In this episode, David sits down with Milton Dodd, Trust Edge Senior Consultant, to discuss the 4 “L’s” that every leader needs in order to succeed in leadership.
Milton’s Bio:
Milton has a passion for leadership. He’s known for identifying and illuminating hidden potential and extracting the very best from those he leads. Milton helps people maximize their greatness. Leveraging more than two decades of experience as a corporate leader, he is consistently sought out for leadership consulting and strategy development by large and small organizations alike. During his tenure in corporate America, he was known for turnaround outcomes, developing leaders and executive influence. Milton earned his MBA from St. Mary’s University of Minnesota and is a Trust Edge Certified Coach.
Milton’s Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miltondodd/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/milton_dodd/
Key Quotes:
1. “The winds of change is undefeated.”
2. “In leadership, you are never going to be able to avoid challenges.”
3. “You have to be consistent in your efforts.”
4. “Be a student of the business that you’re a part of.”
5. “How do you put yourself aside and attend to the needs of the one that you’re leading.”
6. “You learn from what you listen to.”
7. “Empower your team to do the things neccesary without you being there.”
8. “There’s great talent all around you.”
9. “Activity is not a singular process.”
10. “Leadership, like a stone dropped in a body of water, ripples well beyond the entry point.”
11. “Leadership is still about activity and results.”
12. “The only way you can change your perspective is by being involved in something that makes you uncomfortable.”
13. “What can I do to effectuate change where I am today?”
14. “True leaders really see things in others that they can’t very well see in themselves.”
15. “As a leader our job is to take good care of the people that we are entrusted to lead.”
16. “If you have a thought, write it down.”
Links Mentioned In The Episode:
“The Big Leap” by Gay Hendricks: https://amzn.to/3bnvtXy
Rites of Passage: https://www.ropmpls.org/
Buy David’s NEW book Trusted Leader: https://www.trustedleaderbook.com/
David’s Links:
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David Horsager: Welcome to the trusted leader show it is great to have you here. You’re going to love our guest. We went inside on this.
David Horsager: He’s been a corporate leader, but he’s also run our consulting practice for the last year in the midst of
David Horsager: coven and all kinds of other challenges. He’s also interim director operations director for an organization. He is just he’s, he’s a friend and he is a brilliant leader. I’m glad to have you here. Mr. Milton Dodd.
Milton Dodd: Hey, David. Thanks. So glad to be on your trusted leader show today.
David Horsager: Well, I can tell you. Here’s someone I can say he’s made me better and personally better. So we’re grateful to have you on. But, you know, for people that don’t know you. Melton, let’s jump in. What are a few things to know about Milton Dodd.
Milton Dodd: Well, you know, it’s really hard to kind of bragging yourself, but you know, one of the things that I will say about me is
Milton Dodd: I have a passion for leadership. And that started at an early age. I grew up in a very small town very humble beginnings
Milton Dodd: In a small town most won’t know called bells on a Mississippi, but it’s known for being the catfish capital.
Milton Dodd: Of the world. And I think those grid beginnings and where I learned my leadership from my mother, who was a school principal in the in this town of only one school
Milton Dodd: And then being able to branch out and really moved to Minnesota and to broaden my perspective by meeting other coaches and being around other people
Milton Dodd: So in you know in my professional life for last 24 years I was part of a great organization. I took a turn and took an opportunity to pivot at the beginning of this year and it’s been fun. Ever since, well,
David Horsager: Let’s go back to corporate because you are part of big corporate and you were really, you know, asked in those days to
David Horsager: Do in some cases pretty significant turnarounds and dealing with tough issues.
David Horsager: And as a leader you had to, you had to hire, but you had to fire you had to do things the right way. And I remember one story that you have where
David Horsager: You really were trusted even in the way. And when you had to lay people off. But what, what was it like to kind of be a part of that turn on. How did you stay trusted the midst of having to turn something around sometimes tough.
Milton Dodd: You know, it’s always tough when you take a look at in any organization. There’s always going to be abs and flows, there’s gonna be change.
Milton Dodd: The winds of change doesn’t is it affects every organizations is the winds of change is undefeated.
Milton Dodd: And in my role, I was really called on to handle some very tough topics I think or challenges I think because of the way that I managed it. I always worked or or when I when I approached
Milton Dodd: leadership challenges, whether they were something that you know whether we were expanding territories or contracted territories.
Milton Dodd: I always approached him with the people in mind, and I tried to get into the mindset of those people
Milton Dodd: Who were being affected affected adversely and really showed a high level of respect for them as we walk through the challenges that we all face. I remember one particular story.
Milton Dodd: When I was had to do had have had a very challenging.
Milton Dodd: Opportunity and at the end of the conversation that the young man, thank me. And he thanked me because not because of the situation, but because of the way I approached him and I think in leadership.
Milton Dodd: You’re never going to fall away or be able to avoid challenges and innocent innocent in the way that you
Milton Dodd: Put yourself in the mindset of the people and really show respect to them throughout it is is is allows you to become a better leader for them and for the situation at hand.
David Horsager: I love that. And we’re going to get back to it to personal leadership, too. But I think we were thinking about, you know, your public role, your corporate role, some of your leadership roles of big companies. I know you helped us
David Horsager: Really building trust with a with a global pharmaceutical organization that’s that’s that’s building trust in the midst of, of, you know, the global challenges or recent merger and all that. But when you have to, you know, when you have to hold people accountable.
Milton Dodd: Yeah, I mean,
David Horsager: You have any tips on how do you actually stay trusted or build trust in the midst of this challenge of how having to have healthy accountability. I mean, any quick tips for that.
Milton Dodd: I think it starts with consistency, which is, you know, one of the pillars, you know, you have to be consistent.
Milton Dodd: In your efforts and you know in sales. When I lead an organization of 135 people in the total organization. We had KPIs. We have key performance indicators.
Milton Dodd: That we managed to but I think the first step is in when you’re talking about holding people accountable.
Milton Dodd: You have to first understand what you’re holding them accountable to so you have buy in from what you’ve agreed to. And that’s the mission. That’s the strategy is the vision as the objectives of the organization.
Milton Dodd: And then from there you have the, you know, you have your check ins and you have ways to ensure that what the team is doing is on target on par with what you agreed on.
Milton Dodd: And that makes it. I forget how the manager said to me one time, but he said there is
Milton Dodd: There is great ease in managing to performance when you have specific indicators to measure their performance. And I think in some cases with companies have strategy to ensure
Milton Dodd: You don’t really have the opportunity to lead in the right way because you don’t have those measures in place to ensure that the team understands what they’re to do on a daily basis in order to be successful.
David Horsager: So let’s go a little bit granular because this is all about trust, I mean that there’s all kinds of levels of trust, but let. There’s a lot of people today.
David Horsager: That have gone virtual in your day as leading an organization, leading the sales part of an organization, you often worked in the same city as them. But you had to, you had to lead them. So whether you
David Horsager: Lead them virtually because you had to her phone calls are flying in once in a while and checking on things or people today. Let’s take sales specifically
David Horsager: That they that we want to trust that salesperson is doing what they’re supposed to be doing virtually, what would be let’s get to agreed upon KPIs are there certain measures is it you know it’s probably different for organizations this many calls or this may this but
David Horsager: We’re kind of things are we looking at to measure on and how often do we need to check in.
Milton Dodd: Sure you know in in today’s world, you know, when I started with the organization, I would say, you know, it was a weekly check in would be okay.
Milton Dodd: Because they’re the measurements were pretty easy and and now is just becomes so complicated with what teams have to do from an activity standpoint, in order to be successful and measuring that activity.
Milton Dodd: Is probably the most important thing when it comes to KPIs today because we know the activity leads to sales and the activity also Lisa sustain relationships.
Milton Dodd: And I think it’s more of a daily check in. When you think about CRM like Salesforce or HubSpot or any of the number of ones that are out there.
Milton Dodd: You know, the important thing is to have something where you can edit glance. Make sure that the activity is happening as a leader in order to grow sales based on the mission, vision and strategy you have
David Horsager: I love it. I love this activity leads to sales and activity builds relationship. That’s the consistency piece.
Too.
David Horsager: So if you’re looking for a great sales, like maybe we even back out to you. What are some sales tips.
David Horsager: That you might have like this work for you to to get we’re all in sales. Right. It doesn’t matter for leadership management we want we want to sell a message we want to sell impact we want to sell a product, we want to sell a mission or a, you know,
David Horsager: Yeah, people believe something today. What, what, what are the other any kind of tips for people that build trust by doing this, or just that this sales tip work. This activity is something I really looked for loved when I found this in one of my team.
Milton Dodd: You sure you know i. So let’s I’ll break it up into different places.
Milton Dodd: You know when I’m thinking about a team member, especially when you’re interviewing and you’re trying to find someone to come alongside in the organization to help move the organization forward. You really look for a passion.
Milton Dodd: A passion for sales and then you want to make sure that the person has a passion for the product or service that you’re asking them to be a part of.
Milton Dodd: And if you can combine those two things, then I think you can be very successful. I just think of
Milton Dodd: When I when I joined your team, or when I worked or as I’m working with Genesis works. The first thing I had to do and I till I try to explain this to especially up and comers or even leaders.
Milton Dodd: Be a student of the business that you’re part of and that means understanding the competition.
Milton Dodd: Understanding the products and services you offer understanding what your value proposition is and those things allow you to be more confident
Milton Dodd: When you’re selling the product and then you’re not selling. You’re just presenting an opportunity for someone to join a very good up or you presented an opportunity for someone to join your organization through the product or service that you offer and I think
Milton Dodd: That way it makes it a lot simpler for people to digest what you’re
Milton Dodd: Sharing with them. And then it also makes makes it easy for them to do business with you. You know, I think of the opportunity that we recently had with one of the organizations that we’re working with.
Milton Dodd: And it was more about a conversation and really delving in and understanding what their needs are and then tailoring your solution to that particular need.
David Horsager: Boy, more and more everything’s got to be contextualize right you want. We want our burger. Our way we want our this. You can’t just stamp it out and say it’s going to be like this and you’re getting pickles and catch it no matter what. It’s got to be
David Horsager: I want my burger my way and this trust stuff and that project you’re talking about, hey, we’ve seen something amazing change.
David Horsager: But
David Horsager: We spent all use I should say a lot of time listening and learning and seeing how can we apply this trust work to them in a way that will hit their KPIs and make a difference in their context.
Milton Dodd: You know, it’s so true. And I think that’s very important because
Milton Dodd: I, you know, I’ve been involved with organizations. And then we’ve seen people come in to help to help our organization moving in a certain direction or to help our organization.
Milton Dodd: Achieve a certain goal. And I think the one key component that we missed some time is the Listening component
Milton Dodd: Kind of like, okay, taking your own ego and sending to the side and trying to get into the mindset of the people that you’re serving
Milton Dodd: So that can be if you’re a consultant that could be the group that you’re consulting with
Milton Dodd: If your leader within an organization that could be the team that you’re leading if it’s your family. That could be your children. So all of those things. It’s a consistent effort around how do you
Milton Dodd: Put yourself aside in attend to the needs of the one that you’re leading so that you can present the best solution for that.
David Horsager: So, and I know you and I know that this listening is a big deal for you and
David Horsager: That you
David Horsager: You kind of have four L’s that you go by.
David Horsager: Yes, tell, tell me about what were those inspired and what are they so people hear this because it’s it’s a great mantra for leadership.
Milton Dodd: Well, you know, a lot of the things you learn to do as a leader is sometimes is is it’s the is the is anti to what you received as it from your leadership.
Milton Dodd: And so one of the things I learned very early on in my career is the importance of listening in as a leader when I think about
Milton Dodd: mission and vision and strategy. What a leader should do is listen for listen for the fact that the team understands what the mission or the vision that they’ve laid out for that particular team.
Milton Dodd: And you hear that through. I think what you say. Sometimes David is the common language within the organization. Are you establishing a common language through listening.
Milton Dodd: Through listening to what your team is saying, and also tying it to the mission and making sure it ties to your mission and vision.
Milton Dodd: And then I think the other thing as a leader is about listening is to demonstrate your listening through your actions.
Milton Dodd: So when you have an opportunity or you’re looking to push for us a vision for the organization. Make sure that you’re demonstrating that you heard them.
Milton Dodd: And that you’re presenting a collaborative environment as you are moving towards greater heights for the organization. Now, that doesn’t mean that each and every time.
Milton Dodd: You have to acquiesce to the the winds of the team, but it also but it is important to rich really try to truly understand what their needs are and then provide the tools and resources for them.
David Horsager: So that’s, that’s the listening L, you’ve got you’ve got three more else
David Horsager: Do you go by and leadership.
Milton Dodd: And then you and then you need to learn, you know, especially toy cove. I think we learned a lot. I think all of us have learned a lot. I think
Milton Dodd: You know leaders today has really have really had to really kind of break the mold of what they were used to and you learn from what you you listen to, or you learn from what you glean from your team and that may mean pivoting that may mean stepping outside of
Milton Dodd: Of stepping outside of the box that you may have normally stayed with them.
Milton Dodd: And I think that leaders that listen and then apply that through learning have a better opportunity to push their teams to greater heights and then you’re talking about leading and now leading is
Milton Dodd: Just that it is stepping back and allowing your team to thrive by pointing in the right direction and then allowing them to move in that direction, providing the tools, providing the resources, removing the roadblocks, helping them make decisions in order
Milton Dodd: In order to reach their journey. And then the last thing I think sometimes when you have that person.
Milton Dodd: Who is ready to branch out and be a leader themselves. You have to find the, you have to find a way to let go. And that’s that empowerment piece.
Milton Dodd: empower your team to do the things necessary without you being there or absent of you being there, such that they can grow and learn to be leaders themselves.
David Horsager: I love it. So listen, learn lead and let go to questions come to mind right away. What did you learn, personally, as a leader you know in this last nine months or or in the last year of coven
Milton Dodd: You know, I think the thing I learned most is there’s great talent all around you, and I think that needs to acknowledging you need to acknowledge the people around you and really delve into what their
Milton Dodd: What their opportunities are but more importantly what they’re very good at, you know, I’m reading a book right now called the
Milton Dodd: The big leap by gay. Hendricks and it talks about their zone of genius and their ability to do that. One thing that’s great and allowing them to do that.
Milton Dodd: And and as a leader coming alongside them and nurturing them. Um, you know, I’ve really in my most recent role and I gained appreciation for really
Milton Dodd: I really enjoy teaching the next generation in an organization that I’m currently with
Milton Dodd: Or working with we we have a number of millennials in there still searching for what it is that that that that makes them special within the organization and I love coming alongside them and helping them kind of calling that out and then challenging them to reach those greater heights.
David Horsager: I love it. And let’s do one more time. As you go to let go. I think a lot of leaves. I think I’ve had challenges with this and
David Horsager: And but you think of that group that you’re leading with millennials, or you think of just, you know, back to all the national sales teams. You’ve led and whatnot.
David Horsager: Is there any more, as far as tips on accountability or anything you’ve learned about this this millennial group you’re leading largely or
David Horsager: Just any thing else on accountability, because I think you know we have a lot of leaders like
David Horsager: Yeah, I can just empower people empower people empower people and I’m empowering them and then they’re going off the cliff, the wrong direction. So how do I balance that empowerment with healthy accountability, any, any tips.
Milton Dodd: Well, I think that’s the thing, David. It’s not when when I say let go. It’s not like you know it’s a child so
Milton Dodd: As you as your child grows, you tend to a lot of the do certain things, but you’d never you never fully let go of them right. You’re always there. Like, like guide rails.
Milton Dodd: On a on a road with two with a cliff. I mean, you’re there to ensure that they don’t go off that
Milton Dodd: proverbial cliff. But, you know, by checking in with them and staying in tune with them. I don’t mean let go. In a sense of, Okay, you got it. Move on, or
Milton Dodd: Okay, I’m going to stand back at 30,000 feet the entire time. You know, that’s why those KPIs are in place to ensure that one. The activity stays there.
Milton Dodd: Such that the the results can be there as well. So let go means you stay close enough to give them time to sway right or left, but they don’t go over that proverbial edge because you’re the guide rails as a leader.
David Horsager: Do you have any thinking about this. Do you have habits as a leader. I’m getting personal we talked about
David Horsager: A little things done consistently make the biggest difference. Whether it’s personal or at work. What, what do you have any personal routines or habits that like I do this because this if I don’t do this consistently for myself. I’m not as good.
Milton Dodd: Yeah, you know, it probably come out of more of my habits doing covidien and having a more unstructured schedule. But when I was in my in a very structured environment. I spent a lot of time one taking a look at it.
Milton Dodd: As a sales leader I spend a lot of time one taking a look at the numbers and really trying to figure out a way to share those in a manner that’s digestible to the team.
Milton Dodd: That you’re leading. I mean, when you look at an organization where I had 110 million dollars and 107 hundred sales people.
Milton Dodd: You know, I had to break it down, such that they could digest what I’m trying to share with them and the strategy or the mission for the week, if you will, the mission sometimes for that particular day
Milton Dodd: So, spending time really understanding the information, such that
Milton Dodd: You’ll be you become less. It’s not a novel for them to read, but you become the leader that provides them the cliff notes so they can get just enough to start the process of moving forward for that mission or vision that you have for them.
David Horsager: And your MBA, not to stay in the number so to
David Horsager: Speak Yeah, long, but your MBA was in data analytics, if I recall
David Horsager: What what number should we be looking for, I don’t know whether it’s in business or life. What, what kind of numbers in a salesperson what we what are a few numbers that you think these are the common KPIs that really everybody in whatever role should be thinking about
Milton Dodd: Sure. When I think of sales in particular sales is activity when I you know in in the organization.
Milton Dodd: That I worked for we dealt with schools and we spent a lot of times trying to penetrate the market and gain market share. And the only way we able to do that was have sales activity on a daily basis that led to the
Milton Dodd: Results that we were looking for. So that’s the first thing is how many calls does a salesperson make depending on the industry. It changes.
Milton Dodd: If you know if you are cold calling is going to be hundreds of calls in a given day.
Milton Dodd: If you’re more strategic and you’re looking for one calls and you have leads, it may be just, you know, it may be 10 or 15 depending on the market that you’re in, but
Milton Dodd: In our world, we look for somewhere between 10 to 15 quality calls on a given day to help us reach our goals.
Milton Dodd: And we, you know, it’s one thing to have a an activity. It’s another thing to have details behind that activity. So you have activity. And then you have more qualified activity with more details to help you understand that we’re actually moving through the sales process and right way.
Milton Dodd: You can have a visit. And then you can have a quality visit and then you have a quality visit with the contact with a decision maker. And then from there, you either set up a meeting.
Milton Dodd: That you share the product or services that you’re offering and then you move it to close. So sometimes it can be a five or six step activity process before you get to that close.
Milton Dodd: But the most important thing you can do as a leader is understand the interim steps it takes and then ensure that you’re watching each of those steps and challenging them along the way activity is not a singular process is probably what I’ll say
David Horsager: Absolutely we in our, in our most transactional you everything from consulting and enterprise trust index and coaching all the things we do here. The most transactional thing probably is.
David Horsager: Transactional offering is speaking right me going in and keynote at an event. And we have a process that has over 30 points touch points for one speech.
David Horsager: To make sure it’s consistent and valuable at all the way to follow up and thank you and all that. So, because all those can lead to more be part of the sales process. But of course, the beginning of that is
David Horsager: Equipped you know really salespeople are educators to it’s like if we’re not a fit. We don’t have either right
Milton Dodd: So,
Milton Dodd: You know, more than anything else, your, your, your consultant, you can consultative selling is probably the most thing best way I can say it. And the other thing is that when you have a process and you close business.
Milton Dodd: If you make it easy for them to do business with you, how likely is it for them to share your
Milton Dodd: Sure, who you are and what you do with others. Yep. And I think that’s the thing that people don’t understand some time is is it’s a transactional relationship, but it’s a relationship. Nonetheless, absolutely.
David Horsager: Love it. Well, you love this quote. Tell me, tell me how it inspires you and I even put it up, leadership, like a stone dropped in a body of water ripples well beyond the entry point.
Milton Dodd: Well, you think about it. I mean, you take a stone. I mean, you know, you live out there next to a lake, and you
Milton Dodd: Don’t know your kids and you’d probably throw rocks in the water, you know, once you throw that rocket and water is it ripples ripples.
Milton Dodd: North, South, East, and West. And I think leadership, good or bad can do just that, you know, when you are
Milton Dodd: I think of the leaders in my lifetime, the people that you know I think of Jan Hague, for example, that gave me the opportunity
Milton Dodd: Many years ago, and the ripple effect that she had with me is still lasting today it on how I approach things how I treat people how I lead
Milton Dodd: In, you know, Jan was one that lead with empathy and compassion, you know of a leader, but she was also very tough on us.
Milton Dodd: As we were going through this up the leadership program. And I just think that’s, that’s probably the genesis of where I came up with that, quote, because I think of man. The, the ripple effect of what she did with me.
Milton Dodd: Now affects how I lead and over the 24 years I was with that organization. How many people I’ve touched. So that’s what I that’s why I say it ripples well beyond the entry point because that entry point back in 1995 is still affecting people today.
David Horsager: And you know, we talked a lot about how you know how we are, how we lead ourselves matters like personally, how am I leading myself because we want to be, in essence, the same onstage and off you know you’ve got
David Horsager: Our beautiful kids over there and amazing wife. That’s brilliant.
David Horsager: And, you know, what do you do to kind of keep yourself imperfect as we are, how do you, how do you lead yourself personally what any ideas there.
Milton Dodd: You know, I think it gets back to what what are the it gets back to the outcomes. So again, input. Yeah, I think you said a lot, David, and yet we’re in your work input versus output.
Milton Dodd: And you know, I was reading an article by a guy named Jeff Perry recently he said your leadership style is made up of who you are.
Milton Dodd: How you grew up some of us grew up with. Very Meager beginnings, like I did some it without a mom without a mom and dad in a home, my mom died early on when I when I was younger and then some of us grew up with a family around us, but each eat no matter which way we grew up those those
Milton Dodd: That affects how you lead people and my outcome for my children is I want to be around for them because I didn’t have that when I was
Milton Dodd: When I was younger, so I didn’t have certain things when I was younger. So I want to strive to show them a different world than I had
Milton Dodd: Or I want to be there as a father because my father figure wasn’t in the picture with me. So it’s really about the activity that I do to really change the narrative around how I felt.
Milton Dodd: My what was missing in my leadership journey as I was younger to affect their leadership journey as their as they start to get into their formative years
Milton Dodd: I mean, I have a 17 year old. He’s a senior next year, he goes out into the world. And so I want to make sure that he how he treats people is indicative of how he learned how to be treated at home. I have a middle daughter who’s 13
Milton Dodd: I want to understand. I want her to understand that when she goes out into the world and meets a young man. I want her to see how
Milton Dodd: She should be treated by the way of my interaction with her and then I have a five year old, you know. And in the same way a five year old son, where I have to do the same thing with him as I did with my oldest son so
Milton Dodd: That’s, that’s probably the best way I’ll say it is leadership is still about activity and results, whether you’re a family man.
Milton Dodd: Or a family person or in a business or an entrepreneur or consultant. It doesn’t matter. Whatever your activity is is going to lead to some result. And it’s just a matter of what result, would you like it to be.
David Horsager: Tell us, you know, this brings up another PERSONAL SIDE OF YOU THAT I’VE SEEN be amazing. And that’s some of your
David Horsager: Giving work and mentoring work and I know you’re a part of an organization where you’re really not this where your interim operations director right now, but also really your, your work with young men and mentorship. Tell us a little bit about that and why you got involved.
Milton Dodd: Yeah, well, I’m not involved. This year, because my son is a part of the program. And that’s going to take a year off when their sons are in the program, but the program is called rice. The past that she
Milton Dodd: IS SPONSORED BY JACK and Jill has been around for I think 23 years now and for the time that I’ve been in Minneapolis back in Minneapolis is 2012 I’ve been involved in it.
Milton Dodd: Started out as a mentor and then over the last six years I was the coach here helping to shape the program with the help of a number of businessman without within the Twin Cities.
Milton Dodd: And I think the thing that again that drives me to be involved with things like that is somewhat of what I wish I had when I was growing up.
Milton Dodd: And then the other part of it is you want to ensure getting back to the guardrail analogy that these kids are college bound and you want to make sure ensure
Milton Dodd: That they have the opportunity to stay within those guardrails, and not fall off the cliff when they go to school and to make good decisions.
Milton Dodd: Around relationships to make good decisions around study habits to make good decisions around potentially a mate, that they choose. So
Milton Dodd: That’s that’s the reason I got involved is to just be that extra ear for those kids who have the opportunity, or will have the opportunity to affect the world in the future.
David Horsager: And I saw the graduation of your son and what an amazing powerful experience as far as how that whole you know program plays out and your
Leadership there.
David Horsager: You know this year has in the last year, you know, racial tension has been brought to the surface and again and you know and I know it’s it’s it’s always been here.
David Horsager: But what’s it as as a leader of color to all of us. What do we have to learn what could we learn as far as being high trust leaders in the midst of these tensions, how can we be high trust leaders.
You know,
Milton Dodd: I think the first step. And I put out a little video. Some time ago when everything kind of hit the fan. And as I said,
Milton Dodd: The goal is not necessarily to change the people around you. The goal is to change your perspective. And the only way you can change your perspective is by being involved in something that makes you uncomfortable.
Milton Dodd: And I think this flashpoint with the murder of George Floyd, it made a lot of people uncomfortable. And I think a lot of people stood up and said, I just had enough. I’ve had enough of this and
Milton Dodd: That has to come from inside. I don’t think there’s anything that a person can do to really change how you think that has to come from you doing some soul searching to say
Milton Dodd: I don’t like what’s going on and I, as a leader, whether I’m in a small business, a medium sized business, a large business. What can I do to effectuate change where I am today.
Milton Dodd: And if that means I need to be more culturally diverse and employing people i need to do that. And I need to do that with a level of intention.
Milton Dodd: If I need to stand up and have a conversation, whether I’m in the boardroom of the clubhouse because someone says something that’s not true, or someone says something that’s demeaning, I need to stand up and do that and plant that seed.
Milton Dodd: So I think that’s the difference is what do you what how do you want to be represented and then what are you going to do in order to represent yourself in a manner that makes you look in the mirror.
Milton Dodd: And feel like you’ve done something to effectuate positive change in your community and you don’t have to have a leadership title to do that. You just have to be a person who cares.
David Horsager: Oh. One thing I’ve seen you do is have healthy conversations like be willing to have tough conversations and do them well and with respect, you know, I, I’ve often said this. One of the most important attributes of a leader, actually, is the willingness to have tough conversations
Milton Dodd: Sure, but
David Horsager: Any tips for the leaders listening on how to have healthy difficult conversations
Milton Dodd: I think you just said it, you have to start
Milton Dodd: You know, when things get uncomfortable. And I’m going to just speak for me. Sometimes when things get get uncomfortable for me. I tried it, like, yeah, I’m not gonna deal with that right now. I’m going to shy away from that at this particular moment and I think
Milton Dodd: It’s time for people to stop shying away from those conversations and then just
Milton Dodd: Just taking a chance, leaning in. You know you and I have had some conversations around how things worked when when George floor was murdered.
Milton Dodd: And how I felt versus how you felt and how the people around us felt, and I think that just by starting at that point in having a conversation where there’s nothing to prove nothing to gain. We just want to talk.
Milton Dodd: And I often tell people that I’m mentoring is you’re over 21. Now it’s time to have adult conversations and adult conversation sometimes mean we’re going to challenge the status quo.
Milton Dodd: Or we’re going to lean in some topics that not only makes the person that we’re talking to uncomfortable. It might very well make us uncomfortable. Yeah.
David Horsager: I remember that we both said, well, how you feeling today and we wrote it down on a piece of paper and turn it over. We both said
David Horsager: misunderstood. Yeah.
So,
David Horsager: Well, let’s go to this you know you’re working with teams, you’re leading teams, you’ve certainly had leadership role here. How do you motivate others these days. What, what are some ways. If you’ve got to motivate a team or an individual, what do you do
Milton Dodd: Well, I think the regardless of where they are in their career. I think in a lot of cases leaders, for the most part are visionaries.
Milton Dodd: And I think true leaders really see things and others that they can’t very well see in themselves.
Milton Dodd: And the thing that I try to do whether I’m talking to a leader in a C suite or a entry level employee, it is if I see something one you have to ask for them. I think you should ask for permission to call it out or ask for permission to give them feedback.
Milton Dodd: And then once they’re okay. And they and you demystify what it is to give them feedback, then you call whatever it is that you see out of them.
Milton Dodd: And you say, you know, David, what I see in you is XYZ, David, what I see in you is the ability to really connect well with people and then you you and then you ask them for permission to come alongside them to help them to shape that particular
Milton Dodd: That to shape that particular attribute that you’ve called out of them. And I think that’s it. I’ve said it, you know, people ask me a lot of a lot of times that is
Milton Dodd: A leader should call out what they see, ask for permission.
Milton Dodd: Call out what they see and then come alongside that person to help them to shore up that opportunity that may have or to really strengthen that strength that they may not even be aware of.
Milton Dodd: A lot of times we as leaders don’t take the time to do that because we have all of these conflicting parties. We have to grow sales, we have to have this certain activity we have someone looking over our shoulder. For this we have cross functional teams we have matrix.
Milton Dodd: Organizations, we gotta, we gotta play well into the sandbox, but are at the end of the day, as a leader. Our job is to take good care of the people that we are a trusted to lead at that given moment.
David Horsager: You know, my wife calls that see the good say the good share the good
David Horsager: And, of course, that doesn’t get on the accountability side, but she said, we just, you’ve got to see the good more and then say the good in that person and then share that good, you know, so see the good say the good share the good is is can be a part of that I think
Milton Dodd: Yeah. You know, I think what my wife would also say is you can’t you can’t overthink or over overthink of what the how the person is going to respond because she would say there’s three R’s. They either receive it.
Milton Dodd: They rejected or repurpose it. And I think that’s so important to is that you know don’t hold back because you never know.
Milton Dodd: If you’re robbing somebody have an opportunity to get better at something or if you Robin and person have an opportunity to show up for strength shore up a string. So you want to be. You want to be bold as a leader and to help them find their true north
Yeah.
David Horsager: That’s great. What do you hope for in the future if you’re hoping thinking ahead. What’s your biggest hope for the future that you’re thinking about down the road.
Milton Dodd: You know, I, I really just hope that people
Milton Dodd: Embrace the opportunity that we’ve had to have a lot of self reflection through this unfortunate process called coronavirus
Milton Dodd: Or covert 19 and and to utilize those learnings as they come out of this environment in a positive manner to help others. I think that is so important. And in a lot of ways.
Milton Dodd: The examples that we’ve had for leadership should be the determinant of how we approach life, it should be the adverse it should be less, learn from what we see, and then become a better version of what we see.
David Horsager: I love it.
David Horsager: Well, I would love to talk all day to you and I so appreciate you and I’m proud of just the work that you do and let’s go. It’s time for the lightning round. Are you ready for quick answers.
David Horsager: Okay. All right, here we
Milton Dodd: Are in and over again and let’s go
David Horsager: It wouldn’t go we’re getting into lightning round, it’s time. Milton Dodds
All right.
David Horsager: All right, so number one. What is your favorite current book or resource.
Milton Dodd: My favorite current, current book right now is the big leap.
Milton Dodd: You know by gay. Hendricks, it talks about, you know, conquering the hidden fear and taking life to the next level. Staying into your zone of genius. Check it out.
David Horsager: If you have any quick tip like hey leaders for productivity or for leading they could apply tomorrow morning. Any quick tip or idea that you haven’t shared so far.
Milton Dodd: If you have a thought. Write it down. I think you know I’m not the best edit. But I think Journaling is underrated.
David Horsager: Absolutely. All right. What’s something you can’t live without.
Golf
That’s true.
David Horsager: What is a quote you live by. You already shared that today the ripple effect. Any other quotes your big thoughts or banners that go through your head all the time to kind of keep you centered or motivated
Milton Dodd: It is, I don’t know if it’s a cool, but it’s a quote from a, from a song. So I guess it is a quote no complaints no regrets. I still believe in chasing dreams and placing bets.
David Horsager: There we go.
David Horsager: So, what a great conversation with Milton, how would you best be reached if we’re going to look out for Milton dot and the things you’re thinking about talking about writing about posting, where’s the best place to reach you.
Milton Dodd: You know, typically, if I’m posting something it’s mostly on Instagram. My name is it is what my name. Milton died or you can find me on LinkedIn and Milton DOD as well.
David Horsager: Do DD
David Horsager: DD Milton DOD
David Horsager: We own it with Dr. MD.
David Horsager: Message God
Milton Dodd: I’ve been mistaken for a doctor several times.
David Horsager: He fixes things and cultures and people, and definitely builds trust along the way so
David Horsager: For anything that was mentioned the book you mentioned some of those quotes in any of the the LinkedIn or Instagram. You can also go to trusted leader show.com everything will be there for you. Thank you so much for listening and we’ll see you next time, keep building trust.
