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Words from the Wise
Join Words from the Wise with Gary Wise, a retired Navy Command Master Chief, for authentic leadership insights forged in real-world experience. Through engaging discussions and actionable strategies, Gary empowers you to master emotional intelligence, build resilient teams, and unlock your full potential. Tune in for practical advice on delegation, conflict management, and inspiring others, drawn from his over 28 years of service and ongoing leader mentorship headquartered now in Ocala, Florida.
Words from the Wise
The Authentic Leader's Journey: Navigating Fear and Finding Purpose
What makes a leader truly effective? Is it unwavering confidence, technical expertise, or something deeper? This thought-provoking episode strips away leadership myths to reveal what actually matters when guiding others through challenges.
Through personal reflection and powerful storytelling, we explore two contrasting yet complementary perspectives on authentic leadership. First, Irving Washington III shares his surprising journey as an executive director of a major journalism association. Despite external success and accolades, he battled crippling self-doubt—a secret he feared would undermine his leadership. His candid admission that "the first rule of leadership is you don't talk about the personal struggles of leadership" reveals how we've created a culture where vulnerability is seen as weakness rather than strength.
The discussion takes a dramatic turn with Sean Georges' emotional recounting of his daughter Peyton's near-fatal car accident. When a coal truck collided with her vehicle, a team of first responders worked seamlessly to save her life. Without concern for titles or hierarchy, they demonstrated true servant leadership—placing mission above ego, sharing leadership responsibilities, and believing in their collective ability to change the outcome. Georges, a former Marine Corps officer, distills these observations into a powerful leadership framework where mission sits at the top, team members bring their unique talents, and leaders serve humbly from below.
Both stories converge on a transformative truth: leadership isn't about having all the answers or projecting perfect competence. It's about embracing your authentic self, serving others with purpose, and recognizing that sometimes your best contribution might simply be saying "thank you." Whether you're leading a classroom, a military unit, or a family through crisis, these principles transcend context to reveal leadership's true essence.
Ready to transform your leadership approach? Join us for Ocala Inspired on July 25th—a live leadership development opportunity for those committed to making a difference. What leadership challenges are you facing, and how might authenticity help you overcome them?
Outro Music for this. I know I was born for this, I believe.
Speaker 1:I believe we can write a story. Hello everybody, happy Sunday. Hope y'all are doing great. It's a beautiful Sunday here in Central Florida, north Central Florida to be exact. You know Ocala, a home of wise leadership solutions, plus a whole bunch of other things. You know my high school. I work at Vanguard High School, the Navy Junior ROTC home of the Knights had a great week this week. We did our award ceremony for our end-of-year commitments, or I'd say our send-offs to our seniors, and we also recognize our incoming leadership cadets for our leadership team. It was very exciting, big deal. We've got about a week and a half left in the school year.
Speaker 1:I look at every school year almost like a deployment. I look at it from the perspective of beginning of the year super exciting. It feels like we've got forever. If you look at a timeline it's almost like a deployment right. We deploy in August, we return home in late May and then we get a few weeks of time to prepare for our next deployment. I take cadets to Camp Blanding up in June. We're going to go up there for a basic leadership training camp with a whole bunch of other cadets from all across Florida, alabama, all over the country. So it's going to be fun there, and then I got cadets going to a drill camp, which is also going to be fun, and then we get July, kind of to get some downtime to recover. That's when we're hosting Ocala Inspired.
Speaker 1:Ocala Inspired is going to be right here in Ocala. We're going to be hosting a live leadership development opportunity for people that are actually here in Ocala, that are into this leadership lifestyle, that want to get involved with helping people and figuring out what they can do with their lives and that are already just doing great. They want to get the opportunity to be around other people that have similar feelings, which, I will tell you, is something that, as leaders, we just cannot value that enough. I will tell you is something that, as leaders, we just cannot value that enough. Right. Finding people that have nothing to gain from you except for inspiration is huge right, especially when you're the leader and it feels like everybody's looking for you to help them, which I love doing that but it definitely can make your cup feel like it's a little bit empty at times, and so you have to find ways to replenish, and one of my favorite ways is to put myself in a position to work with people that are going to inspire me, and then that's Ocala Inspired. It's going to be July 25th. I'm going to really start going after advertising that strong in June because I want to get the word out there so we can pack the house and have a great day. I've got some of the best, brightest leaders here in the Ocala area coming to speak and they're going to hopefully inspire a whole bunch of people and we can maybe do this again in the future and it's just something I can do with my summer months while I'm preparing for the next school year.
Speaker 1:Today, the purpose of this video is I had some free time. It's Sunday afternoon. Me and Erica have spent the day out enjoying ourselves, went with the boys earlier to church and now we're all just kind of taking it easy, going to our own corners, if you will and I decided I wanted to watch some content online. I figured why not record it and share it with everybody? My reaction is because I've never seen the videos we're going to watch today. I've not ever seen it and I look forward to hopefully find this inspiration that we can talk about, the words of wisdom, we can share it and hopefully we can all enjoy ourselves. So I'm not sure who's watching me. Let's see if it tells me. I can't tell who's watching, but thank you very much for watching me. It's probably Eric outside, and I appreciate that. All right, so let's get right into this video. Let me go ahead and share it to my screen here. Here we go of a successful leader, or leadership. What words, what ideas come to mind.
Speaker 2:Is it strong, courageous, creative, innovative? Think of those words. But what if I told you that most of the words that we think about leadership might be wrong or at least wrongly prioritized? Rewind a couple of years ago. I stepped into one of the biggest roles of my professional career. I became the executive director of one of the largest associations of journalists and digital journalists at that. These are people shaping the future of news across the world. This is a community of journalists, educators, students, media professionals, technologists everyone who's excited about our mission to inspire innovation and excellence in digital journalism.
Speaker 2:This was an important job, particularly at that time and even now with the state of journalism. This was actually my dream job. You see, like many in this room, I went to Ball State University too, and I am a proud product of the College of Communication, information and Media. But when I graduated, I struggled a little bit to figure out where I fit in this journalism world and space. I wasn't quite a hard news reporter and editor. I didn't want to fully be on the business and PR side, so I really struggled to figure out where I wanted to be in the career. So this job, this job was it. This combined all of my passions, everything I wanted to do, and, on top of that, I liked the people that I work with and they liked me. This was career utopia, right, this is it, this is what you go to school for.
Speaker 2:But it wasn't actually that first year. That actually was one of the worst years of my professional career. I didn't sleep much, I didn't take care of my body, eat well, didn't exercise and, according to my doctor, I had the highest stress levels I've ever had, levels I've ever had. So I know if I was hearing that I would think, ah, he probably just wasn't up to snuff, probably dropped the ball, couldn't perform right. Oddly enough, that wasn't the case.
Speaker 2:Externally, we had an amazing year, my first year. We had a record number of membership. We had amazing new programs that we were launching and doing, and not only that, these initiatives they were making an impact. We were training and educating journalists across the world, which, in turn, was making these communities more informed across the globe, and I was getting accolades from all sorts. Externally the people that I work with I was getting all these positive reassurances, but that did not matter because I was scared they would find out my secret. No, I was actually afraid. Every day I was afraid. And what my secret was? I didn't know what I was going to say.
Speaker 1:So I was trying to pause it before he said what his secret was, because I got a feeling I know what he's going to say and you know, when I was in the service, I would always ask people, especially at the retirement ceremonies, what was your favorite tour of duty throughout your career? Every and almost every uh retirement ceremony that I went to and I asked that question, it was almost always, was it the same answer, and that it is always the most challenging tour. The most challenging tour is typically what people remember as being their favorite, and so I have a feeling he's probably going to say something along the lines of I didn't know what I was doing. I had no idea what I was doing, and I will tell you that's all of us right To think that you're ever going to be ready to just take on a responsibility, to take on something that is such an opportunity, that is such a big deal. I'm sorry, if you feel like you're ready, you're probably overconfident or arrogant.
Speaker 1:I remember when my son was born and my wife and I had been prepared for nine months to have a child. We got pregnant, we wanted to have a baby. We went through the whole process. We finally go through the pregnancy, we finally have my son. Then they say, hey, mr Wise, mrs Wise, it's time to go home. I remember thinking I don't think I'm ready, I don't think we're ready, I'm not sure. The answer that people would always give you or give me is just take it one day at a time. Just take it one day at a time. One duty station at a time, one complication at a time, one challenge at a time. And then it was about a month or two ago. I heard a speaker that said you know, if you wait until you're, if you always wait until you feel like you're ready, you're never going to catch the opportunity. Go before you're ready, go before you're ready. The other thing that I think about his intro and let me check and see what I'm getting told here the other thing about his intro is he talked about how much his body dealt with the stress of that first year.
Speaker 1:I will tell you when I look back at my most challenging times of service, or even my most challenging times as a teacher now and there's some hard days there really is. I'd be lying to you if I told you every day is just cupcakes and rainbows, right, because it's not. Those hardest days are the days that are full of stress, right, those days that are the full of. You know, I've got a parent that's upset about something, or I've got a teenager who's stressed out about something, or I've got a decision at home that's complicated and it's cascading into work. Or back when I was in the service, same thing an operational tempo that's just unbelievable. And you've got 5,000 people that are on the receiving end of a bunch of crap coming down the chute.
Speaker 1:I mean my hardest duty station, without a shadow of a doubt. I mean my hardest duty station, without a shadow of a doubt personally, was the USS George Washington. When I was on board that ship from 2010 to 2013, there was days I thought that ship was going to kill me. Like, just being honest, that was a hard tour, right behind that 7th Fleet staff, and it wasn't because the job was hard, it was because it was where I realized that people don't really take care of their people the way that they're supposed to, and that was where here I am, fighting for the good of the sailor, for the good of the people and for the good of the team.
Speaker 1:Then I hit that reality that there's just certain levels of leadership that they just don't care. That was, that was hard, that was hard to process, that was hard to process, and I can keep on going down that line of thought, but you know, neither here nor there. I just think it's interesting that he's talking about how he got this leadership opportunity. It was should be his job utopia, but here he was struggling on the inside and he felt like he didn't know what he was doing. All right, so let's jump back into this video and let's hear what he has to say.
Speaker 2:I was doing what my secret was. I didn't know what I was doing. Every day was a guess. Every day I had no clue. People were looking to me for direction and advice and they were asking me about the future of journalism. I'm just Irving. What do I know about the future of journalism?
Speaker 2:But the reality was I had a clear vision for where I wanted to see the organization. I had spent many years training and development. Ball State also prepared me for that. I was prepared, but it didn't matter and I didn't feel that at all. I felt like a failure, and one of the things that was so amazing to me is in all this preparation, the conferences, the training, everywhere that I went, you learn about strategy, you learn how to manage people, you learn all these things.
Speaker 2:And then this thing was happening to me. I was like why am I feeling this way? Why am I stressed all the time when I'm getting all these positive affirmations? But it just still. It still wasn't enough. So I set out on a quest. I was going to fix it. You can just fix this right. So I thought you know what? I'm just not productive enough. If I can find more ways to get more done, I will be confident enough and I will know what I'm doing and this feeling will go away, and certainly somebody could just teach me this right. So I did that. I sought experts, I sought coaches, I sought therapists. What I did find was a lot of unproductive productivity tools and a misdiagnosis of ADHD and a misdiagnosis of ADHD. So that didn't work. So then I thought well, let me reach out to my peers, right?
Speaker 1:Like my peers, need to know other people in this. Okay, so he talks about how he's looking for people to give him advice and how he can lock in that what he's doing is that it's okay, that he's on the right track and that he's going to resolve feeling like he doesn't know what he's doing all the time. And then what he got was a bunch of different perspectives. I liken that to the service when you go to three or four different master chiefs and ask them how to make chief or senior chief and they're all going to give you different advice, because they're all going to tell you how they did it right or what they believe and, truthfully, it's always going to come down to how you incorporate whatever the advice is that they're giving you into what you're going to do Right? I used to tell people all the time I'd go on ships when I was an inspector and if you could show me a DCPO training, if you could show me a DCPO training, if you could show me a zone inspection and if you could show me a damage control training team brief, I would show you the culture of that ship. That's all. I need to see those three things. If I could see those three things. I would tell you the culture of that entire command based off those three things.
Speaker 1:But when I would go to all these different ships, I'd see all these different ways that they were being done, and what I learned was there was a lot of ways to do things to find success, and so what matters the most anyone out there listening to the sound of my voice is not what all these other people are going to tell you. It's not even what I'm going to tell you, because we all have got perspectives. We've all got advice. What matters is what you think, or what you believe, and how you're going to actually take the information, implement it into your day-to-day and and take action on it. Period, that's it. And then you're going to go out there and do something great and we're all going to be very proud of you, and then you'll tell somebody else in the future your story, which is why it's very valuable that we all share our stories, so people can relate and we can recognize that there's multiple ways to find the end that we're all working towards, right? All right, let's jump back into this.
Speaker 2:Job must know how to fix this. This can be fixed right, this is the fixable thing. And then the funny thing happened. I would be vulnerable, I open up to people, I would tell them what's going on, said I'm really feeling stressed, not sure what's happening, and then, time after time this is how the conversation would go Vulnerable, irving talks. The other person would say, oh, that, that's normal, we all go through that, it'll go away. And that got repeated over and over and over again. And it got repeated so much I felt like I was in this time warp, like I was in 1999, and I was in the movie Fight Club, which, for those of you who don't know, an office worker joins an underground fight club and when he joins Fight Club, he gets the rule of Fight Club.
Speaker 2:The first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club you don't talk about Fight Club. And then now I'm in this weird leadership journey where the first rule of leadership is you don't talk about Fight Club. And then now I'm in this weird leadership journey where the first rule of leadership is you don't talk about the personal struggles of leadership. The second rule of leadership you don't talk about the personal struggles of leadership. So then I was confused All this preparation again, this was not talked about in large scales. Many leaders don't. They boast about all the wonderful things that they've done, how they've changed the organization, they moved mountains and they're this aha on high, but nobody was really talking about this in great detail.
Speaker 2:So I thought, conveniently for this TED talk what if there was one idea of the future that if we just taught all leaders that would make the difference? So I thought I would figure that out and that switched what I was trying to fix. And in that quest I thought I'd reflect on all the amazing network of peers that I know and what they do. And one of the people that I reflected on was a friend of mine.
Speaker 2:Her name is Monica for the purposes of this TED Talk, and Monica was like me. She was a person of color, she was relatively younger and she had an amazing professional background, a lot of credentials as well too. Monica moved across the country with her family to accept her first CEO role at a nonprofit, and Monica was prepared. You can't get any more prepared than what Monica was. She was ready for this role, but nothing prepared her for one of her first leadership challenges. During Monica's first weeks it was common for her to walk into the office and see her predecessor sitting at her desk. She was revered within the organization. The staff loved her.
Speaker 1:She did amazing things oh, this is gonna be tough. So if y'all caught that, a few things. Uh first, he says. Then you know, the first rule of fight club is we won't talk about fight club. And the reality there is a lot of leaders are uncomfortable sharing the challenges they're dealing with, that they're going through because they don't want people to either to think bad of them, think poorly about their leadership style, their skills, act like they're not going to be able to take on the challenges of the future.
Speaker 1:I remember sitting with other CMCs and just asking them how they were doing it. All you would hear is man, they must be the best ever, right? Because I would never hear the struggles and I would be the one saying how jacked up I felt like I was, or what I felt like we weren't doing right. Then they would just say, oh man, but we got, I got the exact same thing, but they didn't. They don't lead off with that and I know that, especially for the surface Navy mentality, you don't typically like your dirty laundry to be out there on the pier per se. But then it's the same way even in the high school. Now I'll talk with the kids and when I talk to them about challenges they're going through and I relate to them, not just that challenge, but how I've seen it in previous years with similar students or students that they looked up to, that they had similar challenges. It helps them to recognize that they're just all humans going through a human experience and that everyone's going through something right, and that it's not supposed to be easy. And I tell them often things that are typically worth it don't come easy. Typically they're going to be challenging and they're going to be complicated.
Speaker 1:Now the second piece of this story is talking about his friend who went across country and took over a leadership project behind somebody else that didn't want to give it up. That's what. That's where he's going with this, and we've all been there. I've seen it so much, especially overseas, when people just they stay in the same geographical area or they continue to use social media to communicate with your people, but they're gone now and as change comes in, they're constantly talking to the other person or the previous person and of course, there's all kinds of judgment and there's all kinds of perspectives. So this ought to be interesting. I'm looking forward to hearing what he's got to say. This is going to be good. All right, here we go. Let's get back to this again.
Speaker 2:With the group. She also had dementia. She would walk through the building. The staff didn't know how to react to this person that they loved and adored and they didn't quite recognize who this person was. And so when Monica was telling me this story, I thought what did you do? Nothing in a leadership book teaches you that Credentials don't matter. And when I asked her what she said was, I took a moment and I stopped. I thought about what would I want if that was me, what would I want if that was a family member, somebody I loved and I cared for, and how would I want to be treated? And she said I did it with compassion. And that's what she did.
Speaker 2:It wasn't easy. It took time, it took a lot of patience, but with that compassionate leadership, that is what drove a better position for all the people in the organization. So then I thought aha, compassion, that's it. That is the one idea, that is it. If we had more compassionate leaders solves it. You wouldn't feel this way that I was feeling. Research backed it up Compassionate leaders have more productive staff, they have a better output. So I said that has to be it. Then I thought some more and I looked at other people and I thought of my other friend, michael, for the purposes of the TED Talk.
Speaker 1:Hey, real quick. So Monica, the lady that she had essentially replaced, wasn't that she was there because she did not want to leave. She was there because she retired and then, unfortunately, she was losing control of her mental faculties and maybe she thought she still worked there and that would be a complicated spot to be in. For sure, and kudos to Monica, because he said that was her name for the courtesy, for the purpose of the TED Talk she handled it with compassion. Compassion sounds good. Right, that's what he's saying. I got to feel like compassion is not going to work out, because I'll tell you it doesn't. It's all styles work, depending upon the situation, and that's what he's probably going to uncover here. But all styles work, depending upon the situation. Compassion has its time. So does non-compassion. Right, it just depends upon what's going on. All right, let's get back to this again.
Speaker 2:Michael and I were in the same leadership development executive class. This was a program that provided support to us in a number of ways. We went to conferences throughout the year, many, many professional development opportunities. Michael was also deaf and it was great getting to know him, and this program was based upon diversity and inclusion and, as part of this program, the sponsoring organization paid for interpreters for us to interact and talk with Michael, paid for interpreters for us to interact and talk with Michael. Now, there was some restrictions, I should say, around that Interpreters were only around during our specified time. So if the session was 8 to 5, dinner was 6 to 9, that's when we had interpreters. We didn't have interpreters beyond that.
Speaker 2:And for all of those of you who are in the professional world or not, you know that many of those connections that you make with people don't necessarily happen when the schedule says it happens, and so Michael was very adamant and passionate to champion the cause, to say that this needs to be covered beyond those hours, and at the time I understood both sides. I thought I'm an executive, I could understand how, if you're trying to budget and financially, these interpreters are paid hourly, that you'd want to know what those costs were. And then, of course, I understood what Michael was championing, and I myself had claimed to be a very passionate person around diversity. But then, michael, we had a conversation one day and it really changed my thinking. Michael said I'm not fighting for these interpreters for me. This organization claims to be one of the leaders in diversity and inclusion. This is a mostly hearing based audience. The interpreters aren't for me, they're for you. And that changed my thinking.
Speaker 2:And then I thought about Michael's leadership when we had that conversation. And a lot of people pride themselves on seeing both sides, but sometimes there's not two sides, there's just the right side, particularly when it talks about diversity and inclusion, and sometimes you have to stand strong, hard and fast on what that right side is and be brave and do that. So then I was like, aha, this is it. And of course I found research to back that up. Research for everything, research backs up everything. And so I repeated these conversations over and over and over, and there was new insights gained. Every time I had a conversation I didn't really know what it was. And then one day I sat and I just thought about all the conversations. I had everything that I read, everything that had prepared me up to that point.
Speaker 2:And then I realized something, and all of these scenarios and situations, whether these individuals knew it or not, they were being their authentic selves, consciously or subconsciously. So, when I thought about what was the one idea for the future of leadership, it's compassion, it's diversity, it's strategy, it's all of those things. But you can't do those things if you're not embracing your authentic self and being you and what that means. It means loving yourself, congratulating yourself on good days, forgiving yourself on bad days and doing the absolute, very best that you can. So in all of this discovery and journey, did I actually solve or fix this imposter syndrome? A little bit. I have a little bit more swag now, but even if a little bit is still there, that's okay, because that's my authentic self and I love it. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's talk about that. So I'm not going to get into the whole diverse, diversity and inclusion stuff right now because that's just too long of a conversation to have. I don't agree with it, but I also don't mind it. Right, just being honest with you, I grew up in a very diverse world and the united states navy is on the forefront of all that conversation and they're going to have the hardest part putting it all back together. You know'm just being honest with you. I'm a big fan of unity, that's what I'm a fan of.
Speaker 1:But I love the fact that he landed on authentic leadership and that's truthfully why I picked that video, because that's one of my mantras I love to be relentlessly authentic, right, relentlessly authentic. I tell people I can always tell the difference between true hard chargers and the people that are just kind of trying to brown nose or essentially play a position so they get some sort of a of a, of an edge or some sort of recognition. And I can tell those people are not typically consistent because they're not always the same right, whereas people that are authentic, they're being themselves and so when they typically make a mistake, it's not that hard for them to own up to it. They're not being ultra strategic or ultra calculating or always trying to figure out how to finagle their way into the best opportunity, and I think that matters, right. I don't trust leaders or people in leadership positions I should say that are always trying to play too many levels of the game at the expense of the people and to want to take on more responsibility, and if you're not going to want to do that, then I think you should be able to handle the authentic conversation that's going to tell you you're not earning your paycheck and we possibly need to reevaluate your position with this organization period, right? So good talk. I liked it. I'm glad that you landed on authentic leadership. It was from five years ago and so it definitely you can feel that energy.
Speaker 1:I really liked the part about Monica and the compassion and the lady with the mention that caught me off guard. All right, let's pick the next video here. So that last one was authentic leadership for the future, mr Irving Washington III. So we'll pull that one up. I'll post that stuff in the video information there later. Let's do. Let's listen to this guy right here. I never heard this one before either. Yeah.
Speaker 3:This was Peyton. She was 16 years old and on the morning of June 9, 2011, she got into her car and drove to cheer practice. She wouldn't make it. According to witnesses, she pulled up to the intersection and came to a full stop and then she proceeded forward. She didn't see the fully loaded coal truck coming at her at full speed, but it impacted her directly on the driver's side. When the vehicles came to rest, they were actually one. The entire driver's side of her car was completely gone. In fact, the front license plate of the truck was now in contact with the center of her dashboard. Peyton was pinned against the passenger side of the vehicle. Her neck was broken at C1. Her lung had collapsed, her jaw was fractured, her pelvis was shattered, her left leg was broken and her life was slipping away.
Speaker 3:Then the first responders arrived. Then the first responders arrived. It was a group made up of a police officer and a deputy sheriff, volunteer firefighters and an ambulance crew. They began to form and act as a team aligned with a clear mission, and that mission was to tend to the injuries of the truck driver, and they had an opportunity to save this girl's life. They began to assess the situation. They realized very quickly that she needed immediate and serious medical attention. They knew that it would take from 30 to 45 minutes to actually extract her from the vehicle, to cut her out of the car, and they realized that they didn't have that kind of time. So they began to develop ideas, they began to try to figure out and solve what appeared to be an unsolvable problem and they realized there was a small opening in where the sunroof had been. There was a chance for someone to slip inside from that position, from that place.
Speaker 3:The deputy sheriff asked himself the question that he always asks. Sheriff asked himself the question that he always asks what is my best and highest role? And he realized that he needed to move. And he moved. He climbed on top of the hood of her car and he found his way into the interior of her car through the opening in the sunroof. When he was in there, he realized that although Peyton's upper body was resting against the passenger door, her feet were caught on the driver's side in a very small opening about four inches in diameter. He was able to attempt to pull and realize that that was not going to be successful. In a moment that was inspired, he reached down and pulled on one of her shoelaces and it untied her shoe. He was able to loosen her foot and raise her foot, raise her leg and do the same with the other shoe shooe lace foot leg. He then was able to secure her body so that the other first responders could access, get inside the car from the outside, from the windows, secure her head and neck and ultimately pull her from the vehicle. Secure her head and neck and ultimately pull her from the vehicle. This act that appeared at first glance to be impossible took them 10 minutes, only 10 minutes, to remove her from the car.
Speaker 3:Peyton was placed in the hands of the ambulance crew and the ambulance crew sped away to the hospital. This team worked so quickly, in fact, that they were able to call off the Life Flight helicopter, saving precious minutes and perhaps Peyton's life At the scene. Not a single first responder thought that this young girl would make it to the hospital alive In the ambulance. They worked hard. They worked hard to keep her alive. Peyton arrived at the hospital and the doctors assessed her injuries and they knew that they were severe Because of her broken neck and the extensive injuries she had. They made arrangements to lifelight her to a children's hospital in Cincinnati, some 250 miles away. So they readied Peyton for that flight. They then briefed the parents. The outlook was grim. Parents, the outlook was grim. Peyton may not survive the flight to the children's hospital. She may not survive the surgery. And even if she did, they couldn't guarantee any kind of positive outcome. Peyton was then placed in the hands of a three-member life flight crew and, as the helicopter took off, a surgical team assembled on the ground in Cincinnati. When Peyton arrived, they prepared to conduct a very risky, difficult surgery that was expected to take eight hours. To take eight hours. They were going to have to reconnect her occipital bone through C3 using two titanium rods and six screws.
Speaker 3:I share this story with you not because it's about helicopters and ambulances. There's something more important here. This story is about human beings working in service to one another, in alignment with a shared mission. This story is about leadership. Good news this is Peyton. Peyton survived her injuries. She survived the surgery. She survived two years of grueling physical therapy. Her lung healed, her bones healed, her jaw healed. She regained the ability to walk to swallow on her own. Peyton would rejoin her cheer team her junior and senior years in high school. She graduated with her class on time and she is now in college. Peyton is my daughter.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, wow, wow.
Speaker 1:That was his daughter. That's incredible. 100% leadership story. 100%, god, 100%. Just first responders on the scene working together, working to get that girl out of that car. That's all mangled, god. Just a slip trip in the fall man can change your whole life. Here this young girl is going to practice. All of a sudden gets hit by that freaking coal truck, whatever that was. First responders take care of her. They get her out of the truck car in 10 minutes. Then she's on the ambulance. They're working their butts off.
Speaker 1:I love professionals, man. I love professionals, people that are good at what they do and they're willing to jump into the team and help and row. They're not fighting over who gets to be the one. They're not fighting over who's in charge, they're just putting the work in. I mean that's my favorite. I over who's in charge, they're just putting the work in. I mean that's my favorite.
Speaker 1:I love those times when I was sitting there listening to him say that she was getting life-flighted to that children's hospital and there's a team at the children's hospital getting ready to receive her. I can't even tell you the energy that was going through my veins because of the times that I've been in my life where we got told something crazy was happening and we activated our team. Where we got told something crazy was happening and we activated our team, and that is so much fun to be a part of a team that's actually ready to perform at the highest levels and I'm just so thankful that his daughter's alive. That's freaking incredible. What a freaking way to start a video. Good for him. All right, here we go.
Speaker 3:Wow, and over the course of this entire chain of events, I spent a lot of time reflecting on what had happened. I kept coming back to these first responders who'd performed so magnificently in a situation that I think few of us can barely imagine. How had they accomplished what they had accomplished? I found out who they were and I arranged to meet with them, individually and collectively. I learned some important things. Collectively, I learned some important things.
Speaker 3:They had a clear mission focus, and this is a hallmark of teams that are well-led and also that lead well. And there is a difference. They were well-led, strong mission focus, training how they were prepared for their mission. They had the right people there, the right equipment. They knew how to conduct themselves in that kind of a situation. Everything they did decisions, initiative was all focused on mission and in this case and in this case Peyton was the mission they led well, shared leadership.
Speaker 3:This was not a situation about position or titles, with some person with great authority issuing orders and people standing around waiting for instructions. They knew how to move. They knew how to lead in the moment and at the scene. They moved as a team. This was not a case where it was about individual effort. Everything they did was in the context of a team they believed. They had the audacity to believe that they could literally change the outcome, that they could save this girl's life, and they moved with that conviction and it was a self-fulfilling prophecy and finally they served. This wasn't about their own self-interest. This was about their teammates and Peyton and everything they did was with that spirit this is freaking awesome.
Speaker 1:This guy right here is phenomenal. So a couple things right mission focus always, always, always, always, always. If you're gonna do anything, keep, keep the insight, keep the perspective insight, keep the target insight, keep the focus insight. Keep the mission on, focus on what it needs to be and, especially if you're on a team, you got to focus on what unifies your team. Don't get freaking doll drummed into the whole freaking what's going to divide everybody from not wanting to be on the same page because we all like to watch different TV shows or we all like to use different kinds of freaking toothpaste. Right, like no focus on what matters. Focus on why you're all there. Look at that next part shared leadership. Shared leader. We all win if we don't care who gets the credit right. I love being on teams full of leaders that are all choosing to work with whoever's got the lead period right.
Speaker 2:Those are my favorite.
Speaker 1:I love it, right, I love being in that space to let my people lead me, because I trust them and this is how they learn. And when it's crisis, it's more important that at least one person got the lead but everyone else is willing to help. Because look at that next bullet moving as a team oh my God, like that is just. This is textbook. They believed, they believed in what they were doing. They believed in the risks they were going to take, they believed they could save this young lady's life. They believed in their mission. They believed in the shared leadership, they believed in their team. And then, finally, they were doing it because they served. They weren't doing it for the money. They weren't doing it like there's some stupid NBA player who only wants to make millions of dollars or throw a fit, some NFL player who's getting drafted but doesn't want to play because of some political perspective or because of some freaking, some petty controversy. Right, no, they're serving their community. Right, they're coming and they're serving their community. They're serving their community. Right, they're coming and they're serving their community. They're serving their people, they're serving their team and in that service, they're willing to assume the back.
Speaker 1:And I remember I got up, walked in the house, grabbed myself, went back out to the garage laid down on the ground. My whole back of my head was busted open. My back was broken. I just called 911, laid my phone up by my head laid down on the ground and said, hey, y'all got to come get me. And I knew, I knew they were coming to get me. And I knew I knew they were coming to get me and all I had to do was keep breathing, and and so I loved my years as a damage controlman.
Speaker 1:I love first responders, I love anybody who's on any team that's willing to have this level of uh commitment period. And I'm not knocking the nfl players or the the NBA players or whatever it is, because I know it takes years and years and years to get to what they're trying to do professionally and kudos to them for making it, because God only knows they're the highest percentage of the people in that career field. But it can come across to the average person a really, really, uh, uh, as petty when you look at the number of people that are out there in the world struggling to make it work. Right. Then you got these people like firefighters, law enforcement teachers, military, who are putting their lives on the line and they're making thousands of dollars a year, versus these other people that are making millions of dollars a year. Don't even get me started on the politicians that are out there freaking, screwing us all. That's all the conversation. Let's get back to this video. This guy is awesome.
Speaker 3:Interests. This was about their teammates and Peyton, and everything they did was with that spirit. Not a single first responder asked to be recognized or sought recognition for what they did that day and when I looked at what they had accomplished I reflected back on a prior life and my own experience as a Marine Corps officer and in the Marines.
Speaker 1:All right, you know what that's freaking? He's a Marine. That's OK here, let's go. I didn't know that part.
Speaker 3:Let's go, that's awesome we learned that leaders have a sacred responsibility to serve their Marines in accomplishing the mission. Sacred responsibility, service, mission, that was. We used phrases like officers, eat last and take care of your Marines first. Those weren't just phrases we threw around, they were really the hallmark. They were at the heart of how we led. Authentic leaders serve people in accomplishing the mission. You can call it alignment. Can it be that simple? Oh yeah, you can call it alignment. Can it be that simple? Oh yeah, it can be that simple.
Speaker 3:We have so confused the concept of leadership We've made it almost unattainable and sort of mystical and magical. It is that simple, it is real, it is human and it's vital. But it takes this important shift in perspective, this servant's perspective. And here's what it looks like Very simple, very simple.
Speaker 3:Mission is at top, big letters. Mission is primary. A compelling mission is a motivating power. It's an aligning force. People bring their talents and passions and skills in alignment to accomplish mission.
Speaker 3:And the second element individuals, people with a unique set of skills and talents. I think of the first responders in this case and their training and their equipment and their focus, with a clear alignment with mission. And then the third element, at the bottom, small, humble. That's the servant leader with this sacred responsibility to serve and support people in alignment with mission. That is the correct orientation. See, it's not about the leader. That is where the magic happens. That is where the power comes from, not from you and I individually, but from we. I'd like to challenge you to lead as a servant. I'd like for you to think about what happened in Peyton's case and realize that in your life you can humbly and in a meaningful way define yourself as a leader. It will transform and inform you as to how to act in a particular situation. It will change your relationship with people and events. Number two get on mission. Align yourself with something that has meaning, that resonates with you.
Speaker 1:Okay, so he talked about on top. He talked about, you know, mission on top. There's this funnel coming down, there was mission, there was team, and then down below is the leader. And I concur, right, the leader is typically the person that does not need to be the loudest one in the room, does not need to be the one that's out there just getting all the recognition. The one thing I would challenge this is not everybody always wants to be on the team, right, and that's a hard team. To be a servant leader for right, I will tell you that.
Speaker 1:Law enforcement, for example, I would like to think that the majority of them are doing it because they want to serve their community. Unfortunately, I know that not everybody there is going to feel that way and there's going to be people that might not always like their job. Teaching same thing, right? I would like to think that everybody that's a teacher is there because they want to educate the children, they want to work with these kids, they want to make the world a better place. Not always true, right? Um same thing can go for the military, right, we know. I know from personal experience that people seem to forget why they joined the military as soon as they get out of basic fricking training, and then when you have to make them do things, uh, that that they know what people don't mind doing. The big things, right, it's the, it's the mundane, it's the, it's the day-to-day. Those are the areas that people would always challenge us that we would have the most complicated things. I would tell my sailors you guys are great in the fourth quarter man, you guys are solid when it comes to scoring a touchdown. Where we struggle is in practice. Where we struggle is when we're not in crisis mode, and you have to keep that level of intention up so that way, when it's time to perform, you've got all those skills that they needed.
Speaker 1:To say Peyton, right, you've got to have those things ready to go, because otherwise they're going to atrophy, they're going to stop working, because complacency is a huge part of human nature. Right, and so, as a servant leader which it sounds good, and I appreciate the servant leader culture, but I will tell you, sometimes leaders need to be leader, leaders, leader, leaders. They need to get out there and freaking, get everybody moving. Sometimes you've got to drag them to the water and convince them to take a drink and remind them why the heck. They're on the wagon train. To begin with, you got to remind them why they're in high school or why they're in the military or what it is about this team that makes it matter, so that you can reorient them as to what's going on. And I think that that's why I'm a big fan of unity. And I do appreciate him putting mission on the top, because if people are not committed to the overall mission, you're going to have struggles, like I will tell you in the Navy mission. You're going to have struggles, like I will tell you in the navy the mission you know project freedom, the mission to keep the ship 100 battle ready whenever we say we need to go to answer every bell or to ensure the crew is trained.
Speaker 1:But the amount of people that have felt like we're moving in contradiction of that every day was such a freaking dilemma that we would just struggle with it. I used to tell my chief's mess because of the chief's mess, in my opinion, was one of the most important leadership organizations on the ship. And again, if we're not the most motivated people in the room, why should anybody else be motivated? And I would teach everyone, I would teach them that we would pull everything through the mess, everything, because if I couldn't depend upon everybody on the ship to row, then those chiefs were gonna. We were gonna drag it, we were gonna drag uh the command through everything we had to go through until we could get enough momentum going that now we're just, essentially, the rope was cooking and now we're just, we're alternating who gets to be lead, because whoever was the closest person to the problem was the one that had the responsibility, right, and that that was a very good mindset for us. But we didn't. We had to start. I felt like we had to start dragging it from a step, from a dance, from a stop.
Speaker 1:We do this thing, uh, with the uh cadets where we go, do this competition where they have it's called iron bear and they've got a vehicle at a park stop, and the cadets have got to grab this, grab this rope, and they've got to drag the car for a certain amount of feet and whoever gets the farthest at the end of the thing wins. And I'd always. You know the thing is getting it going. The momentum is the hardest part. Once you get it going, stopping it can also be a complication right, and strategically aligning your people on that rope so that when you pull it, drag it, whatever you got to do to get the win, you best use your people and their leverage right. So I love this. I love the servant leader concept. It sounds really good. It just you need to condition your team to appreciate the service of the leader, otherwise they're not going to value that servant leader concept and they've got to really believe in the mission and they've got to remember why they're there and they've got to understand what happens if they lose it.
Speaker 1:You know, I remember I had a guy one time. He popped positive for cocaine. I was a second class petty officer at the time, the year was probably 2004. And I was probably 26 years old and this guy was like 32, he was a third class petty officer and I remember when he popped positive for coke, he was just told and he's getting kicked out of the Navy. And I told him I said you know, I bet you just remembered every reason why you joined the Navy, because now that it's all gone, you know you just forgot why you decided to up and change your life and go serve your country and do something different. Because you wanted to go freaking, do some freaking drugs, like what the hell. That's incredible and back this video.
Speaker 3:This guy's on and number three, lead. Lead as a servant. Lead is a verb. It requires us to roll up our sleeves and to bring our talents and our skills and our experiences to the table in service, in support of others, in alignment with a shared mission.
Speaker 3:Peyton's accident humbled me deeply. I felt that I had failed her. She'd only been driving for about three weeks. I could have done more. I could have taken her by that intersection one more time and made sure she understood that, although she had the stop, that cross traffic did not. I could have done more. I didn't stop the coal truck from hitting her, I couldn't pull her from the car, I couldn't fly the helicopter that took her to the children's hospital, and I couldn't do the surgery. In fact, I had to rely on many other volunteers and professionals to do that. It felt that I hadn't done enough. I did not save my daughter. I do, though, define myself as a servant leader, and, although I felt that I could do nothing more for Peyton, there was more I could do.
Speaker 3:What is my best and highest role? I could find some way to recognize this entire group of people, from first responders to caretakers and physical therapists. We could say thank you. My best and highest role became Marines-like missions. My new mission was to say thank you. So we found ways, after Peyton returned from the hospital, to identify and recognize, in ways both public and private, these people who did so much, who actually gave her the chance to live and to live a full life. So my best and highest role at that point was to say thank you. It was as simple as that. One of the meetings I had was it was a great opportunity Several months after the accident, I arranged to meet with the ambulance crew.
Speaker 3:After the accident, I arranged to meet with the ambulance crew. We met at their station and I brought some pictures of Peyton and shared them with them and I wanted them to just know a little bit more about her. I wanted them to realize that they did something very important here and I learned about them. We had a great discussion and when I felt that I'd said enough, I asked for my leave and I got up to walk away and one of the young men who was on the team stepped away and as I'm walking to the door, he said sir, sir.
Speaker 3:Then I turned around yes, I'd like to give you something. I said certainly, and he held out this emergency rescue knife and he said I'd like you to have this. And I said what is that? And he said this is the knife I had on that morning and I used it to knock the glass out of the windows so that we could get to your daughter and pull her from the car. He said when I got back to my room after we were finished at the accident scene, I put it in the drawer beside my bed and it's been there ever since. I haven't been able to bring myself to pull it out. But when I met you today I realized I needed to give it to you and I said thank you. Your final lesson as a servant leader is to say thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1:Wow, very powerful, freaking story. That's incredible. His name was Sean Georges and the video is titled the Essence of Authentic Leadership, and he's talking about the importance of saying thank you right and how hard it is for us all to say thank you, or the importance of us saying thank you. That's great. What a good story to share. What a freaking heartbreak. God. I can only imagine, as a parent, going through all of that and I'm so glad that it worked out well.
Speaker 1:Definitely some good leadership advice in there. You know, lead is a verb, right, to lead is a verb. That was awesome. Right, you got to get out there and you got to lead. Don't just come to work and hope that it's going to work out okay. Don't just come to work and hope that it's going to work out Okay. Don't just go sit behind your desk and expect that everyone's always doing the things that they're supposed to do. I hope they are, but get out there and move right. Get out there and be available. Get out there and see what's going on. Get out there and feel the pulse of your team and figure out if it's going the way you want it to go. Talk to the people, listen to what they have going on. Serve the ones that deserve your service and recognize the ones that aren't doing their job and take care of that, so that way everybody can recognize that there's no freebies there. Right? Everyone needs to do the training, everyone needs to do the preparation, everyone needs to put the work in.
Speaker 1:What a great video. Hey, I appreciate anybody that watches this video. Thank you very much. If you get the chance, I'd love for you to like or subscribe my YouTube channel. This works for my wise YouTube channel. I recently published a book. I'm going to get my copy in the mail pretty soon and once I get the chance to look at it physically, then I'll start talking more about it if it meets my expectations. This is me trying some new things, but I really do appreciate everybody out there. I'm going to publish this video at some point here later on today and I will make sure that the links to those two videos that we just watched are in the description of this video. All right, thank you all very much. Have a great weekend. Thank you for everything. I'm going to go ahead and set the outro video out right now. Then we're going to take off, so I'll see y'all later. Bye, I don't tell I'm on top. I know I was born for this, I know.
Speaker 2:I was born for this.
Speaker 1:I believe, I believe we can write a story.
