leadership a lot, but itreally is that way, but it
really is that way.
That's how things operatewithin Chick-fil-A.
So I think that's and it's notalways the case.
I mean, everybody you hire isnot going to be the all-star,
but for the most part I thinkthe process works very well from

(50:45):
Inc to the operator, to theleadership, to team members,
customers.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
You know ultimately it's all about the customer, but
if you take care of everyonealong that chain, you know
they'll pay that forward I have,I have a boss right now, um,
and he always kind of defineshimself as a traffic cop, if you
kind of think about that likehe's not necessarily doing the
programatics and making thingshappen, but he is removing

(51:11):
barriers from us and being theconnector to allow us to do our
jobs more freely and in turn, wecan take care of our people
more, and I love that.
And now that you brought it up,I can see that connection
between the congressionalaffairs.
And then now what you're doing.
And do you say 26 differentoperators, that you're Twenty?

Speaker 2 (51:35):
nine, twenty nine operators, thirty six
restaurants, yeah, wow, yeah.
And so the three parts of thejob.
I'm there Three hours.
I'm a relationship builder, I'ma resource broker and I'm a
restaurant specialist.
I will admit that third one.
I'm not there yet.
I'm learning to be a restaurantspecialist, resource broker.
I'm learning figuring out whereto help connect the operator to

(51:59):
the resources at Chick-fil-A.
But the relationship builderthat part I've gotten pretty
decent at.
I've basically become.
I mean, they're my friends,these guys that are running
these restaurants.
That gives me energy.
It takes a little bit of what Idid as a group commander and
some of the things I've learnedalong the way to get to that

(52:19):
point.
It takes a little bit from whatI did as a congressional
liaison guy.
It puts it all together.
It's just a really good fit.
It's really neat how it workedout to be able to do that this
season in my life.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
I think it's funny, like how it's true in anyone's
life, if you really genuinelykind of look back, of how the
jobs that we've had and theevents that we've had shape
where we are right now.
I can't remember, I think it'sProverbs 19, 21 or 21, 19.
I have to look at it of wherethe we, we can take basically

(52:56):
our own path, but the Lorddetermines our steps.
And I got to go back and I gotto look at that exactly so I can
find it.
But nothing happens withoutsomething in the past.
I guess, if that makes sense,everything that you've done has
led you to the point that youare right now and it's
interesting to kind of see thatfrom my perspective of getting

(53:18):
to talk to someone you knowamazing like you that have done
all these awesome things andseeing that connection, that
thread and that's what I loveabout leadership is that there's
always a thread.
Maybe we're not going to get topoint A to point B in a perfect
line, it might be a pinballmachine, but there's still a
thread connecting us there.
And as long as we continue tochase hard things and we just

(53:39):
try to grow every single daybecause I remember us starting
this podcast episode off, as,like I'm a restaurateur and I
have no experience inrestaurant- and I see the theme
of you chasing hard things andall it is is just putting
yourself out there, beinguncomfortable but being
comfortable with that.

(53:59):
Because, when we are unusual, westretch ourselves.
So I would love to know yeah,30 plus years in the Air Force,
Now you're running the severalor supporting several
Chick-fil-A's.
What was the one common themeand I think you kind of hit on
it now but the one common themethat allowed you to be
successful in the Air Force?

(54:21):
That is, allowing you tocontinue to be successful in the
private industry?

Speaker 2 (54:25):
Yeah, I'd say it's a couple of things.
I mean, it's self-awareness,right, knowing what drives you
and what gives you energy, andit's that what you just said
being comfortable with, beinguncomfortable, and then the
desire just to continue to grow.
You know, I think those thingsbeing aware of what gives you

(54:48):
energy and what, where yourpassions lie I think is very
important and I don't thinkenough people probably spend
time thinking about that asthey're transitioning.
I had a lot of nights sittingaround fire pits with a cigar in
my hand thinking about who am I.
You know it sounds silly, butit's worth the time to think

(55:09):
through that.
you know, and when you, the mostbeautiful thing we get in the
military is terminal leave, andI always encourage people to
take all the terminal leave theygive you, because that's that
time for you to sit and thinkand really reflect on where
you've been and where you'regoing For me that was very
helpful to build thatself-awareness, and that's where

(55:29):
I realized what you pointed outearlier is that I very helpful
to build that self-awareness,and that's what I where I
realized what you pointed outearlier is that I just want to
continue to grow, you know, Ijust don't want to, I don't want
to stagnate, and so yeah, yeah,that that to me, those are
probably the three things thatthat I think are common threads
for me.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
There there's an acronym that I created, cause
I'm an infantry officer andwe're wizards at creating
acronyms.
I think anyone in the militaryis but T-Ball.
So thoughts, beliefs, actionsand legacy it all starts with
how we think.
If we can spend the time toquiet our minds, here's another
acronym STOP, take a silence,take a tactical pause, observe

(56:03):
and then pursue with purpose,and if we can do that, we can
have alignment in our lives.
But I think too often we'realways wanting to stay busy but,
we don't gain any traction.
A tire can be really busylooking right, spinning in the
mud, but it doesn't gain anytraction.
You gain traction because youspent the time thinking about

(56:25):
exactly who dave is, and I think, in the too, that that is
absolutely pivotal, because youconfidently knew who you were
throughout this entire time andthat allowed you to show up, to
be authentic.
Leaders have to do that.
They have to spend the time,not necessarily what your
leadership style is, but who areyou Like, what do you care
about?
What is your purpose?

(56:45):
What is your passion?
Why do you get up every morning?
And I went to an amazing churchwhen I was in Alabama from
Chris Hodges Church of theHighlands okay.
I love that church and he talksabout Christmas morning.
Like when you wake up onChristmas morning, you're happy
because you know what you'regoing to be doing that day.
You're going to be eating someof the best food in the world,
opening some underwear and socksbecause that's what your wife

(57:08):
got you and it's going to beawesome and doing all these
things right.
What?
What's your christmas morning?
And then, when you can findthat you have alignment and
that's what makes you happy andI can see it on your face is
that you have alignment in yourlife right now.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
Yeah, absolutely, and I would add one thing and I'll
steal a quote from the book ifyou've ever read, briango is the
Enemy.
Your ego can absolutely be yourworst enemy as you transition
careers.
You go from a place where youwalk in a room and you have
instant credibility because ofwhat you're wearing and your

(57:46):
name tied to that and your title.
The faster you can get pastthat, shed that and become you
again, the better you are.
You won't see a lot in my house, Actually the things you see
here about all I have that's outand invisible because I'm

(58:08):
focused forward and I'm notfocused on the past and for me
it helps me to get past that egothing.
So you're going to go from thatperson.
When you walk in the room, youhave instant credibility to you.
Walk in a room, you have nocredibility.
You have to earn it from day one.
Now you may have some peopleknow where you came from and all
that sort of thing, but you do.
You have to earn it from dayone.

(58:29):
So if you rely too much on yourego, that might be a difficult,
a difficult path to walk.
So I always suggest to people,if the one read ego is the enemy
, you know and and to try to tryto work through that stuff as
you transition.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
I'm going to have to remember that because in the
closing segment of my podcast Ialways ask a question and I'm
pretty sure you already answeredit with that book.
But I'd love to know now, kindof transition, looking forward,
where are you aspiring tocontinue to grow?
I've saw that theme.
Where do you want to go?

Speaker 2 (59:08):
Yeah, yeah, so I'm still figuring that out.
So the job I'm in right nowI've been doing it for 14 months
and I'm nowhere near competentyet I I I'm getting there, but I
still have a lot of growth togo.
So so I'm still focused on,like, my five-year plan in my
mind.
I just want to become the bestobsolete I can be.
You know, um beyond, I don'tknow yet.

(59:30):
I don't know, and I'm givingmyself some grace to not know.
Do I want to continue on andcontinue doing what I'm doing
for another five years or so?
Maybe Don't want to grow withinthe company?
Maybe Don't want to dosomething else, maybe I just
don't know.
And so I'm allowing myself somegrowth time to figure that out
and not to put things.

(59:51):
As long as I'm growing, josh,that's really all I'm concerned
with at this point.
The beautiful thing about whereI'm at now and having already
had a career is I'm not tryingto climb any ladders.
There's no position I'maspiring to.
It's just will I enjoy what I'mdoing, will it give me energy,

(01:00:13):
will it challenge me, and if not, I'll do something else.
But right now it does all ofthose things.
So I don't know.
We'll circle back in five yearsand have the conversation again
.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
Yeah, that'll be interesting and I totally plan
to do that.
So I will still be makingpodcasts.
In five years, we're going tohave this conversation again.
Yeah, either join the Air Force, make a transition out of the

(01:00:49):
military.
What would be one of thebiggest pieces of advice that
you would give to them as theynavigate those waters?

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Yeah, just put in the work, do the work.
Understand that your transitionyear is probably going to be
the busiest year of your entirecareer.
It's like the most complicatedPCS you've ever been through.
We just moved, yeah.
Yeah, we all think when you'reat the end you'll be able to
breathe easy.
But it's good because you'regoing through a lot of things.

(01:01:20):
You're going through thingsemotionally, spiritually,
possibly.
You know you're everything inlife too.
I lived more life in betweenlast September and now than I
think I had the previous.
You know, 30 years of my career, just because so many things

(01:01:40):
happen in a short time.
Now, having said that, I had adaughter getting ready to go to
college, I had another kid todrive, I was turning 50.
I mean, there's a lot of thingsyou're dealing with that
normally, any one of thosethings would be a significant
emotional event.
Well, they were coming at melike every week something new
was happening, so I didn't havetime to sit around and, you know
, focus on it too much.
It was just like all right, youknow you got to work hard, you

(01:02:03):
know you got to put in the time.
So just be willing to put inthe time, put in the work, do
the research.
You know, that's probablythat's, that's probably the best
advice I could.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
I could give it's time for our final show segment
that I like to call the killerbees.
These are the same fourquestions that I ask every guest
on the Tales of Leadershippodcast Be brief, be brilliant,
be present and be gone.
Question one what do youbelieve separates a good leader

(01:02:34):
from an extraordinary leader?

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
I'm going to repeat myself because it's an outward
mindset.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:02:41):
I love it.
So question two, and this isthe one I think you've already
answered, but we'll see what oneresource that you could
recommend to our listeners.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
Yeah, but lots of books.
But I guess, if I have tonarrow those down to sort of
this, this transition seasonseems to be what we're talking a
little bit about right now is Ilove Ryan Holiday books Ego is
the Enemy.
There's another, the Obstacleis the Goal.
Those are probably two of thebooks that I got the most out of
as I was actually while I wasin command.

(01:03:13):
I use those as well and theyhelped me from that aspect, and
then it also helped me as Itransitioned to doing something
else.
Wow, and then I'm going to plugLinkedIn because I LinkedIn is
an incredible resource if you doit the right way.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
Yeah, I will second that and for one of the reasons
you know, you had no idea whoJosh McMillian was.
Josh McMillian sends you amessage.
Hey, sir, I'd love to have youon the podcast.
No other platform would I havethe ability to find amazing
people like you to do that, andI have some really high caliber
people on the show and I meetthem on LinkedIn, so I'm

(01:03:50):
grateful for that.
The third question if you couldgo back in time and give your
younger self a piece of advice,what would it be Be more?

Speaker 2 (01:04:02):
focused on.
I would say be less focused onwhat position you'll achieve or
who you know where you'll be inthe chain of command, and more
focused on taking care of people.
I figured it out later in life,but I wish I had focused on
that in my earlier years andunderstood that as I was growing

(01:04:22):
as a leader.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
I love that.
So the last one is if someonelistens to this podcast and they
genuinely resonate and they canreach back out to you, how can
they find you?
And then, what is the best wayto add value to your current
mission set?

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Yeah, so you can reach me on LinkedIn.
I actually have.
I have a lot, of, a lot ofveterans do that already and I'm
always willing to talk, to talkto anybody and help the next
person in line.

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
There's a lot of people out there who.

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
I don't want to disparage anybody, but there's
some for-profit areas in theveteran transition space and I
would just say there are enoughpeople out there who aren't
looking for profit that can helpyou.
So pursue those, and I wouldlike to consider myself as part
of that.
I'm always willing to help thenext, next person.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
And I'm sorry.
What was the second question?
No, you.
How can they add value to you?

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
Yeah, how can I add value?

Speaker 1 (01:05:23):
How can our listeners add value to you?

Speaker 2 (01:05:26):
Add value to me.
I mean I'd love to hear aboutanybody's journey and where
they're going, and I'm a I'm alifelong learner.
So you know, I would just justlove to connect with as many
people out there, whether it bein the military transition space
or somebody joining themilitary or or in the middle of
their career.
You know, I just enjoy gettingto know the network and learn

(01:05:51):
from them as much as I hope tobe able to help teach them as
well.

Speaker 1 (01:05:55):
Dave, it's an absolute honor and a privilege
to be able to record a podcastwith you and be in a room in
this space with someone who'shad such a wealth of experience
through being in the Air Forceand now running a successful
business in Chick-fil-A.
I'm humbled for the opportunity.
I learned a lot.
I know that anyone who listensto this episode will learn a lot

(01:06:18):
, so just thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
Yeah, no, thank you, my friend.
I appreciate it, had a greatconversation and look forward to
continuing to follow you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
I appreciate it, brother.
Well, have a great night.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
All right, you too.
Thanks a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
All right team.
What an amazing episode withDave.
I personally learned a lot andI wrote again multiple pages and
it's really hard for me todistill down what the top three
takeaways, but it's time for ourafter action review.
So what are the top threethings that I?
It's time for our after actionreview.
So what are the top threethings that I learned from Dave

(01:06:55):
for this episode?
And the first one that I learnedis you have authority when
you're a leader, but you do nothave the knowledge.
And it kind of goes back to oneof the last things he talked
about, and that was ego.
As a leader, you have to bewilling to let go of your ego,
and what better examples thanhim sharing his leadership

(01:07:18):
journey.
He spent over 30 years in theAir Force and had to reinvent
himself, getting out of themilitary and he retired the rank
of a colonel.
And to be able to let go ofthat rank, to humble yourself
and understand that you're notthe smartest person in the room,
requires a healthy dose ofhumility.

(01:07:39):
And as a leader, you have tounderstand that you may have
authority but you don't have theknowledge, and understand that
there's other people that aremuch smarter than you, and you
have to have humility.
Let go of your ego.
The second thing that I learnedis there was a theme throughout
this episode talking aboutdiscovering who you are,

(01:07:59):
understanding what your purposeand what your passion is, and
that's a theme throughout all ofthese.
But, thinking about it in thislens, if you don't know who you
are, confidently know who youare, then you can't lead
authentically.
And there's a concept that JohnMaxwell talks about is that
leadership does not have to belonely.
You don't have to be sitting onthe mountaintop just talking to

(01:08:22):
yourself, right?
That's not what leadership isabout.
It's about spending time withthe people and it's about being
able to create positive changeand drive culture where people
want to come to work.
But if you don't confidentlyknow who you are, what you're
naturally going to do is emulatethe behaviors of other leaders
that you have around you, andmaybe those behaviors are not

(01:08:45):
the best.
So understand who you are, soyou don't emulate bad behaviors,
because one of the things thatI'm trying to end is toxic
leadership habits, and one ofthe best ways to do that is to
understand who you are andunderstand what your purpose is
and what your passion is, andask the question do I know who I

(01:09:08):
am, what are the core valuesthat I hold near and dear to me,
and do I emulate those corevalues every day?
And the last one that I wrotedown and this was the entire
theme with everything here ischase growth.
And I brought up a metaphor ofan S-curve.

(01:09:28):
When we hit resistance up frontwhen we try something new, it's
going to be challenging.
We're probably going to fail,and fail pretty epic, but you
never truly fail if you don'tstop trying.
Just keep moving forward.
Maybe you have to take a couplesteps back, but just keep
moving forward and eventuallyyou're going to learn it and
you're going to do well.

(01:09:49):
And to share a vulnerable point,I just started a new job in
August.
It's the time I'm recordingthis, it's November the 2nd.
Right now.
Do I fully understand what I'mdoing?
No, but I go in every singleday with an open heart and an
open mind and I want to learnand I have that curious,
coachable, committed mindset,the rule of three C's, and

(01:10:10):
that's life.
You are never going to know allthe right answers and life is a
series of discomfort, but inthat discomfort is where we
learn to grow.
So stop chasing complacency andcontentment and chase growth,
because when you put yourself inpositions of growth, you will

(01:10:34):
naturally stretch yourself, andall you're doing when you
stretch yourself is makingyourself better.
You're a better leader foryourself.
You're a better leader for yourfamily.
You're a better leader for yourteam, your organization and
your community.
Hey, team, do me a favor If youlike what you heard so far,
make sure you share this podcast, you give it a five-star review

(01:10:55):
on whatever platform you'relistening and go support this
podcast episode.
You can go totalesofleadershipbuzzsproutcom
and actually go support thischannel, and everything that I
make from this podcast goesdirectly back into that.
That's a promise.
I'm never going to use it foranything else.
It's always going to be makingbetter content for you guys,

(01:11:18):
because I am busy and I use alot of systems to make sure that
I can create time to producepowerful content.
But, as always, I'm your host,josh McMillian, saying every day
is a gift.
Don't waste yours.
I'll see you next time.

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#88 David Goode - (Ret) Air Force Colonel & Senior Consultant at Chick-fil-A

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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;}#88 David Goode - (Ret) Air Force Colonel & Senior Consultant at Chick-fil-A