Author: Kent Svenson

David Horsager:
Welcome to The Trusted Leader Show. I’m your host, David Horsager. Join me as I sit down with influential leaders from around the world to discuss why leaders and organizations fail top tactics for high performance, and how you can become an even more trusted leader.
Welcome to The Trusted Leader Show. It’s David Horsager. I have a special guest. We’ve been friends for over two decades, or about two decades. It’s not every time that you have on the Trusted Leader show. Someone who goes by doctor, someone who’s president of a college, someone who is an admiral, someone who’s captain a ship for our country, a us Coast Guard, someone who’s a great dad, father friend, and and is still learning every day. I remember I was young when I spoke at the US Coast Guard Academy, and he invited me to be there almost two decades ago, and all those to, I don’t know, I think a thousand or however many cadets in the auditorium. And he sat on the front row taking notes as much as any cadet. So I’m just thrilled. And it’s fun to just, it’s a tru It’s really a privilege to call you friend, and it is with respect, but also with your permission that you asked me to call you Mike today. So please welcome to the show, Doctor, Not I, I’m gonna say it all. Doctor Admiral, you know President Michael Alfultis, but we’re, today, we’re gonna call him. Mike, thanks for being on the show.

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
Good morning David, for, you know, first lesson. Where does 20 years go? time. Time is a precious commodity, and it’s amazing how fast time goes. I, I remember when I was first took this job, I was meeting with one of our alumni who’s been associated with the college for like 60 years, and he says, you know, you know, he’s, you know, in his late seventies, you know, Mike, I have, I think he said something like a thousand days to live. And, and, and, and you ba and he basically reminded me how short my tenures, presences gonna go. It’s, and, and I can’t believe I’ve been president for eight years. And it really has gone by lightning fast. And you start to realize really how precious a commodity time is and how precious every day is, and how we have to really think, be mindful of how we spend every day.

David Horsager:
Yeah, every day matters. Every day counts. We say it, little things done consistently. Make the biggest difference. Give us a little, you know, you’ve had a long, big journey, but give us the two minute Cliff notes, something we don’t know about you, and just a, a a a two minute background for those that haven’t, I don’t know. You

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
Sure. I was born, bra born, bred, and raised in the Midwest. Actually spent 11 years in St. Paul, Minnesota, which David knows. And then I went to high school at Ohio and made decisions to join the Coast Guard, having never seen the ocean. A day of my life before I went to the Coast Guard Academy. I served in the Coast Guard for 28 years retired in 2010. I, the 21 of those 28 years, I was actually a permanent military faculty member in the Coast Guard Academy. Again, that’s where Dave and I had one of our inter, one of our many interactions together. I taught marine science and oceanography became at the science department, felt really called to continue in higher education. So I retired in 2010. I went to work for the University of Connecticut, where I was the Chief Administrative Officer of one of their regional campuses. Really was not looking to leave Yon loved the job I was doing, loved the campus I was leading. But a friend of mine saw the advertisement for president of SUNY Maritime College in New York State in the Bronx. She wanted to nominate me for the position. I told her she could nominate me. I didn’t think I stood any chance at getting the job. And in 2014, I became the became president of SUNY Maritime College. I’ve been there ever since.

David Horsager:
And a load. And give us one quick background in your family.

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
So wonderful wife Kim. We just did 39, wonderful years of marriage. We have two sons. My son David, who served in the Marine Corps for five years, and he is currently down here in North Carolina. That’s where I’m at right now. Busy on my son David. My younger son, Matthew went to a small SUNY campus near Poughkeepsie called SUNY Neul, and he’s lucky enough to be back at his alma mater where he is the assistant director for emergency management. Well,

David Horsager:
You’ve had a full life already, but there’s a lot to go. You know, I was just talking to my mom and dad yesterday and dad’s will be 93 next month and still running the farm and cutting wood up there. He’s a, you know, they like to heat by fire and I can see, you know, lot, lots of life left. And we’re lots of life to do. Lots of important things, and you’ve got a whole lot to give back to our world. And thank we just thank you for doing it for our country too. So thank you. I I wanna jump right in here on, on a few things. One, let’s, let’s start we’re gonna get into all kinds of things that people are gonna want to hear, I think. But let’s just start with this. You know, I see leaders like you, they’re leading, they have very heavy, We’ve talked about some of the weight of the positions.
You’ve had some, the darts that get thrown at you, all kinds of things. But what, what habits do you have outside of work that have helped you in work? What, what are some things that you do? I, physical, spiritual help, you know, what, what are you doing to stay kind of fresh, relevant and cables so you can go manage these some, you know, 16 hour days or the weight of a captain of a ship, or the whatever. Are there any little things you were kind of doing consistently along the way that you saw, maybe even some for a time, I journaled for a time, but things that kind of helped you are really important to you consistently?

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
Well, you know, it’s interesting you asked that question cuz my first took this job, I just, I put my heart and soul in this job and, and I literally, it was seven days a week, you know, you know, like you said, you know, 16 hours a day. And literally, I made my life re revolved around the job, but the longer I’ve been here, I realized I could really, I could not keep that pace up. And so really being more intentional about you know, even on a day by day basis, just taking downtime, I just say, Okay, you know, and just, you know, you know, taking my dog, you know, taking my dog for a walk every day. You know, getting, trying to get some exercise in, you know, just, just the little things to help with the stress of the position. And then being intentional about taking time off.
You know, my director of human resources, she’s great cuz she nags me. She says, Okay, when you take vacation, make sure you take vacation. Don’t worry about the job, Don’t do email. Just turn it all off. And you know, I’ve learned more and more the longer I’ve been in this position that really the school can operate just fine without me for a day or a week. And the really important part of just really taking that time to decompress, focus on other things I love. You know, David, you asked, you know, I love working, I love gardening. So one of my big things is my wife will tell you I’m in my, it’s either with my dog or I’m, I’m gardening. But I love being outside, you know, working in the yard. I find that just to be so therapeutic, You know, we joke about probably grow of the most expensive tomatoes in the world. But it’s not really the expense of, you know, what I’m, of what I’m doing on those tomatoes. It’s the act of being out there and thinking about something else other than work. And, and sometimes the best

David Horsager:
Ideas come, come then, right? Like, I remember the the mentor of mine years ago, and he’s passed, but he was the CEO of Dayton, Hudson Corporation, which became then CEO of many no target corporation Target. And he, he took over the, he was president of one of the units, and then he became, but, but later, of course, became overall ceo. But he, he said he said it, it hit him when his HR or his senior leader said, What do you, you know, what do you, how many ti days have you taken off this year? How many, how much time have you taken? And he said, Well, none. I don’t have any time. I’m ceo. I, I’m, I’ve gotta do all this. And the overall CEO said to him, Do you think you’re more important than me? You think you’re better than me?
And he said, And the overall CEO at the time, before he became it, said, I get seven weeks vacation and I’ve taken every single day. You think we’re running this. Okay. And he started taking time and he, later in his life when he was, you know, overall CEO of Dayton, Hudson and all that, he said, one of the key things he did the other three weeks, he did family Christmas, different things, but two weeks, every fall, two weeks, every spring, he would took at this place where he’d get up an hour later than normal six instead of five or five. Yeah. And he would walk on the beach and he’d have a notebook in his pocket. And you just made me think about this. It’s like gardening. Like, I love to garden too. I love to be out there. And, but I was just thinking some of my best ideas, not that I’m trying to think about, I’m trying to refresh, but he said he would walk along the beach and it took him a week.
And in the second week, all these ideas came. So his, his mode for those two weeks, weeks was I go along the beach with a notebook all morning, I read, and he goes back and sits down and he reads after that. And then in the afternoon, he plays golf with his wife, eats a nice meal and goes to bed. And that was his two weeks in the fall and two weeks in the spring. Now I have yet to take that kind of time off, but it makes me think of, of of that kind of pause and time away, kinda like you just getting in the garden. And I, as you know, I love to garden. We’re on a little hobby farm, hobby farm. That’s exactly what that means, is it costs a lot more than you know, it’s where you throw money out instead of making it. But you know, those expensive tomatoes can taste good too.

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
Yeah. So, and real briefly, Dave, so, you know, our home, you know, so I work, I live on campus. I live on campus in the Bronx. Our home is upstate and it’s on a lake upstate. And, you know, again, being intentional about, you know, I, during the school year, I can’t get up there every week, but I make it a point of getting up there at least twice a month. And, and just, you know, being out on the lake, walk in the dog, my, my staff laugh at me because I do like you, I get ideas. I take Rosie for a walk and I send emails to my staff, You know, walk with Rosie. It’s the title , and here’s the idea that came there. My walk with Rosie. Yeah. so I agree with you when you take those times and just, you know, walk, you know, walk the dog or go on the boat or work in the garden I’m, I’m like you, I’ve gotten a habit now, frankly, with my phone.
I just opened my reminders thing on my phone and I just quickly type in ideas or reminders of, Oh, I gotta do that. You get in the rush of the day and there’s things you need to get done. You forget what they are, but they pop up later. I go, I gotta put that in my phone. So what I’ve been doing lately, that’s worked really well for me. It’s just putting those reminders in my phone when they pop in my head so I don’t drive myself crazy an hour later going, What, what was that thing I was supposed to do?

David Horsager:
Or, and a notebook for me by my bed, I’ll wake up and then I can go back to sleep. But if I don’t have it right there and get it out. So that’s, you know, this is important. It’s important for me right now actually, because as you know, I’m walking by senior leaders. I sometimes take away take the weight of their trust issues and challenges, and then I’m carrying that and I’m carrying my, you know, running this. And I, I, I gotta pausing, thinking, rejuvenating. Really good reminders. So let’s, let’s jump into some of, you know, you have had, I mean, I’ve watched you lead with such courage and grace in the midst of some very challenging times. And we could go back to, yeah, I think a commanding officer at the customer academy, some of the other things.
But let’s jump into lately at the college you know, what are, let’s just in this role, you know, I, I, my brother says we’re, we’re in a more critical world than we’ve ever been in without the ability to critically think. And, and I often say, you know, we’re, you know, if you want to get critiqued for a living, my experience, if you wanna get critiqued for a living, if you want that your job in life, give a speech, everybody’s critiquing, you write a book, everybody’s critiquing you or lead anything, and you’re in a, you know, no top position, You know, you could, whether it’s pastor, president of a college or ceo, you get critique. But how do you deal with trying to do what’s right in the midst of that world where you’re, you’re, you know, nationally or, you know, people are critiquing you from papers to life to logs to board of trustees or whatev, you know, what, how, how do you manage that? Well,

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
I don’t know if I have a secret answer that question, David . So, you know, as you and I have discussed in this position, I have, you know, become subject to at times very social media attacks from various constituent groups associated with the college, mainly alumni. And the social media attacks are typically not anchored in truth. They typically exaggerate, they fabricate. And it’s very difficult cuz you know, my reaction is I just want to just go toe to toe with them and, and try to correct the, try to correct everything. And, you know, and like my, my chief of staff and my communications director, my provost, like, you know, you know, Mike, don’t get into that with them because you just enable them more. You give them a, when you, when you engage with them, you give them a platform.
And so it’s really, really hard as a leader sometimes just to not do anything. And, and, you know, I think when the advantage of social media is yeah, you, you may be in the fire for a week, a week later, they’re, they’re moving onto something else. And, and so that’s what my staff keep reminding me is, you know, Mike Yeah, yeah. It’s, you know, what they’re saying is terrible. But you know what, if you enable them, it’s just gonna drag the whole thing out longer. It’s, and it’s gonna give them a platform that you don’t necessarily wanna give them and give it a week, and they’re gonna move on to something else

David Horsager:
That’s hard when they’re, and I know some of your, you know, challenges we’ve talked about, but when people are outright lying, like they don’t know the truth about that, and they’re blown up their blog or their sphere of influence by saying something that’s hard. How do you

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
Deal with that life? You can, you know, David, you can question, you know, maybe the decisions I make, maybe the, you know, you can question, you know, maybe where I’m trying to take the college, you know, you may question, you know, my strategic plan and say, you know, maybe this might not be the right plan for the college. You can question that. But the hardest part, Dave, is don’t question my integrity. Mm-Hmm. . And, and that’s the hardest thing to just keep your mouth shut about and, and let the slings and arrows go, even when it gets to the point where they’re really calling to question your, your, your integrity. But again, I found my staff’s advice is correct. I just, if I engage with them, it just, it goes back and forth, back and forth and, and, and the, and the truth really doesn’t come out, you know, And I think the only way the truth come out comes out is by, you know, building relationships with people, you know, so that when these things happen, everyone goes, Well, I know Mike and I know that isn’t Mike. And so I, I think the key is to be truthful and authentic and build authentic relationships with, as a broad constituency as you can, so that when these things happen, you have, you don’t have to speak because other voices will speak for you and say, I know that’s not him.

David Horsager:
What would you say you know, within what you can share, what’s the hardest thing you’ve had to go through and how did you deal with it? I’m working with your listeners today. They can, they, we know that some senators are often listening. We know that CEOs are listening. We know that people are getting, they’re in your role. They have the weight of leadership, and yet that they’re getting attacked for things. And they’re trying to lead. Well, believe it or not, some people well, many people think all the government’s bad. There, there are senators and representatives that want to do what’s right. They’re often not in the news way over on the right or way over on the left. They’re trying, and yet they just get a, you know you know, what’s the hardest thing you’ve been through that you, what and what have you learned from it?

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
How much time do we got David ? So just, I’ll try to be brief. So this, this past spring I made, you know, part of our strategic plan was, So at, at Maritime College, we have a regimen of cadets. If you’re in, in, you know, by US law, if you’re in a merchant Mariner preparation program, like at the Six State Maritime Academies, we’re one of the six. If you’re in a, in a merchant mirror and a preparation program, you’re required by federal law to be in a regimental structure, a regimen of cadets. So about two-thirds of our students are in the regimen. And I, part of our strategic plan was to do a review of the, of the regimen cadets, how to make the regimen better, how to make it stronger, how to build pride in the regimen of cadets. And so we, I brought in eight very high level, you know, people who, who, who have been with experience with other regimens at other, you know, organizations, either the other federal service academies, private schools that have regiments.
So I brought them in and, you know, they basically, you know, engaged with our leadership. They engaged with the cadets, and they produced a report, an external review report. So it was an external review of, you know, someone from outside looking in and saying, you know, what’s, what’s the strength of the regimen? Where can the regimen improve for these people? We’re from higher education for the people we’re actually alumni, and they wrote a report. This is one of those things, as it leaves, sometimes things don’t turn out the way you expect. So the, the report was they really had some stuff in the report that I would rather not have had a report about climate and culture. Some, you know, some sexual assault cases that we’ve been, have been dealing with sexual harassment cases that we had been dealing with.
And it was good to be truthful. But in the report, the, the details they put in the report violated federal policy protection for, for our students, because the details of these incidents were such that we’re a small school and everyone know who that cadet was or what that incident was, and who, who was involved with. So when we released the report, I made their decision to redact portions of the report that violated the privacy of the individuals involved. And there’s also accusations against staff. And I had to fi, you know, and so I, you know, the, the violated the privacy of the individual. Also, we redacted small portions of the whole report. We, we redacted 1.5%, so we released 98.5% report. So there’s a maritime blog site that, that people approached about the, the fact that we redacted some report. And he ran an article that quote, I was engaged in a coverup of the climate culture of the school that I was covering up sexual harassment and sexual assault at the school.
And that I had redacted large portions. That was the direct quote. I redacted large portions of the report. So that was a whole headline that he released on his maritime blog site. A congressional staffer in house congressional staffers read his article, approached me and said, I demand your release, the UNRE Act report. I said, I can’t do that. It violates federal law. He said, Well we congress, we hand classify stuff all the time. You need to release to me on redact report. So I, at that point, I contacted our legal office for the, the system, SUNY System. SUNY system agreed with me. They issued him a letter again explaining the portions of federal law that would be violated if we released to him an unredacted report. And he sent me an email that said, and I still have it, if you don’t release that unredacted report, I’m gonna make life difficult for you.
I did not release the un redacted report. And so I would then became subject of Jennifer iga was a subject during a congressional hearing where the chairman of the, of the hearing called me out personally for not releasing that re on redacted report. So now I get another headline in the same maritime blog site. You know, you know, Admiral Faults refuses to release, refuses to release rape report to Congress. It wasn’t a rape report. So he ended up changing the headline to SAS report, Sexual Harass sexual Assault report, which it was not, again, it was a review of the regimen of cadets. So he released that article next, and again, just he wove together other, other stories in a, in a way that completely misconstrued my presidency and what I’m trying to

David Horsager:
Do as president. Well, you take all this, and I, I mean, one thing I know about you that others don’t know is I know this strong, courageous friend and admiral and president, but something I know about you too is you’re, you are sensitive. You are caring, you are the, in a way, and I don’t wanna put this in a negative terms, but the softest admiral I’ve ever met . And, and so, you know, you’ve got this caring soft side, right? I mean, in fact, when we met, I think it was at a one time at a youth event that you, you were taking your boys to when they were very young. So you know, what did, what, I guess what’s the biggest, Okay, you know, we’ve got leaders, We’ve all been through some, not like this, but gotten attacked. What, what, what would you do differently next time? Or is there anything you stayed on your integrity, you stayed doing the right thing, you’ve been attacked, you will be again in your role. But I should say this, by the way, to everybody listening before you were there talking about a, a challenging situation. I believe there were five pre three or four presidents in five years, right?

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
I was the fifth president in four years.

David Horsager:
Fifth president in five, in four years. Right. So you talk about challenges of, of the place and the culture and all you’ve been trying to do there. It was, there was challenges for sure. But what, what have you learned from, from this challenge specifically?

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
I guess first of all, again, as a leader, you might start something off with all the best in intentions. And it, it’s just, it’s gonna go south on you. You know, you may have all the right intentions in the world, it’s gonna go south on you. So I, I’d say that’s the first thing is, you know, sometimes you just got, you be prepared for something coming outta left field. Like, wait a minute, where’s this come from? I started this regimen review to make the regimen better and stronger, period.

David Horsager:
But how would, are you prepared for that? It’s like, it’s like, how would you prepare for the pandemic? Like, how would’ve you prepared

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
Again? I think again, the key is getting back to what I said before. I think the key is, you know, making sure that you build strong relationships with a broad constituency, and that, that people know who you are. So what happened when this came out this maritime blogger, I mean, he got a number of emails and letters from people who do know me, who basically told them to knock it off. That it was, you know, completely not accurate. Again, one thing I did do is I reached out to the, the external review committee, the eight people, they, as a committee wrote the blogger and, and, you know, tried to correct, you know, the, the facts with him. So, so I, again, I think the first thing is, you know, as a leader, if you can be authentic and build relationships, you’re gonna have advocates for you. And I think you need to rely on your advocates to support you personally and also rely on your advocates to speak out on your behalf. So it’s not, it’s not you necessarily speaking out, but it’s really your, all your advocates who know you, who trust you mm-hmm. who are speaking out on your behalf.

David Horsager:
So, let’s jump to another part of leadership here, because I think of you and what I remember in, in some of my interactions, and I’m thinking of being on campus at the at the US Coast Guard Academy the most, you know, still the military is top down. You do this, you do this, this person, you know, you, you get a directive and you’re supposed to listen to it. And yet, what I’ve seen with you at your, with your leadership team, when we sat around the table, even v virtually times, you’re very, you personally in a militaryesque environment are quite consensus driven. And so how did you take, I mean, you see the military this way, you see being captain over here for 20 some years. You, you, you, you gotta make a directive. But you’ve also been able to meld, because I’ve been in parts of the military.
I, you know, I’m, I’m thinking of one specific situation I was in working with the military, and it was very, I, I watched the directive environment that, you know, that’s supposed to supposed to speed things up. Cause you just take the directive. And in this situation, because the bottom couldn’t think and make an action quickly, it actually slowed it down. And in, in this situation, I saw, and I, and I’ve seen you add, you know, consensus where kind of a new way in the midst of the environment that is still top down. Can you speak to that a little bit?

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
Sure. I mean, it’s interesting you speak to this. So again, try and make the regiment better and stronger in, in trying to help the upper class understand that effective leadership is not necessarily being top down directive, but again, by truly leading people, mentoring people, guiding people, you know, working, you know, listening to people getting multiple inputs in your, in your decision making, you know, so, you know, certainly in the military has evolved dramatically in, into this model of really, you know, more of a consensus type of, you know, I, I think as leaders, any leader, military or civilian, there’s that tough balance between, okay, you know, if you lead try to lead too much by consensus, you’re almost paralyzed, right? And, and people don’t see you as effective leader because they don’t see you really making decisions. They see you keep on asking people and trying to reach consensus. So I’ve always found this issue to be a really careful balance between, you know taking the time to build consensus and to listen to people and gather inputs or multiple perspectives and multiple constituencies, and then arriving at a decision, but at the same time when necessary saying, This is what we’re gonna do, period. This is what we’re, this is where we’re gonna go. And I’ll do, just give you a quick story. I’ve

David Horsager:
Seen the problem on both sides too. This is really good stuff because I’ve seen people to be too directive to, and I’ve seen people actually just to wanna be consistent, kind of for their own selfishness. I want everybody to agree with me. So we’ll only go where we agree and, and you’re the leader. You gotta make the bottom line decision too. Yeah, go

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
Ahead. So I think it’s a very careful balance, David. Yeah, totally. It’s a very careful balance. And I’ll just give you a quick story on this. So this year at one point I heard the major general in the Army, who’s in charge of all army sessions, whether it be boot camp, o officer cans, school warn officers, he’s in charge of all Ascensions. And what the army’s trying to do is move away from this, what they call the shark attack model of, you know, bootcamp, where the, the, the recruits show up and me, they’re pounced on by the drill instructors, and they’re yelling, scream in their face, and he says, You know what? This is not the way the army used to do, you know, you know, bring a civilian in and try and help them transition to a soldier. This is only advent.
This only became about during the Vietnam War, during the draft, you know, the draft army. So the Army’s trying to transition back towards a model of this transition from soldier to, from civilian to soldier, that really involves, again, real leadership, real mentoring, real guiding. And so what happens on the first day at bootcamp is a, after the recruits get all their basic gear and they show up where they’re at their barracks, they lead ’em through what’s called the first hundred yards. And on each drill, instructor’s patches says, Follow me. And so what they do is they get a tasking. It’s all Hollywood, us, you know, they get a tasking over the radio, We gotta go do this. We gotta, you know, to accomplish this task. Which of course involves going through mud and climbing walls and carrying stuff. But the, instead the drill starts just yelling at the recruits.
The drill instructors are doing it with the recruits. They’re crawling through the mud, they’re carrying all the gear, they’re climbing the walls. And, and so what the army’s trying to do is get back to this model of follow me mm-hmm. , you know, and what he said is, you know, the most effective drill instructors right now, the most effective drill instructors are the ones that are in the evening. They go up in the barracks and, and talk to the crews that say, How are you doing? Why did you join the army? What’s going on at home that you think I need to be aware of? And so, you know, you know, David United Volvo, that really is effective leadership, whether it’s leading the company or leading a, a brand new recruit through boot camp that’s effective leadership.

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David Horsager:
So how did you take some of the times over your career? You’ve had different roles of leadership. What have you learned is most effective for building trust, especially when you had to do it quickly? I mean, I’m thinking about, I mean, this last role as president, you got, you know, five presidents in four years. How did you, in a totally different space, You’re not here, you’re not at the academy, I’m, you know, jumping into a college maritime college. How did you build trust? What, what worked?

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
What I flattered the most about David is over my career, I keep on hearing people describe me. As, you know, Mike is authentic. I hear it all the time. And it’s nothing, it’s nothing I try to do. It’s nothing that I, I, I, you know, it’s just something that I just, I just really, I’m complete, you know, authentic and transparent. Mike is authentic. Mike is transparent. You know what you’re gonna get with Mike. And, and, and it’s nothing that I’ve ever really thought about of being attention about it, just, it’s just kinda maybe who I am a little bit. But I, I think those are the two key words transparency on and authenticity, build trust. And it’s something you just have to do every day. I think you always gotta be mindful that, you know, again, as a leader, I always, I tell, I told the upper classes they’re leading the, the regiment, you know, the, the underclass, they’re watching you every day.
They’re watching what you do every day. So if you’re telling them that they need to look good in uniform, you better look good in uniform, you know? And, and so, you know, I think as leaders, we all tell, remember, people are watching us all the time, and they’re not judging us by our words. They’re judging us by our actions and by our deeds. And so I, I just try to always be every day just true to who I am, Be authentic, be transparent, and that, and that people know this is, this is what they’re gonna give with me. And, and they may like it, they may not like it, but they’re gonna know who I am

David Horsager:
In my experience. I just gotta say, because, you know, in my limited experience with you, and there’s other parts of the military, obviously we’ve worked with, got a significant work we’re doing now with the, the Navy and some others. But, but I, you are unique, Mike. It’s like there’s this, there, there as co you know, I’m thinking of some of the leaders that are like, boom, boom, boom. But I’m like, you’re like leading in a big way. But there’s another word I would add to what I’ve seen, and that is humility. And I see the, there’s just a humbleness, a willingness to learn all these roles. You’ve had a, a, a and I think this is a big deal today. I think it’s a big missing component of great, of, of, of leaders that, that they’re missing to make them great leaders. And I think, you know, the, the opposed those, the, those that are arrogant are opposed.
In some ways we just oppose the arrogant and we give grace to the humble. We, we you know, we listen to the humble, like we, we will follow the, those that are humble instead of this. But it is different than this old way of what people think in the military. The way I see you, the, one of the things I just think is unique, here’s an admiral, President was ca you know, all these things, but he’s, you got this humility and authenticity and you’re like, eh, I don’t know. But you know, I I can definitely see the authentic and transparent and how unique it is in your space.

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
Yeah, Dave, I, you know, honestly, you ask about daily habits. One thing, frankly, I pray and think about every day, it says, guard my heart against being arrogant, guard my heart against thinking that I’m more important than this job. You know? So I do agree with you that, you know, we have to guard our hearts against this kind of arrogant attitude as leaders. And, and, and I do do, I do pray and, and I think about how can I be humble?

David Horsager:
But it, it is kind of, it’s easy. It’s like once you get first class, you kind of feel like you deserve it in the plane, right? Once you get, you get your own living quarters on the college, and you get this Beatle thing, and you got the someone else to make the meal and you got the whatever it is, it’s like the academy, you know, it’s like, oh, you start to feel like, it’s like that takes work to consistently be humble.

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
Yeah. My previous, my, you know, I, you know, for example, this position comes with a car and a driver. I said, College can’t afford the driver. Get rid of the driver. I’ll drive myself. You know, I, I don’t, I don’t need to be driven around. If I need to be driven around, I’ll ask my wife to do it. .

David Horsager:
But,

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
But, you know, but you know, you know, again, just sorting out kind of some of the things that come with a position that just, that just aren’t necessary. You know, what I’ve seen, again, past presidents do, and this is a very common state with college presidents. They walk in, the first thing they do is say, Okay, I’m gonna spend $50,000 on renovating the quarters. I’m gonna spend $75,000 on renovating my office. I’m a, I walked in. I said, I’m not gonna make that mistake. Cause I seen what happens when college is, you know, that are frankly, make college aren’t financial difficulty. And, and the first thing that president says is, I wanna spend a hundred thousand dollars on making my life more comfortable. No, you know, my, my office was adequate, my house is adequate. And I made the intentional decision to, to not be subject to criticism for wasteful spending, frankly. And, and I think some, some, I’ve seen other cos presidents do it. They just walk in and just, they want all of this stuff. And it’s just like, no, You know, that’s just really not, you don’t need that to do your job and be effective with your job.

David Horsager:
Who’s someone back to leadership here? Who’s someone who’s inspired you as a leader? Who are some, some of those that inspired you to be who you are today?

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
Briefly, two people. First of all one of the previous superintendents at the Coast Guard Academy one of my responsibilities when was at the, the academy was I, I you know, all colleges have to go through an accreditation process that validates the quality of their programs and that they’re able to meet their mission. And I was a fairly junior officer, and I said, Okay, I’d like to serve on, on the accreditation committee. And my boss was kind of the person that was the chair of this committee, and my boss suddenly retired. And so the next thing you know, well, I’m a junior member of the committee, they said, Mike, you’re in charge of this committee for accreditation. And it, it was a multi year effort. And, and, and, and the college did great through accreditation and got really glowing comments from the accreditors.
And we did just final accreditation. So one day I’m walking back to my office from class and there’s a superintendent, Coast Guard Academy waiting for me in my office to thank me for my service to the college, to the academy to make sure that we got reaccredited. That made a huge impression of me about servant leadership, David, servant leadership, about, you know, my boss waiting for me in my office to thank me. And so, one thing, thing that I do is I make a point to get out and, and go to people’s offices, go to people workspaces, so they see the president, you know, in their workspaces, You know, and one thing that briefly, one thing Kim and I do every year, and Kim, everyone thinks we’re nuts are doing this, but every Christmas we bake Kim Banks, I won’t say wheat, Kim

David Horsager:
By Kim, by we, I mean Kim.

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
We we bake Kim bakes a small, you know, it might be a mini loaf of pumpkin bread. It might be a a a, a mini gingerbread cake bake in is just for like about a hundred people. She bakes them. And then I write cards out. I remember my staff a week around Christmas time, go to every staff office and I, we give them a small little baked good and a card to thank them. Dave, you have no idea how that little gesture has impacted my staff that I, that Kim, I take the time for that little gesture to say thank you. Big impact. The other person that’s inspired me, of course, is my father. He, he’s passed away. But one, my dad struggled. My dad worked in law enforcement, also struggled with alcoholism. And so one of his last jobs he did was he went to work in a maximum security prison in Ohio to process the prisoners coming in.
He’d be sponsor with the fingerprinting and the photography, and, you know, bringing the prisoners in. He transitioned to basically a substance abuse counselor in the prison system and helping people get over their substance abuse. And his attitude was, If you don’t, if you don’t heal the spirit of the man, you’re gonna just come back. They’re gonna be back in prison. So he really worked hard at ministering and, and healing the spirit of the manslaughter with not coming back to prison. My mom and dad flew out to Colorado to see my brother Chuck when, and my mom at that point was dealing with cancer, so she was in a wheelchair. So we’re flying back to Cleveland. My mom’s in a wheelchair, and my dad’s at the carousel getting the luggage, and he feels this hand on his shoulder. And my dad turns around and it’s, it’s, he did recognize him right away, but there was one of his prisoners and he says, You may not remember me, but you’re one that prisoners, you helped in prison. You saved my life. Can I carry your luggage? And I’ll always remember that story with my father again, a servant leader, a a man who really was out to, you know, help the people around him, serve the people around him, and make life better for the people around him. And I’ll always remember that story, my father, and I’ll always inspire me, you know, to kind of be the kind of person that my father was.

David Horsager:
I had a lot more questions, but I can’t think of a better place to, to, to drop the mic than a trusted leader like your father and like the superintendent. This is those are trusted leaders. Maybe I’ll ask you this, though. What’s next for Dr. Mike Als?

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
I struggle with that decision every day. I, you know, I, I’ve been at the, at, I’ve been President Maritime College for eight years, and, and, and if any of your listeners are, are in higher education, they know a tenure of a college president is usually six. So I’m certainly been serving longer than as typical of a college president. And I’m struggling with that, you know, how much longer, what else do I need to accomplish? I’ve accomplished things at the college that people never thought would ever be accomplished. And so I’m asking myself, When is enough is enough? When is it, you know, you know, I, you know, my next, my next, frankly is retirement. It’s, is to enjoy time with my, my children and my wife. That’s my next step. And I just, I just keep on asking myself, you know, when is enough is enough?
When have I served the college enough? You know you know, is there more work that needs to get done that, you know, And so there are some issues at the college right now that I think I really need to address. So where I’m at right now is narrowing in on those two or three things that I think I need to address to hand over the college to my successor. So I’m thinking about how do I set my successor up for success by dealing with some of the issues that I think need to be dealt with on my watch, on my tenure, and then be ready to hand the baton over to the next person but have handing them over a college that’s in a good position and handing and really setting them up for success by what I’m trying to do before I make the decision to step down.

David Horsager:
One sentence. You got a brand new leader, They’re jumping out, they’re being a captain, they’re being a manager at a company. What advice do you give ’em?

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
I think my advice is you need to find somebody that you can confide in outside of your company. It’s outside of your responsibility. Someone that you can fall back on, rely on, talk to, get advice, get support. You know, honestly, David being in the top, I know, I know this is said a lot, but it’s come, but it is kind of lonely at the top because you, you, you, you gotta be careful of, you know, who you can confide in within your organization because you may find out that, you know, you may say something to someone in confidence, and next thing you know, it’s all over the, all over your organization. So I think the best piece of advice I’d have is, you know, you know who is, you know, build those relationships with people that you can trust, that you can fault back on and rely on. And, and when times of need, when you need advice, when you need support,

David Horsager:
If you’re doing leadership loan, you’re doing it wrong. And yet it is lonely. And so how do you build out that accountability, that mentorship, that team for life? No doubt about it. Any, any resource you would recommend that, any book or anything that you’d recommend for people?

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
Just real briefly. So I had my entire cabinet read this book. It’s, it’s orient toward higher education, but I think it would open up a lot of people’s eyes outside higher education. And it’s called Fixer Climate, A Practical Guide, Reducing Microaggressions, Micro Bullying and Bullying in the Academic Workspace. It’s by Anderson and Young. It is on Amazon. That book really helped. That book will really make you think about what you say and what you do in terms of microaggressions and micro bullying, things that you, you never even thought would offend or hurt somebody. But when you read this book, it really might starts to get you to think more about what is the kind of climate and culture you’re building within your organization by whether you accept these little, you know, we’ve talked, you know, Death by a thousand pricks, right?
You know, so if one person in your organization, it’s constantly hearing these little comments, these subtle comments, these subtle actions, that person’s gonna feel marginalized and that that person’s not gonna be effective. And what this book talks about is, you know, you know, you want you, it’ll really affect the, it’ll affect the effectiveness of your organization when you allow the sorts of behavior of, you know, the subtle comments, the subtle behaviors. And so this book really helped my cabinet. And I really think about what kind of climate we’re trying to create at the college. And, and what we’re trying to do in terms of being more careful by what we say, and by the way, we do those little actions that could cause over time can cause a lot of harm, and it can really hurt an organization’s effectiveness by affecting the climate and the culture of the organization. So, again, it is written for higher education, but I think it’s a great book to read for anybody about this issue of micro bullying, microaggressions, and bullying in the workplace.

David Horsager:
Great, great idea. Fix your Climate. So in the show notes, trusted Leaders show.com, we’ll put the bio a little bit more about Dr. Michael lals will put the link to this book, Fix Your Climate. I’m gonna get it. And and anything else he’d allow us or let us share. You know, Mike, I often end with the message or the question, who’s a leader you trust and why? And I think we heard a couple that inspire you. Is there any other, you know, are there any other leaders that come to mind or people in your life that come to mind that really, boy, I trust that, Or maybe it’s the, the people that, somebody that you connect with as far as your little personal board that you’ve talked about, , you know, that you like, keep, keep some people outside. Anybody else?

Dr. Michael Alfultis:
Well, I, I, I think did the, frankly, my pastor , you know, I, you know, I’ve relied on her so much in, you know, in my struggles of the past six months. It just, you know, leaning on her and talking to her it’s been tremendously helpful. She’s got a such a great spirit that I trust her so much. And, and I, and I know, frankly, I know she supports me you know, through her, through her thoughts and prayers. I know she’s supporting me. So, and, and, and honestly, David, I’ll just remember with a really quick story. I just got an email yesterday from member of my staff. She went to the chapel on campus and she said, Mike, I just want you to let you, we just want you to know someone on campus. We don’t know who, but someone on campus wrote in the book of the Chapel that they’re praying for you.
And that just, I don’t know who it is, but what meant the world to me to just know that someone’s thinking about me in, in, in supporting me in, in, in, in the way that they can through their faith and through their prayers. But I, I’d say the, yeah, the other person that you right now that’s helping me the most in getting through some of these things is just being able to go talk, you know, confide in my pastor and talk to my pastor, cuz I know I can completely trust her. And, and, and, and, and rely on her.

David Horsager:
Dr. Admiral Michael, Al this friend, I am so grateful for you, for the friendship, for the way you’ve made me better for just the, the times we’ve had and for this this just sharing some wisdom with the, our audience. And I’ll put a, put out a public invitation. Maybe it’ll put some pressure on. So for the trusted the next Trusted Leader Summit, we’re gonna publicly invite Dr. Dr. Mike to come out and to share the stage with us and pay for you to be there and, and bring Kim out. And we’d love to have you, you know, we had the summits, amazing people we ever think from senators to CEOs, but we would love to and, and others, but we’d love to have you out to that. Next, let’s see, November. I believe it’s something seventh through the ninth. 2023 is the next Trusted Leader Summit. But we’d love to, love to have you there in the midst of that. I just want to thank you personally. Thanks for being friend. Thanks for what you’re doing for our country and our world, and that has been The Trusted Leader Show. Until next time, stay trusted.