October 1, 2025 • 29 mins
Local Author and Airforce Vet John Bently talks about the leadership lessons he shares in his new book “I Lead Me.” Then Marcus Coleman VP of Community Resilience Strategies at the United Way talks about Disaster Preparedness and their Disaster Preparedness workshops in Southwest Alabama.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
What is your Coke Can moment? This is Viewpoint Alabama
on the Alabama Radio Network, and this week we're not
going to answer that question, but we're going to help
you realize what it means.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hello.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm John Mounts and joining me in studio is local
author John Bentley. He's a twenty one year Air Force
veteran leadership strategist and the author of I Lead Me.
He helps leaders stop reacting, start owning, and build trust
through self leadership. John also serves as the executive director
of the You Are a Gift Foundation with supports mothers
in recovery.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
John. Welcome to Viewpoint.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Hey, thank you John. It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
So there are a lot of people out there who
they work very hard at their job and their hard
work is rewarded with a promotion and before you know it,
now they're a manager. You've got direct reports, but that
title doesn't come with an instruction manual a lot of times.
So how do you go from being a manager to
being a true leader?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (00:54):
John, that's a great question and write up my alley
and what I love talking about. You know, when you're promoted,
it's usually because you were a fantastic performer. You got
great results. Well guess what, Now you've got to get
those great results through others. And they think about their
work different than you do, they process it different than
you do. So the one thing you got to learn
to do is to step back and learn how to
(01:15):
make a decision, a choice on about how you're going
to influence those people to get those results that you
were getting and to really elevate performance. And that requires
you to value the differences in others.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Well, how do you get the buy in though?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Because just because you on paper are their boss, it
doesn't mean they respect you. It's just the means they
have to, you know, kind of like pay lip service.
But how you get the buy in for where they
actually truly believe that where you're leading them is where
we all need to go.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Yeah, John, I've got to link their strengths and their talents,
what they're good at, to the organization's mission the tasks
they perform. So, for instance, I had a gentleman named
Brian that we had him on a task that kept
getting delayed and delayed and delayed. But I stepped back
and recognize the reason it was being delayed. He won't
to do everything perfect because he is into the details.
(02:01):
So I recognize that I need to move John. I'm sorry, Brian.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Too many John's in this room.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
So so what I recognized is it was important to
move Brian into quality assurance where his details and getting
things right would count, and the delays went away, frustration
went down. So it's linking people's strengths and talents to
the tasks they perform and showing them why it matters
and the results that they're getting for the organization. So
now they feel significant.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And in other words, you have all the right people
on the bus, but they're just not sitting in the
right seats.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Oh that's a great analogy. So we just moved them
around to make sure that we keep moving at a
pace that increases productivity, raises performance, and people feel good
about being at work and want to dive in and help.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
So is this in the book that we talked about?
I lead me? What does that mean exactly? You lead you?
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Well, you got to think about it. But I usually
ask from the stage, how many of your leaders? When
I'm speaking to bigger audiences, you'll see thirty forty fifty
percent of the hand go up and I'll say, we're
going to change that. Right now. We're all leaders because
we had responsible for leading ourselves. So part of that
is understanding what causes you to slip, trip and fall
and being able to correct that. For me, it was
(03:13):
I wasn't good enough no matter what I did, So
I had to rewrite that story to know that I
got great results and I didn't have to keep trying
and trying and trying to feel value. I had to
recognize the choices I make every day.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Are going to.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Create behaviors that either have a payoff or a cost.
And if your listening audience can visualize this right now,
when I'm doing that, well, I'm with people, I'm clasping
my hands together, we're all in the right seat, we're
all moving in the same direction. But when I don't
do that, well, I'm at people, I'm bumping my fist
right now. So part of it is is recognizing that
(03:49):
behavior as a choice, it has a payoff for a cost.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
And where we talk about you mentioned the book The
Coke Can Moment. Tell the story of the Coke Can
and what the significance is.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Yeah, it was April ninth, nineteen ninety two. My ten
year anniversary in the Air Force, and I was leaving
the Air Force because they were going to pay me
twenty five thousand dollars and that would solve this thirty
one year old problems. All of them. Now we already
know that that's not true. And I was leaving because
they weren't promoting me fast enough.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
What rank did you make it to?
Speaker 4 (04:20):
I made it in the Air Force to E eight
Senior Master sergeant.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
It sounds like a respectable place to be.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Very respectable, top three of the enlisted force in this case,
though I was a E five a staff sergeant, I
studied and tested for E six Tech sergeant six times. Well,
I say I studied, I didn't really study. And then
when I walked out of the Commander's office we'll call
it hr office, Russell White was shaking a coke can
walking toward me. He handed it to me and said,
(04:47):
open it. I'm not opening that, Why not? John? Well,
what's in it? Mister White will spe all over me
and you'll be sticky, nasty and won't feel good. That's
when he took the coke can back, looked me in
my eye and said, truth, flee and kind John, That's
what you do when things don't go your way and
you think you're right, you spew all over people.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
And until you.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Learn to lead yourself, you'll never earn the right to
lead others. You will struggle, be frustrated, and limit your
opportunities for success. And it was that day I vowed
to understand why do I behave like that when things
don't go my way?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Now that's a very powerful visual. Not everyone has that
same psychology, though some people go the other way. They
retreat into themselves and rather rather than a spewing all
over one, you kind of coward like. I've known some
manager who when it really hits the fan, they go
in their office and close the door and they just say, Okay,
I'm just going to go ahead and withdraw and then
it won't be on me. I didn't cause any of this,
(05:44):
but yet you're causing it by your inaction.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Well that's beautiful because that's a chapter in the book
I Lead Me. That's don't suffer in silence, because what
you said, I just want to get away from it.
I want to withdraw, And when you do, you're not
closing in the gap to communication. And people make up
their own stories and then they pull away from you,
and that's when productivity decreases, trust decreases, and you really
(06:12):
want to stop and understand why is it that I
pull away? Just like I had to understand why is
it I blow up? And it goes back to some
story we're telling ourselves about ourselves that is not true.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
John.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
When we talk about leadership, sometimes as a leader you
also have to you know, you talk about managing down,
sometimes you have to manage up. You're not really leading
your leaders, but in a way, the way you communicate
with them influences the culture in the organization. Also can
influence the way that the organization operates because of the
way you report to them, the way you tell your
(06:44):
story that your team is doing to them. Because the
people above you could say, you know what, we need
a forty percent reduction in your force because you're not
pulling the weight. How do you manage up as a leader?
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Yeah, in that case, I want to show the value
that our team is bringing and if there is a
cut from our team, how it's going to impact the
bottom line. And that happened when sequestration hit back in
twenty thirteen. If we remember that term, I was working
in a Human Resource Development Office as a federal employee,
which all the dollars that came in to us were
(07:18):
to bring people in to travel in to do the training.
So our mission stopped. And then my team and I
got together and we said, how can we continue to
add value and make sure that our HR personnel have
the skills they need to do their work. And we
created a virtual program that allowed them to do the
training that was simulated just like the job. They had
(07:40):
to think through it, apply regulations, make a decision. And
we showed that to our director who was let's get
it done, now give me the results, and our deputy director,
who will, let's slow down and look at the details here.
So I had to communicate that in two different ways.
We got their buy in and we had a cost
of void of three hundred thousand dollars within six months
(08:03):
and increase training performance to where we reduce errors on
hiring veterans down to about two percent.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
This is your point, Alabama. On the Alabama Radio Network,
my name is John Mountain speaking with John Bentley. He
is the author of I Lead Me and we're talking
about leadership. And John, let's talk about as a leader
when you have to give feedback to your direct reports.
It is so critical. People need that so much. But
at the same time, there's a lot of egos these
(08:30):
days that are bruised so easily. How do you, as
a leader communicate to them what they did right, what
they're doing wrong, what needs improvement, and do it all
in a way to where they walk away. Even if
you're giving them, you know, some really strong criticism, they
walk away actually feeling empowered and not beaten down.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
They feel value more value when they walk out and
they walk in. First of all, it needs to be
truthful and kind. Let's talk about that for a minute.
Truthful are the facts, hey, John, this report that you've
done the last three times, we keep commit this error,
which doesn't allow us to make the decision to get
the response or the outcome we want. The kind part
(09:07):
is less you and I work together. It's not about
beating you up or telling you you're a bad person.
Less you and I work together to determine how we
can solve this problem. Because it might not be you,
John making the mistake. It could be the system we're using.
So let's step back and determine what is the cause
of the problem. And see how we can solve that together.
Because here's what I know, John, you can deliver great
(09:30):
work because you've proved it over and over. What do
you think is that a great way to go? Because
you may have ideas that I don't on solving this problem.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
What do you do when you're working with somebody who's
just they're not motivated. It seems like they can't be motivated.
But at the same time they have organizational knowledge. You
just don't want to cut ties with them, but you
need to motivate and you don't have the normal stick
of because let's face it, most of us in the
management I'm a manager too. When I'm not doing the
viewpoint show, we're not giving a checkboo because of here.
(09:59):
Why don't you give everybody a So you really don't
have that. You don't have that carrot, so you don't
want to use to stick on them. But how do
you lead them? I guess get the buy in without
being able to say we value here's at a ten
percent race for this year because I don't know about you,
but my budget doesn't allow for that.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Yeah, it's it's interesting that you bring that up. I
like to use the acronym wi in when WI in
when it means welcome, different thinking, inquire with curiosity, and
never stop serving. So if you and I were having
that conversation, John, and I understand what your talents are,
(10:34):
I'm going to ask you what do you think we
can do to improve this job, this process? I might
even ask you, Hey, John, where else in the organization
do you think you'd be a good fit that would
allow you to continue to perform?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Well, although I have to say if you had asked
the question, where else do you think.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
You'd be a good fit?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
You know, depending on how you ask that that might
be taken the wrong way.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Well that's a great point. And I think, John, what
you're reminding me of, and I appreciate this is I
need to inquire with curiosity. I would say, Hey, John,
this task you've been performing for about six months. Now,
what is it that you like about it? What is
it that you don't like about it? Because what I
want to make sure of, John, is that when you
come to work, you're happy, you know you're adding value,
(11:20):
and we can continue to keep you as a great employee. Now,
see again, that sounds terrible, doesn't it? Because I say
keep you as a great employee. The best thing to
ask John is really to look at inquire with curiosity
what is it about this work that you love? And
then listen. And then when I listen, I can determine
whether that job, that role fits what you're good at.
(11:45):
And I also want to really provide you support. Is
what I want to do, John, You're qualified to do
that task, You're qualified to do the work. I don't
have to direct you, but I got to understand what's
the root cause of maybe you not stepping up as
you once were.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
And then if we go all the way to the endgame,
because it happens when you decide that it's time for somebody,
we do need to separate that this person is. They're
not working, They're not working in any capacity for my operation.
They are not going to provide the value you know,
for what it is that we're going to be able
to pay them.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
How do you do that?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
How do you let somebody go without having them, you know,
have one of those go postal moments, you know when
they return, you know, very angry and they're going to
you know, take it out on everybody. How do you
how do you when it's not working out. How do
you do that, and especially especially because I've seen this before,
when you let one person go, it travels around the
company very quickly. Everybody finds out and now everyone's thinking,
oh my gosh, am I next. You know what, should
(12:38):
I be updating my resume too? How do you do
that in such a way to where the person being
let go? You know you are able to part in
on amicable terms, reasonably amicable terms, and those around realize
this place will be better, that my manager has my
best interest in mind, and that was probably a smart
move for this company.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Yeah, Usually releasing someone or firing someone has to do
with either performance or behavior or attitude, either one of those.
It's important to document when that occurs and keep a record.
And you're not doing that with the hopes that you
have to fire them or to protect yourself. You're actually
keeping track of the facts and what happened. So when
(13:19):
it comes time to remove someone, you lay that out
because now you're using positional power, but you'd still do
it in a way where I'm valuing you and respecting you.
So if you blow up at me, if you act
out at me, it's important that I don't return that
in the same light that I simply say, here's the facts.
You've been late three months, ten times. Other people have
(13:43):
picked up your work that's not meeting our standards. We've
given you the opportunity to improve that has not happened,
and you're just not a good fit for us.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
And I know this is something that I always keep
in mind. I've been in the same field for the
last twenty nine years and I have actually worked for
people that years later have come back and now I'm
their boss. So I always remember that the person if
you're going to be in one particular field, you're probably
that you know, you might that person you're firing ten
(14:15):
years ago, they're ten years from now, might be your boss.
So you have to consider the larger implications of how
you treat everybody because you never know from that customer
to that part time intern to whoever ten years from
now who they're going to be.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Well, you bring them up a good point because when
I retired from the Air Force and went to work
as a federal employee with the Army, I was a
human resource development specialist and I had people there that
trained me in their processes and how they did work.
Eighteen months later, I was promoted and moved to a
different organization. Five years later, I come back and was
now these people's supervisor. So it was important that I
(14:55):
simply observed for ninety days what's going on, and then
I ask, if you were the leader today, the supervisor today,
what would you improve now. What that did was created
opportunity for people to share and us come together and
decide how we would do that. And one of the
biggest things that we did we created a training needs analysis.
(15:17):
Because they had the idea, we got together and brainstormed
and mind mapped how to do that, and it led
to offering additional trainings for people who were not able
to get that because we literally had exactly where our
training gaps were and we knew what resources that we
needed to put toward that and also were able to
get other resources. So we became known because we did
(15:41):
it as a group as the best in place human
resource development for the Army hr world.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
So your book, I lead me. It's available, I guess
at bookstores, Amazon, anywhere? How do people get it?
Speaker 4 (15:55):
Yeah, right now, it's pre sale on Amazon at a
dollar ninety nine. So if they just go to Amazon
dot com type in the search I Lead Me by
John Bentley. It'll appear and they can purchase it there,
and then on November fourth, the book launches and they'll
get an email saying, hey, your ebooks ready to read.
We'll also have the print books available at that time,
both in paperback and hardback.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
How long is it pages page?
Speaker 4 (16:20):
It's probably gonna be about one hundred and forty page.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Okay, that's an easy read. I always ask myself whenever
I get into a book, how long of a time
am I looking at here?
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Well, if you don't mind, John, let me share this
with you. The book is twenty eight chapters, okay. And
those twenty eight chapters are all anywhere from nine hundred
to twelve hundred words, and it's not full of theory.
It starts out with a self reflection as could this
be me in this situation? Then I use a quick
story about myself or something I've observed. Then we give
you a leadership insight, then five practical steps, and then
(16:51):
three reflection questions, so you get to read it each
chapter in about four minutes. The work comes though, are
you willing? Do you have the courage to work through
the self reflection questions? So you can become the leader
you want to be and the leader that you people deserve.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
And in other words, it gives you the ability to engage.
You're just not glossing over words or actually, you're going
to have to internalize this a little bit as you.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Read absolutely and you know what, you don't have to
read it starting at chapter one, going through chapter twenty eight.
You may thumb through and see the Q tip mindset
what is that and turn to it, and that'll let
you read that information and see that you got to
quit taking things personal when you receive feedback.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
I guess this would also be helpful if you have
a larger organization you have direct reports who they are
leaders themselves. You could theoretically not that I'm trying to
get you extra book sales heres, but you theoretically assign
this for multiple people underneath you to Hey, why don't
you read over this and let me know what you
thought of chapter four?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Perfect?
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Because I've got a client now that's getting ready to
buy twenty of the hardback when it comes out on
November fourth.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Well, maybe autographed.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
They will be autographed, Yes, sir, they will. They'll be signed,
and I'll write a little note in there, thank you
for being the leader you want to be and others
irv John Bentley, and they're going to use it as
a book study where they take a chapter a week,
read it, come together and go through the self reflection
questions and learn from each other.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
John, you're also the executive director of the You Are
a Gift Foundation. Explain what you are a gift does?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Yes, sir. We are a of course a nonprofit thing.
Five one three five oh one C three that's a
better way to put it, John, And we raise money
through the services I provide to donate it to faith
based impatient treatment centers so they can use that money
to give moms addicted to prescription drugs a scholarship to
receive their services who otherwise could not afford it.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
And that's and that's a great thing because there are
definitely a lot of people out there who need that.
So it's good to hear that you have another way
to give back. So are you you're out out You're
not in the Air Force at all, now, right.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I'm on my own.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
I have a little company called Power to Transform. But
my website is I lead me dot us. And also
if I may mention. The proceeds from the ebook sales
go to the foundation, So when you make that dollar
ninety nine purchase, we're going to take the profits from
that and pour it back into the foundation helping mothers.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
That'll so, in other words, you're helping yourself by buying
the book. You're helping others by buying the book as well.
So two good reasons to purchase the book I Lead
Me by John Bentley. One more question, John, whatever happened
to the coke can? Do you ever open it?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Well?
Speaker 4 (19:20):
It's an interesting story. I carry that with me now
and I shake it on stage when I walk out.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Same cocaine.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Not the same coke can. It's a different one because
you know that was nineteen ninety two, right, nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
So I's gon to say it's pretty flat by now,
regardless of how much you shake it.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
However, I do shake it, and at the end when
I come back and close, I do open it after
I shake it.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
By then it's probably cooled off a little bit.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
You'll have to hire me and see.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
John Bentley, author of I Lead Me. John, thank you
so much for joining us this week of Viewpoint.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Hey, thanks John, I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
You're listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program from
the Alabama Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
We know disasters are inevitable, we can't wait for them
to strike. Instead, we must prepare. Hello, I'm John Mounts
and this is Viewpoint Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network.
Taking action now may save recovery, time, energy, and money.
While devastation can be widespread, warning times can vary from
a few days to a few minutes, and proper preparations
(20:19):
can significantly help individuals, families, and communities have better outcomes
in the immediate aftermath of a disaster and long term recovery.
Joining me now is Marcus Coleman. He is the vice
president of Community and Resilience Strategy with the United Way.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Marcus, welcome to Viewpoint.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Thank you very much for having me and pleasure to
be on Viewpoint.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Well, this is an important issue because right now we
are in the height of hurricane season and even though
some people in our state we're hundreds of miles from
the beach, but those storms can come inland and cause
all sorts of damage with straight line wins and spin
up tornadoes, all that sort of thing. So disaster preparedness
during hurricane season or really all year long, is important.
So let's talk about Disaster Preparedness Month. That's the reason
(21:00):
why we have a month for this.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Since two thousand and one, there has been a national
campaign to help individuals and families be prepared and it's
because a lot of unexpected things happen. Right to your point,
you mentioned hurricanes, Like you said inland flooding. I know
the state has experienced tornadoes, and that's always a constant,
right It's twenty eleven with those tornadoes in Tacha, Tuscaloosa,
(21:23):
and so you know, United Way is one of many
organizations that wants to make sure that we work alongside
the state and alongside the community to help people understand
the risk. So that can be fires, it can be floods,
it can be tornadoes. Make sure that they have a
family communications plan on how they'll work with each other
in the event of the unexpected, and most importantly, find
(21:44):
some active ways to get involved in helping them support
their neighbors. I'm sure I don't know about you, but
I know when something happens in my neighborhood. I actually
have an elder across the street that my job is
to check on her to make sure that she's okay,
and that's going to be doubly important in the event
of something like a store more power outage.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
And it is important because not everybody has a fam
we sometimes that's remember not everyone has a lot of family,
especially if they are elderly or maybe they're new to
the area. And we should be globally aware of exactly
who our neighbors are and how we might be able
to help them, because not everybody has the resources sometimes
to be able to deal with that. Some people don't
have a generator, some people didn't bother to. You have
a lot of extra water, bottled water, and that sort
(22:23):
of thing, especially if you're near the coast. A lot
of those people are prepared for hurricanes. But just a
little further inland, we saw the situation happen with Hurricane
Helene in western North Carolina, where no one in Asheville
thought that a hurricane would quote unquote hit them, and
yet it did, and it.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Caught a lot of people off guard.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
It really did. And I'm glad that you mentioned that. Right,
the impacts of things like hurricanes provide a lot of
unexpected impacts in places like western North Carolina. I know
Alabama also had experienced impact from that hurricane, and thankfully
the United Way network is there, so you know, we
are proud to work with several partners. Currently the State
(23:00):
of Alabama in Mobile County, the United Way they are
is working with Verizons specifically to help people be ready
for disasters through disaster preparedness kit workshops. But also right
Alabama Emergency Management Agency continues to do great work through
their Be Ready Kids and Be Ready Sunday effort to
make sure not only people, but some of the community
(23:21):
based and faith based organizations are also stepping against the
roles to help their congregations and their communities prepared as well.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So United Way works alongside of some of these other organizations.
What are things specifically United Way does before let's talk
about first of all, before the preparedness thing. What are
some specific initiatives that United Way is involved in.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Well, one big initiative, as I mentioned right now, is
we're working across the nation. The United Way of Mobile
County is leading efforts called United Be Prepared and what
that's about is about five core things. And we know
not everybody has access to a cell phone, but there's
five steps that for those that do have a phone
can take and if you don't have a cell phone,
(24:02):
or if you have a love one that's not that
tech savvy, these five steps will apply for you. So
the first thing is we want to make sure that
every individual can identify two to three people that are
going to serve as their support network. We recognize and
though to your point about you know, it may not
be family and maybe family friends, might be a football coach,
and may be someone in your life that is there
for you in other areas that is going to be
(24:24):
your point of contact doing an emergency. So our United
Ways working with the Horizon and working with a number
of community based organizations, the Red Cross, Salvation Army and
others through workshops to help people build out that emergency
contact list, but then also to help jump start their
preparedness by providing them disaster preparedness kits. We have a
disaster Resilience workshop coming up on October fourteenth at the
(24:48):
Frien's Community Center in Mobile County. And it's more many
efforts that we're going to continue to work not just
in the state of Alabama, but across the country with
our partners both in the nonprofit and private sector to
make sure again we're helping people understand their risk, take
that step to build their support network and when we
can provide that flash lighter some of that additional information
that's important for a disaster kit.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
And we also have to remember that in times of
need like that, sometimes you can lose cell phone connectivity
and that's why it's important to have other ways to
at least have that one directional communication i e. Having
a battery powered radio where you can listen to local
radio stations like the one where you're listening to us
on right now, because we're not affected by a cell
phone out, like if you're listening to streaming a audio
(25:32):
or other streaming information.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Yeah, absolutely right, And I think and having that pattery
power radio listening in places like Viewpoint helps to ensure
that folks can get the latest information in the event
something occurs we recognize and know right during that disaster situation,
information is key, and so being plugged into radio stations
like this sometimes the disasters through their battery power radio
is a crucial step to have as part of your
(25:55):
emergency kit as well.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Another thing people should keep in mind is in the
event that you lose. For example, your cell phone requires
batteries to work, and so you need to have additional chargers.
And also in case the cell phones completely did you
need to have those phone numbers. A lot of us
I don't know about you. I don't remember a lot
of the numbers of my friends and family anymore. They're
just stored in my phone as their name. So have
those numbers on a sheet of paper. Another thing to
(26:17):
keep on a sheet of paper is insurance contact information
because if your home is damaged and all that contact
information was in your home and it whether it burned
to the ground or was damaged by a tornado or whatever,
you might need to be able to contact your insurance agent.
And it's not a good time to be I sure
wish I knew what those contact information that number words.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Oh, you're absolutely right, and that is actually step four
of are Unitedly Prepared to look at gout that's available
on Native way dot org for slash prepare. Safeguarding those
key documents and valuables is key to your point. And
one of the things that I do in my household
is twice a year. I typically use tax season as
one anchor because that's when I'm bringing all my financial
(26:55):
documents together and then looking at a little bit closer
to this on the school season, but making sure that
I have electronic copies of vital records and other documents
that are insurance agent or a government may need any
event of a disaster, and so making sure that you
have that stuff. Password protective of courses is one of
the key stuffs that you also need to take to
(27:15):
having a disaster kit.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
That's very true and think about.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
That's another one is having access to your birth certificate
and things like that. Again, stuff that you don't think
about until because that's the worst thing I've seen that
time and time again and disaster recovery where these people
who are affected by these storms and then to add
insult to injury, they can't get the assistance they need
because they don't have the documentation that these government agencies
want for you to be able to file acclaim or
other things like that.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Even having those contacts in your phone, so like right,
I have the phone number of my insurance company of
other key contacts in addition to fire and police. One
that is really important for people to also make sure
they're saving is two one one. This is a no
cost service that helps to refer and connect people to
other supports that they may need.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Another one that comes up that I've seen come up
in several these situations is having some cash on hand,
because if power is down and or internet connectivity is down,
a lot of places can't accept electronic payment, and if
all you have is a credit card, you might not
be able to purchase gas or toiletries or whatever, because
all they can do at that point is do transactions
using regular old cash. So having you know, maybe one
(28:21):
hundred dollars or something like that is not a bad idea.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
No, yeah, you know this was you were sitting with
me and my wife. Clearly we were actually just talking
about this two weekends ago, about talking through the importance
of having cash on hand, especially to your point, any
bit of an extended power outage and making sure that
these can move and be mobile. And so yeah, I
will say that the workshops that we're doing again and
(28:44):
across the state and across the country very much provides
a direct opportunity for folks to get connected on the
other steps that they can take in addition to some
of the ones that we mentioned today.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
So Marcus, once again, for all the information that we've
been talking about. There is a one stop shop. Un
A Way does have a website. What's that website again?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Unitedway dot org for slash prepare. There you can get
information about the five tips that you can take to
help job start your preparedness effort. You also can connect
again to the upcoming workstaff happening October fourteenth in Southwest Alabama.
And look forward to seeing you there. If not there,
look forward to stay and connect with you through any
of our United Way throughout the state. And I want
(29:25):
to thank you again for allowing me an opportunity to
share a little bit more about our working preparedness today anytime.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Marcus Coleman, the vice president of Community Resilience Strategy with
the United Way Worldwide, thank you for joining us this
morning on Viewpoint Alabama.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
Thank you you've been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public
affairs program from the Alabama Radio Network. The opinions expressed
on Viewpoint Alabama are not necessarily those of the staff, management,
or advertisers of this station.
What is your Coke Can moment? This is Viewpoint Alabama
on the Alabama Radio Network, and this week we're not
going to answer that question, but we're going to help
you realize what it means.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Hello.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
I'm John Mounts and joining me in studio is local
author John Bentley. He's a twenty one year Air Force
veteran leadership strategist and the author of I Lead Me.
He helps leaders stop reacting, start owning, and build trust
through self leadership. John also serves as the executive director
of the You Are a Gift Foundation with supports mothers
in recovery.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
John. Welcome to Viewpoint.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Hey, thank you John. It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
So there are a lot of people out there who
they work very hard at their job and their hard
work is rewarded with a promotion and before you know it,
now they're a manager. You've got direct reports, but that
title doesn't come with an instruction manual a lot of times.
So how do you go from being a manager to
being a true leader?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Wow?
Speaker 4 (00:54):
John, that's a great question and write up my alley
and what I love talking about. You know, when you're promoted,
it's usually because you were a fantastic performer. You got
great results. Well guess what, Now you've got to get
those great results through others. And they think about their
work different than you do, they process it different than
you do. So the one thing you got to learn
to do is to step back and learn how to
(01:15):
make a decision, a choice on about how you're going
to influence those people to get those results that you
were getting and to really elevate performance. And that requires
you to value the differences in others.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Well, how do you get the buy in though?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Because just because you on paper are their boss, it
doesn't mean they respect you. It's just the means they
have to, you know, kind of like pay lip service.
But how you get the buy in for where they
actually truly believe that where you're leading them is where
we all need to go.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
Yeah, John, I've got to link their strengths and their talents,
what they're good at, to the organization's mission the tasks
they perform. So, for instance, I had a gentleman named
Brian that we had him on a task that kept
getting delayed and delayed and delayed. But I stepped back
and recognize the reason it was being delayed. He won't
to do everything perfect because he is into the details.
(02:01):
So I recognize that I need to move John. I'm sorry, Brian.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
Too many John's in this room.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
So so what I recognized is it was important to
move Brian into quality assurance where his details and getting
things right would count, and the delays went away, frustration
went down. So it's linking people's strengths and talents to
the tasks they perform and showing them why it matters
and the results that they're getting for the organization. So
now they feel significant.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
And in other words, you have all the right people
on the bus, but they're just not sitting in the
right seats.
Speaker 4 (02:32):
Oh that's a great analogy. So we just moved them
around to make sure that we keep moving at a
pace that increases productivity, raises performance, and people feel good
about being at work and want to dive in and help.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
So is this in the book that we talked about?
I lead me? What does that mean exactly? You lead you?
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Well, you got to think about it. But I usually
ask from the stage, how many of your leaders? When
I'm speaking to bigger audiences, you'll see thirty forty fifty
percent of the hand go up and I'll say, we're
going to change that. Right now. We're all leaders because
we had responsible for leading ourselves. So part of that
is understanding what causes you to slip, trip and fall
and being able to correct that. For me, it was
(03:13):
I wasn't good enough no matter what I did, So
I had to rewrite that story to know that I
got great results and I didn't have to keep trying
and trying and trying to feel value. I had to
recognize the choices I make every day.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Are going to.
Speaker 4 (03:29):
Create behaviors that either have a payoff or a cost.
And if your listening audience can visualize this right now,
when I'm doing that, well, I'm with people, I'm clasping
my hands together, we're all in the right seat, we're
all moving in the same direction. But when I don't
do that, well, I'm at people, I'm bumping my fist
right now. So part of it is is recognizing that
(03:49):
behavior as a choice, it has a payoff for a cost.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
And where we talk about you mentioned the book The
Coke Can Moment. Tell the story of the Coke Can
and what the significance is.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Yeah, it was April ninth, nineteen ninety two. My ten
year anniversary in the Air Force, and I was leaving
the Air Force because they were going to pay me
twenty five thousand dollars and that would solve this thirty
one year old problems. All of them. Now we already
know that that's not true. And I was leaving because
they weren't promoting me fast enough.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
What rank did you make it to?
Speaker 4 (04:20):
I made it in the Air Force to E eight
Senior Master sergeant.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
It sounds like a respectable place to be.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
Very respectable, top three of the enlisted force in this case,
though I was a E five a staff sergeant, I
studied and tested for E six Tech sergeant six times. Well,
I say I studied, I didn't really study. And then
when I walked out of the Commander's office we'll call
it hr office, Russell White was shaking a coke can
walking toward me. He handed it to me and said,
(04:47):
open it. I'm not opening that, Why not? John? Well,
what's in it? Mister White will spe all over me
and you'll be sticky, nasty and won't feel good. That's
when he took the coke can back, looked me in
my eye and said, truth, flee and kind John, That's
what you do when things don't go your way and
you think you're right, you spew all over people.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
And until you.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Learn to lead yourself, you'll never earn the right to
lead others. You will struggle, be frustrated, and limit your
opportunities for success. And it was that day I vowed
to understand why do I behave like that when things
don't go my way?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Now that's a very powerful visual. Not everyone has that
same psychology, though some people go the other way. They
retreat into themselves and rather rather than a spewing all
over one, you kind of coward like. I've known some
manager who when it really hits the fan, they go
in their office and close the door and they just say, Okay,
I'm just going to go ahead and withdraw and then
it won't be on me. I didn't cause any of this,
(05:44):
but yet you're causing it by your inaction.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Well that's beautiful because that's a chapter in the book
I Lead Me. That's don't suffer in silence, because what
you said, I just want to get away from it.
I want to withdraw, And when you do, you're not
closing in the gap to communication. And people make up
their own stories and then they pull away from you,
and that's when productivity decreases, trust decreases, and you really
(06:12):
want to stop and understand why is it that I
pull away? Just like I had to understand why is
it I blow up? And it goes back to some
story we're telling ourselves about ourselves that is not true.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
John.
Speaker 1 (06:23):
When we talk about leadership, sometimes as a leader you
also have to you know, you talk about managing down,
sometimes you have to manage up. You're not really leading
your leaders, but in a way, the way you communicate
with them influences the culture in the organization. Also can
influence the way that the organization operates because of the
way you report to them, the way you tell your
(06:44):
story that your team is doing to them. Because the
people above you could say, you know what, we need
a forty percent reduction in your force because you're not
pulling the weight. How do you manage up as a leader?
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Yeah, in that case, I want to show the value
that our team is bringing and if there is a
cut from our team, how it's going to impact the
bottom line. And that happened when sequestration hit back in
twenty thirteen. If we remember that term, I was working
in a Human Resource Development Office as a federal employee,
which all the dollars that came in to us were
(07:18):
to bring people in to travel in to do the training.
So our mission stopped. And then my team and I
got together and we said, how can we continue to
add value and make sure that our HR personnel have
the skills they need to do their work. And we
created a virtual program that allowed them to do the
training that was simulated just like the job. They had
(07:40):
to think through it, apply regulations, make a decision. And
we showed that to our director who was let's get
it done, now give me the results, and our deputy director,
who will, let's slow down and look at the details here.
So I had to communicate that in two different ways.
We got their buy in and we had a cost
of void of three hundred thousand dollars within six months
(08:03):
and increase training performance to where we reduce errors on
hiring veterans down to about two percent.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
This is your point, Alabama. On the Alabama Radio Network,
my name is John Mountain speaking with John Bentley. He
is the author of I Lead Me and we're talking
about leadership. And John, let's talk about as a leader
when you have to give feedback to your direct reports.
It is so critical. People need that so much. But
at the same time, there's a lot of egos these
(08:30):
days that are bruised so easily. How do you, as
a leader communicate to them what they did right, what
they're doing wrong, what needs improvement, and do it all
in a way to where they walk away. Even if
you're giving them, you know, some really strong criticism, they
walk away actually feeling empowered and not beaten down.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I love it.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
They feel value more value when they walk out and
they walk in. First of all, it needs to be
truthful and kind. Let's talk about that for a minute.
Truthful are the facts, hey, John, this report that you've
done the last three times, we keep commit this error,
which doesn't allow us to make the decision to get
the response or the outcome we want. The kind part
(09:07):
is less you and I work together. It's not about
beating you up or telling you you're a bad person.
Less you and I work together to determine how we
can solve this problem. Because it might not be you,
John making the mistake. It could be the system we're using.
So let's step back and determine what is the cause
of the problem. And see how we can solve that together.
Because here's what I know, John, you can deliver great
(09:30):
work because you've proved it over and over. What do
you think is that a great way to go? Because
you may have ideas that I don't on solving this problem.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
What do you do when you're working with somebody who's
just they're not motivated. It seems like they can't be motivated.
But at the same time they have organizational knowledge. You
just don't want to cut ties with them, but you
need to motivate and you don't have the normal stick
of because let's face it, most of us in the
management I'm a manager too. When I'm not doing the
viewpoint show, we're not giving a checkboo because of here.
(09:59):
Why don't you give everybody a So you really don't
have that. You don't have that carrot, so you don't
want to use to stick on them. But how do
you lead them? I guess get the buy in without
being able to say we value here's at a ten
percent race for this year because I don't know about you,
but my budget doesn't allow for that.
Speaker 4 (10:14):
Yeah, it's it's interesting that you bring that up. I
like to use the acronym wi in when WI in
when it means welcome, different thinking, inquire with curiosity, and
never stop serving. So if you and I were having
that conversation, John, and I understand what your talents are,
(10:34):
I'm going to ask you what do you think we
can do to improve this job, this process? I might
even ask you, Hey, John, where else in the organization
do you think you'd be a good fit that would
allow you to continue to perform?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Well, although I have to say if you had asked
the question, where else do you think.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
You'd be a good fit?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
You know, depending on how you ask that that might
be taken the wrong way.
Speaker 4 (10:57):
Well that's a great point. And I think, John, what
you're reminding me of, and I appreciate this is I
need to inquire with curiosity. I would say, Hey, John,
this task you've been performing for about six months. Now,
what is it that you like about it? What is
it that you don't like about it? Because what I
want to make sure of, John, is that when you
come to work, you're happy, you know you're adding value,
(11:20):
and we can continue to keep you as a great employee. Now,
see again, that sounds terrible, doesn't it? Because I say
keep you as a great employee. The best thing to
ask John is really to look at inquire with curiosity
what is it about this work that you love? And
then listen. And then when I listen, I can determine
whether that job, that role fits what you're good at.
(11:45):
And I also want to really provide you support. Is
what I want to do, John, You're qualified to do
that task, You're qualified to do the work. I don't
have to direct you, but I got to understand what's
the root cause of maybe you not stepping up as
you once were.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
And then if we go all the way to the endgame,
because it happens when you decide that it's time for somebody,
we do need to separate that this person is. They're
not working, They're not working in any capacity for my operation.
They are not going to provide the value you know,
for what it is that we're going to be able
to pay them.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
How do you do that?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
How do you let somebody go without having them, you know,
have one of those go postal moments, you know when
they return, you know, very angry and they're going to
you know, take it out on everybody. How do you
how do you when it's not working out. How do
you do that, and especially especially because I've seen this before,
when you let one person go, it travels around the
company very quickly. Everybody finds out and now everyone's thinking,
oh my gosh, am I next. You know what, should
(12:38):
I be updating my resume too? How do you do
that in such a way to where the person being
let go? You know you are able to part in
on amicable terms, reasonably amicable terms, and those around realize
this place will be better, that my manager has my
best interest in mind, and that was probably a smart
move for this company.
Speaker 4 (12:56):
Yeah, Usually releasing someone or firing someone has to do
with either performance or behavior or attitude, either one of those.
It's important to document when that occurs and keep a record.
And you're not doing that with the hopes that you
have to fire them or to protect yourself. You're actually
keeping track of the facts and what happened. So when
(13:19):
it comes time to remove someone, you lay that out
because now you're using positional power, but you'd still do
it in a way where I'm valuing you and respecting you.
So if you blow up at me, if you act
out at me, it's important that I don't return that
in the same light that I simply say, here's the facts.
You've been late three months, ten times. Other people have
(13:43):
picked up your work that's not meeting our standards. We've
given you the opportunity to improve that has not happened,
and you're just not a good fit for us.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
And I know this is something that I always keep
in mind. I've been in the same field for the
last twenty nine years and I have actually worked for
people that years later have come back and now I'm
their boss. So I always remember that the person if
you're going to be in one particular field, you're probably
that you know, you might that person you're firing ten
(14:15):
years ago, they're ten years from now, might be your boss.
So you have to consider the larger implications of how
you treat everybody because you never know from that customer
to that part time intern to whoever ten years from
now who they're going to be.
Speaker 4 (14:30):
Well, you bring them up a good point because when
I retired from the Air Force and went to work
as a federal employee with the Army, I was a
human resource development specialist and I had people there that
trained me in their processes and how they did work.
Eighteen months later, I was promoted and moved to a
different organization. Five years later, I come back and was
now these people's supervisor. So it was important that I
(14:55):
simply observed for ninety days what's going on, and then
I ask, if you were the leader today, the supervisor today,
what would you improve now. What that did was created
opportunity for people to share and us come together and
decide how we would do that. And one of the
biggest things that we did we created a training needs analysis.
(15:17):
Because they had the idea, we got together and brainstormed
and mind mapped how to do that, and it led
to offering additional trainings for people who were not able
to get that because we literally had exactly where our
training gaps were and we knew what resources that we
needed to put toward that and also were able to
get other resources. So we became known because we did
(15:41):
it as a group as the best in place human
resource development for the Army hr world.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
So your book, I lead me. It's available, I guess
at bookstores, Amazon, anywhere? How do people get it?
Speaker 4 (15:55):
Yeah, right now, it's pre sale on Amazon at a
dollar ninety nine. So if they just go to Amazon
dot com type in the search I Lead Me by
John Bentley. It'll appear and they can purchase it there,
and then on November fourth, the book launches and they'll
get an email saying, hey, your ebooks ready to read.
We'll also have the print books available at that time,
both in paperback and hardback.
Speaker 3 (16:17):
How long is it pages page?
Speaker 4 (16:20):
It's probably gonna be about one hundred and forty page.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Okay, that's an easy read. I always ask myself whenever
I get into a book, how long of a time
am I looking at here?
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Well, if you don't mind, John, let me share this
with you. The book is twenty eight chapters, okay. And
those twenty eight chapters are all anywhere from nine hundred
to twelve hundred words, and it's not full of theory.
It starts out with a self reflection as could this
be me in this situation? Then I use a quick
story about myself or something I've observed. Then we give
you a leadership insight, then five practical steps, and then
(16:51):
three reflection questions, so you get to read it each
chapter in about four minutes. The work comes though, are
you willing? Do you have the courage to work through
the self reflection questions? So you can become the leader
you want to be and the leader that you people deserve.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
And in other words, it gives you the ability to engage.
You're just not glossing over words or actually, you're going
to have to internalize this a little bit as you.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Read absolutely and you know what, you don't have to
read it starting at chapter one, going through chapter twenty eight.
You may thumb through and see the Q tip mindset
what is that and turn to it, and that'll let
you read that information and see that you got to
quit taking things personal when you receive feedback.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
I guess this would also be helpful if you have
a larger organization you have direct reports who they are
leaders themselves. You could theoretically not that I'm trying to
get you extra book sales heres, but you theoretically assign
this for multiple people underneath you to Hey, why don't
you read over this and let me know what you
thought of chapter four?
Speaker 3 (17:44):
Perfect?
Speaker 4 (17:45):
Because I've got a client now that's getting ready to
buy twenty of the hardback when it comes out on
November fourth.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
Well, maybe autographed.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
They will be autographed, Yes, sir, they will. They'll be signed,
and I'll write a little note in there, thank you
for being the leader you want to be and others
irv John Bentley, and they're going to use it as
a book study where they take a chapter a week,
read it, come together and go through the self reflection
questions and learn from each other.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
John, you're also the executive director of the You Are
a Gift Foundation. Explain what you are a gift does?
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Yes, sir. We are a of course a nonprofit thing.
Five one three five oh one C three that's a
better way to put it, John, And we raise money
through the services I provide to donate it to faith
based impatient treatment centers so they can use that money
to give moms addicted to prescription drugs a scholarship to
receive their services who otherwise could not afford it.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
And that's and that's a great thing because there are
definitely a lot of people out there who need that.
So it's good to hear that you have another way
to give back. So are you you're out out You're
not in the Air Force at all, now, right.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (18:46):
I'm on my own.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
I have a little company called Power to Transform. But
my website is I lead me dot us. And also
if I may mention. The proceeds from the ebook sales
go to the foundation, So when you make that dollar
ninety nine purchase, we're going to take the profits from
that and pour it back into the foundation helping mothers.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
That'll so, in other words, you're helping yourself by buying
the book. You're helping others by buying the book as well.
So two good reasons to purchase the book I Lead
Me by John Bentley. One more question, John, whatever happened
to the coke can? Do you ever open it?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Well?
Speaker 4 (19:20):
It's an interesting story. I carry that with me now
and I shake it on stage when I walk out.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Same cocaine.
Speaker 4 (19:28):
Not the same coke can. It's a different one because
you know that was nineteen ninety two, right, nineteen ninety two.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
So I's gon to say it's pretty flat by now,
regardless of how much you shake it.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
However, I do shake it, and at the end when
I come back and close, I do open it after
I shake it.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
By then it's probably cooled off a little bit.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
You'll have to hire me and see.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
John Bentley, author of I Lead Me. John, thank you
so much for joining us this week of Viewpoint.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Hey, thanks John, I appreciate you so much.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
You're listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public affairs program from
the Alabama Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
We know disasters are inevitable, we can't wait for them
to strike. Instead, we must prepare. Hello, I'm John Mounts
and this is Viewpoint Alabama on the Alabama Radio Network.
Taking action now may save recovery, time, energy, and money.
While devastation can be widespread, warning times can vary from
a few days to a few minutes, and proper preparations
(20:19):
can significantly help individuals, families, and communities have better outcomes
in the immediate aftermath of a disaster and long term recovery.
Joining me now is Marcus Coleman. He is the vice
president of Community and Resilience Strategy with the United Way.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Marcus, welcome to Viewpoint.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Thank you very much for having me and pleasure to
be on Viewpoint.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Well, this is an important issue because right now we
are in the height of hurricane season and even though
some people in our state we're hundreds of miles from
the beach, but those storms can come inland and cause
all sorts of damage with straight line wins and spin
up tornadoes, all that sort of thing. So disaster preparedness
during hurricane season or really all year long, is important.
So let's talk about Disaster Preparedness Month. That's the reason
(21:00):
why we have a month for this.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Since two thousand and one, there has been a national
campaign to help individuals and families be prepared and it's
because a lot of unexpected things happen. Right to your point,
you mentioned hurricanes, Like you said inland flooding. I know
the state has experienced tornadoes, and that's always a constant,
right It's twenty eleven with those tornadoes in Tacha, Tuscaloosa,
(21:23):
and so you know, United Way is one of many
organizations that wants to make sure that we work alongside
the state and alongside the community to help people understand
the risk. So that can be fires, it can be floods,
it can be tornadoes. Make sure that they have a
family communications plan on how they'll work with each other
in the event of the unexpected, and most importantly, find
(21:44):
some active ways to get involved in helping them support
their neighbors. I'm sure I don't know about you, but
I know when something happens in my neighborhood. I actually
have an elder across the street that my job is
to check on her to make sure that she's okay,
and that's going to be doubly important in the event
of something like a store more power outage.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
And it is important because not everybody has a fam
we sometimes that's remember not everyone has a lot of family,
especially if they are elderly or maybe they're new to
the area. And we should be globally aware of exactly
who our neighbors are and how we might be able
to help them, because not everybody has the resources sometimes
to be able to deal with that. Some people don't
have a generator, some people didn't bother to. You have
a lot of extra water, bottled water, and that sort
(22:23):
of thing, especially if you're near the coast. A lot
of those people are prepared for hurricanes. But just a
little further inland, we saw the situation happen with Hurricane
Helene in western North Carolina, where no one in Asheville
thought that a hurricane would quote unquote hit them, and
yet it did, and it.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Caught a lot of people off guard.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
It really did. And I'm glad that you mentioned that. Right,
the impacts of things like hurricanes provide a lot of
unexpected impacts in places like western North Carolina. I know
Alabama also had experienced impact from that hurricane, and thankfully
the United Way network is there, so you know, we
are proud to work with several partners. Currently the State
(23:00):
of Alabama in Mobile County, the United Way they are
is working with Verizons specifically to help people be ready
for disasters through disaster preparedness kit workshops. But also right
Alabama Emergency Management Agency continues to do great work through
their Be Ready Kids and Be Ready Sunday effort to
make sure not only people, but some of the community
(23:21):
based and faith based organizations are also stepping against the
roles to help their congregations and their communities prepared as well.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
So United Way works alongside of some of these other organizations.
What are things specifically United Way does before let's talk
about first of all, before the preparedness thing. What are
some specific initiatives that United Way is involved in.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
Well, one big initiative, as I mentioned right now, is
we're working across the nation. The United Way of Mobile
County is leading efforts called United Be Prepared and what
that's about is about five core things. And we know
not everybody has access to a cell phone, but there's
five steps that for those that do have a phone
can take and if you don't have a cell phone,
(24:02):
or if you have a love one that's not that
tech savvy, these five steps will apply for you. So
the first thing is we want to make sure that
every individual can identify two to three people that are
going to serve as their support network. We recognize and
though to your point about you know, it may not
be family and maybe family friends, might be a football coach,
and may be someone in your life that is there
for you in other areas that is going to be
(24:24):
your point of contact doing an emergency. So our United
Ways working with the Horizon and working with a number
of community based organizations, the Red Cross, Salvation Army and
others through workshops to help people build out that emergency
contact list, but then also to help jump start their
preparedness by providing them disaster preparedness kits. We have a
disaster Resilience workshop coming up on October fourteenth at the
(24:48):
Frien's Community Center in Mobile County. And it's more many
efforts that we're going to continue to work not just
in the state of Alabama, but across the country with
our partners both in the nonprofit and private sector to
make sure again we're helping people understand their risk, take
that step to build their support network and when we
can provide that flash lighter some of that additional information
that's important for a disaster kit.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
And we also have to remember that in times of
need like that, sometimes you can lose cell phone connectivity
and that's why it's important to have other ways to
at least have that one directional communication i e. Having
a battery powered radio where you can listen to local
radio stations like the one where you're listening to us
on right now, because we're not affected by a cell
phone out, like if you're listening to streaming a audio
(25:32):
or other streaming information.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Yeah, absolutely right, And I think and having that pattery
power radio listening in places like Viewpoint helps to ensure
that folks can get the latest information in the event
something occurs we recognize and know right during that disaster situation,
information is key, and so being plugged into radio stations
like this sometimes the disasters through their battery power radio
is a crucial step to have as part of your
(25:55):
emergency kit as well.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Another thing people should keep in mind is in the
event that you lose. For example, your cell phone requires
batteries to work, and so you need to have additional chargers.
And also in case the cell phones completely did you
need to have those phone numbers. A lot of us
I don't know about you. I don't remember a lot
of the numbers of my friends and family anymore. They're
just stored in my phone as their name. So have
those numbers on a sheet of paper. Another thing to
(26:17):
keep on a sheet of paper is insurance contact information
because if your home is damaged and all that contact
information was in your home and it whether it burned
to the ground or was damaged by a tornado or whatever,
you might need to be able to contact your insurance agent.
And it's not a good time to be I sure
wish I knew what those contact information that number words.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Oh, you're absolutely right, and that is actually step four
of are Unitedly Prepared to look at gout that's available
on Native way dot org for slash prepare. Safeguarding those
key documents and valuables is key to your point. And
one of the things that I do in my household
is twice a year. I typically use tax season as
one anchor because that's when I'm bringing all my financial
(26:55):
documents together and then looking at a little bit closer
to this on the school season, but making sure that
I have electronic copies of vital records and other documents
that are insurance agent or a government may need any
event of a disaster, and so making sure that you
have that stuff. Password protective of courses is one of
the key stuffs that you also need to take to
(27:15):
having a disaster kit.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
That's very true and think about.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
That's another one is having access to your birth certificate
and things like that. Again, stuff that you don't think
about until because that's the worst thing I've seen that
time and time again and disaster recovery where these people
who are affected by these storms and then to add
insult to injury, they can't get the assistance they need
because they don't have the documentation that these government agencies
want for you to be able to file acclaim or
other things like that.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
Even having those contacts in your phone, so like right,
I have the phone number of my insurance company of
other key contacts in addition to fire and police. One
that is really important for people to also make sure
they're saving is two one one. This is a no
cost service that helps to refer and connect people to
other supports that they may need.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Another one that comes up that I've seen come up
in several these situations is having some cash on hand,
because if power is down and or internet connectivity is down,
a lot of places can't accept electronic payment, and if
all you have is a credit card, you might not
be able to purchase gas or toiletries or whatever, because
all they can do at that point is do transactions
using regular old cash. So having you know, maybe one
(28:21):
hundred dollars or something like that is not a bad idea.
Speaker 2 (28:23):
No, yeah, you know this was you were sitting with
me and my wife. Clearly we were actually just talking
about this two weekends ago, about talking through the importance
of having cash on hand, especially to your point, any
bit of an extended power outage and making sure that
these can move and be mobile. And so yeah, I
will say that the workshops that we're doing again and
(28:44):
across the state and across the country very much provides
a direct opportunity for folks to get connected on the
other steps that they can take in addition to some
of the ones that we mentioned today.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
So Marcus, once again, for all the information that we've
been talking about. There is a one stop shop. Un
A Way does have a website. What's that website again?
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Unitedway dot org for slash prepare. There you can get
information about the five tips that you can take to
help job start your preparedness effort. You also can connect
again to the upcoming workstaff happening October fourteenth in Southwest Alabama.
And look forward to seeing you there. If not there,
look forward to stay and connect with you through any
of our United Way throughout the state. And I want
(29:25):
to thank you again for allowing me an opportunity to
share a little bit more about our working preparedness today anytime.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Marcus Coleman, the vice president of Community Resilience Strategy with
the United Way Worldwide, thank you for joining us this
morning on Viewpoint Alabama.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
Thank you you've been listening to Viewpoint Alabama, a public
affairs program from the Alabama Radio Network. The opinions expressed
on Viewpoint Alabama are not necessarily those of the staff, management,
or advertisers of this station.
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