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Welcome to the 'Lead Smarter. Not Harder' Podcast by David Kent, your window into the minds of visionary leaders, trailblazing innovators, and savvy business owners.
Get ready to immerse yourself in the captivating stories and invaluable lessons from the best and brightest minds in the business.
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:31:03
Today's guest is someone who knows leadership where it really counts on the front lines. West dub is the co-founder of Dove Development and Consulting, where he and his wife, Cindy, help organizations build stronger leaders, healthier cultures, and more engaged teams. West brings more than two decades of experience in manufacturing leadership, the kind that's earned not just titled. He learned early how to influence without authority, lead through trust, and turn values into measurable business results.
00:00:31:05 - 00:00:53:04
He's also the author of leading with a Clear Purpose and the upcoming book The Values Advantage, which digs into how organizations grow when their people actually live, their values, not just post them on the wall. In this episode, we dig into lessons on influence, value driven culture, and what it really takes to lead smarter, not louder. Let's dive in.
00:00:53:04 - 00:01:14:06
Hey, Wes, thank you for joining me on the leadership podcast here today on Lead Smarter. I've really enjoyed getting to know you and getting a chance to chat with you a few times. And I'm looking forward to diving into your experience, into how you help leaders, become the best versions of themselves and how you get them to evolve their own leadership through your program.
00:01:14:08 - 00:01:30:04
So thank you for joining me. Yeah. David, it's been a pleasure getting to know you as well. It's pretty neat to see how many common threads that we've got in our backgrounds, where we're in different places and different ages and generations, if you will. Gosh, it's been a lot of fun because we're more alike than we are different, for sure.
00:01:30:06 - 00:01:56:04
Yes. And I'll admit, the kind of leadership that you focus on, I would say is, in the area of like, manufacturing and things like that, that's I think it's very interesting. I know that people are looking into, how to be better leaders inside business settings that I'm talking to in tech and things like that. But I'm interested in diving into your experience and the niche that you serve.
00:01:56:06 - 00:02:22:02
And we've actually had a chance to talk about a few areas where you have, kind of learned a lot of leadership along your own leadership journey. One of the questions I was actually wanting to chat with you about is, you've talked to me about leading without authority. And I'm interested in kind of diving into that a little bit, early in your career, you had to influence people with no formal authority.
00:02:22:03 - 00:02:38:14
What did that teach you about leadership? Well, David, it was a stellar lesson. It was a hard lesson because I. As soon as we got married, I came back from our honeymoon the very first day on the job. I was in a role where I'm. I'm rolling out this lean manufacturing process, and it made sense to me.
00:02:38:14 - 00:02:56:21
It was really, really simple in concept, but I was tasked with getting folks who had worked in that facility longer than I'd been alive to change what they had been doing for years and years and years, because I said so. It was not something that they bought into. And now I'm trying to say, hey, you need to do this.
00:02:56:21 - 00:03:18:07
And I had zero authority, zero, position title. And I was pay my, the results that I achieved was what was going to be make or break whether I stayed in that role. Right. And I had to really, really quickly learn how do I get people to do things that I need them to do when I can't say because I said so?
00:03:18:09 - 00:03:41:07
Well, I mean, I'd be interested. Like, obviously there's going to be huge bumps along the way in that kind of experience. I would be interested in, like, where did you find success in that once you, when you were trying to do it? Because I young leaders now were throughout many companies. There's a generational gap where there's people that are currently at leading businesses.
00:03:41:09 - 00:03:59:00
And there's probably going to be a transition at some point. But the people, the generations that are coming up, they're going to be the ones right now. It entrenched in, lessons in newer technology and things like that, things that businesses required to be more effective. But there's going to be a generational gap, and you're not going to be able to lead by telling them what to do.
00:03:59:05 - 00:04:16:13
What was the things that you found to be successful in that? Well, I had to understand where they're at. I had to know what their tasked with, what their responsibilities were, what mattered to them. I had to figure out all those things and the fact that I'd done similar jobs, not always the same job, but I'd done similar things, let me at least relate to them.
00:04:16:15 - 00:04:36:15
But I had to establish, hey, we're going towards a common goal. I want you to win. It's not about, hey, when you do this and West wins, it's about how do we do this? And we all get better through the process. And when I could establish those relationships and have a common bond for a shared priority that we were working toward, I could at least move the needle.
00:04:36:15 - 00:04:54:01
It wasn't always immediate results, but I could earn that influence and develop a bit of respect that would start the process. And then small wins led to bigger wins. Do you well, do you remember a particular small one where it felt like, this clicked like this feels like it's actually working. I can get through to these people.
00:04:54:05 - 00:05:24:15
Yeah. There were I mean, I tell this story frequently. I remember we had two separate muffler assembly lines. I worked in an exhaust manufacturing facility and there were two separate lines side by side that were inherently the same processes. They just made a different shape and size exhaust system that came off the end of the line. One I was able to develop some solid relationships and and make some small implementations in the process that we were rolling out, and the other was just kicking and screaming, dragging their feet, not doing anything.
00:05:24:17 - 00:05:47:00
And we could see some process improvements and more importantly, productivity improvements in the one that that brought in at least to the small level. And as that one line, Baldy. And they bought in higher and higher and higher and we could achieve some significant wins over the process. The other one, it again, those folks were a little bit older, a little bit grumpy or a little bit more bitter.
00:05:47:00 - 00:06:09:11
I didn't have the same relationships and it never really they never really latched on and they never achieved the same productivity. They never got the same results as the one that was right next to them. I'm talking 20ft away. Okay, okay. Well, what what mistakes do you see new leaders making when trying to assert authority and like, what would you say works better?
00:06:09:11 - 00:06:26:16
You mentioned a little bit about building relationships. So what are some of those common mistakes you see. The common mistake is just that I've got a title. I've got to sort of do what I said and that can work. Hey, make no mistake, it's for you matters, and there are places for it. And high expectations, accountability, all those things factor in.
00:06:26:18 - 00:06:46:01
But the reality is, if that's all I'm basing it on, I might get you to take action in that moment. But the minute I leave and I'm out of the area, I'm out of, if you've got kids and you have business travel when you leave town, you're right. If it's only based on that authority of I'm going to catch you, and this is the consequence.
00:06:46:01 - 00:07:03:17
If you do it well, when you're not looking, you're not going to catch them, right? So if we can earn that influence, we can develop that relationship and help get them to move the needle even based on here's here's what's in it for you. Here's why it matters. Here's how it helps us both win together. It's a totally different result.
00:07:03:17 - 00:07:22:20
And we get sustainable results as opposed to just right now under the threat of the carrot in the stick. That makes sense. Basically making them feel like more of a part of the mission rather than just being told what to do and being a cog and in in the machine. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah.
00:07:22:21 - 00:07:46:19
Cindy, I it's been 5 or 6 years ago now. We had a conversation with a lady named Carly Fiorina, who had was not long off, not far removed at that point from a, presidential primary run. And she'd previously been an executive with AT&T and then the CEO of Hewlett-Packard. And she made a comment about the person closest to the problem always is the one with the right answer.
00:07:46:19 - 00:08:03:09
They know more about it than I'm ever going to. And if I'm going to tell them, here's how you do your job. That's always going to be futile. But if we can collaborate together and figure out how do we get to that end goal, and how do you use the expertise that you have along? Here's where we need to go together.
00:08:03:11 - 00:08:26:03
That's always going to be better. It's not about what West said or what David said. It's about how do we get to the end result. And if you're doing it daily, you've got a better answer than me. I, I love that that is exactly how I manage my own teams. My goal is to give them as much authority as possible and then remove myself and only be like a contributing voice, not not the person who's going to tell you that now.
00:08:26:03 - 00:08:45:02
Now, this is what we do. And the only time that I have to overrule is when there's a need for context outside of what they have direct, experience or authority to. That's the only time I need to do that. So I love that that's that's your basically your mantra is make sure that the person who's closest is the one that has the authority to, to actually make decisions.
00:08:45:04 - 00:09:04:23
Yeah. And and then our job as leaders, right, is to say, okay, how can I remove the obstacles. What are the things you need to do that you can't do for yourself? So you can be an expert at what you do, right? That that makes that makes a lot of sense. I also wanted I mean, this kind of bleeds for me into like culture retention and, profitability.
00:09:05:01 - 00:09:23:11
One of the things I wanted to ask is, can you share a story where shifting leadership behaviors made a measurable difference? Yes. They say turnover. Yeah. Yeah. In my last, I don't know, couple of years of manufacturing. I worked for a company for close to 20 years, and it was overall, it was a wonderful experience.
00:09:23:11 - 00:09:45:10
I praise God I had the opportunities I did in the last couple of years. I, we had a pretty significant change in local management team. And I'm not going to say I intentionally don't use the word leadership team because they were reasonable managers, but their approach to the people part of the business was far different than what I would ever call leaders.
00:09:45:12 - 00:10:13:20
And they they they didn't develop relationships. They they didn't take time to learn and know the people in the building, understand the history and develop some of the the pieces that would establish them as leaders. Right. And in that time, I was tasked with doing all the hourly hiring. And in the last 18 months, David, I hired 225 people for a net gain of about ten now in one particular position.
00:10:13:22 - 00:10:38:07
And I would argue it was the most critical position to the overall quality that we produced in that facility. We had 100% turnover. We had 150 total spots, and that's how many people were hired in that 18 month period was 150 people. Now, obviously we had some old timers that stayed. We had folks that were there, but but again, it was 150 new bodies that we put into that one position where we had 150 total positions.
00:10:38:09 - 00:11:00:14
And the part that the one thing that changed, there were a lot of constants. There was always it was always hard work. It was always hot in the summer and hot in the winter in some cases, too. Based on the nature of that work, it wasn't always a lot of overtime. The one thing that changed that was not consistent was the management team.
00:11:00:16 - 00:11:22:04
Nothing else changed over the 20 years, but that was the one piece. And we saw dramatic changes in that turnover. We saw significant drops in order feel. We saw significant drops in overall productivity. All those things led to and our costs and hiring our workers comp claims. So many things went up in that process. And that's a direct impact on the overall productivity.
00:11:22:06 - 00:11:43:17
Right? That's that's that's an interesting story for sure, at the fact that that level of turnover would be. So as if I was in the leadership of that business, I either would need some sort of drastic change or I would need to exit myself because the burnout that that would create for the entire organization seems like it'd be very, very high.
00:11:43:19 - 00:12:07:17
It was one of the hardest things I ever watched. And truth be told, it's what led to me leaving the organization because I no longer felt, well, if I was doing the interviews and I'm doing the onboarding to say, hey, this is a good opportunity, I yeah, Faith, I couldn't say, hey, come on in. I could say, hey, the pay's great, the benefits are solid, you can count on steady work, but I could no longer say we care about you could no longer say your quality of life is going to be amazing because it wasn't.
00:12:07:19 - 00:12:24:23
Well, that's, I know that one of the things that, in this same conversation, one of the things that we've talked about, in your experience, was values and had the clarity of values. I wanted to ask you, can you share an example where values clarity helped the business grow or navigate through tough decisions? Hey, I remember you had a good story.
00:12:25:05 - 00:12:53:06
Yeah, I'm giddy about this. I I've watched one and I'm not going to knock companies that don't are statistically I think the numbers are close to 80% of all organizations, large and small have their values listed on their website for the world to see. The reality is not many of those organizations, and I've only experienced a handful in my career, take the time I make sure that everybody understand what those values are, and more importantly, what they mean in their daily role.
00:12:53:06 - 00:13:12:03
Now, about four and a half years ago, I met a fellow who had stepped away from being CEO, chairman of the board of a large multi state, insurance company, and he was buying a small, small business, I think about three, 3.5 million in revenue at the time for him and his family to run. It was just a goal of his.
00:13:12:05 - 00:13:40:23
And he said, here's my five values. Every decision we make going forward is going to be based on those five. And if you wanted me to, I could rattle them off. But, his values. Yeah. They were. Yeah. Humility, family, dependability, compassion and integrity. They've since added a sixth for a specific part of the business. And I know them because every time that I've been on site with them, David, I've watched him not only talk about the values, but in practice, show his team members.
00:13:40:23 - 00:14:01:19
Here's what it looks like in this role. Here's what it looks like in this role. Now. Here's the rest. In their first 24 months, that existing business grew by 50%. Revenue from zero 50% in revenue in 24 months. Since then, they've acquired 2 or 3 other smaller businesses that operate under the same umbrella, all of which were much smaller.
00:14:01:19 - 00:14:30:10
But their collective reach now they've nearly tripled in overall revenue in just over four years. Wow. Their turnover. I talked about the turnover that I experienced right in that last 18 months period, their turnover in an acquisition in their first 24 months was only 5% total over the course of two years, and most of that was due to planned retirements.
00:14:30:12 - 00:15:03:01
I've never seen an acquisition go that smoothly. That's really interesting. You do you feel like there's a correlation to. So you've mentioned like lots of companies, they publish their values for the world to see. Some of them implement them effectively. Some of them actually live by them. I wonder if you if from your experience seeing lots of companies with their values, is there, companies that live by their values but still fail because the values were wrong?
00:15:03:03 - 00:15:21:02
Or do you feel like by the time you've actually solidified your values, you're you're pretty much you've got it right at that point. You've invested enough that now it's the mission and everybody's more aligned, and therefore you're just naturally going to be more effective as a company. David, that's a great question. And it took I paused a little bit because I wanted to think about that.
00:15:21:02 - 00:15:47:04
I can't tell you that I've ever seen an organization with quote unquote wrong values. I have seen organizations that have values that never get discussed and therefore never get upheld. Okay. And a case in point. I'm not going to throw stones. There's a there's a client that Cindy and I've worked with that we were with a group of senior senior supervisors and managers.
00:15:47:04 - 00:16:06:16
I'm talking average tenure was 20, 25 years. And we asked them, hey, who can tell me what your values are? And you could have heard a pin drop. And unfortunately, those values were written on the wall in the room that we were apart. We were doing the training and right then and there and I'm not knocking them. They were great people.
00:16:06:16 - 00:16:27:16
It's a long standing company. They've provided jobs and they've they've really benefited the county, the economy in the area that they operate in and globally. It's not a small company, but in that particular setting, there's no way those folks could have upheld those values if they weren't intimately familiar with them and they weren't here. They were doing a great job, right?
00:16:27:16 - 00:16:48:15
They weren't modeling the values. Is that something that you saw with your own clients, your own programs, or is that something that your is a part of your mission to get the the organization to? Basically embrace the values and know them, intimately throughout the organization so they're more aligned. It it is. And you're asking a teaser question.
00:16:48:15 - 00:17:08:22
There's some things I can't talk about that right now. So, sure, early 2026 I've got a book coming out. It's written. It's I just got the copy edited version back. We're working through some things. It's called the Values Advantage and it talks matter of fact, it talks a lot about that, that case study that I just shared of the guy buying the business and saying, these are our five values and how he's grown.
00:17:08:22 - 00:17:28:08
And I use that as an example. Matter of fact, he wrote the foreword for the book, and he talked about in his, in his corporate career, how they saw in the course of, I think it was 2 or 3 years, almost a 100% growth in revenue because of living by those same five values in a big, big company versus the small company.
00:17:28:08 - 00:17:50:02
So it wasn't all it just happens in small. He he had done it before. But we're working to put together a package that we can implement nationwide, maybe worldwide. But the reality is we live in the United States and we'll figure it out here. First. Should I be able to put that same framework in the hands of every organization to how do we identify the values?
00:17:50:07 - 00:18:12:16
How do we make sure that we have them clearly defined for every role? How do we even make sure that everybody, at every level of the organization understands how every action they take either ties to or works against those values, and why it matters? I mean, it's one thing to have the values written, but if we don't understand, here's why it matters and who were impacting positively or negatively through them.
00:18:12:18 - 00:18:41:13
Is it really value that's I I'm I'm very interested in that personally I'll describe for myself. I have seen also several companies have their own values listed. I've only ever and maybe it's my my narrow view of the companies I'm interacting with, but I've only ever seen a company live by its values. When the leader is passionate about the company and the values, and then any and any other scenario, for me it's been completely binary.
00:18:41:13 - 00:19:02:05
If that's not the case, then nobody else cares enough to embrace them or has enough. Maybe, maybe can carry enough weight to make sure the organization embraces them. I'm going to I'm going to answer that in two ways. Sure. One of the things that I've raised so for years, for 25 years now, I've studied John Maxwell and I absolutely love his work.
00:19:02:05 - 00:19:19:19
And if you were to ask me, hey, what are you reading right now? I'm going to say on audible right now I've got Change Your World by John Maxwell, specific to values. There's two chapters that talk about values that I'm working through and re working through, because the owner of all John's companies will be in an event, Cindy and our hosting next June.
00:19:20:01 - 00:19:44:13
And we want him to talk on those two chapters. That's why I'm digging into them yet again. I've read the book a couple times over the years, but that's why I'm so engrossed in it right now. But for for all those years, I've heard John say, everything rises and falls on leadership. So one thing I one way I'll answer that is if if we're going to have good values in the organization, the leaders got to walk the talk.
00:19:44:13 - 00:20:05:10
They've got to live it. They've got to exemplify. They've got to keep it embedded, keep it in front of the people. Right. The other thing that I'm going to counter that with, though, is one of the most powerful lessons I've learned from a mentor over the years was was control what you can control, control freedom. And if you can do it, you can control you up on which you can influence you can control it.
00:20:05:12 - 00:20:26:14
Right? But if you can set the right example and you can live it and breathe it and do all the things that matter to to exemplify those values you will impact from you down. Now, the reality is, if you and I were in that organization for a long period of time and we're just continually beating our head against the ceiling and nothing's change, we're probably leaving that organization.
00:20:26:15 - 00:20:58:18
That makes sense. Yeah. But yeah, yeah, the reality is I what can I can control from within my sphere of influence, within my scope of responsibility to make sure that those values are upheld. I can't control everything, but I can control this, that that makes total sense. And it kind of it definitely aligns with, kind of I'd say the experiences I've had in other companies where they I have seen surges of, engagement and positive interest in, in the, values that are listed.
00:20:58:20 - 00:21:12:17
But as I was mentioning, I would just like you're saying, if the if the leadership's not embracing it, people are hitting the ceilings, then you're really good people that maybe really believe in your company and your mission are going to go somewhere else where they feel like they're part of something that everybody's aligned in. And that makes total sense.
00:21:12:17 - 00:21:29:00
That was your experience, too? I wanted to there's a couple other questions I had, I wanted to talk to you about building a business with purpose and partnership. You and your wife built a leadership business together. I have worked with my wife in the past as well. So you're a brave man, and you must be.
00:21:29:03 - 00:21:49:20
We must have been a fantastic partnership, because that's actually how I started. My relationship with my wife was working, so, first, congratulations on that. I want to know, what have you learned about balancing, different leadership styles in that partnership, so. Oh. I've, I'm going to use this term, but please know when I use it, it's figurative, not literal.
00:21:49:22 - 00:22:15:18
I take the whole my beer watch this approach all day, every day in everything I do. Not saying it's right. It's it's how I'm wired to. I am. Cindy thinks through things meticulously. And I tell people all the time, If God wouldn't have put her in my life, I would get a ton of stuff done. But the simple fact that she's part of everything that I do, part of everything we do together, is there's a chance somebody is going to actually like it, and it'll be correct in the process.
00:22:15:20 - 00:22:35:03
That's the Indian not saying one's right or wrong. We can't share any right. Was that the answer you were looking for? That was. That was I didn't know I didn't want to interrupt you if you had more to share. I mean, obviously, it's your relationship. I'm glad to hear that's the experience. I have similar energies with my wife.
00:22:35:05 - 00:23:00:20
So that's that's a sounds like a very complementary, and balanced, approach to your guys's partnership together. How do you stay organized or energized and motivated when consulting work sometimes sucks the life out of you? Well, so let's go back to that purpose statement. Sure. I had a book I released earlier this year called Leading with Clear Purpose, and I remember hearing one of my, a lifelong friend in.
00:23:00:22 - 00:23:19:04
And I look at him, we're the same age. We've known one another for about 40 years, and I've always looked at him. That was a hero because he he had to work hard from a very early age, not not because he wanted cassette tapes and a bicycle he wanted he had to work hard to help put food on his family from like 11, 12 years old on his family's table from 11, 12 years old.
00:23:19:06 - 00:23:33:16
Right. And a a couple of years ago, as I was starting to write that book, I heard I had a phone call with him to where I heard him just empty. And I'm going, my goodness, he's one of the hardest chargers, highest producers that I've ever known in my life. And I hear him empty. What's going on here?
00:23:33:17 - 00:23:57:23
It was really based on he wasn't getting that fulfillment. For me and Cindy. That fulfillment is when we can see you mentioned earlier that younger generation. Hey, the reality is, I remember early on, I was the young guy in the room that website, I'm no longer the young guy, but as I can take those experiences and sew them into some of the folks that I know we're going to be impact on our grandkids and their their kids moving forward.
00:23:58:01 - 00:24:20:06
That's the part that gets us up in the morning. If it were just about the money, you know this I don't get a stinking job. We made a lot. Yeah, we had professional careers, sure. But the reality is, if we can see the impact, the money will take care of itself. It's about how can we help make an impact for the folks that that we know it's impacting their profitability.
00:24:20:07 - 00:24:41:13
We see what it's doing and more importantly, its impact and the results they get through the people that they lead. And and that's why we get out about one of the things you just said. I mean, I remember going into business for myself, becoming an entrepreneur, starting for starting as maybe just a contractor or a consultant, just doing my own stuff before getting a real business and people working with me as well.
00:24:41:15 - 00:25:02:17
And I, I'd say one of the things you just said is I feel like it's great advice for anybody that's looking to branch off and do their own thing. One obviously you got to cover your own bills, but you just described something that I think people, shy away from or they don't think about, which is if if it what you're doing fully energizes you and motivates you.
00:25:02:17 - 00:25:18:14
And, the money will come if you continuously invest, time, energy, you're going to get better at it. Your people are going to be drawn to your energy. The things that you're delivering in terms of value is going to is going to resonate with somebody on the other side. And if you stick with it, eventually the money's going to come.
00:25:18:14 - 00:25:40:12
And I think and most people that are going off to do anything themselves, that's the biggest that's the thing that scares you. You know, people are my parents did not come from a generation of you can do anything, so just keep investing in the things that you care about. They they came the generation of go get a job and make sure you get money on the table because you've got kids to feed and that's the end of it.
00:25:40:14 - 00:25:57:05
Yeah. And the reality is, we didn't start that, David. We, we went into business for ourselves when our kids were grown and out on the road, and basically all of our debt taking care of, we weren't where we needed to be financially, but we didn't have anything that was really handcuffing us, that we had to do this or that.
00:25:57:07 - 00:26:15:08
But hey, another reality is we're ten years in and I can promise you that I think at least one of my parents still look at, why are you doing this and why didn't you keep the corporate jobs you had? Oh, sure. Sure. My parents are. I mean, yeah, even if it's working on my side, it doesn't mean my parents understand it anymore.
00:26:15:08 - 00:26:35:11
So I totally understand what you mean. I wanted to also, you actually shared a book that you're reading and that you're currently, like, engaged in, on a, on a professional level and development and learning more about leadership. What's something you're reading right now for entertainment, like something that you just enjoy reading? I'm going to be transparent and say, I don't enjoy reading.
00:26:35:13 - 00:26:53:18
Well, that makes it so you're reading purely for educational purposes? I've never David, I almost didn't graduate high school. I don't have a college degree to this day. And not because I'm a dumb guy. I figured things out along the way. I'm not brilliant, but I'm also not one that likes to sit still. I told you that hold might be your approach, right?
00:26:53:18 - 00:27:13:23
Right. Now, I'll caveat that I'm not drinking 25 years, so that's not how I live. But, that's how. That's how I live. Sure, sure. In high school, I hated writing. I hated sitting still, I hated reading, and if it wasn't something that I could put in place and be able to apply right then and there, what the heck are you forcing this on me for?
00:27:14:03 - 00:27:37:04
Don't beat me to death with grammar. I want to get stuff done. And that's where I was at and I took that. When it came time for English comp in college, I just registered for classes. I didn't drop out, I just quit going. Done. Wow. So okay to say, what am I? What am I reading for pleasure? I'm going to say there's a low likelihood that's ever going to happen.
00:27:37:06 - 00:28:00:09
Let me take let me let me readjust that question. If you told me to hold your nonalcoholic beer right now, what would you be doing for fun outside of the word, I do like 80s hair bands. I enjoy music. You see the guitars in the background there? Yeah. Well, the dogs don't leave the room when I play them, but it's not because I'm good.
00:28:00:09 - 00:28:26:14
It's just they've gotten used to my bad play. Right? So that's about the only fun. But I'm going to honestly, I, we absolutely love what we do. We enjoy time with our family. We enjoy the Gulf Coast of Florida with clear water and no waves and white sand beaches. But the reality is, even when we do those, David, I'm taking a laptop and an iPad in my phone and I'm going to get a whole bunch of crap done.
00:28:26:15 - 00:28:41:06
So you're doing what you love for work, and that's why you can say that's what you do when you're on your downtime. It. I would rather do that because I can see the impact that we can make. Downtime wears me out because I don't feel like I'm reaching the folks. And I'll give you a little bit of why it's big.
00:28:41:07 - 00:29:02:08
You didn't ask this, but I'm going to share it anyway. There's a fella that I've written heavily about. I'm writing a book right now. That'll be a probably a 2027 release. On the importance of great professional relationships. And if in 1998 and 99, he wouldn't have figuratively grabbed me by the ear and said, Wes, get your head out of your butt, you're better than that, right?
00:29:02:10 - 00:29:18:09
And done it. Continue. I might still be a drunk running the press on second shift in a manufacturing facility, and I feel a heavy obligation that I'd better do everything I can to pay that forward to, to show him that I appreciate what he did because he wasn't my boss. He was just a guy that I was working with.
00:29:18:15 - 00:29:38:23
He had nothing to gain from it. Well, you know that actually I would almost say steps on that. The last question I wanted to ask you, before we start talking about your programs, which is if you ever had an opportunity to talk to yourself in the past before you really launched your your leadership career that you're in now, you only had 60s to give yourself any advice.
00:29:38:23 - 00:30:00:05
You can only give maybe one piece of advice and that time, what would what piece of advice would you give yourself? Put every amount of energy you can into finding the person that's three, four, or five years down the road in the position you want to be that you can respect, not the position that you're most closely related to now, but find the people that can and will mentor you.
00:30:00:05 - 00:30:27:05
And the reality is, most successful people are 100% willing to give you time. If you're willing to apply what they share with you. That's that's great advice. I definitely resonate with that. I feel like my entire professional career has been trying to support, if I could, the mentor and get basically reciprocal energy. And when you have people that you can run alongside with, you can run a lot faster and a lot harder.
00:30:27:05 - 00:30:50:22
So I love that approach. Before before we end, West, I'd love to know we've got listeners here that are have been listening to kind of the approach of leadership. You have, the niche in manufacturing that you, you're able to support. But I believe your, your leadership, advice and your leadership programs could potentially benefit people even outside of a niche industry.
00:30:51:00 - 00:31:10:14
What would you what would you guide listeners to to learn more about the programs you have and, and the, material you have to offer to people that are trying to develop their own leadership? Well, I'll say knee jerk is dove hyphen development at dove. Like the bird, the chocolate, the soap development net. That's the homepage.
00:31:10:14 - 00:31:28:15
And it has some links to other stuff. The reality is, one of the things you and I talked about offline and we can pursue more is we've in. In late 2018, Cindy and I launched a program that now is a podcast. And it's a we've got almost 200 hours worth of content that we've written in it. It's called leading at the Next Level.
00:31:28:15 - 00:31:45:23
And it was really based on we we had written some courses then that helped folks take some initial steps. But my in my early concern was, while this is helping, we can't go as deep, we can't address as many things as we really want to, and we always push for how you can apply it. What results do you want to get?
00:31:45:23 - 00:32:05:18
So it's not just in theory, but if you're if you're just looking for theory, go read this thinking book and don't do anything. If you want results, let's work together. That's what we want to do. But we would launch that program then. And because we were investing heavily in into the mentors that we had in our life, into some of the different certifications and different licensing we were working with at the time.
00:32:05:20 - 00:32:33:22
And I floated the idea to Cindy, then, hey, let's write a new lesson. Each of us one, each one a month, where we're we're delivering new lessons two times a month in this program using zoom. In those days, we're working through some transitions now. Right. But fast forward, that's now a program with nearly 200 hours, 200 individual lessons in it, all of which we've gotten approved for recertification credit for folks in the HR community, Sherm, HRC and whatnot.
00:32:34:00 - 00:32:56:08
And we we do some monthly member mentor membership access on that. But it's pretty stinking inexpensive. But we also do lab sessions so we can interact with folks and really help them base their action steps on what specific results they want to achieve, and most importantly, how they can measure the increase in productivity and profitability when they do.
00:32:56:10 - 00:33:12:14
That is awesome. Thank you for sharing that. That sounds like a honestly, a huge amount of resources that people can access. And I love to hear that you're actually have resources of your own, material that you worked on with your wife that could be continuing education, really valuable stuff. Thank you again, West, for your time. It's been great talking with you.
00:33:12:14 - 00:33:30:12
And I've I've really loved learning more about you and the leadership. Material you've developed and your own journey and just getting a chance to learn more about what you can offer to people that are looking to develop themselves. So thank you so much. You bet. David, really appreciate the time. Get to chat with you. Thanks.
00:33:30:12 - 00:33:49:17
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00:33:49:19 - 00:33:56:11
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