From Bomb Detection to Leadership: Embracing Vulnerability and Authenticity with Morgan Watt

Speaker A: Welcome to the Teamwork Advantage podcast with Greg Gregory, founder of TeamsRock.com. join us as Greg interviews thought leaders and successful team and leadership experts, from professional sports to manufacturing to business and industry. Now let's join Greg for another powerful episode of the Teamwork Advantage.

Speaker B: Welcome back, folks, to the Teamwork Advantage, a podcast that's dedicated to the growth, development and advancement of three key areas in our teamwork, leadership and culture, or what we like to call the TLC of business. We're excited to have joining us today, uh, a retired military personnel sharing with us all kinds of things that he learned there, how he's applied those ideas into private sector and doing consulting in leadership areas today. So a little bit about Morgan. Uh, he has leveraged his diverse experiences to make positive impact as an instructor pilot. I got to tell you folks, I've been in small planes, they're a little scary at times. And having the instructor to be able to do that is critical. He also enjoys offshore fishing, captain work, ultimately sharing what gives, have hope, living a life with invisible wounds. And we're going to get into that area quite a bit. As a K9 explosive detection, uh, team and security forces first responder in the U.S. air Force had instant reaction and hypervigilance were considered normal traits. Later, as a civilian pilot, Morgan's hyper awareness served him well. But when debilitating migraines, balance issues ended a career in anxiety of depression that triggered underlying PTSD from years of stress and chronic pain. So his desire is to understand his own conditions that led him to Springfield College at the age of 42, where he completed his degree with an emphasis on mental health counseling. And folks, today everybody's talking about this, but this is something that is so critical we need to address and we've done so on several issues of our podcast. Becoming purpose driven rather than career driven, Morgan publicly shares his pivotal story on stage with his blood black lab named Donzi, who is a service dog from Dogs, Inc. In Palmetto, Florida. Morgan Watt, thank you very much for joining us here on the Teamwork Advantage.

Speaker A: Well, I'm looking forward to this opportunity. Greg, this is absolutely amazing. And, uh, you know, I, I'm an open book. You, um, know, I'm trying to live my most authentic life and believe it or not, that lowers my own anxiety.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, when we're open like that, as my daddy said, you only have to have one story to remember.

Speaker A: Isn't that the truth? And honestly, uh, you know, it, it brings the temperature down the room and others do the same thing. It's like this bonding thing. It just naturally, naturally happens.

Speaker B: Yep, absolutely. Absolutely. And so, um, I want to get into things a little bit here and understanding authenticity and where you are today, what brought you to this? But let's back this up a little bit. Let's go. But you didn't wake up one day saying, okay, I'm going to join the Air Force. I'm going to do this. I'm going to get out of the Air Force. I'm going to speak, I'm going to talk on post, uh, traumatic stress disorders. How did you get here today?

Speaker A: I would not in a million years have imagined this because honestly, I struggled. Um, whether I was a late bloomer or whether was just the culture and environment I grew up in. I didn't do well, I didn't thrive. I didn't really have anyone in my court saying, this is how you go about doing this. This is what you should do. And by the time I got to college, my first year, I completely failed. Completely failed. Made it kind of through the first semester. Second semester was absolutely terrible. And of course, what's that going to do? It's going to shut off all your funding and everything, and off you go and you're solo. But, you know, money is one of those things that, in my opinion, it is a, um, it gives you opportunity, but it's not a leverage point or a PowerPoint. And, um, many in my circle really felt that way that, you know, I thought, wow, this is not me. Forget it. I don't want. I don't want anything. Next thing I know, join the Air Force right before Iraq, uh, and, um, invades Kuwait. Well, I went from, you know, going from a classroom to get my hands dirty to, hey, you know what? There's a good chance I may have to go to war. That was a little bit of a mindbender for me. And by, um. Was it 19? Uh, 19, uh, 91 at the beginning, I got down to lan air force base, Texas. Made it a couple weeks through training. Next thing I know, I caught every single possible thing I could have caught. Um, and I was raised in a community that didn't ever see doctors or vaccinations or anything. So all that was the first time for me. And I got leveled. I got absolutely leveled. However, I found people in my court, my team, that were mentors. Yeah, they yell, they scream, they spit. You know, the smokey, the bear hitting you in the head. But, you know, there's something about that I embraced because it was a structure, it was concrete, and all of A sudden I found my stride. I said, you know what? I can get through anything. And of course the Air Force all about emotional compartmentalization. And in my case my mentors to get me through training sick basically said, you have to compartmentalize emotions and pain. And that's it. I did it. Uh, off, off we went. I, I passed. And on paper the Air Force time was amazing. I didn't realize that there were a lot of things inside of me that weren't, weren't settled. But I took all of the skills I used in the, in the Air Force as ah, military, police, canine and of course dogs and I've got more dogs now. I, I took all those skills and went right into my passion, which was flying. And just a couple years later I was a captain at a regional airline. And then I went on to fly business jets for the next 17 years. And it was an amazing experience.

Speaker B: That's so powerful because most of the guests we have on our show are people who are doing something other than what they originally thought they were going to set out in life to do. And so it's so powerful that we recognize that and be able to embrace that and be open to a flow. So I got to ask, what's it like flying at 35, 45,000ft, you know, and you got it, you got to have a team there, you got a co pilot with you, you know, and maybe uh, if you're in commercial, you're even uh, business jets, you're going to have some form of a flight attendant. What's it like to try and meet new people and work with them real quickly?

Speaker A: I think one of the keys is setting the tone at the beginning, really setting it as an equal because Greg, in, in my experience flying business jets, we're both captains, had tons of experience, both airline transport rating type ratings, everything. It was just who's junior, who's senior? Well, I was the most senior pilot in my fleet and a Czech airman. And so I was always a pilot in command. However, it's amazing that challenges will pop up in flight of uh, them making a decision without even consulting you. And to me that is like the biggest breakdown in the team of like, you could have just, you know, had me give a thumbs up for you, a thumbs down and instead you wanted to go do your own thing yet and, and even situations like that would happen. Even though my motto flying, which I carried over at home and it really works great in a marriage because that's also a captain, captain cockpit, right?

Speaker B: Oh, you know, I I love that expression. That's great, right?

Speaker A: It's okay. I mean, because you take turns being the pilot command. You go back and forth, particularly me, um, out flying every other week, wife's home with the kids, um, and, and me coming home with young kids was like re entry from the moon. They, they hardly recognized me. They didn't want to see me. Um, anyway, it's, it's not who's right, it's what's right. And the most conservative wins. And it works wonderfully on, in on a flight deck. And it was interesting because I found a little twist to this back in my civilian world with my wife who pointed out, well, what constitutes conserve most conservatives, you know, that's a really great question. And I said, you know, that is where we are both absolutely honest and absolutely authentic with the facts presenting right in front of us for whatever adversity it is. And we have to work with each other to come to build an agreement, essentially. So right early on, for me, building an agreement was really the strongest aspect of that teamwork. And I also learned ways of bringing stuff up without people instantly getting defensive or, uh, trying to shut you down. Now, of course, you know, there's the, uh, 2 or 3% you're never ever going to be able to get through to. But let me, let me just explain something back with marriage on this. Captain. Captain. Because this will bring out the most conservative. Hey, my wife's name's Amber. Hey, Amber. I love you. Didn't land. Hey, Amber. Um, good morning. I want to start the day by saying, is there anything that I, I've done or, or could do to help you feel loved asking the question instead of superimposing our beliefs on someone else?

Speaker B: Yeah. Questioning is, is such a powerful tool in any kind of relationship, whether it's professional or personal.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. You know, it's, uh, you never know who's listening at just that right time. And if you're not in the mode of asking a question or starting like Socrates famously said, according to Plato, I know that I know nothing. If you start with that blank slate, you don't have confirmation bias. You don't have the black and white thinking that all these cognitive distortions, they don't exist because you're actively listening. And, and you don't, you don't have any ties to a certain outcome. So you can ask one question, but you can't ask the second one until they've answered because you don't know what their answer is going to be. So has to directly tie into however that goes. And, uh, I've heard people say, oh, it takes too long to do all that. Well,

Speaker B: it takes even longer to fix up a mistake that you created because you didn't listen.

Speaker A: Yes, sir. Thank you so much. Yeah, you've been there. I. There's validation, right, that you have been there. I love it. Beautiful. Great.

Speaker B: What got you interested in flying in the first place?

Speaker A: You know, when I was a very young child growing up out in the San Francisco Bay area, um, I went with neighbor friend up to Travis Air Force Base. This was in, uh, late 70s. And we showed up at Travis Air Force Base for the Blue Angels air show. I remember looking at him and saying, hey, Rusty, one day I want to fly one of those. And he just kind of laughed. And of course, my track didn't go very well, but that actually was the cat. All my failures, all of the down periods turned out to be a huge strength. Once I realized there were a lot of things outside of my control environmentally, things that I was told that I couldn't validate, and all that mixed story of what who I was telling myself I was was really not who I was. And when I finally came to all those conclusions, all the barriers disappeared. Uh, all the things. It's like, you can't do this, you can't do that. I had, uh, an associate's degree in criminal justice. I didn't even have a degree in anything aviation related or management related and went out and of course, you know, it's expensive to go through all that flight training, not gonna lie. Um, but getting through that and finding your passion, Greg, this is my key right here. Know yourself well enough to know what really sparks that passion and go do it, Go do it. And I've never had a job I didn't love. Sitting here speaking about, uh, you know, disability, post traumatic stress or chronic pain. Never imagined it. However, life is full of surprises. You know, the people that think they know exactly what's going to happen next. Uh, good luck with that. Yeah, I didn't. But that was one of the most powerful teachers in the world, Greg. Take, have something you absolutely, passionately love and take it away.

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. There's no doubt when there's something there. Uh, my mentor once asked me, he says, if money was never an issue or you won the hundred million dollars in the lottery, what would you do? And that's where your passion starts to lie. That was one of his tools on that,

Speaker A: you know, in this, uh, transition after, uh, 2013, when I was forced to retire from flying, um, the first two years were very dark and very painful. Um, I've got a 24 and a 7 migraine. It's more under to a threshold where I can actually function. But back then it was not and uncontrollable. And honestly I, I don't, I'm um, I feel anyway, I'm, I'm pretty good at, at handling physical pain. But my problem was I was experiencing it to the point where I was losing consciousness and that scared the crap out of me because if you can't think, you're not there anymore. And I felt very out of control and I thought, well, it is, it should I go on at all? Mhm. And I probably thought that every single day for two years.

Speaker B: That's incredible because it took a long time to get to that point of recognizing it.

Speaker A: Greg. Every single day I wake up and start working on myself and my mentality and my mindset. Without that I fall right back into the same, um, you know, guarding pain behaviors. Whether it's guarding a physical pain or an emotional pain, we all had these guarding like put your barrier up. But if I start authentically and say this is, I'm gonna really embrace life because honestly back in 2013, I, I, I was at the top of my game. Um, I, I'd had incredible financial success. So at age 42 and this. Did you have to retire? I was like, okay, I've got enough to survive, you know. Um, but anyone that believes the American dream is all about, oh, you know, had the house, uh, you know, and retire. I'm gonna have all these great times. Don't wait. Now's the time. If that really some aspect of that is your passion. But I can tell you it wasn't for me. I drove myself crazy. I was like, I have to do something. I'm, I'm just, I can't just be on this earth for me. And when I shifted from I'm gonna make myself, I'm gonna learn enough about myself to be pain free and stress free. I failed. And you know what changed that? A service dog. My first dog in 2015, uh, service dog Bowie. They, they don't talk, but they communicate more effectively through body language, facial expressions and their sense of smell is incredible.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And just sitting there quietly, it's that eye contact matching their breathing. It's a physical connection that shifted to wow, he's doing that for me. I can do that, I can do this. And I started sharing my story of how, you know, what, you know, just because you, you're all beat up and, and got stripped away from who you thought you were instead of what you did. You know, it's now it's a wow. I get to meet new people like you and I get to talk about all the fun things and I'm having a great time despite. I can't stare at the pain. That's not who I am.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: It's what I'm dealing with, but it's not who I am.

Speaker B: Right. So when we take this concept, this mindset that you're talking about here for ourselves, let's try and transpose that now a little bit into leadership. What, what does a leader need to do to recognize this in others? Because let's face it, there's so many people in this world today who think they know what they're doing, they're going down a road, but sometimes it takes somebody else to pull it out of them and find it. I know that's true with me. I'm sure it's been true with you. What should leaders be looking at doing as far as this? Um, and taking care of themselves? On that same token,

Speaker A: you know that, that last part of that, Greg, was absolutely critical because if you don't get started knowing who you are, you're not going to realize that when you start having a problem with someone else, that's actually triggering an emotion and a feeling inside of you. And because that's outside of your, you know, boundaries, uh, of acceptability, um, if you don't know where those boundaries are, you don't know yourself well enough and you don't realize that sometimes, or I would say most times, it's going to come back on you because that person's never going to feel connected to you because of your reaction, which unconsciously, which we, I think there's between 85, 90% of, uh, our feeling is subconscious, which draws from our whole lifetime. So when we start with something conscious every day, get that mindset, understand who we are and, and Greg, I'm talking about asking the really, really tough questions. These aren't just, uh, the self help section in bookstores or wherever, or the executive coaches out there. What I see the most is people really being hungry for money, trying to sell. And what I've come across all the time is just a rebranding, a uh, renaming of the exact same principles, you know, back from Carl Jung to, you know, further back. And I'm like, wait a second, that's what makes me different. I really, truly believe that we need to understand first we need to figure out what your strength is. Greg. And I'm going to capitalize on that as a leader. If I can draw out your strength and I can draw out someone else's strength as a team, boom. All of a sudden we launch in directions of acceptable risk, um, innovation, design or raising money for non profit, whatever it is. If you've got that connection right away, then you're going to be an outstanding leader. Because if you don't do that or don't know that about yourself, you're never going to get through to anybody else.

Speaker B: Last year I had, um, a gentleman on the show, the last name of Covey, David, Mr. M. Covey. Now, David is the son of Dr. Stephen Covey from the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. And what you just brought up is what was in Dr. Covey's book. I believe it's habit number four, if I recall correctly. Seek first to understand, then be understood. So when I start as a leader, start to understand my people, then I start to do a little bit better about understanding myself and then helping them grow. And then everybody wants to grow. Is that about the right path that you're looking at?

Speaker A: Oh, absolutely. And it does directly tie into him and it goes all the way back to, say, Socrates, where, you know, he's kind of the, almost like the pioneer of Western philosophy. But interestingly enough, he couldn't get through to everybody because those kind of deep questioning when you're really trying to understand someone else will challenge them. Because a lot of times when people say something, they haven't thought it through and they really don't know where it came from, they just said it. But when you really dig in there, somebody that's authentic, that you're going to connect with is, is going to be that team player that says, hey, you know what? Let me think about this. Yes, I'm with you. Because right there, there's, there's no, like coined words of empowerment or this or that. There's no authority grade. And it just levels the playing field. And we really need to go back to our roots, our core values, our beliefs. What is true for you, Greg, that no matter what, is going to be true every single time? Dig into that. And those are the type of people I work with in small groups, I'll do more speaking on stage in a large groups, but being able to be interactive and saying, you know what, here's kind of a structure of our training day on how to communicate. But this is all going to come from me. I'm not going to add a thing which is true with adult learning you don't need to rehash stuff. You just need to start with where they are and let them develop the narrative and then it becomes their own. And, and you never have to come up with a formula.

Speaker B: Right. So let's tie that back to the Air Force for a moment. Uh, because when you went through basic training in Lackland.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker B: They didn't exactly seek first to understand you.

Speaker A: You know, I, the culture changes between the Air Force, the military and I, I have to say it was different once we went to war. Oh yeah, the, the, those little thoughts in the back of your mind, um, you have to, you have to deal with those every day and, and the war machines in action and you're cogging that. And so, um, there, there were plenty of times I had to take orders, but I ended up in a position where we'd be going into a bomb threat of some area and the, the perimeter, the cordon would be all set up. Uh, bomb squad would be standing by. It was me and my dog. That was it. We were the first ones in and we would clear the entire building. And if we found something or a dog responded, then we'd run as fast as we could, mark the spot, bring in the robot and do whatever we're going to do with it. But you know, when I would come out of those and not find anything that was, that was bad because I didn't realize how much I was hanging on to. Oh, what if I did something wrong? And what if, what if, what if I didn't know that about myself. I just thought it was normal. Come Hm, to find out it was anxiety. I didn't even know. Yeah, I didn't know.

Speaker B: Yeah, the woulda, coulda, shoulda, uh, pops into your brain all the time.

Speaker A: Uh, yeah.

Speaker B: So let's talk a little bit about a very interesting team today. You have Donzi.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: They had Boli, but you also had your dog in the military.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: You all had to work as a team. Explain how that dynamic works.

Speaker A: It's.

Speaker B: And by the way, does that change from your military dog to your service dog?

Speaker A: It changes. Yet the principles are the same.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: One of the first courses I took in the Air Force was dog psychology. How do they think? What's their first impression? Because when we walk up to somebody in public with a service dog, first thing that you're going to see is their nose go up in the air and smell. And they will, if you look at them, they will tell you what the emotional state of that other person is just instantaneously that kind of communication is what you're looking for is that body language of the dog. And when your life depends on it in a bomb threat, you better recognize what that dog's telling you without them saying, hey, over here. You need to see that. And the only way to have a service dog be effective for post traumatic stress or, ah, chronic pain or any type of disability is you're going to lean on them to lead the way. Not necessarily in a physical sense, but in the emotional sense and the connection. And you look at their body language and that's what you really want to model for yourself is that calm, deep breathing and eye contact. And I, I've learned amazing, uh, things from these dogs.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And all of them, my life.

Speaker B: You know, I've often said that I trust the instincts of my dog. If my dog doesn't like you, then

Speaker A: absolutely agree with that.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's powerful because people think that teams, when somebody hears the word team, their immediate thought is sports. And yet teamwork comes in so many different levels on all of that. Um, we were talking offline before about Sully Sullenberger and the miracle in the Hudson and how he and Jeff Skiles, the co pilot, were able to do things. They worked together, got everybody out of their safe. Those types of things are critical. And the bomb detection, it was critical. What are you sharing from those experiences that you learned in the military with people today in private sector? As far as the team and the

Speaker A: leadership aspects, I think structure, I think accountability is a huge one because the military is very, very good. And a little, uh, kind of a little funny, ah, phrase that we use was, um, we're going to plan, we're going to train, we're going to measure with a micrometer, and when it comes down to the mission, we're going to hit it with a sledgehammer. And that is absolutely the way the war machine works. And then when we're done hitting it with a sledgehammer, we're going to go back and analyze everybody's, you know, conduct and behavior and, uh, role in the mission. And then you get to have those lessons learned, experiences that are going to take you to the next point. The military, we are extremely successful and I think that's true the armed forces today. The amount of training that particularly like Special Forces getting is getting better and better and better because we're adapting, we're learning, and we're taking all the lessons learned into our next scenario, which is going to do two things. One, it's going to give us confidence going into A lives, a live mission or a live scenario. But, and, and to a certain extent, it's an illusion of, uh, safety. It is. So naturally it's going to lower your emotions, but then you've trained in so many different ways for so long, and every day your mindset's already there. You're already in problem solving mode. You're not emotional, you're focused, and it's a natural thing, and you get to execute. And your, your chances of success as a team like that, it's, you know, I'd say 100% you're going to win.

Speaker B: So let me ask a question. When you finished a mission, uh, in bomb detection, when you return back to your base, wherever that was, how many times, what percentage of the time? I'll say it this way, what percent of the, of the time do you all do a debrief all the time?

Speaker A: 100%.

Speaker B: 100. So here's the question. What percentage of people in business, after going through a project, do a debrief?

Speaker A: Wow, isn't that something? And I, I really, really feel that people don't want to know. That's why they don't do it. They, if, if they don't want to be exposed, they don't want to live authentically. They want whatever they did to just pass under the bridge like nothing happened. Instead of having, you know, the confidence to say, you know, I'm a human being. This was a really hard one, Greg. For me as a pilot. When I became a captain, that was difficult. You're making the final decisions, you know, that, you know, on, in the airlines, it was 19, uh, passengers, you know, loaded. And, you know, you could have a engine fire failure, gear failure, electrical failure. I've seen it all. But at that point, you go back to your training 100. And then afterward you say, wow, I'm human. Did I make, I did make mistake, or I got really emotional, or I don't know why. So then you take that feedback and you go back by yourself. Whether you call it prayer, meditation, anything, get in that space that you can accept your experience with your training and build on it to turn it into a strength instead of hiding it without a debrief. Right, right.

Speaker B: What happens, I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, but when we bottle things up inside, Zig Ziglar used to say we get stressed not from what we eat, but from what's eating us. And so if we're bottling things like that up, there's no way we can be an effective leader. So now in Business. And with some of, uh, the Olympic athletes, Simone Biles, Michael Phelps have come out with their challenges in the mental health arena. There is neurodiversity everywhere today, and people are talking about that and bringing that to the forefront, which I think is absolutely critical that we understand that. But there's still the stigmatism around it, mostly with men who say, I don't need therapy. I don't need to talk about my feelings. Okay, what would you say to those people?

Speaker A: It's time to break the generational curse that did not start with you. That goes back all the way through time. All the way back, you know, to when we were living in caves and you know, that we had to have instant reactions. Black and white world of predator or rock. We had to know the difference. And that strength right there in those scenarios is so powerful because you realize with predators, you know, whoever's the weakest is probably going to get taken out of the herd. It's natural selection. But nowadays we're allowed to express, hey, you know what? I do have something. Maybe you could help me. And it's that vulnerability of asking for help instead of saying, I can go it alone. If, if you ever say, I'm going to go it alone. My experience has been usually failure or subpar. But whenever I brought somebody else on board and they're, you know, leading with their leadership style, I embrace it because I, uh, realize I'm learning something along the way. I don't, I don't think there's any other way.

Speaker B: Yeah, I can't remember where I heard this, but at one point somebody had said, being an effective leader is not knowing the answers to the questions at the beginning of the meeting, but having the right answer at the end of

Speaker A: the meeting, that's powerful. That's really, really powerful.

Speaker B: And so when we start to bring people on, listening to them and getting those ideas. So that brings me to the sound strange here, but I'm going to say it brings me to a unique question. Can asking any type of a question, rather than just making your bold statement up front, change the outcome? And then what are some things that we have to do to be effective in asking our questions?

Speaker A: Well, I, I think there's, ah, there's a practice. There's also, you know, bringing, um, on somebody like me to say, guess what? This is how I've experienced success in this way. Here's the pitfalls to watch out for, because it's not that simple. It's really not. Uh, we built a train, the trainer course back at um, training about 3,000 pilots. We ended up changing the culture from a. I'm right, you're wrong, I'm the captain, you're the first officer to, hey, how do you think that went? Now, Greg, wouldn't it be great if you were the professor in that class?

Speaker B: And.

Speaker A: And at the end of your class, you did not need a test, you didn't need a critique. You knew all the way along because you have engaged each and every one of them, and you've also peeled back away that false sense of self to drive them into something deeper. And I guarantee you, um, it's very satisfying for me as a. As a coach, a speaker, everything.

Speaker B: Yeah. If you were to give advice to an average person listening to the podcast, and we have folks we're listening to in over 80 countries around the world. We've been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times. So we've got people ranging from frontline employees, trades workers, all the way through, uh, the executive suites. So think about that broad spectrum. What's one thing you would tell people about today about embracing their own authenticity?

Speaker A: I think authenticity goes right back to train every day and really establish a mindset of success. It's going to develop that sense of team. It's really. And I'll, uh, go back to something. It's surrendering to vulnerability. Now, that may sound funny from a military veteran of surrendering. It's not waving the white flag. It just simply acknowledging. And that's your pivot. If you can acknowledge exactly what's going on and exactly what got you there with your teammates, um, that is the ultimate, um, vulnerability. But not in a weakness at all.

Speaker B: In fact, vulnerability is not a weakness.

Speaker A: No. People are actually a great strength. I mean, how much fun is it to help somebody else that's asking for your help? That's all they have to do. My first question, the last question, interview, um, do you think, like, you've got all this figured out or. Or do you feel like you're going to learn something or need help in some areas? And if they're saying, hey, you know, I'm willing, I'm really wanting to learn and embrace something new, that tells me right there, they're willing to go back and get to know themselves.

Speaker B: Yeah. So I've got it with what you just said. I've got to share this. My, uh, late wife went into a job interview back in the early 90s. She had zero background working with Microsoft Word. They had only been working with WordPerfect at that time. Okay. The DOS version.

Speaker A: Oh, boy. Yeah.

Speaker B: Okay. And so this new company was using Windows. And in the interview they asked her, says, you don't have, um, any background with, you know, Windows products. How does, how do you think that's going to affect you? Great question. My wife simply responded, I'll learn it before I start. And she says I can learn anytime. And she learned it. She could do more stuff with Word, PowerPoint, Excel, uh, than anybody I know. And that's the strength we've got to be able to learn. And by asking that right question, we get that, that happening. There's no doubt.

Speaker A: You know, I think we would actually bring this, this entire country together. All the polarization, everything else, guess what? That didn't come from you. It doesn't have to stay with you. We just have to break three free with critical thinking and establish our mindset to realize we're all seeking connection with each other and we're seeking safety. If we end up with those two things, at the end of the day, you'll sleep well.

Speaker B: Yeah, we share the knowledge, we grow. As John Kennedy said, a rising tide raises all ships. That's the strength. So let's talk about leadership for a second as we wrap things up today in leadership. What kind of a leadership quality or leadership trait or something? What kind of a leader do we need today?

Speaker A: I think there's about 30,000 self help books I could go check out, but

Speaker B: here's by the way, I think the self help section is only eclipsed by cooking and um, a number of books in a section.

Speaker A: You're right, you're right. I, yeah we still have cookbooks but now everything is Google online and oh, this looks good. Let's try this. Uh, yeah, I believe that. So what kind of leader is the most effective in today's 21st century society?

Speaker B: What do we need? What do we need in a leader? In our leaders today, we need a leader.

Speaker A: I believe now you know, because this is where my experience has taken place as an airline captain or being the first person for uh, uh, on the bomb squad, um, and even now leading uh, the way and leading from behind because if you're not a good follower, you're not going to be a good leader because that, you want that. There's an ego in there, there's an authority gradient that you're looking for. But if you can maintain an open mind and highlight everyone's strengths and ask them questions about their strength, that's where inspiration comes from. And I think any leader is willing to take risk and be accountable, lessons learned and move forward. Stocks don't go straight up. They go up and down. Just like an old fashioned water pump. It's up and down. Let's start embracing each other with a little up and down. Give each other a little slack, say, hey, let's laugh about how silly human beings are and let's, let's lighten it up. Let's have a, let's have a good time with this experience. And yeah, there's a lot of painful things out there. And when it comes down to these sticky topics, yeah, we're probably going to disagree at the utmost, but I guarantee you, if you walk the walk with me, if you go one on one quietly and keep your ears open, we are both going to be at a different level, higher than where we are today.

Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. How does what we've talked about here today translate into you being a captain running fishing charters and boats out deep sea and offshore fishing? I want to take this into a personal side of things now a little bit so people can get an idea.

Speaker A: Absolutely. Ah, you know, it's amazing. Um, I got married right before 9, 11 actually, um, in 2001 and I was flying week on, week off. My wife was a consultant for IBM and she was gone Monday through Friday every week. I had tons of time and, and I had lived in, uh, Key west for a number of years and had years, um, offshore every day. I took that, got my captain's license, bought a boat and started working with other fishing charter accountants in the area, got to know the area and continue on. But that whole thing morphed into bigger and bigger boats because other people would show up and some famous, some billionaires and ah, whatever, they would have these unbelievable boats. First boat, never operated it, don't know what they're doing, Never caught fish, want a fish or on top of that, they don't want to touch the bait. So that's what you're there for. And Greg, this, this follows me all the way through. It's customer service, you know, it's who are you out there with? And honestly, I've fired millionaire clients because, you know, they couldn't do that. There's, I mean, one day, here's an experience, I won't drop anything. But we get there and I pre flight, I look over everything and some safety gear is out of date. Other serious safety is missing. The owner shows up and says, all right, let's go. And I said, hey, I want to point out a couple things. And I did. He goes, now we'll deal with that later. Let's go. Greg. My Mistake. I compromised my integrity. I knew that as basically a safety captain. I mean, this guy can run his own boat as a safety captain. So my responsibility on. On, um, the top end. On top of that, I had my son there who I was training to be a captain, and I compromised my integrity right in front of him. And I. I turned around a couple days later and sent an email to this guy. It's like, we're done. We're done. And, uh, he. He wrote back. I was wrong. A month later, he came back as a Morgan. You're right. I've got all those things corrected. You told me about it. I'd really appreciate you to come back out. Another CEO friend and. And client that knows him said, and I told him about this, and he said, I've never, ever in my life heard that guy give an apology to anybody, and I've known him forever. So you tell me, Greg, was that experience, um, of knowing myself well enough, realizing and acknowledging when I compromised my integrity? I had to pivot. But that pivot was good for everyone, the whole team.

Speaker B: Ah, that brings it in. And together we can succeed. There's absolutely no doubt about that. And getting everybody doing that is so powerful. One last question.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: Where did you get the name Donzi?

Speaker A: Donzi. Okay. So Don Z comes from Dogs, Inc. Which is formerly Southeastern Guide Dogs. That's where they built a reputation since 1982. Um, his. His name comes as Don D O, N. And when I was in training with him, which is about 12 days, um, I was over, uh, across the bay in St. Pete, going down the sidewalk, and I was looking down him, and he wasn't paying attention to me. He's looking around. I was like, don. And he looks up at me like that, like, what did I do? What did I do? Right? It was funny because all of a sudden I thought about it. I'm like, donnie, oh. All of a sudden, that up. And, uh, I said, you know, I'm gonna have to add the zi here, because that's what he wants. That's what he acknowledges we have fun with. And not to mention, Greg, he's been 100 miles offshore, and he loves it.

Speaker B: It's funny, because knowing the boat situation, I thought, sure, it was coming from the boat. Don't.

Speaker A: It is. It is. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Uh, there was. There was a bunch of early political comments here, and I'm like, what? I'm like, he's. He's a dog. You can't do that.

Speaker B: Uh, Morgan, this has been fascinating to chat with you on so many different topics, from mental health all the way through leadership and development and teamwork and bomb, explosives and everything else and how it comes together. More evidence that when we combine teamwork, leadership and culture together, we can succeed. And we start to do that. And as a good friend of mine said one time, regardless of what you do in life, other people are going to help you. And that's the power tools that we start to look at. Thank you very much for joining us here on the Teamwork Advantage. Morgan, if, uh, people want to reach out to you and get hold of you, what's the best way?

Speaker A: Um, morgan watt.com you can go in there. Uh, I believe my email is right up there. Just send me an email. I'll get back to you within 48 hours and we'll set something up. I would love to embrace others that are really willing to see how good of a world we do live in instead of how screwed up it is. Greg, I would follow you anywhere. That leadership, that culture, the teamwork, uh, I'm on board. Anything you want me to do, I'm there for you.

Speaker B: Awesome. I appreciate that. And listeners, listen to this again and again. There are several nuggets I think you'll find in this particular episode. So go back and listen to what Morgan has to say. We already know that if you listen to the Teamwork Advantage, you're not a normal person. So being normal is having a good day. I want you to go out and have an excellent and exceptional day because you deserve it. Until next time, make sure you make it excellent and exceptional every single day. Take care. Bye. Um, bye.

Speaker A: You've been listening to the Teamwork Advantage with Greg Gregory. To learn more about how Greg can help your organization develop a powerful winning culture, visit teamsrock.com that's T E A M S R-O C K.com Be sure to join Greg next week when he interviews m another exciting and powerful thought leader on the Teamwork Advantage. Until then, as Greg says, make sure you have a great week, because a good week is just being average.