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Transcript ( Thursday, January 27, 2022, unedited). "It's time to start talking about trusted leadership. Well welcome back this is bradley waldrop and today we're going to talk about trusted leadership. And as as we talked about this might or might not resonate with you will have to see i do want to give a lot of credit back to i think it's stephen m r covey that introduced me to one of these concepts. Money concepts is the speed of trust there's a book out there called the speed of trust and the speed of trust. Is really an important concept is important interesting it sort of a bit of ideas and what are the reasons why for us it seems to be really important he is if you go back and you look at the profession of civil engineering chemical engineering electrical engineering sort of those those folks that are that are licensed to practice engineering. They are in an in an elite class of individuals who are trusted by the public to deliver something that is safe. Manny's practical unusable i say the practical unusable part 2 pretty quickly because not every project is. Dedicated to being practical and whatever project is is practically project fits the mold however you are a part of your responsibilities as a professional is. Public safety need your your. Start of a persona in the the sort of practice of civil engineering the practice of mechanical or any of the other discipline is the practice of that engineering is. To be able to follow code that's been provided help develop code that if you if you need to and you know all in all the when you stamp & sign something you're taking responsibility for the work and in taking responsibility for the work you're also taking responsibility for for adhering to the public safety guidelines and rules that are available to us. And. All of that to say you know if if. There are ways for us as a profession and you as an individual to sort of set yourself apart it is to sort of lean into the trust side of the business so really really successful let me go back and let's let's talk about maybe at the story a little bit. One morning i was walking into end of the engineering officer about seven 7:30 in the morning. And lo and behold there's a voicemail on my on my. Machine at the same time we're getting on the phone when i walked in and it was hey bradley this is so-and-so from someone so can you give me a call as soon as you get in and go okay what is only happening in 15 minutes prior. So i give him a call back and i said hey what's going on steve said i have this problem. Are there's a bridge that was cut in half. And i need some help. So i ran ran to the closet and made sure i had a hard hat and vest i had hard hat in my car grab a vest and everything else i need for pve run out to the job site which was about an hour and 15 minutes away from the office and so i was going as quickly as i could i got to the job site. And being at the job site they were there was traffic kind of everywhere it's all all you know backed up into different directions and there was a contractor with just looking at me like what what do we do now. Mark lyon steve was also saying what do we do now and what's interesting is no one had a contour died and have a contractor perform the work that i was being asked to do but i was being called because i was a trusted advisor i was on the speed dial for problems that happened in everyday life for steve steve viewed me as one of those guys that could come out to a job site. Quickly assess what was going on and helped him get through the tragedy of of what he was seeing writing in tragedy it is all relative right if your day has not a whole lot going on and someone cuts a bridge in half lengthwise. All of a sudden that becomes a tragedy right you got to you got to worry about getting people safely to and from you have to worry about how much it's going to cost you have to worry about who's responsible for it you got to wo...

Transcript ( Wednesday, January 26, 2022, raw unedited.) "Well today we're going to go beyond talent. So hang on here we go. Welcome back this is bradley waldrop and we are talking about project leadership were talking about leadership were talking about initiative were talking about all kinds of things and over the last couple days i have been sort of struck by some of my own sort of my own personal experiences that that got me to where i am but also that have nothing to do with work and but but they actually relate directly to work and then you can kind of see how some of those stories weave their way into work. So. What i'd like to be able to do is just sort of i don't know go through a series of maybe struggles that you might see in your own career that i've seen in mind i really wish that you and i can have this conversation across the table and i can ask you a whole bunch of questions because you know i could come across is totally presumptuous like i know it all in it and i don't i don't know your story i don't know my neighbors story i would like to know them and i do what i can to ask questions when i'm available or when someone else is in the room. And i'm naturally curious but. Because you're listening to this that means it's like a one-way communication so if it comes across as pompous and and presumptuous. It might my heart my heartfelt apologies for that it's not my intention with my intention is to try to get to try to put myself into your shoes to try to put myself into into history where i have been and explain my own journey and maybe you guys get a chance to relate to it a little bit. So as we talked about this journey you may or may not have heard i was a i was a high-performing athlete in high school i got i got in my nice sort of. Athletic groove light in my own life i mean most of them most of my friends you know they were playing pop warner football when they were really young they were doing some sort of. Either b intercollegiate sport or or intramural sport in in middle school i ran track and i was slow and i i tried to play basketball i play basketball when i was in elementary school i really really really enjoyed it but if you've ever seen me i'm vertically challenged. I don't play i don't play basketball i used to play basketball a lot in the street and what have you and i really enjoy the sport but but everybody else got bigger than me i played i played football i play tag flag football in in middle school or junior high middle school because my kids are older my kids went through where we call it middle school when i was a kid was called junior high football and football. But that was that was really it wasn't great i am what i was on the varsity football team my junior and senior year i think i was on the varsity football team my junior year because lately just felt sorry for me during my senior year i had a few interceptions had qufu chi-chi tackles i enjoyed the playing the sport but i wasn't i wasn't super passionate about it wasn't it wasn't the that the kind of thing that i really really wanted to excel in and a couple different reasons which i felt like i was short on talent and. I wasn't physically you know that the same build as the other guys that i was playing with. I did happen to find sort of a groove when i was in high school. In wrestling and it's really kind of interesting because i i came into the high school and he did sort of walk you back a little bit i was in high school my freshman year i was 5 ft 205 lb. Iso 542 105 lb i was 105 lb woman wringing wet i mean i was. I wasn't i wasn't well-built and i was little pudgy i'd been always a little pudgy on my life i'm a lot more pudgy now than then i was then and i'm trying to do something about it but that's completely different story for a different day so in high school though i got a chance to be exposed to this sport of wrestling and for me wrestling was great because i got a ...

Transcript (Wednesday, January 26, 2022. Raw unedited text.): "Welcome back this is bradley waldrop in well we're going to record in my mobile recording studio was just nowhere nearly as good. Yeah it's at the recording studio i normally use but it is what it is and i. Just i just had an experience that reminded me of. Start of some of my pasta. Some of the reasons why i ended up so frustrated in my career and that most of it was my own doing and i'm hoping that maybe. We could get you past it so that it's not of your doing. For a long time. I thought that i was much much much more important to my company. I was working on the longer my to-do list was i had an unrealistic understanding of my own work. And i am really honestly thought if i do a lot and everybody sees i do a lot. Can i bring a lot of value every single day. There was a time. Where. I started using a. The franklin covey. Organizer and i use the franklin covey organizer off and on throughout my career don't use them on anymore. But one of the things that was real interesting about it if you remember those it's on the right hand side there was an action item list of things that you were going to do. And i got you a point where. I had multiple pages of that so i actually would print out. Any size piece of paper 8 half by 11 cut in half. With a to-do list and it was most pages rather than rewriting it everyday i would just move it over. The next day. If i remember correctly i was somewhere in southern california i think i was in a conference room it was pretty mediocre. Anyway. In that environment right there's a rumors 12 of us are all hoveround conference room conference room table. And. Doublehead said in all that they are like three or four things to do and i thought i was cool and so i said well i just counted mine up to the number and get them all done like 42 things on my to-do list. Everyone on the team they're collected me like i was crazy and i was but i was pounding my chest i thought that was free. I didn't realize was i was signaling to them that i didn't understand how to manage my own time out of say yes to the right thing to say no to the right thing. How to trust that other people will get stuff.. Well. Also. Jordan amadeus i was remembering that story cuz i kind of was going through a similar experience this week. Not with me but with somebody else that's a friend of mine. Can i realize that that. My friend is so busy that he can't do his own job and he can't do it well. When. Given the opportunity to escape that he's real hesitant to give up. To-do list. I can't drive dive into his. Mental attitude i can't. I'll be his psychiatrist and ask him at all if all those things are doulas because he feels insecure with its own job and insecure with his own abilities and insecure about his own set of values. Bring value to the team. But if i were a betting man at least 50% of that last has to do with him just wanted to feel important. If you really want to feel important. Adrian a leadership position now is the time to start. Training staff so they can grow in their career put them in positions. To take things off of your to-do list to stretch. In that stretch be available to help someone but don't you don't have to hold her hand. So here's the idea. You go through your to-do list you identify the stuff that's best for you. best for you you you identify things that the people around you could stretch into as a roll and then you start giving it away to them. Trusted to get it done but then you verify like crazy. Are you getting it done have the resources you need do you need additional training and when they start to gasp for air. Because. They are being overwhelmed. Then you could step in. And walk through what they've tried. How they've done it before what ways they like to do a different what's holding them back from doing it different. That's real leadership.

Transcript: (Monday, January 24, 2022 - raw form, waiting for edits) "Welcome back this is Bradley Waldrop and we are here to go deep into what life is like as a project leader, as a team leader, group leader, or as a regional leader. It doesn't really matter. Leadership is leadership is leadership but there are some very very critical things that have to happen in leadership. In order for you to sort of excel past everyone else there is a big difference between management and leadership. And you're going to hear me say this over and over and over again one of the reasons why I want to help leaders is i am sick and tired of everyone discussing the things that are used to manage and control and observe and watch things happen in the business and look at metrics that are in the rearview mirror i hate all of that that is not who i am i am a leader i am not a manager if i were a manager i did probably settled somewhere in my career and just started looking at that to the numbers along the way and try to adjust my team so that it did. Better fits all of the metrics in and that is just driving me absolutely bananas. So i want really want to be able to help out and i want to be able to teach i want to be able to share my experiences in leadership so that maybe you get a chance to grab golden nugget in here somewhere and apply it to your own life of your own career and make a huge difference for the team that you're on set yourself apart from everyone else and bring along good leaders with you right to this is not about just you this is about being the local influence and being the the one to get out of the masses and say hey we're going to go this direction in his we're going this direction let me help teach you how to do this let me understand you know who you are and what your skillset is and maybe point you in the right direction but learn the lessons along the way that i've learned in and you're all good right that's my hope for you so that. You get a chance to do that well as as i was thinking about today's episode i was struck by the memories that i had that tried to explain a little bit to one of my daughters over the weekend and it just a sort of a snippet of this. But i thought that maybe i would take you back to the summer of 1989 the summer of 1989 let me sort of profits this a little bit i graduated from high school little bit early and i worked my fanny off. In order to get a. An appointment to the united states naval academy i started that in my middle school or junior high exercise there and what you have to do in order to get into the naval academy's you have to get is some sort of appointment and that appointment comes from a congressman. And they're only a few of them right you have to fight for them but the naval academy like like the air force academy like the army they are are the sort of this exclusive club of people who had this really amazing opportunity to be able to be nominated by a governor or by be nominated by a congressman or someone in politics to be able to get them. It's who the the academy and that they would fulfill their leadership dream right so if you think about it that's why i'm going i'm going for this leadership dream and i have had up to this point the series of leadership positions in my own life that that got me here so through junior junior high school i was in boy scouts i was in i was in cub scouts i was in weave louis i was in boy scouts. I got a chance to earn my eagle scout at the age of 13 which is about as early as you could do it i was in competition with my dad and my brother to figure out how quickly i can get it done and then how many palms i can get afterwards and then i got distracted with a bunch of other stuff and leadership positions i had a role as a captain of our wrestling team i was locally active i did pretty good in school but i wasn't the best student on the planet i wasn't a straight-a student and i had all of th...

How to change your boss's perspective of the growth you've seen in your career - hopefully without having to change jobs.

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How this whole podcast got started.