Intro/Outro (00:03):

Welcome to supply chain. Now the voice of global supply chain supply chain now focuses on the best in the business for our worldwide audience, the people, the technologies, the best practices, and today’s critical issues. The challenges and opportunities stay tuned to hear from those making global business happen right here on supply chain now. All right,

Scott Luton (00:32):

It looks like we had some technical difficulties on this, uh, April Fool’s Day or Greg someone’s messing with us a production team. What does that say, whoosh? I’m sorry. Well, we have got an outstanding show here today. Uh, so good morning, everybody. Scott Luton and Greg White with you here on the supply chain now welcome to our standing Thursday live stream. And so ignore the bugs on the front end because we’ve got a home run conversation teed up Greg here. It’s April Fool’s Day and we’re here. Wait a minute. I think we’re here. Right? What does that say? We’re here on April Fools. Well, we are not, uh, no fool in here today. We’ve got two awesome speakers. We’re going to be talking about bad leadership practices, right? What not to do. We all learn. And we always talk about great leaders and leadership, best practices and all that.

Scott Luton (01:29):

We’re going to flip the script on that today. And we’re going to talk about things that Charles and crystal have learned from, from bad leaders. And we’re gonna share some, some commentary on that. So Greg, it is April Fools because you just gave up the guests, which is usually my job. That is your job. We’re swamped. We’re swapping roles here on supply chain now on April 1st, but we want everybody, so that’s a heads up. That’s what we’re talking about. This bad leadership practices, what not to do what you’ve learned from folks that are, that are really ineffective leaders. We all have rubbed elbows for the day, right? I think what an appropriate day for this bizarro world. Yes. Right here on supply chain now. So get your, your POV and your thoughts. Ready. We want to hear from all of y’all that are in the cheap seats in the comments, we’re going to feature that all along the way.

Scott Luton (02:18):

We’re going to say hello to a few folks here momentarily as well. Okay. So Greg let’s make a few announcements before we bring on our two run guests here today. Just any announcements. Oh, we’re going to, um, first off we are very pleased to be sponsoring, uh, this event, race against the clock positioning procurement for growth enablement. And this is, uh, Greg is from the folks over at art to procurement. This is our popular mastermind live session for spring 2021. And it’s April 13th and 14th, uh, register for free, which is a great gesture. All about the hot space of procurement, very hot, you know, I, a lot of time evaluating

Greg White (03:00):

Companies. In fact, I just, I just asked for a little help from Kelly Barner. Thank you, Kelly. If you’re listening, um, with this company who has, what I think is a pretty innovative technology and man, we are hearing a lot about procurement. It’s really blurring the line, which I think is a good thing between procurement and supply chain and procurement and supply chain as a combined discipline, something we’re all very conscious of.

Scott Luton (03:29):

Well, and, and you’re, you’re gonna find, uh, uh, leadership best practices, strategies for growth, all kind of focus on procurements, a great event here. Uh, Amanda or clay, if we can drop the link to register in the comments, make it easy for folks. That would be great. Okay. Uh, secondly, so this is cool. One of our favorite things to do is to put our spotlight on all nonprofits out there that are doing big things, right. Really making it happen. So our second quarter, so first quarter nonprofit making it happen was truckers against trafficking, which have trained over a million people to look for trafficking signs. I think they’ve saved like 13, 1400 folks from, uh, human trafficking, which is just a travesty, but for second quarter, it is as we’re announcing today, good, three 60. So get this Greg. Their mission is to transform lives by providing hope, dignity and a sense of renewed possibility to those in need.

Scott Luton (04:24):

They’re the global leader in product philanthropy and purposeful giving. They’ve been around for 37 years. They’ve distributed $10 billion with a B to B dollars in products to those in need. And those needs that might be day-to-day needs. Unfortunately for families in need, people in need. It could be post-disaster challenges, right? Uh, you name it a good three 60 is on a mission to help and you can learn more@goodthreesixtygoodthreesixty.org. So got to get the help, get the word out on this powerful organization. So y’all join us in that if you would, we’ll be talking a lot more about good three 60 in the next three months to come and featuring some of their leadership as well, uh, to help them, you know, put a spotlight on the incredible stuff that they’re doing.

Greg White (05:07):

Well, you know, we talk a lot about circular supply chain and reverse logistics, and this is a great outlet for that as well. Right? So 10 billion with a B that’s incredible. I just would like to note that one of the things they are seeking is technology-based donations right now. So I don’t know what that means, but if you go to their site, I haven’t dug into it. But if you go and go to their site, I’m sure they can give you some details there.

Scott Luton (05:31):

Great call out and we’d drop there again. We want to make it easy. We’re going to be featuring their URL in the show notes and in upcoming shows, but we dropped it in the comments. Y’all check that out.

Greg White (05:40):

Okay. And billion with a B. It

Scott Luton (05:42):

Really talk about moving the needle. Um, so

Greg White (05:45):

Bitcoin now

Scott Luton (05:48):

Really well, and again, look at these pictures

Greg White (05:53):

Of happiness going on there. It

Scott Luton (05:55):

Really is. They’re really, really making it happen here. Okay. So let’s say a load to a few folks, Greg, and then we’re going to bring in all y’all stay tuned. We’ve got two incredible guests here. Let’s see. We have got, uh, Peter is back with us. Peter Boulay has been on a tear. Great to see a Peter Todd rains, Greg

Greg White (06:14):

It’s rain man. Welcome aboard

Scott Luton (06:16):

Paula. Everyone does love the switch. We got, we going to go find it and see where it went. Paula,

Greg White (06:22):

April fuel. So if somebody just wants to throw it in at any time, just

Scott Luton (06:28):

Mervin good evening from Dublin. Great to see ya. Mervin Simon let’s leap into the void together together, man, Simon, uh, Greg, he’s like a couple levels, uh, pay grades above. He is. He I’ll send them out on social the other day. He has some great references. Well,

Greg White (06:48):

I love it. When you say Simon says it just makes so much,

Scott Luton (06:53):

Uh, let’s say [inaudible] nevus is with us. Hello? Greg white from India. Great to see you there.

Greg White (06:58):

in India. Let’s see if we can figure out if we can find out where in India,

Scott Luton (07:01):

Where you are in India, big country, Kris Kristofferson. Good morning, everyone from North Carolina. First time making one of these Chris. Welcome. Great to have you here naturally

Greg White (07:11):

Pick the right day. Yes,

Scott Luton (07:13):

Sure did. Uh, Natalie, again, she’s back and she’s also North Carolina. So I didn’t know that. Let’s see, David is with us. It’s awesome. Good morning. From the soon to be prison state of Ontario,

Greg White (07:26):

Man. Lockdowns coming again.

Scott Luton (07:29):

We’ve got to break through this for sure. Tom says, Hey guys, I’m really curious on one thing. Oh boy, what’s the hair routine looking stuff up there. That’s all. Greg. Greg is a cool one here. So, uh, I do agree Greg, your hair is looking good.

Greg White (07:43):

It needs, it needs cut up according to my wife and I can’t argue that, but thank you, Tom.

Scott Luton (07:50):

And again, great to have you here on LinkedIn. Thanks so much for joining us. And finally, Gary Smith, hello from rainy Roslyn, New York, Gary. Great to have you at the pallet is right over. Uh Greg’s.

Greg White (08:03):

He wants it bronze, but I feel like it would fall through the floor. If I did that

Scott Luton (08:07):

Pallet check by Gary Smith that loved that, Gary, I hope this finds you well. Uh, we look forward to reconnecting soon. Okay. With no further ado, folks are in store. Um, you got a great conversation teed up. We are really featuring these guests repeat guests because our team and our community are our supply chain. Now family, as it were, were clamoring to have these two guests back with us and their POV. I love that word. Well, I stole it shamelessly from your vocabulary, by the way. So you can’t use it anymore. Gregory. Uh, but crystal David crystal Davis will be joining us, founder, CEO and principal lean practitioner at the lean coach, Inc and Charles Walker, vice president business development with Aurora global solutions. Bring them in. Okay, we’re going to do this manually. Evidently that the swamp is not working. This really is broken. This is force. Uh, uh, I don’t know about this reminds me. We had a guy by the name of Joe Penn on TV and local kids showed in South Carolina. When I was growing up, he would have the kids do this as they bring the cartoon machine and cause they’d play cartoons and all this kind of stuff. So maybe we’ll have to, uh, do a manual switch, uh, moving forward. We’ll see when the one that makes me miss romper room romper.

Greg White (09:30):

Yeah, it was kind of a smarty and Ms. Fran.

Scott Luton (09:34):

Well, um, so let’s talk about, um, we’re gonna, we’re gonna roll first with our lightning round. So Charles and Crystal formally welcome to the show today. Great to have you well, a board we had to get y’all we had to have y’all back. I mean, y’all you call such a stor uh, crystal of course you were on a podcast with us where we kind of talked about your journey and, and of course Charles was with, with, uh, Enrique and us on a previous lab stream, heard a ton from folks, uh, across the community. So great to have you back. And Greg, where are we going to start? Today’s discussion.

Greg White (10:15):

Let’s start with the calendar, Scott. Hey, since it’s April Fool’s Day, I want to simulate some of the other live streams that I’ve seen. So everybody just hang tight for just a second.

Scott Luton (10:25):

Okay. He was still out there. You seen that? Yes. Yeah. We entertained by that.

Greg White (10:41):

I find it somewhat painful, but I don’t know. People must be entertained by it. I’m going to do that. I want to do that a whole show, just like that. I don’t even know what I’ll be doing off screen just every once in a while. I’ll look, go silent. You want it? You want to throw them a mic when that happens. Okay. I’m sorry. It is April fools. Um, so I think the most appropriate question to ask, I’m going to ask Crystal first because asking Charles strikes fear into my heart.

Scott Luton (11:10):

Um, crystal, any

Greg White (11:13):

Big time, practical jokers in your, in your family, has anyone hit you already with something she’s doing it? It’s her. She is the practical joker. Right?

Scott Luton (11:24):

Perfect. So now we know who it is. I don’t like it when it’s done. Yeah.

Greg White (11:45):

People can dish it out, but can’t take it. So is that you and your family? Are you

Scott Luton (11:49):

The practical joker? It would be me. Yeah. Anything planned for today? No,

Crystal Davis (11:54):

I didn’t. My day started really early in chaotic, so I’ve just, I haven’t had time to think of that.

Greg White (11:59):

I hate it. When work gets in the way of recreation,

Crystal Davis (12:03):

Maybe I’ll cover with some of them before the clock strikes into the next day.

Greg White (12:11):

Uh, so you gotta be on your toes till midnight in your head.

Crystal Davis (12:15):

Fair game. Every the whole day is fair game. Yeah. That’s true. April 1st,

Greg White (12:22):

Charles Walker, we know it’s you. So I got to know what, what do you got planned,

Charles Walker (12:28):

Man, really don’t have anything planned for it because I know my brother, I got a brother that he’s going to come up with something. Cause I’m traveling back down there later this evening. And so it’s fair game with him until midnight. So, uh, I’m holding it for him, you know, because around here, you know, nobody’s want to do want to do it because it’s so much going on and somebody tried to play a joke on you they’ll think it’s real right now because with the pandemic going on, people’s like, Oh, that happened for real, you know, cause everything is happening. So right now.

Greg White (12:58):

Yeah. Everyone could believe anything at this point. Yeah,

Charles Walker (13:03):

Exactly. Man. Anything could happen right now? So it might be real. It might not even be an April fool’s joke. It might be real.

Greg White (13:10):

Are you on high defense right now? I mean, knowing that your brother is going to be the one who pulls it, are you on high defense all day,

Charles Walker (13:18):

All full alert, full battle rail, at least in the military full belt.

Greg White (13:26):

And does he still get you sometimes, even though you’re on alert for it,

Charles Walker (13:31):

But it lasts through the whole year. I don’t trust nothing you say now. So he gives me a, now he heard himself because now I don’t believe what he’s saying.

Greg White (13:41):

Todd rains, this is a great day for Todd rains. I’m certain that something is coming.

Charles Walker (13:46):

Right. Um,

Greg White (13:48):

So, and, and probably coming during this show, but I’m on too high of alert. He won’t get me. All right, Scott, what about you? Who’s uh, who’s the practical joker in your family? Uh, so

Scott Luton (14:01):

I like, I like a lot of practical jokes. I mess with the kids. Uh, pretty often the last dad practical joke I did is I grabbed a mouse computer mouse and uh, the kids were upstairs and I wrapped it in a, in a towel and I had Amanda shriek and, and, and she said, Oh, that’s got a mouse. That’s got, I had all three kids wrapped around. I want to say, I want to say it uncovered this computer mouse. And they moaned and true dad joke fashion. But we count with

Charles Walker (14:32):

That is a bad joke. I might just deal. That was that

Scott Luton (14:38):

The rolling of the eyes that my oldest gave me for the next two hours would have power hook. The communities would have power, power grids everywhere. But uh, Hey, you gotta, life’s short. You gotta enjoy the small things. Right. Right.

Greg White (14:52):

All right. So, so we’ve got past that and I’m watching you rains. Um, we’ve got past that a little bit, but I am strangely I’m so super gullible that it’s easy to take advantage of me and Charles kind of like you, I get into the day, I forget. It’s it’s April fool’s day and you could tell me anything and I would believe it. So I’m an easy target on a day like this, um, even on high alert I will.

Crystal Davis (15:24):

Right.

Greg White (15:26):

All right. Well, so let’s talk about something else. That’s really important today, particularly to Scott, um, in particularly here in Atlanta and in St. Louis, Missouri for Mr. Todd rains. And that is, it is the first day of baseball season. So Chris, Oh man, that was, that was very, you guys hear that? Yeah, that was very man. My it’s my computer. That’s playing April fool’s jokes on me. Um, anyway, it is the first day of baseball season, crystal, big baseball fan. I mean, you went to Mississippi state, they’ve got a pretty legendary baseball program there.

Charles Walker (16:05):

So profile. Um, I only liked to watch when it starts to approach the world series. Um, growing up, my grandad loved baseball and he come over to our house and the game would go, so doggone long, he fall asleep. So like, I’ll just wait till the, to all the excitement. But, uh, if I had to pick a team, you know, uh, of course the Braves are a favorite, uh, but growing up, uh, and this is probably going to be like, what? Growing up, my family loved the Cubs

Greg White (16:39):

WGN was everywhere. Right.

Crystal Davis (16:42):

Everywhere. It was everywhere. Yeah. So, yeah.

Greg White (16:45):

Yeah. That’s not, that’s not uncommon. I don’t think in your, from Jackson, Mississippi

Crystal Davis (16:50):

Jackson, Mississippi, Mississippi. Yeah.

Greg White (16:54):

Uh, alright. Charles, what about you?

Charles Walker (16:57):

No, I’m not. Uh, I’m not, I’m just like crystal on that. You know, I support the Braves here. Uh, but you know, I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, man. We had the Birmingham barons, so I mostly looked at it like that. Uh, I wait to the, to the world series where I get excited about it. I won’t just sit there and look at it for real. And, but I, I support the Braves here, you know, but that’s about it for baseball for me. No, not

Greg White (17:24):

We know about you. Yes. I mean, is there a bigger Braves fan, but I think since we’re all sort of bandwagon Braves fans, what’s the prediction for the season? How are they looking? Oh, well, you know, um, there’s some pieces that we couldn’t get, uh, you know, the Braves aren’t they used to be under Ted Turner used to be the big spenders and payrolls and top three or four teams in the league, but times have changed. But if the pitching staff healthy and

Scott Luton (17:50):

We’ve got a, we’ve got a good offense. Uh, so I’m, I’m excited to where we go. I think the bullpen everybody’s looking at the bullpen or some, some, some needs there, but Hey, that’s every team in the majors. So I’m looking forward to just having baseball back. It gives Elma about y’all, but we’re all seeking out some sense of normalcy, every little shred of normalcy we can get and it’s comfort food, and it’ll be good as true. I agree with you. And it also, they need to stop getting those right down to the tip of winning and then ever since 95, every single ever since 95, but Hey, Hey, you know, um, uh, at least we, uh, you know, we’ve lived to see one world series and that’s more than a lot of folks and a lot of teams. So we’ll see, we’ll see what happens from here, but I should point out, at least we’ve got baseball in our city, Peter, you know, mantra, the expos played Montreal forever, and they are now the nationals, the nationals, that same franchise, so packed up.

Greg White (18:46):

So I did a lot of work with implementing technology in Canada. And, um, there was a com uh, grocer called probably go up there and Rona, which is like, was, I would say, they’re the home Depot, Canada, but now home depots.

Scott Luton (19:00):

Okay.

Greg White (19:03):

But back then, this was late nineties. They were a tops. And I would go to expos games, me and 1200 of Luke Flonase, best friends would be there. So Peter must have been one of the 1200 other people at those games, you know, and that was played in the Olympic stadium, had this big lid that they could lift up. Couldn’t lower it down because they couldn’t get the winch to lift it back up if they did. So it was open all the time. And I mean, it would be wickedly cold in Montreal.

Scott Luton (19:32):

The sad thing is the year of the strike in 94, the expos had one of the best teams assembled. Uh, and they were leading the Braves in the division about five or six games that team would have vied for a world series. And that’s a shame that, that never got finished, but, but Hey, baseball is back and it’s great. It’s great. Great things. So let’s talk, let’s shift gears. I think we could, we could probably have more fun with this lightning round, uh, and, and practical jokes. Holy cow, the production team, and has already gotten this, uh, on this April fool’s day. Let’s talk leadership. Both of y’all are actually all three of y’all though. Greg, in there, your dynamic, your leadership, uh, leaders and, um, action oriented. And, uh, and, and I’ve learned frankly from all three of you, um, uh, I guess I had the opportunity to rub elbows and work alongside Greg all the time. So I see it more often, but crystal and Charles, uh, it’s evident in, in, in our conversations, what y’all share on social, what you do. So it’s great to have you all here. So let’s, um, we’re gonna be talking about what we’ve learned from the ineffective leaders though, the bad leaders. So, Chris, I want to start with you and we’re going to get your top three lessons learned from bad leaders, but, uh, crystal what’s, uh, what’s the first thing on your list. All right. So the first on my list, I’ll

Crystal Davis (20:48):

Tell it in a little story. So I was working as an engineer in Mexico, and I had a, a little a situation with one of the manufacturing managers. And I went to my boss and told him about it and he didn’t support me. And I got so angry because I was the, the incident was so, so grossly wrong towards me that there was no way that I could be questioned about my actions. And I got so mad. I told him, I said, you know what, I’m going to go. I want to quit this job. I’m going to go find me a job at McDonald’s work the fry machine until I make enough money to pay my parents back from my college education from Mississippi state, you know,

Charles Walker (21:27):

Continue another day at that place

Crystal Davis (21:31):

Do, but my point is you have to like stand up for your team. You have to stand up, stand up and, and sponsor them no matter what right. You, whether or not they need to be corrected or not, you have to support them and support them. And support also means correcting them when it’s, when necessary or correcting behavior when necessary. But if people don’t feel like they have your support and especially people that work hard for the organization, right? Like sacrificing and working overtime or working weekends, or, you know, missing out on kids’ activities, you don’t support them. That is like the worst form of a slap in the face. Right. So that’s my first,

Scott Luton (22:14):

Uh, that’s a great, that’s a great one. And unfortunately it is prevalent, you know, I think it’s, it’s, it’s really prevalent. Uh, cause folks, humans, all of us take sometimes take the easy way out and it’s easier probably not to address and create the conflict even though the conflicts needed right. Conflicts needed when there’s misbehavior and injustices. Right. Crystal.

Crystal Davis (22:35):

Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yep.

Scott Luton (22:38):

All right. So starting on a high note on that one and, and folks we want to hear from y’all tell us, tell us what you’ve learned from folks, bad leader stories. That’s right. That’s what it is. And by the way, hello, Larry Klein. Great to have you back, I think. All right. So Charles, as we break the seal off, uh, your perspective here today, what’s, what’s one of the items on your list.

Charles Walker (23:02):

Well, you know, I agree with crystal on that too, but I look at, there are some, some common, some coming out between good leadership and there’s some coming out as in bad leadership. And one of when I found one unit, one company I was with, it was the avoidance of conflict and just, just totally avoidant it, you know, like you see the wrongdoing in the organization and then some leaders just avoid it all together. They want nothing to do with it. You’ll hear things like that’s an HR problem. As soon as the HR I’m saying, but it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s rampant throughout the organization. I think that as a leader, you should not be afraid, uh, or avoid conflict. You know, it just, we, it is, you know, because once you face it, just follow the, uh, the rules of the organization culture and, and the mission statement, and just bring that up. We can stay neutral and get an understanding of what’s going on, but do not run from conflict because conflict, it will dilute your organization and everything had to go wrong. So I think that people should learn how to deal with conflict resolution in a professional manner where people respect you as a leader. And they said he don’t run from it. Uh, so I think the main one that I had on my list today, although there’s many more conflict resolution is you really need that today in, uh, in leadership,

Scott Luton (24:16):

You know, I worked for an organization, had a great CEO, uh, very values driven, great leader. And he used to say, uh, conflict today is good for folks. Uh, and, and, you know, initially when I heard that, I was like, eh, I don’t know. But the more I think about it, that is probably a good way to live. Uh, Greg, I’m gonna get your take in a minute. Paula though says, um, I had a boss that did not support or stand up for me. So I found another job in the company with a promotion.

Charles Walker (24:42):

Hey, I love that

Scott Luton (24:44):

Drew says, if they are bad, they aren’t leaders. They’re simply managers, bad managers. Wow,

Charles Walker (24:50):

Great.

Greg White (24:52):

She just did it to us again. Wait, do that again, crystal.

Scott Luton (25:01):

So Greg comment here, crystals and Charles they’re their first, uh, items from the list are very related. Give us a take before moving on to the second one.

Greg White (25:09):

Yeah. I think that, you know, the, both of what crystal and Charles had talked about and actually most of these examples so far is I think maybe at a higher level, or at least my perspective is one of the most egregious offenses a leader can make. And that is sacrificing the totality of the organization for the one exception, right? Not the good of the organization are not supporting the morale of the organization in order to avoid conflict or by failing to support someone who has been wrong. And that is incredibly erosive to an organization, right? How many times have, I mean, look, I’ve been party to it. I’ve probably done the bad leader thing. At least once in allowing someone who was obviously terminal to the culture, detrimental to the mission to the organization and not, not addressing that quickly enough and, and then seeing it or erode organization. So I developed this philosophy kind of on my own, as I realized I was failing, it was it’s either one of us or it’s all of us, right? Either this one bad Apple has to go or the whole, a whole bushel is ruined. So I just had to tell myself that over and over as a young leader to get to the point where I would make those cuts, I love that

Scott Luton (26:30):

Let’s hear from the, uh, our community a bit T squared who holds down the Fort for us on YouTube. Great to have you here at T squared. Crystal just gave us a smorgasbord in that response. And Charles gave us an entree nourishment. Natalie says, Hey, bad leaders are complacent. Don’t push beyond romance. Yeah, that’s good. Yeah, that is good. Uh, Larry says I’ve learned to handle conflict of thing. He says at the lowest level possible. If employees see you, hint, if they employees see you will handle their issues, they’ll do anything you ask the leaders I work the hardest for are those that I’ve known had my back. Excellent point. I agree with one final comment from the, uh, rain man, uh, Todd rains being directed to reallocate away from a fee warehouse by VP. And then when the fee, all right. So, uh, Greg Moore, April barrels up. So basically his boss told him to do something. And then when the business partner complained, he threw Todd under the bus, um, to thank you for all. And I’ll keep them coming. We’re talking about, uh, bad leadership today and what we’ve learned from bad leaders or as I think drew put it bad managers. So does it, we all know there’s a big difference. Okay. So let’s keep driving here. So crystal, what is second on your list?

Crystal Davis (27:49):

I second on my list is when they actually are the ones creating the chaos in the organization, not setting priorities, not honoring their word. Um, you know, when that leader is the one that’s driving, the chaos and the instability in the organization, that one

Scott Luton (28:09):

April, I wonder just had someone pop into their head. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, um, and, and unfortunately that happens quite a bit, you know, I, I hate politics and, um, and it just, it’s so corrosive, uh, to an organization. Right. And, and I’ve been fortunate to not work in too many political organism organizations. I mean, who can afford that, but, um, you know, there’s leaders that, that do more harm than good is kind of what I’m hearing crystal talk about. All right. So a lot of good stuff here. Um, and we’ve got some more comments. I’ll share a materially, Charles, what second up on your list?

Charles Walker (28:44):

The second one on mine was those leaders that do not take responsibility or accountability for their own actions. Therefore they can’t take responsibility for the action of the organization. You see, like if the organization is looking at you as the leader and you know, you’re not setting an example. So therefore you allow the chaos to continue because you know, you can’t say anything and that’s a bad position to be in. That’s a bad organization to be in as well, because you have to take accountability for some of the projects you can task that has to be done. You have to say, we fail pointing the blame, but if you got bad character, you can’t do that. You can’t step out. So that’s, that’s one of the ones I really look at a lot and I say anybody can be guilty because in leadership, we’re continuously growing all of us. We are learning from our mistakes as we get older and we get in these positions, we have to realize that we hold ourself accountable for our people, man, we gotta stand up for our people. I learned that in the military, if you do for

Crystal Davis (29:42):

Your people, you know, you take care of them, man. They’ll fight. They’ll fight for you, man. And I I’ve learned to do that. I take responsibility for my actions and the actions of my guys. And that’s just the way I go with it. You know, if I got to discipline them, I’ll do that outside of everything, up in front of somebody we’ll deal with it. I’ll take responsibility. So I think that’s a good leader.

Scott Luton (30:02):

Agreed a lot of good stuff there, Charles. And, uh, let’s see here, going back to, uh, Crystal’s first point, our second point, chaos, Natalie says great point, crystal. This is so applicable for leaders at all levels, especially those that aren’t those that aren’t managers are more leaders and managers. Excellent. Right there. Gary shares his top three bad leader traits, not communicating with staff on support with staff and three, if humility Is it well, I’ll own that point. Uh, and Greg, will you get your way in here? Just a second, but crystal, go ahead. Since Gary mentioned that, go ahead and show you.

Crystal Davis (30:40):

Yeah, so I, I framed it up a little bit differently, but it results in the same and, and leaders that think that they are the only ones with the answer. And so they don’t show respect to the talent that they have on the team. They don’t, uh, encourage the, their team to, uh, exude the best of what they have to bring to the table. And they don’t allow their team to grow. And it also creates mistrust, right? Because then people won’t share, they won’t share when their problems are opportunities or when they see certain things because they don’t feel like they have a voice when your answer is the only answer that matters.

Scott Luton (31:17):

Well said, crystal, I liked that. I need to Greg, what are you thinking here?

Greg White (31:24):

I’m thinking so many things, but, um, I’ll narrow it down to communication. Communication is absolutely critical and it, it’s hard. It’s hard to do, you know, that’s what, that’s what leaders do though. They do the hard things. They’re out front when, you know, when their people are facing a challenge and they’re in the back when their people have succeeded. Right? But the indication is so critical because that gives people, the things that they seek in a job, relevant, relevance, respect, responsibility. And there are other words that don’t start with R but I mean, it does all those things. You have to allow people to understand what their purpose is and you know, the why we’re doing this, the, what it accomplishes the, you know, how that it needs to get done. And you have to do that through communication. And it’s really, really difficult, but it’s absolutely necessary. And I’ve seen some awful communicators, again, guilty as charged on more than one. Yeah. It’s not, it’s not a consistent problem for me, for me, but believe me, well, I don’t know. Maybe there’s some people who’ve worked for me who would argue that it is, I’d love to hear from you if you think so. But I worked again, worked really hard at it, but I know I have been terrible at communication at least from time to time. So

Charles Walker (32:40):

That’s really, really,

Scott Luton (32:42):

It’s hard to do because sometimes you have to decide what and how to communicate certain things, right? Because there are things that the line staff needs to know. And there are things that it’s better. They don’t know. And making that differentiation is, is sometimes very difficult, but always clear purpose, right? Clear goals and clear expectations. So, all right. A lot of good stuff there. And by the way, if you work for Greg and you want to throw some stones, we want to hear from you today during the last year

Charles Walker (33:11):

Right now, I’m not lying. I’ve got my pen,

Scott Luton (33:18):

Charles, I’m coming to you next. But I won’t share a couple of comments before I do a lot of stuff here. Simon says a boss who sets a task. And after you deliver it, they complain that they wanted the opposite done. Suck it up, work extra hard to deliver the opposite. And then when you redeliver, they complain, it should’ve been, it should’ve been the opposite

Charles Walker (33:40):

That Picasso started with a blank canvas. So if you want something different, frame it up, give us, give us the, uh, draw it out. Even Picasso’s started with a blank,

Scott Luton (33:58):

C squared says bad managers seem to conveniently forget to tell their subordinates, the rules of the road of the organization, written and unwritten and you know, baseball. Season’s really bad about unwritten rules.

Charles Walker (34:09):

So as Leah,

Scott Luton (34:11):

Great to see you here today. Uh, she showed up late. One of our favorite topics is leadership while you’re in the right place. And we look forward to your POV here today, Rhonda, hello, Rhonda says our team can feel if we actually care for them as a person or not feeling valued helps us all show up as our best selves.

Charles Walker (34:28):

For sure. Excellent. Palantir is absolutely right. Rhonda is correct.

Scott Luton (34:33):

Charles, on that note, I agree with you on that note. What’s your third and final item here?

Charles Walker (34:38):

My third one, man, it’s very important and it’s important in our life is important in our job, in everything we do most bad managers or leaders. They are not good listeners because man, you know, when you, when you, I know we all have been through this with it, we’ve been in a meeting, right? The leader, actually, anybody have any, any, anything to add or any questions, anything, everybody go radio silent. They want to get out in the hallway. They talk about what they would have done, what they would have said because they know that their leader is not a good listener. So he won’t get all that good information and he’d get in the hallway and being a good listener. It’s got a lot to do with looking at your people’s body language, their tone. It’s just not sitting back and being the last person to speak.

Charles Walker (35:21):

You got to understand who your team is. It’s certain bilingual person. Have you tell it, they agitated about something or whatever they want to speak. Or if a guy’s not paying attention around them around the meeting. You know, I w I’d like to put a round table with my guy. That’s like, Hey, not a straight table is round. I’m looking, everybody’s looking at each other. And then I can’t offer me. And you you’re able to express yourself as long as it’s productive and conducive to what we’re trying to accomplish. I’m welcoming all, I’m listening to everything people say, because they have something to say, but they gotta be free to say it, man, if you’re your smartest people around that table, if you shut that voice down, you’re hurting yourself. You’re hurting the organization. So I say bad leaders are bad listeners.

Greg White (36:07):

Greg, what w what, uh, piggyback on those comments from Charles? Well, listening is the absolutely most critical thing, because look as a, as a leader, uh, I mean, one of the things that you have to do is you have to break down barriers and remove hurdles for your people. And you can’t know what those are that, you know, you can’t know what those are, unless you actually listen. Right? And sometimes that might mean you need to change something in another part of the business to facilitate something for your sales team or for your accounting team or whatever. Right. So yeah, you have to understand those things. And man, if you don’t, if you don’t listen, I don’t understand how you could lead because you get almost all of your best leadership knowledge from what’s going on in a day.

Charles Walker (36:50):

That’s right. That’s right. In a Greg, a good way to do that, man. I found, and I practice it, man. I’ll paraphrase. What you’re telling me. I was like, so I understand you saying this and they feel so good that you do that because they feel like you’re listening. So I’m getting that. You’re saying this, and we should do this. When you do that, man, you get a whole nother stream of things they want to tell you. And then, you know, you started like, like you’re writing it down. You ain’t even gotta be writing it down, but act like you’re writing it down, but be able to paraphrase what that person is saying. And it works good relationships to your wife, be like, Oh, you hurt. You might be all. You might get a little lucky, man. I’m going to write that down.

Charles Walker (37:42):

The beautiful part about listening is you actually create a connection with people, right? If you’re not listening for it with some type of intention, you create a connection. Most people, most people will be okay. If a, if a leader doesn’t choose to do what they suggested, as long as they felt heard. Right? So heard, you know, you did listen to me, you know, and you can learn a lot of that from LinkedIn. I’ve learned a lot from Greg and Scott. I’m always chiming in because I liked when I actually strategically seek out people to communicate with only then I’m very strategic about who I’m communicating with because I’m learning. I want to, I want to learn from them as well. And I always give them feedback. I appreciate you because it helped my day and helping my life. When I, when somebody gives me some good feedback on something, I say, Hey, I appreciate that because they don’t have to do it. You don’t,

Scott Luton (38:36):

It’s interesting. You point out kind of how digital relationships have been so powerful, recent times, I’ve learned a lot, uh, you know, across these different social channels for sure. And then really built relationships. I mean, kind of, this is just an illustration of that. Yeah, that’s right. All right. I want to share this from Todd rains, taking a beating. When someone on your team falls short is critical. No one wants to hear it’s not my fault from anyone, especially leadership, we must be accountable, take the hit and resolve issues. So they don’t reoccur. Excellent point. We would agree. Yeah. As Aaliyah says, um, generally onboarding and job training has really been undervalued. I saw the importance of that early on. Even the part-time jobs during college, trying to integrate that into the organization that she’s working for. Now. I love that positively simulation. Yeah. Excellent point.

Greg White (39:31):

It’s funny. What both of those kind of go to is something that somebody said to me a long time ago, and that is if the student hasn’t learned the teacher hasn’t taught and that’s essentially, I mean, that is essentially what leadership is. You have to work hard to make sure the student learns. Right. And if they don’t learn, if they fail, like Todd’s talking about, you have to take that bullet and assume that you didn’t know,

Scott Luton (39:57):

Communicate the goals, actions appropriately. Right. Take accountability.

Greg White (40:03):

Um, and I think that’s, that is such a critical leadership trait. And I, I wish I could remember who said that. I know it’s been said a thousand times, crystal clearly you’ve heard it, but I wish I could remember who said that to me, but man, I, I definitely drank that in when they,

Scott Luton (40:21):

Yeah. I think in a guy named Charles say that to you, man, what that right. It seems like that was much younger. Were you, man, if you’re not open to learning as a lead, then you don’t, you don’t get it right?

Greg White (40:43):

Oh yeah. You’re not a leader. You’re not a leader because you’re in a position of authority. You’re a leader because people follow you and people follow you. You have to inspire people to follow you.

Scott Luton (40:55):

There you go. Excellent point, Charles should beat me to it on the last three last time, we’re all set. We shouldn’t worry about creating more followers. We should be worried and focused on creating more leaders. I love that. All right. So Larry says the leader should set the vision and Cod the train, not always drive it, let them do their jobs and deal with it if they don’t excellent point there. Uh, and Gary adds to that. Yes. Bad leaders have no vision. They, it says the lack of it can create a chasm too big to traverse between your teams. Excellent point there, David. Okay. Uh, we’ve got, we’ve got a couple more minutes here to dive into this popular topic of not just leadership but bad leadership. And I want to add one that we talked about pre-show and this is probably, and there’s always worst-case scenarios and these conversations like this, I think we’ve talked, touched a lot on, uh, attributes that, you know, like communication, any good leader can have a lapse with communication.

Scott Luton (41:55):

Right. But are you self-aware enough to address it and get intentional about getting better? I think that’s what really sets apart know good leaders. But on the flip side of this worst-case scenario, I think I share with you all, you know, when I was in the air force and got on to my first duty station, that sharp force base in Sumter, South Carolina, one of the office leaders, I used the little leaders, very loosely sat me down my first day in the office. So to speak one-on-one and said, you will fear me. You being me, the young airman, uh, I may have had a Stripe on my sleeve maybe at the time. And he had been in for 15 years or so, uh, was the, uh, senior enlisted manager. And that moment was seared in my brain and right away, and now did for him for a little while right away.

Scott Luton (42:40):

Um, I never want to be that guy or that person or that, or have that type of mentality. And I think, you know, when we think about what we learned from bad leaders, you really crystallize and can visualize what the type of leader you don’t want to be. And I think that is probably one of the best lessons learned from some of the folks that we not have the pleasure of working with or for. So, but what else? Uh, as we, as we start to wrap, and of course, we’re going to make sure folks know how to connect with, uh, crystal and Charles here today, and crystal will touch on your podcast too. But, um, if folks let’s, let’s wrap on we’ll wrap on this last question and I’ll pose this all three of y’all. If folks had to remember one thing and cause this goldfish era, you’ve got seven seconds of attention, right? Everything’s divided attention. So if there’s one thing from this really healthy conversation we’re having that folks should really lock in on what would that be? Chris, let’s start with you. What’s that one thing that folks got to take away from this conversation?

Crystal Davis (43:33):

Uh, the one thing I would say that you should take away, uh, if you are in a leadership role is to learn how to ask great questions. One thing that I would say learn how to ask great questions and all of those other attributes that we talked about listening communication will come about when you start, when you really start to ask great questions. Excellent.

Scott Luton (43:55):

I think you can learn, you know, despite all the presentation, oratorical skills, all this stuff, you can really learn a lot of how, how bright and powerful, um, capable folks are from really good question.

Crystal Davis (44:07):

That’s right. That’s right. You can learn a tremendous amount and then you start to learn more about what they don’t know or understand. And that’s when you start, don’t be afraid to be the dumbest person in the room.

Scott Luton (44:22):

So great point. I’m uh, I’m a bring Drew’s comment. I saw earlier here, drew says as a leader, if you are or think you are the smartest one, you’re in Rome. I love that. All right. So crystal asked good questions, Charles. What’s your one thing that folks really got to take away from the conversation?

Charles Walker (44:41):

I would say, I always believe in the three CS, you know, we talked about that all the time, collaborate, cooperate, and communicate. But I would say the takeaway Vanessa today be the leader that you always wanted to be. You know, we all, when we was in, when we started off in the military, where everything, we found those great guys, we knew the attributes of those guys. Then we got into civilian sector. We started getting with these organizations, like we can easily point out the bad leader. That’s too easy, man. There’s no challenge there, but the good ones be that guy, be that good leader that you can think of your mindset. I want to be that guy or very close to him. And I think you’ll be successful because you’ll be continuing to learn. And man, every day you learn, you can learn something every day. It’s a learning experience. So either man be that leader, you always wanted to be,

Scott Luton (45:27):

Uh, in our conversation we had, uh, on veteran voices, Charles, you shared the story of a Colonel that, um, I can’t remember her name, but I can remember. Yes. And she went and learned how to jump out of planes because the folks that she was managing leading, that’s what, that’s one thing they had to do their paratroopers. Right. And I remember that conversation cause you were, you were asking her, Charles w you don’t have to do this for a full bird, Colonel, you know, you know, and her response

Charles Walker (46:00):

Because you guys are, you, you, I can’t really lead you guys on this. I know the experience of what you were experiencing as a jump master or whatever she wanted to be inside the whole experience of it. So she can be, she can feel what you’re feeling when you express it to her. She wants to be a part of the feeling. And I think that’s, that’s leadership, man, that’s it?

Scott Luton (46:18):

Yeah. Of that. Okay. Gregory so much good stuff. I love these conversations. I love these two leaders here. We can learn so much from crystal and Charles. What’s one key thing that folks got to take away from this conversation. Well, I think that a twist on the statement, you’re not a leader because you’re in a position of authority. You’re a leader because people follow you. I would encourage and challenge people. You don’t have to be in a position of authority in order to be a leader, right. You can lead from anywhere. And I think that’s the most critical thing. Leadership is inspiring and enabling and empowering people. And, and you can do that from anywhere from the shop floor, from behind a broom. Right? So, um, that’s one of the important leadership lessons. I think it goes directly to what Charles says, right? Don’t create followers, create leaders.

Scott Luton (47:13):

Yeah. We love that. Let’s share a couple of comments here. As we wrap up today’s live stream. I hate, I hate to, I, I wish we could have a three hour live stream here today. David says, echo in what Charles is saying, be the type of leader you want to work for. Peter says, be the change you want to see. I love that Peter, uh, drew says early in my career, I worked for a horrible manager. I learned what not to do, or B is 30 years later. And I still think about him and in situations I think, well, what would Kevin do? And I’ll do the opposite though. That was good. That was good. But wherever Kevin is, I bet he knows who he’s talking about. Simon says best leaders should be self-aware know the different leadership styles and learn how to apply them.

Scott Luton (48:02):

Especially if they aren’t natural and apply them to situations as required. We all have to do that because Scott said, Simon says, Oh God, I’m just such a dad joke, individual folks. Sorry, I can’t, I can’t make any apologies for it. Alright. So I’m always a pleasure. I w we had a wonderful time and appreciate it with both of y’all really enjoyed your earlier appearances. We’ll always love a repeat guests, but, uh, I appreciate y’all’s. Um, you both have had that charisma and you’ve been there done that, and that makes powerful leadership lessons learned and conversation. So let’s make sure folks know how to connect with you both. And then crystal, of course, we want to make sure folks know about the lead lean podcast. So tell us in a nutshell, what’s that podcast about, and then how can folks connect with you?

Crystal Davis (48:54):

In a nutshell, the lead lane podcast is I’m teaching, um, entrepreneurs and business owners about a lot of the practices we do in large companies around lean and agile, but really making it make sense for the small business owners so that they can have operational excellence. So that’s really what I, what I talk about on, on that show. And I will invite all of you to be guest

Scott Luton (49:17):

Yay. You can reach me

Crystal Davis (49:18):

On all forms of social as crystal Y Davis, and, uh, or you can just check me, go to the lean coach Inc com and, um, send me an email.

Scott Luton (49:30):

Awesome. I love that. Let’s make sure out your podcast crystal

Crystal Davis (49:35):

Every week on Tuesday, Tuesday.

Scott Luton (49:38):

Okay, awesome. Um, let’s make sure it is. Yeah. Let’s make sure that, uh, Amanda, if you can, we can drop the link so you can hear more of kind of the crystal store and her journey. If we can drop the link to her, uh, episode with us as well. Great, great practical, uh, lessons learned from that one. Um, uh, the pride of Jackson, Mississippi Hale state. Did you have your cap? I love it. The entire sec is going well. And one of the cool thing from her, her, uh, podcast discussion with us was her dad’s, uh, constant advice, save money and read books. You read a book, save money, and read a book. I love that crystal look forward to having you back. All right. So it is always a blast, Charles. Um, and also, uh, Amanda, I think you’re helping us out here today behind the scenes, uh, veteran, uh, draws on veteran voices with us, where he, he dove into his story. And Charles, you come from a big family. How many brothers and sisters, again?

Charles Walker (50:44):

Seven rows, seven rows and six minutes. It’s 13 of us. 13.

Scott Luton (50:50):

Goodness gracious. What number are you Charles?

Charles Walker (50:53):

I’m number 12, man. They say the smallest one was never the smartest one was number two.

Scott Luton (51:01):

Your family’s tall. Right? You mentioned that before,

Charles Walker (51:05):

Or has a lot of us man, uh, a couple of passed away, but, uh, I got so many nieces and nephew when I go to Birmingham, man, it’s like a family union man. So it’s paying them, had been hard on us because we said,

Scott Luton (51:18):

You know,

Charles Walker (51:20):

We still get close, man. That’s the catch COVID. I already kept from my brother and sister.

Scott Luton (51:29):

Well, Hey, uh, best wishes to your family. And of course your son, how can folks connect with Charles Walker?

Charles Walker (51:36):

Well, right now you can connect with me at Charles at AGS, that’s georgia.com and then our, um, our website is under reconstruction right now because we are going after more government contracts. Are we going PPE heavy because we got a few contract with the VA, but now we’ve got to get the website where people can actually go on and get all the PPE equipment, the gowns or whatever off our website. So, so more to be followed on that. Uh, Scott, now let you and Greg know about that. We’ve got a warehouse here in McDonald’s and you can reach out to me at Charles at AGS. That’s Georgia dot.com.

Scott Luton (52:13):

Love it all the time. Well, I was about to say that, uh, you beat me to it. Folks. Y’all definitely want to connect with Charles and crystal on LinkedIn. They both dropped knowledge all the time. Crystal. I love your leadership tips. You drop in regular business tips. And of course, Charles is a, uh, he’s a, uh, he studies history, uh, and, and you see it reflect in his, his LinkedIn content. So I’ll make sure to do that. And Natalie, I couldn’t have said it better. Uh, Charles and crystal are quickly becoming a favorite guests. I’m with you. We’re big fans. Uh, let’s see here. Great. Uh, Chris has great show. Awesome guests. Well done everyone. Thank you, Chris. And thanks for tuning in for your first time. First time. And Peter says, Greg, in Canada, we have a three-foot long horn to blow no cow bell

Charles Walker (53:02):

Theater.

Scott Luton (53:06):

I love that. All right. So a big thanks to y’all both Greg, what, before we, um, you know, I don’t know if the swoosh machine is broken or not, so they may just pop out of the stream, but Greg, before, before we, uh, uh, have them depart the stream, any final comments on your end, Greg? Uh, mostly thank

Greg White (53:26):

You for joining us on this day. Thanks for the comedy. Thanks for the comradery. Thanks for the leadership. Really appreciate it. Um, and what, and what a great topic, first of all, I want to thank you both for not only pointing out the flaws of bad leaders, but helping the community to resolve those with your follow on comments to that. I think that’s important as well. Agreed.

Charles Walker (53:49):

And thank you all for the platform, man, because you know, without a platform, the voices will be solid, man. So, you know, we can look at the poly thing that happened in the pandemic as well. People started to communicate with each other, you know, via whatever platform they had and now people are, you know, when people around the world, man, people know that you’ve got a voice and people are more open to speak their voice. So it’s a good thing too.

Greg White (54:13):

Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it. I’m writing that down. So I’m going to be able to talk for a couple,

Scott Luton (54:19):

Hey, you know, we’re going to wrap with, with Charles and crystal in the shop because, uh, I’ve got no faith in the switch, so y’all stand by for just a second. Cause we want to celebrate and get to see the sausage made yang. All right. Hey, April fool’s day, uh, the production team got us for sure. Uh, Peter says great news. His daughter just FaceTimed us to let let them know that she got into the nursing program. Nice. That is awesome. Um, all right, so I want to, um, Oh, a round of applause. Hey dad, jokes warehouse incorporated here today. That’s all we are.

Greg White (55:01):

Or the leadership man. You instill your qualities into your people, Scott.

Scott Luton (55:06):

I love it. I love it. So really enjoyed today’s conversation, a huge thanks to Charles Walker and crystal Davis. Uh, just dynamos and, and if y’all can’t tell, uh, y’all should seem to appreciate it, but we had a blast. I didn’t know if we were going to be able to get into the last dream we’re enjoying each other’s company so much Greg, and enjoyed these conversations with you. Um, you know, it’s all about making sure, right? And Charles echo your point. Everyone’s got to take on leadership, right? Everyone. I mean, we saw it evident in the conversation here and of course all the comments and everyone experiences things differently, and it’s really important to put a spotlight and, and, um, and, and have that exchange of experiences and ideas. And that’s one of my favorite things about these, these live streams, for sure. But Greg, before I sign off, uh, your final thought here today,

Greg White (55:53):

Uh, I mean, leadership is, is so important. And again, I can’t, I can’t say it enough, you can lead from anywhere. So do, um, and as you said, we see examples of leadership every day, file those away acknowledge those. They are frankly, your lot in life. And if you don’t like as crystal and a few of you have already mentioned, if you don’t like what you’re seeing, do something about it, right? There are people who change their environment and there are people who are changed by their environment. So either change

Scott Luton (56:24):

Your environment or accept that you could be changed by it. Mm. Love that. Yeah. On that note, Hey folks, don’t be a lip service leader. Take action. Deeds, not words. And on that note on behalf of our entire team here, wonderful panelists, all the folks in the comments, the team behind the scenes I’m behalf of Greg white and the whole team Scotland and signing off for now, Hey, do good give forward and be the change that’s needed on that note. We’ll see you next time here on supply chain now. Thanks everybody.

Intro/Outro (56:56):

Thanks for being a part of our supply chain. Now, community check out all of our programming@supplychainnow.com and make sure you subscribe to supply chain. Now anywhere you listen to podcasts and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. See you next time on supply chain. Now.