A Different Kind of Leadership Podcast - Part 2

Written By Todd Tuthill

SHOW NOTES:
The Rincon Horizons podcast is where we talk about what it means to reach the summit on your leadership journey. We want to help you lead better so your organization can climb higher. This is the inaugural Rincon Horizons podcast. The quote of the podcast: Dylan Mitchell: “Leadership is always about people over process. Process matters. Systems matter. But if you don't value the people who make all of that possible, it's eventually going to fall apart.”

Todd and Dylan discuss the following in this episode:

  • What is a Leadership Corner?

  • Todd explains a leadership corner from his career

  • Dylan explains a leadership corner from his career

  • Todd & Dylan recommend leadership books


Links and other items mentioned in the podcast:

Other items mentioned in the podcast:

Books recommend in the podcast:

  • The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business by Patrick Lencioni: https://a.co/d/0hCIriN

  • Building a StoryBrand 2.0: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller: https://a.co/d/huitaVh

  • The Need to Lead: A TOPGUN Instructor's Lessons on How Leadership Solves Every Challenge by David Berke and Jocko Willink: https://a.co/d/7XHYSoP

 

Moderator and co-host Dylan Mitchell

Dylan is the Brand Strategist, Creative Director, and Founder of DM.supply. He’s passionate about helping churches, nonprofits, and businesses of all kinds build brands that are clear, meaningful, and built to last.

Find Dylan on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylnmtchll/


 



Primary contributor and co-host Todd Tuthill

Todd is the Managing Partner of Rincon Aerospace - A consulting company guiding aerospace companies to exceptional.

Todd is an aerospace executive and systems engineer with more than three decades of experience designing aircraft flight control systems

Find Todd on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddtuthill/

 

AI GENERATED TRANSCRIPT: Rincon Horizons S1E1 - A Different Kind of Leadership Podcast - Part 2

HOW TODD’S CAREER TURNED A LEADERSHIP CORNER

Dylan Mitchell (13:34)

Of course, more than happy to work with you on that. And you know, thinking about it, you know, again, my intention in that process was, know, wow, that is such a powerful image. And it really is just to hear you share the thought process behind it as well. You know, turning corners, not just climbing up. Can you maybe share one or two of those corners from your own leadership journey?

Todd Tuthill (13:54)

Sure, let's talk about a leadership corner in my journey. We're gonna go back, ⁓ wow, it's been, I guess, more than 20 years. It's hard to imagine it's been that long, but started on the F-35 program. I was the system design lead. 20 years ago and I remember a time in a really early design meeting for the F-35. I was leading the team for the flight control actuation system at the time and we were having a large meeting over the course of a couple days with people from several companies. It was pretty early in my leadership career.

And I kind of think I was probably talking a bit too much in this big meeting, you know I was I was pretty confident my abilities and my opinions at the time Dylan, you know in other words I was pretty arrogant I can admit that now right I was pretty arrogant, but also I saw things very very black and white.

Any topic, any decision that came up, you know, it was either completely right or completely wrong. You know, you were with me and we were together or you're an idiot because he couldn't figure it out. Right. That that's kind of the way Todd saw things. I can say that now. So at the time in the, this large meeting we were having, the vice president for engineering for the company I was working for at the time was at the meeting and he was a mentor of mine at the time he was, ⁓ he really invested a lot, helping me grow as a leader. And, and I remembered distinctly that day, we kind of finished the first morning of the meeting. He kind of pulled me aside and I'm thinking, okay, what I do now? I mean, he looks at me like, like leaders do. And he says, okay, Todd, you're very, very black and white. You need to see more grey. I can still hear him saying it to me today. And.

And I'd love to say that, you know, I took that advice and I snapped into it and I became a better leader. That is not what happened. I didn't just take that advice and run with it. I'll see if I can explain, you know, the immature thought process I had at the time and maybe how I've grown as I've kind of rounded that leadership corner.

I'm probably sure you've heard our listeners have heard this idea about relative truth. You know, you have your truth. I got my truth. Everybody's got their own truth. Right. Well, I was so opposed to that idea. And by the way, I still am this idea of relative truth.


But, I just assumed immediately that that's what this leader was talking to me about. He was talking about relative truth. I'm like, I want nothing to do with relative truth. Why do need to see the grey? It's right or it's wrong, you know? And I'm an engineer, right? Gravity's true. If I jump out of an airplane without a parachute, or you do, if we both do, we're both going to fall and die, right? That's what we're going to do. All right.

Dylan Mitchell (16:39)

Well, that's what I was going to say in as an engineer, relative truth and black and white. That's kind of how you think, right?


Todd Tuthill (16:44)

It's how you think it's what I was taught. It's how I thought. Right. And, know, it's true for all of us. If we jump out of that airplane, we're going to, we're going to die. Right. Whether or not you this is true in so many aspects of our lives, but over time, what I began to realize, my mentor wasn't talking about relative truth at all.

That wasn't his point his point. He was talking about business and about organizational leadership Okay. Now, like you said, gravity may be universally true, right? Like you said, I was an engineer most things about designing an aircraft people may think most things about designing aircraft are pretty black and white You know, you just you just do an equation and it works. The reality is that's not true You can think about things like how should we structure the teams to design and manufacture this aircraft. That's not black and white universally true. Even something more technical like what's the optimal architecture that balances performance and safety for the aircraft. That's not black and white. It's not like that. And my mentor could see that I had applied the laws of physics and math to everything in my world, right? I thought I could answer any question or solve any problem with an equation.Well, what I learned in leadership over time is that people don't work like that. You can't just apply a formula to say this is how a person is going to work, right? And while I certainly believe then and believe now, leaders should be decisive, they should never assume they've cornered the market on wisdom. All one of the best things any leader can do is listen to other people, other opinions. And that's especially true


Dylan Mitchell (18:04)

Sure. Mmm. That's good.


Todd Tuthill (18:29)

when those other opinions are different from yours. Great leaders are never threatened by people who are smarter than them. Who know what they are people who know more than they know. mean, arrogant people like I was then I was threatened by that. But real leaders aren't right. Real leaders aren't threatened by that. Great leaders welcome those conversations and they see them as opportunities to grow and get smarter themselves. And and I think that's what my mentor was saying to me that day. Todd You need more grey.

You need to have some fuzzy conversations with people that don't agree with you and not just shoot off your mouth thinking you know everything in the world. And I think that's what he was telling me. And that conversation, that leadership corner was more than 20 years ago. And I think I'm still learning from that wisdom in that simple statement today.


Dylan Mitchell (19:16)

Man, that's that's incredible. That's wow. There's there's I want listeners to go back and hopefully, you know, whatever platform you're listening on. I know some of them have have the option to bookmark an audio clip, just that that statement that leaders should be decisive, but they should never assume they have cornered the market on wisdom.

I think there's a lot of truth in that, regardless of at what level you find yourself leading.


Todd Tuthill (19:40)

Thank you, Dylan.

Todd Tuthill http://www.rinconaero.com
Next

A Different Kind of Leadership Podcast - Part 1