Servant Leadership and the Modern Workplace | with Patrick Alston

Building a Coaching Culture - #128: Servant Leadership and the Modern Workplace | with Patrick Alston === Patrick Alston: [00:00:00] this generation can easily be the greatest generation of all time. They are equipped to be. They are knowledgeable to be, they are ready to be, we just can't hold them down. We just can't treat them like we were treated when we were coming up. J.R. Flatter: Hey, welcome back, everybody. J. R. Flatter here. My co host, Lucas. Lucas Flatter: Hello. J.R. Flatter: And we have a distinguished guest this week, Patrick Alston. And Patrick, I'll give you an opportunity to introduce yourself in a few seconds. Just to remind our listeners and [00:01:00] viewers, this is Building a Coaching Culture. I know this is a topic you're very familiar and passionate about. But for our audiences, this podcast is for anybody leading a complex organization, competing and succeeding in the 21st century to become an employer of choice. So with that, I'll pass the floor to you. I know you're a quiet and humble person, but take a few seconds to introduce yourself and brag a little bit, if you would. Patrick Alston: perfect. So I'm Patrick Austin, um, former military member, 36 years, uh, United States Army, and super, super proud of the time I spent in uniform. Uh, I define that time simply as allowing freedom to reign in the greatest country of ours. You know, those young American sons and daughters, 2. 47 million that don the uniform, will only ever, ever, receive the gratitude that they deserve. Americans enjoy the freedoms they have every [00:02:00] day. And so I did 36 years in the military. Uh, prior to that, I, I grew up in Columbus, Georgia, where I was the product of a military veteran himself, 27 year veteran, my dad, who, who really kind of instilled in me the values that I took on while I was in the military and continue my. My career, afterwards I, I retired and then I got into corporate America. And I will tell you the thing I learned most about corporate America during my retirement time was, or now, is that leadership is still the desire outcome of all successful organizations. How do they mentor, coach, teach, and train and lead America's sons and daughters, regardless whether they're in uniform or in suit and tie or skirt and dress, how do they lead them to be successful? How do they lead them to step in the gap at whatever industry they're in and continue that industry providing the necessary means for the American [00:03:00] people to enjoy the lives that they enjoy each and every day. And so leadership to me is simply the art of influencing someone to accomplish the mission, but it's more so understanding who that someone is and how do you get them to believe in themselves, believe in your industry. and believe in the overall outcome of what the desires are for your workplace. J.R. Flatter: Well, thanks for that introduction and thank you for your service and your continued service. One of the things you did not mention is you're a senior fellow at the National Defense University, helping educate through that capacity, but also you're the director of the Flatter Speakers Bureau, which I'm sure you'll talk about before we're finished here. But what I wanted to start with was, I've watched you on multiple occasions deliver keynote addresses on 21st century leadership. If you could take as much time as you want, describing [00:04:00] for our listeners and viewers what an old dog like you thinks about, and I'm even older than you are, so I could call you that. Uh, what an old dog like you thinks about and how you lead in the 21st century, what Patrick Alston: You know, I would tell you that my latter part of being in uniform, what I noticed was that the young American sons and daughters that were donning our nation's cloth was different than the ones were when I came in. What I found is that They are different, but just as good, if not better. But they think different, they receive information different, and they respond different. And so as I stopped and thought about, how do I get after the ultimate goal of being a great leader? And that is influence someone to accomplish a mission. You know, when you really think about that, JR, influencing someone is not just one particular one shoe fits [00:05:00] all. Influencing someone is really depending on who you are influencing. And I had to learn that my leadership principles and styles must be very different for individuals that I'm dealing with. That I must have an array of leadership. Styles and principles to reach into in order to get to the ultimate goal of influencing that one, to accomplish a mission. So as I started thinking about this more and more, I started thinking about what will be the most important principle of leadership in the 21st century. And I started doing a little bit of research about this, and I looked at what Curt Lewin developed in the early 19th century, about 1939, and he said, really, if you want to be a proficient leader, there was really only three principles that you need to be, aware of, and that's directive, participative, and delegative. Well, as [00:06:00] I looked at those definitions and peeled into really what being a directive leader was, or a participative leader, or a delegated leader, I found that those three principles were not received well by the clientele of today. See, Generation Z see things, feel things, and absorb things different. And so I had to Continue to dig into other principles to find what is the sweet spot for them. What makes them tick? What makes them invite me in their circle? And so as I continue to read, I saw what Robert Greenleaf put out in 1970 when he said that the most profound leadership style of a leader who really wants to be successful Of a leader who understands is about the mission and not about them is servant leader. Servant leadership to me, as I started to look at the five principles that came with it. And as [00:07:00] I started to really compare those five principles with the clientele of today, I said, man, I'm on to something. Because see, if you dig into what Robert Greenleaf really was saying. He was clearly saying a leader that is proficient is a leader that's willing to demonstrate his or her ability to serve more so their ability to direct. I said, man, you know, that's, that's, that's, that's really profound because everyone wants someone who will not ask them to do something that they wouldn't do themselves. That's servant leadership. As I started comparing those five principles, I, I started looking at principle number one, which clearly is listening. See, this generation, they are a generation that not wanted to be heard, but wanted to be listened [00:08:00] to. Why? Because they're a generation that asks why. They're a generation that says, I want to be part of the world. of this decision making process. I want to be part of the outcome of whatever effort that we're trying to do. So listening was the first one. Listen to them, absorb what they're saying, take the pregnant pause, and then give them good input. Number two was appreciation. Now that rubs a lot of leaders, JR, in our generation wrong. Why? Because they said, listen, you already give them participation trophies. You already reward them for excellence, even if they don't do anything. Why do you have to appreciate them more? Well, what Robert Greenleaf said was, it's not appreciation with monetary things, but it's appreciation with words. Think about it for a second. When was this generation told, thank you. We appreciate you asking the [00:09:00] why. We appreciate you being here. You are value added. You are part of this team. So they want appreciation through words, not so much through monetary things. And then they want a leader that is humble. They want a leader that is not measuring himself constantly by what they're doing, but they want a leader that says they did it. They want a leader that lifts them up, a leader that allows them. To get the credit, that appreciation for what they have done. And then they want a leader they can trust. Now that's one of the most profound things out of the five principles that I read. They want a leader that they can trust. You must ask yourself, how do you build that trust with them? How do you build that trust with clientele that has little to no relationship skills? How do you build that trust with clienteles that been living [00:10:00] solely through the cyber world? How do you build that trust with clienteles that would much rather text you than talk to you? Well, the way you build that trust is that you meet them where they are. You have those conversations with them that are conversations of strength for you. Because you are allowing them to now dialogue with you and helping sharpening your toolkit so you can be a better leader. What do I mean when I say that? I say, you don't think what you are doing is ultimately the right thing, but you allow somebody else to shape you to get to the right thing. And then the fifth and final one is caring. They want somebody who cares, not caring with words. They want appreciation with words, but they want caring with action. They want somebody that shows they care. They want somebody that goes the extra [00:11:00] mile for them. Hey, if you really look at this thing, and if you really dig into that Generation Z, you would know that that's the generation that's pretty much living off of the last key kids, that, that Generation Y mentality of raising themselves. And so because they were raising themselves, they pretty much only listened to what they wanted to listen to, receive what they wanted to receive, and accept what they wanted to accept. getting them to understand that you care is an art that you must deliver because they are valuing their ability to follow you, believe in you, and gravitate to you. in that eight second attention span that they have. And so when I look at Robert Greenleaf's five principles, I said, man, I think we're onto something. Here is young, fired up, wanting to be part of the team, focused individuals [00:12:00] that need five things. They need us to listen. Now, I must tell you, JR, with The requirements of today, sometimes it's hard to listen because we're just running, running, running. We're worried about the kids at home. We're worried about my mom at home. We're worried about our wives. We are running, running, running that we don't have time to dedicate to them like our leaders did when we were coming up. See, when we were coming up, our leaders were sold out to ensure that we were successful. They dedicated their livelihood to ensuring that we understood the value that we had. They knew our mother's name, our father's name, our dog's name, our kid's name. They were sold out to us. This generation is saying, I need the same thing. I need you to listen to me and I need you to dedicate your ear to me because I want to pour out to you. And then I want to be appreciated for what [00:13:00] I am bringing to you. I want you to be humble. I want you to trust me as I trust you. They're not looking for a one way street. They want it to be both ways. And then I want you to show me you care. Show me you care by going back to number one, listening and dedicating that time to me. But then he also said that you must have four environments, really three environments, when you're doing this. He said, you must have an environment where you have diversity of thought, where you allow them to think the way that they think, where you allow them to be able to articulate to you what they're thinking and help that in that decision making process to get after whatever the capstone is. He said, you must have an environment of trust. Already, when they walk in, they want to feel. Like they're being heard and like they can trust you as you trust them. [00:14:00] And then the third thing Robert Greenlee said, if you want to make sure that all of this comes together, you must have an environment of caring. You must have an environment of caring. So if you do the five, you can easily do the three. I think that if we get after this, then this generation can easily be the greatest generation of all time. They are equipped to be. They are knowledgeable to be, they are ready to be, we just can't hold them down. We just can't treat them like we were treated when we were coming up. J.R. Flatter: before Lucas jumps in here, I want to point out, and I agree wholeheartedly with everything you've said, I want to point out, that doesn't mean A lowering of standards. These folks that you're bringing into your team, whatever team it might be, have those expectations that you described, but they're going to work and they're going to work hard and they're going to understand what a mission is and how to accomplish a mission. They're going to [00:15:00] be part of a team and I think when boomers such as myself hear that for the first time, they immediately jump to, you know, back in my day that's not how we did it. But the reality is, we're well into the 21st century, the labor market's changing, organizations are changing, it's a global labor market, in many ways, virtual. And are we adapting to succeed in this new environment? We can go in kicking and screaming, or we can go standing proud and tall. Lucas Flatter: yeah, so I've known you, Pat, for, you know, a couple years, and I've seen you speak, um, and I've heard other people's feedback on your public speaking appearances. It's always so positive, and I know that, you know, other leaders that I look up to are also very proficient in [00:16:00] public speaking, so. Do you think it's, is it a chicken or egg situation? Do you become good at public speaking because you're a leader or did you cultivate that, in order to, you know, reach that status? Patrick Alston: personally think that Being a successful public speaker is really depending on your passion for what you're speaking on. For me, it is so easy to be a public speaker because I have passion for what I am delivering to whatever audience I'm talking to. You know, I would tell you, Lucas, the reason why I'm so passionate about this is because this is no different than what my leaders delivered to me. We just didn't have a name for it. And because we didn't have a name for it, nobody identified makes sense. Today, because we put a name on it, the leaders that delivered it, the baby boomer leaders that delivered it, now are analyzing it [00:17:00] and finding something wrong with it. But when I peel back the onion with them, they was like, Oh, that's the same thing we did. It is no different, but nobody challenged or questioned their delivery. back in the early seventies and the eighties. Then the other thing is they were able to deliver this same exact leadership style profoundly and precisely because nobody asked them the why. Now you put this generation in it and when this generation asked the why, then now we're changing the standards as JR said or we're lowering the expectations or we're lowering the way that we are. No, it's just that I didn't ask the why because I really wasn't equipped to wanting to know the why. This generation has the ability to have knowledge in the palm of their hands that make them think different and so the why comes with their day to day [00:18:00] life. But to answer your ultimate question, being a profound speaker is about passion. It's about studying. It's about knowing your craft. And it's about delivering your craft where it can be received by the artist in which you're delivering it J.R. Flatter: Yeah, thank you, Patrick. Yeah, I want to. dig on that a little bit more because I think you're you're hinting at something that's a recurring theme from our students and in the courses that we teach. And it's this idea of What Patrick does comes naturally or I'm an introvert or an extrovert or somewhere on that continuum. I'm a natural leader or I'm, I've learned how to lead. and there are people who are naturally, you know, comfortable speaking, who are extroverted and naturally charismatic. You know, we call it that X factor. But for the vast majority of us, the [00:19:00] 99. 9 percent of the world who weren't born with those characteristics, they're learned. One of the things that I've discovered in my, over my time in this world, in this field, the majority of leaders are introverts. And it seems counterintuitive to get up in front of a group of people such as Patrick does regularly and talk to them about any topic, let alone this imperfect craft of leadership, takes a lot of courage. But the vast majority of people who do that are naturally introverted. Not sure, haven't done enough research to figure out the why. And also, Just about every human being on the earth, if they would admit it out loud, has a hint of imposter syndrome in them. Am I really able to be a leader? Am I really able to influence others, be a servant leader as Patrick says? or am I gonna be [00:20:00] discovered, as the fake that I am? Patrick regularly works with some very senior leaders. I have intimate conversations with them and I'd be, I don't want you to say here, but I'd be interested to know. I've talked to a lot of very, very senior leaders and there's that theme even running through them, hyper successful by any stretch of the imagination, yet they always have this thought in the back of their head. And I think it comes from a very good place. It comes from a place of caring, comes from a place of service. So learning to manage it more so than trying to get rid of it. Patrick Alston: Yeah, you're absolutely right. You know, you're most profound leaders. You're most senior leaders. Usually are introverts. And a lot of people don't know that it takes them a lot to go and recharge, their batteries to be able to be in front of the next audience. I'm an introvert. People look at me and say, man, there is no way. But my wife would tell you that I can get in front of an audience and [00:21:00] deliver whatever I need to deliver. But when that door is shut and I'm on the other side, I am totally, I'm totally, introvert. I want to be by myself. I want to recharge. I don't want to talk to people. I just want to watch ESPN or, or read something or I am not one that wants to spend a lot of time with people. And so I will say a lot of your profound speakers and profound leaders are introverts and people would never, ever associate them with that. Lucas Flatter: yeah, kind of going off that, um, I had a professor that would say, uh, leaders are readers. Um, this idea that you should be continually developing your own skills and knowledge. how do you kind of balance that with the hands on, you know, leading in front of people? Patrick Alston: so one thing that I know Lucas more than anything else. In order to be a successful leader in this century and the centuries to come, you have to be knowledgeable and equipped. The reason why I say that [00:22:00] is because I will give you a vignette. I was sitting in an audience in Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, and JR's probably heard this before. And I'm sitting in this audience, I'm the senior enlisted leader for United States Strategic Command. I am thinking that I have all knowledge, I have all wisdom. You're not going to trick me. You're not going to get me. And so I throw out a question to the crowd, which consists of mostly soldiers. And I knew that soldiers really didn't know a lot about combat commands or what combat commands, they may know about CENTCOM, but that's it. Definitely know anything about STRATCOM. And so I said to them, I said, if anybody could tell me what the acronym TAKE CHARGE and MOVE OUT mean, right? Then I would give you a coin, right? And so I kind of thought that my coin was safe because nobody [00:23:00] would know what take charge and move out mean, tackle mode. And so I said, okay, listen up. I got a 14 karat gold coin. Anybody could tell me what tackle mode means. You could come get this coin and I would be honored to present it to you. The audience went quiet. So I'm thinking to myself, hey, I got them. Nobody knows this acronym. So I go on to the next subject and I'm talking and one young lady raises her hands back in the bowels of the auditorium. Young E4. And I said, hey, what you got here, Rowan? She said, uh, I know the answer to your question. I said, what do you mean? She said, tackle mode, take charge and move out. They are stationed in Oklahoma. There are four aircrafts. One is always that outfit and the other three, I was like, wait a minute, how do you know all this? She said, I googled it. So if you're not on your game, if you don't understand your profession and what you're delivering, [00:24:00] you're being assessed every time you open your mouth. And it's not because they know everything. It's because they have the ability to what? To get anything. So I think that Knowledge to me is what allows me to be able to deliver in the form that I deliver in. J.R. Flatter: a couple of questions from two, same question, two different angles, I'm a Gen Z and I want to grow up to be you. What do I do? And then the second half of that is I'm a baby boomer and I have Gen Zs that work for me. What do I do? Patrick Alston: first part, if you're a Gen Z and you want to grow up and be me, I would say that it is there for you. Regardless of race, creed, gender, it doesn't matter, it is there for you. But in order for you to accomplish it, you must Dedicate yourself. You must understand what you [00:25:00] are trying to get into. And what I mean by that is you must look and evaluate and assess what I do and how I do it. And then you must let it gravitate to you and deliver it your way. I would never want anybody to think that they can utter the exact same words that I utter. I would want you to utter those words, but put them in your own meaning, your own delivery. and have somewhat your own expectations for how they would be received. If I was a baby boomer, which I am, and there is a group of Gen Z's working for me, the first thing that I would try to do is put myself in their shoes. Understand them. I think that's where we are missing, is that we are anticipating or expecting them to be us. They're not us. Flash the bang. They're not us. You must first [00:26:00] understand them in order to lead them. And so I would recommend to anybody that has a group in whatever industry or corporations you're working in, take time to understand them. Take time to understand characteristics about them. Understand what they are dealing with and how they deal with it. So then you can be a part of the decision making process for them. One thing I've learned as I, as I go around and deliver this, I learned that baby boomers tend to think that Gen Z should be as hard as they were. I mean, what I've tried to articulate to them is your hardness was not instilled in you Osmoseless wise, your hardness was instilled in you by the way that you was brought up. You was raised by a village. You was taught by your mom who met you at the bus stop [00:27:00] how to conduct yourself. You were allowed to receive punishment from everybody in the neighborhood and nobody questioned it. If you fast forward now, this is a generation that's being taught number one, nobody talks to my kid but me. Number two, how dare you look at my kid that way? Number three, I don't have time to discipline them today, so I will probably try to do it tomorrow, or I will appease them by buying them something, and hopefully that will help. Curve their disciplinary actions. So just look at how vast difference these two are. So if you expect them to receive negativeness the way you did when you was built with a hard infrastructure and you're wondering why suicide is at an all time high now, it's because they cannot absorb disappointment the way that you was taught to absorb it. And so you must [00:28:00] deliver it in a manner in the worst that they can receive it. Not just that hard, because I said so, you must deliver it where it's received, it's analyzed, and it's accepted, and it may help change the way that they think, act, and the way that they deliver. So I think that sometimes we don't really look at how important it is to be able to look at these different characteristics. Of the four generations that we have today. And you know, I would tell you, J. R., I was not really, aware of that as much as I am today. It really took the Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force, who is now the Staff of the Air Force. He said, Hey, Pat, you, you're onto something. didn't realize that the characteristics of these four different leaders are so drastically different. And their expectations are so drastically [00:29:00] different. And their baselines are so drastically different. Because, as a senior leader, I'm expecting to be able to tell you something and, and, you know, deliver and forget. But I'm not giving that to my generation. I'm giving that to a generation that sees it different, hears it different, and responds different. Lucas Flatter: so at the beginning, um, you were talking a little bit about your, you know, 35, 34 years in the army? Um, 35 and a half? And you mentioned, you know, the mission, um, but it sounded, you know, like it was in your own words, like it, you had personalized it and internalized it. How important is that as, you know, somebody following an organizational mission to. Kind of have it be their own personal mission and how do you give that to people that you're leading to help them kind of tailor that to [00:30:00] themselves? Patrick Alston: So, you know, as a leader, the first thing you want to do if you're in a position as a command senior enlisted leader, I have no intent or no vision. It is really derived from my boss, whoever I'm working for. But what I tell my boss is that we derive a intent and a vision that can be bought by anybody within the organization. They can have total buy in to what we're delivering. I want young mid grade leaders and subordinates to feel that it is a part of them that vision and that intent. Because if they don't really have ownership in it, then it's hard for them to follow it. I want them to have ownership and belief in it. And so that's the reason why you would hear me always making those type of things personal. Because if I believe in it and it becomes part of my fiber, Then guess what? [00:31:00] I'm going to ensure that it's delivered, received, and accepted. But it has to happen all the way down at the lowest level. I would never want Brittany as the CEO to have a vision and intent that Sondra, who is one of the mid grade workers, could not believe in, could not deliver it and say, hey, this is mine. This is what I believe in. Because if there's any boy our gap, then we're not representing the organization the way that our leader wants us to represent the organization. And so it's important our leader to have something that we can sure enough buy into and deliver it as our own product because we have that much belief in it. Lucas Flatter: I like that buying metaphor because you know, you think about, you know, how quickly you might buy something, other things you're you J.R. Flatter: last question. So this will be my [00:32:00] last question. And we focused largely on the Gen Zs, but this is in the workplace writ large across the four generations and the need and the power of spirituality. Talk about that for me if you would. Patrick Alston: believe that everybody believes in something higher than themselves. I never want to force my Christianity on anybody, but I would tell you that what you believe in, have a outlet, because we all need an outlet, and that outlet is usually incorporated in something that we believe in. Not the industry, not the corporation, not the job, but something that we can turn to and help fulfill us, so that we would have an understanding of our internal value. As we are matriculating across, whatever workforce we're matriculating across. I believe that if you are only able to [00:33:00] drive, believe, desire, whatever that work environment is, then you're not a whole person. I think you've got to have that spiritual belief in whatever you believe in, but have that outlet. So then you can be able to have more fulfillment within yourself. J.R. Flatter: Beautiful answer. Thank you. I'll just tell you stand. Lucas comes from left field on these last questions, so Patrick Alston: Uh oh, I'm standing by Lucas. Lucas Flatter: yeah, I mean, this one I'll just kind of dovetail from the last one, but, um, instead of the spiritual aspect, um, are there any things that you do in your personal life? We've talked to people that are interested in gardening, karate, rock performances, and if there is something like that, um, what do you pull out of that that applies to, you know, your professional life? Patrick Alston: The thing that I think that gives me the [00:34:00] most joy other than going to church and getting refilled with words from either my pastor or my wife, I enjoy working out, running, Cutting grass. I think cutting grass is probably my most, desirable activity ever because it just, just watching me accomplish something. You know, my wife always laughed and said, I don't care if it's raining, I don't care if it's sleeting, whatever, you're not going to stop until you have the entire yard cut. Why? Because I can see the beginning and then I can witness the end. I have done something to completion. And I think, As crazy as this sounds, just cutting that grass just allows me to see one line cut, the second line, and then before you know it, I'm finished and I see the full, instead of the product. so I think that just gives me solace. Lucas Flatter: Yeah, I mean, I think lots of people don't have [00:35:00] something to point to that says, you know, I've seen something through all the way. So that's awesome that it's, you know, so frequent.