That ALL Might Be Edified: Discussions on Servant Leadership

Conduct a Daily Gut Check

This week's guest is a great friend who I look up to like a big brother, Darren Lifferth. Darren teaches us through words, stories, and examples how important it is to be open to opportunities when they arise, even if the timing might feel off according to our plans. Darren highlights the importance of doing a gut check everyday to make sure you are moving in the right direction and focusing on the the right priorities. Darren shares some personal stories that illustrate how examples from his life have helped him become the servant leader he is today and how holding people accountable can be vital to serving them. We talked about an inspirational address from Elder Alvin Meredith III about how to look down the road to center ourselves and it showed even deeper how we are more connected than we realize. Darren shared his reason for choosing the path of international business so that he could help people become more connected and reliant on one another so there would be less conflict in the world. 

 

Darren Lifferth is the Cat Card Business Excellence and International Business Development Manager for Cat Financial based in Nashville, Tennessee. He leads a cross functional team of project leaders, data scientists, and strategy experts on developing new business opportunities internationally. Darren has worked for Caterpillar for almost 20 years in a variety of positions and locations globally. He joined Caterpillar as a Credit Analyst after earning his bachelors degree in International Business Management from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. While in Nashville he took on additional responsibilities as a Customer Service Representative handling collections, loan modifications, repossessions, and reporting. Next he moved into a Documentation Analyst role followed by a Transaction Coordinator role supporting loan documentation creation, negotiation, and government filing of title documents. During these roles Darren spent considerable time working in Brazil. In 2007 he earned his MBA from Auburn University with an emphasis in Finance. From 2007 through 2013 he held sales roles in Florida as an International Account Manager and in Louisiana as a Senior International Account Manager. In 2013 he relocated his family to Singapore to lead the sales efforts as the Asia Pacific Sales Manager. In 2016 he transitioned into the Asia Pacific Marketing Manager. In both of these roles Darren was able to travel extensively throughout Asia to support customers and Caterpillar Dealers. In 2018 he moved his family to Bangkok, Thailand to become the Managing Director for Thailand managing all company operations for sales, credit, customer service, legal, compliance, HR, and reporting. During the start of the pandemic he moved his family back to Nashville, Tennessee where he transitioned in to the Business Excellence Manager for Cat Financial responsible for strategy development and governance, project management, 6 Sigma, Lean, data strategy development and governance, and company resource allocation. Darren’s current responsibilities as the Cat Card Business Excellence and International Development Manager focus on growing business opportunities internationally. 

 

Darren and Sarah were the first couple ever married at the Nashville Tennessee Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in May 2000 and they now have six children ranging in age from 6 to 20 years old. He loves all things outdoors like running, sports, hiking, canoeing, rock climbing, fishing, hunting, mountain biking, and sitting around a camp fire. Hobbies include cheering for UT, Auburn, TN Titans, and the New Orleans Saints, sewing outdoor gear like hammocks and backpacks, ham radios, 4x4 offroading, timing the stock market, keeping up with current events, traveling, and eating delicious food. Most of the time he’s with his family on some adventure when he’s not working.

 

Resources:

Elder Alvin F. Meredith III - Look Down the Road https://abn.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2021/10/57meredith?lang=eng  

Don’t Linger in Artificial Harmony

The guest on this episode is one of my professors and mentors in Servant Leadership, Dr. Josh Armstrong, who shares with us the importance of creating a psychologically safe space where we can have real conversations and make meaningful connections with the people around us. We talk about some of the experiences I had in his classes and he talks about how he is trying to become an emotional scientist to recognize personal feelings while encountering the feelings of others in healthy ways. Josh believes people long to connect and that we all have expectations for the teams we are on that we too often don't vocalize. We have some great discussion on how to approach conflict and to resist avoiding uncomfortable conversations. Dr. Armstrong shares some great book recommendations and one is a recent book he read on the importance of creating rituals and we share some of our own personal rituals. As we create real meaningful connections and help people feel safe and present, we can create real harmony in our teams, but in order to do so we have to resist staying in the artificial harmony we too often settle for. 

Dr. Josh Armstrong is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Leadership and Faculty Director of the Comprehensive Leadership Program for undergraduate students at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. He holds a Ph.D. in education and leadership from Michigan State University, a master's degree in higher education and student affairs from the University of Vermont, and an undergraduate degree in psychology from Whitworth College. Dr. Armstrong's research interests include development of intercultural competency, servant leadership, experiential education and adaptative leadership.

In addition to teaching, Dr. Armstrong provides leadership training for student leaders at Gonzaga, and provides vision and student learning opportunities for a campus community of 5,300 students at Gonzaga. For the past fifteen summers, Josh has lead a summer program in Zambia, Africa with undergraduate students at Gonzaga and it always changes his life.

Resources:

Marc Brackett - Permission to Feel: The Power of Emotional Intelligence to Achieve Well-being and Success https://www.amazon.com/Permission-Feel-Emotional-Intelligence-Well-Being/dp/1250212839/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2VJL3E8HCELAW&keywords=marc+brackett&qid=1652248292&s=books&sprefix=marc+brac%2Cstripbooks%2C97&sr=1-1

Erica Keswin - Rituals Roadmap: The Human Way to Transform Everyday Routines into Workplace Magic https://www.amazon.com/Rituals-Roadmap-Transform-Everyday-Workplace/dp/1260461890/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3AWKY5SPJ0SY3&keywords=erica+keswin&qid=1652248356&s=books&sprefix=erica+keswin%2Cstripbooks%2C79&sr=1-3

Patrick Lencioni - Conflict Continuum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VZERZyY198

Josh Armstrong & Larry Spears - The Accompanying Servant Leadership: Facilitating Change that Builds Engaged Partnerships https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C19&q=The+Accompanying+Servant+Leadership%3A+Facilitating+Change+that+Builds+Engaged+Partnerships%C2%A0&btnG=

 

Our Greatest Resource is Humans

The guest of this episode is Andrea Davis, who is the founder and CEO of the Resiliency Initiative. Andrea shares some powerful examples from many years in crisis managmenet on how to expand the capacity of the world by focusing on the individuals and creating an environment where people take care of their families and then the company. Andrea strives to be culturally relevant to each of the individuals she works with and for by striving to be a leader who knows what is important to each of the members on every team she is a part of. Andrea teaches us that our team's success is our success and that we should constantly ask who's missing to make sure that we are working to help everyone have a seat at the table and have their voices heard. 

Andrea has been in the field of crisis management since 1999, starting in the non-profit sector developing Y2K crisis response plans. Andrea went on to serve at the City and County of San Francisco and in the US Federal Government as the Emergency Manager for the 12th District Federal Reserve Bank and as the External Affairs Director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Louisiana Recovery Office for Hurricane Katrina. While at FEMA, Andrea oversaw all media, intergovernmental and congressional activities for one of the U.S.’ largest disaster recovery efforts, with a total recovery portfolio of over $25 billion. 

For the past ten years, Andrea has led global, enterprise-wide crisis management departments for multi-national, Fortune 50 companies-The Walt Disney Company and the Walmart Corporation. Currently, she is the Founder and CEO of an SBA-certified, woman-owned, crisis management consulting firm, The Resiliency Initiative.

Andrea's passion is volunteer service which led to her selection as the Inaugural Emergency Manager of the Year by the International Association of Emergency Managers in 2018 and her induction into the Women's Hall of Fame for Emergency Management in 2013. Andrea is currently serving as the Board Chair for the NW Arkansas American Red Cross and a founding member of the Arkansas Tiffany Circle.

Links:

The Resiliency Initiative - Resiliency, Continuity, Crisis Management https://theresiliencyinitiative.com  

Know What You are Juggling & Who Can Help

The guest on this episode is the Coast Guard Pacific Strike Team Executive Officer, Kasey Arguelles. We talk about getting fulfillment out of creating order out of chaos and how helping people manage the stresses of life is a big factor in success. Kasey embodies a true servant leader, vocalizing that regardless of her path in life, her focus will be helping people. Kasey shares some great insight and examples about getting help from those around you to make sure that you can be the best version of yourself. Kasey provides some thought provoking material for those on the quest for work-life balance and we talk about the power of representation. Knowing what is important to you and others will help us all help one another juggle the balls that are most important to each of us. 

Kasey Arguelles is an active-duty Lieutenant Commander in the USCG. She currently serves as the Executive Officer of the Pacific Strike Team, where she leads a unique, highly trained cadre of Coast Guard professionals who are recognized worldwide as an expert authority in the preparation for and response to oil discharges, hazardous substance releases, weapons of mass destruction events, and other emergencies on behalf of the American public. 

Prior to this assignment, Kasey served at the Safety & Environmental Health Division of the Health, Safety, and Work-Life Service Center in Norfolk, Virginia, responsible for the execution of industrial hygiene and environmental health services across the Coast Guard including safety support services during contingency responses nation-wide. Other assignments include Assistant Chief of the Incident Management Division at Sector New Orleans from 2012 to 2015 and Deck Watch Officer aboard USCGC JARVIS (now decommissioned) in Honolulu, Hawaii from 2010 to 2012.

Kasey graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Environmental Science from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 2010. She received her Master of Science in Work Environment with two concentrations (Occupational and Environmental Health / Ergonomics and Safety) from the University of Massachusetts and was the recipient of the Department of Public Health's Dean’s Award in 2017. Her capstone research centered on an analysis of psychosocial hazards encountered by responders during contingency responses. LCDR Arguelles earned her Registered Environmental Health Specialist credential from the National Environmental Health Association in 2018 and her Certified Emergency Manager certification from the International Association of Emergency Managers in 2019. 

Kasey grew-up on the South Shore in Marshfield, Massachusetts. She currently resides in Novato, California, with her husband, Steve, who is also an active-duty USCG LCDR, and their three daughters, Kennedy (7), Taylor (5), and Madison (2).

Good Leaders Produce Great Leaders

Marcus Boyd is the guest on this episode. Marcus shares some great insight on having challenging and crucial conversations while displaying his nature as a servant leader in his examples. Marcus talks about the power of being aware and especially self aware and we discuss how important this attribute is to servant leadership. He talks about one of his leadership mentors and how he learned the value of communication. Throughout the episode, Marcus displays his philosophy to start with heart in his discussion, example, and insights. He reminds us that if we are passionate about something we will find a way to do it and he is passionate about creating an environment that makes it hard for people to want to leave his organization.

Marcus Boyd is an active duty Coast Guard Officer currently serving in the Los Angeles – Long Beach area. His role is Assistant Chief of Waterways Management and Diversity and Inclusion Change Agent.  

He enlisted in the Coast Guard in 2006 as his father praised their missions and ability to pay for college. His favorite assignments include BASE New Orleans where he was awarded Enlisted Person of the Year in 2013 and Recruiting Office Tampa where he was awarded Active Duty Recruiter of the Year in 2018. His passion in recruiting came from noticing the lack of credibility for the Coast Guard in under privileged communities. He aimed to build relationships to ensure as many people as possible were educated on the unique opportunities of joining the CG. These assignments provided a greater desire to serve and he eventually accepted a commission at Officer Candidate School where he was awarded the Commandant Leadership Award upon graduating in March of 2020. 

He spent much of his childhood moving to new cities due to being raised in a military family. These cities include, Monterey, CA, Jacksonville, AR, Fort Hood, TX, and Rochester, MN. This is where he gained a love of travel, seeing live sporting events, good food, and meeting new people. Constantly being the “new kid” gave him a greater sense of humility to survive in changing environments and a desire to take care of those around him.

In 2015, he fulfilled his initial goal when joining by receiving a Bachelor’s Degree from Loyola University New Orleans. He’s married to his beautiful wife, Ellen and they have two children, Myla and Mars.

Resources: 

Larry Spears - The Ten Characteristics of a Servant Leader https://www.spearscenter.org/46-uncategorised/136-ten-characteristics-of-servant-leadership

Kim Scott - Radical Candor https://www.amazon.com/Radical-Candor-KIM-SCOTT/dp/1509845380/ref=sr_1_4?crid=39ZA03NIH700E&keywords=radical+candor&qid=1650427787&s=books&sprefix=radical+cand%2Cstripbooks%2C101&sr=1-4

Joseph Grenny & et al. - Crucial Conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Conversations-Tools-Talking-Stakes/dp/1260474186/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1C6PZ488FVLOG&keywords=crucial+conversations+book&qid=1650427914&s=books&sprefix=cru%2Cstripbooks%2C89&sr=1-1

Michael A. Dunn - One Percent Better https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2021/10/54dunn?lang=eng

 

 

 

Help Other People Believe in Themselves

I am joined on this episode by Abraham DeWeese, who true to the title of this episode helped me believe in myself enough to start this podcast and has been instrumental in helping me believe that I should keep it going. We talk about some of the historical influences of servant leadership while slipping in some conversation about sports and its applicability to servant leadership. We even managed to make a couple of nautical references while pulling some stories from our past. Abraham is an individual who is dedicated to helping others and is someone who really walks the walk when it comes to putting people first. Abraham gives us some great insight into why servant leadership is a great model to institute in any organization and lifestyle to help more people believe in themselves. 

 

Abraham DeWeese; he is a cool hep cat. By day he helps k-12 educators learn how to use Microsoft Products to solve problems in the classroom via the Learn Educator Center:  Educator Center Overview - Microsoft Learn Educator Center | Microsoft Docs and by night he is a sports podcast presenter for the Seattle Sports Union: Seattle Sports Union – United in support of Seattle sports. 

 

Abraham has a couple decades of technical communications and project management under his hat, but gets a perverse thrill out of helping out others with personal projects including helping friends launch a psychic radio program, a photography studio, a web app for bars, and even gave a slight push to get this podcast started. Abraham says "slight" but I say a major push and some personalized training and coaching. 

 

Resources & Links:

Microsoft Learn Education Center - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/learn/educator-center/ 

Seattle Sports Union - https://www.seattlesportsunion.com 

 

Leading the Leader Within

President/CEO of United Way of Pueblo County, Shanna Farmer shares some experiences from her life to highlight the need to start with leading self and discovering the leader within and then working to see the leader within all the people you encounter. Shanna is a true servant leader who has dedicated her life to the community of Pueblo, Colorado and has worked to create opportunities for others to grow in their leadership ability. She highlights the need to build trust and not just rely on brand recognition, but always be working to be better by being willing to learn. The idea of humility is so important to servant leadership and Shanna reminds us of the need to seek out experts, but also to look at every person and experience as someone or something that we can learn from, learn to be a better leader and a better human. She eloquently states that there is not enough money in the world to address every need, so we need to focus on building the capacity of people, our community, and organizations. We begin by leading self, then leading others, then hopefully leading in our communities and organizations. 

Shanna M. Farmer has served as President/CEO of United Way of Pueblo County since 2019 and has extensive experience working in Southern Colorado and has dedicated her career to this community. She was born and raised in Pueblo, Colorado and has served as a board member for several nonprofit organizations and has volunteered thousands of hours to local and statewide nonprofit organizations. Shanna has a Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University. During graduate school, she earned a Servant Leadership Certificate from research in service-learning and studies in service-based leadership practices. She received her undergraduate degree from CSU-Pueblo in Political Science with minors in Mass Communication and Leadership Studies.  Since 2015, Shanna has been an Adjunct Faculty member at CSU-Pueblo in the President’s Leadership Program.

Prior to joining United Way of Pueblo County, Shanna worked as the Director of Advancement at Catholic Charities – Pueblo’s Family Resource Center, where she oversaw all fundraising, grants/contracts, marketing, and public relations for the agency. Previously, Shanna was employed at Colorado College as the Community Partnerships Program Coordinator in the Collaborative for Community Engagement. The majority of her work was spent advising students and developing mutually beneficial partnerships between community partners and the campus. Prior to joining Colorado College, Shanna worked at CSU-Pueblo as the Community-Based Research Coordinator for a program aimed at increasing access to and success in graduate school, and she focused on developing partnerships between the University and Southern Colorado nonprofits, businesses, and governmental entities. Before entering the world of higher education, Shanna served as a Regional Representative for the United States Congress, Third Congressional District. This district spanned twenty-nine diverse Colorado counties, which included Pueblo, many rural communities in Southeastern Colorado, the San Luis Valley, and the Western Slope. During her tenure there, she supported constituents and organizations to address issues of concern and helped them navigate the federal government. She specialized in casework related to healthcare, immigration, taxes, education, and Social Security and assisted with several legislative issue areas.

Shanna is married to Sean T. Wolff, and they are the proud parents of several rescued special needs dogs and cats. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, bike riding, photography, and traveling.

Resources:

United Way of Pueblo County - Mission and Values Statements https://www.pueblounitedway.org/about-us

Dr. Christa Kirsch & Dr. Janet Peters - Leadership from the Inside Out: Student Leadership Development within Authentic Leadership and Servant Leadership Frameworks https://journalofleadershiped.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/16_1_peters.pdf

Colorado State University at Pueblo - President's Leadership Program https://www.csupueblo.edu/center-for-honors-and-leadership/presidents-leadership-program/index.html 

 

 

Recognize the Tremendous Capacity of Humans & Nurture It

Rulon McKay joins with me on this episode to talk about the power of listening and change management. Rulon expands upon the power listening by discussing a week-long course he had on this characteristic of servant leadership and by highlighting a story about one of his first dates with his wife and the way she displayed true listening. Rulon also sheds light on what some would consider the "dark art" of change management by talking about the need for leaders to be dissatisfied with the current state in order to welcome new and innovative ideas. Rulon gives us some great perspective on recognizing people, illustrating some ways we can do this while also empowering them to show greater trust in them. Rulon compares servant leadership to parenting; reminding us that we should want people to surpass us and it is our role to help them become more competent than us. We should look at the individuals around us and ask ourselves what they need and what it is that qualifies them just enough to get more opportunities and responsibility. Rulon also displays a natural tendency to want to keep learning that helps him work to get even better while reminding us that we need to be focused on the future and the people that will take over our organizations after us. 

Rulon McKay is a Senior Consultant with PeopleCore, a firm based in Pennsylvania. He spent the bulk of his career with Shell Oil Company as a Human Resource Manager. He has a Masters in Human Resources Management, and a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Development. Rulon has trained and coached thousands of leaders over the courses of his career--from front line supervisors to Senior Executives. He also served as a member of leadership teams and, for two years, as the Chairman of the Contra Costa County Workforce development board in California. He and his wife Martha are the parents of five children and 11 grandchildren.     

 

 

 

When We Don’t Empower People, We are Robbing Them

Michael Lavoie emphasizes the importance of knowing the skills that you need and putting the right people in the right place while being adaptable enough to make required changes along the way. He teaches us that It is important to empower people so you can prepare for the future and a failure to empower the people around you robs them of opportunities. We owe it to the members of our teams to build an environment that brings out the best in them and when we don't do that, we are essentially stealing from their potential. Michael reminds us that a servant leader's number one goal Is helping people grow. A good leader needs to be okay letting others around them shine and get the praise for good work. Michael shares an analogy about parenting to display how when someone doesn't perform up to an expectation, a good leader looks inward to question whether they contributed to the unmet expectation. We both share our love for serving others and how that helps us learn greater empathy. 

Michael Lavoie is a Regional Vice President of Sales at Uniti Fiber specializing in telecom sales management, strategy development, and organizational execution with team development. He is a business professional with strong interpersonal skills that builds high-performing teams over the last 25 years. A demonstrated sales leader, with a strong focus on delivering consistent award-winning results aligned with key business initiatives. He has a precise understanding of solution selling in the competitive business environment and possesses an in-depth understanding of emerging strategic technologies along with their commercial applications which results in delivering mission-critical results. He has a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Central Florida and an Master of Business Administration from Western Governors University. He also serves in a volunteer capacity as an Area Welfare Specialist focusing on Disaster Relief for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and has over 20 years of experiencing in organization disaster relief following hurricanes, tornadoes, and flooding. 

For the past 20 years, assisted in organizing disaster relief after hurricanes, tornadoes, and flooding. Organizing command center staff to direct work teams in the crisis area, formulating plans to assist the public cleanup physically and spiritually after a major disaster. Ongoing contributor and developer of an amazing tool created by Aaron Titus called Crisis Cleanup (www.crisiscleanup.org) to assist charitable organizations become more organized to clean up after a major disaster.

Resources:

Tony Dungy - Mentor Leader: Secrets to Building People and Teams that Win Consistently https://www.amazon.com/Mentor-Leader-Secrets-Building-Consistently/dp/1414338066/ref=sr_1_1?crid=Q5PANNMSJUIE&keywords=Tony+dungy+servant+leadership&qid=1646111679&s=books&sprefix=tony+dungy+servant+leadership%2Cstripbooks%2C36&sr=1-1

 

Leadership Flows in ALL Directions

Nailah Blades Wylie is the guest on this week's episode and we reminisce about our experience in Dr. Adrian Popa's class "Leadership and Hardiness" when we were at graduate school at Gonzaga University. Nailah expands upon the lessons we learned from that class with great insight and examples to illustrate how important it is to create a safe space where people can be their authentic selves. She runs an incredible organization to help women of color rediscover their joy through activities in the outdoors in a way that she describes as "coming home to ourselves" that highlights the need for each of us to create a space to understand our own authentic selves as we work to help others bring their full selves to our organizations. We had a great example from Dr. Popa who showed us what an impact you can have on people when you create a safe space that challenges them in a way they never thought possible. This invites curiosity and experimentation and although sometimes you might fail at an initial goal, the outcome will be far more profound and it shows people that they can do hard things and are more resilient than they realize. 

Nailah Blades Wylie is a Life & Leadership coach who helps leaders tap into their power to build personal and professional lives that are whole, good, and full of possibility. Through high touch coaching that integrates the outdoors, Nailah teaches her clients how to go from feeling invisible to imitable in every area of their lives. She also consults with brands and organizations on how to create inclusive organizational cultures that allow all individuals to shine authentically at work and facilitates professional development programs for Black, Indigenous, and people of color employees.

Nailah began her career in the Consumer Packaged Goods industry, which gave her invaluable experience in marketing and strategic planning. She then went on to start and run a digital marketing agency that focused on creating impactful, inclusive content for lifestyle brands. She earned her Master’s in Communication and Leadership Studies from Gonzaga University and holds a Bachelor’s in Communication from the University of Southern California.

Her work centers on the belief that when we stand in the truth of our authentic selves, we can live and lead in a way that creates real change in our world. When she's not coaching or speaking you can find her hiking with her husband or playing intense games of hide-n-go seek with her two tiny kids.

Resources:

Nailah Blades Wylie - Color Outside: https://coloroutside.org

Nailah Blades - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nailahblades/

Gonzaga University - Leadership and Hardiness: https://www.gonzaga.edu/online-graduate-programs/online-programs/m-a-organizational-leadership/domestic-immersions/leadership-and-hardiness