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Welcome to Lead Learn Laugh Grow, the podcast where leadership insights meet practical wisdom.
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I'm Nancy, your Production Assistant, and today marks the second of an inspiring two-part series featuring Dr.
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Scott Spurgeon, Superintendent of West-MEC in Arizona.
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In this episode, the focus is on how to build capacity within an organization.
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Key methods discussed include modeling behavior, fostering relationships, and demonstrating effective leadership.
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how faith grounds his leadership journey.
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Most importantly, you'll hear his bold vision for West-MEC—doubling in size while becoming a national leader in career and technical education excellence.
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Whether you're an educator, business leader, or someone passionate about developing the next generation of talent, this conversation offers valuable lessons on leading with purpose, learning continuously, finding joy in the journey, and growing both personally and professionally.
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I also Have the absolute pleasure of introducing today's host, someone who has spent his career leading, inspiring, and developing others.
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He's a seasoned education leader, consultant, speaker, and executive coach with a background that spans education, business, and even the military.
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As a former chief operations officer of a major school district, a career and technical education innovator, and now the creator of Results Matter Leader Development, he's been at the forefront of leadership and influence for decades.
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But that's not all.
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He's also a John Maxwell certified Executive Director, a national keynote speaker, and the driving force behind this very podcast.
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His passion helping you lead boldly, learn continuously, laugh often, and grow relentlessly.
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So, without further ado, let's dive into today's episode with our host, Randy Gooch.
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Well, thanks Nancy, and I'm excited today to continue our conversation with Dr.
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Scott Spurgeon so we're gonna dive into it.
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I think back to our previous conversation when we were preparing for this, and you mentioned one I don't even want to call it technique tool, but one thing that you do when developing your team You put them in places and meetings, and then you go back and you start asking them about.
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What was important when you started and what's important today?
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Talk about that concept because I like that so much because it definitely shows growth and it shows with that growth, different levels of engagement and truly being able then to sort out what is that important thing.
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So if you'd share a little bit more with that, that I thought that was a great concept.
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So oftentimes in leadership we have certain groups and committees and.
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Folks that we're always surround ourselves with.
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But if you can ever get outside that group, you never grow any further than the capacity of the person who's leading that group.
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And so I often encourage my administrators to really think critically about when you start this position.
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And then somewhere between three and six months down the line, if I've done my job at building your capacity, you'll go back into those same systems, those same groups, and you'll be asking yourself these questions.
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Is this really what we're going to talk about today?
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Is this really something that you think is important?
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Because six months ago you thought it was the most critical thing that you're gonna have to solve, but now three to four months down the road you're thinking this is really turtle conversation.
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It's not eagle conversation.
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This is something that we could have solved, we could move past.
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So it's the ability to build capacity.
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I never, or I rarely ever go anywhere by myself.
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I'm always looking to build succession.
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I'm always looking to build.
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I want someone, if you're talking to someone that's on my leadership team, if you ask them this question, you ask me the question, you're gonna get the same answer.
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And that's all about repetition.
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Excellence is about repetition over time.
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And having someone with you to hear the conversation, to see your behaviors, to understand your mannerisms, to know the questions that you're asking, to be able to field those questions and see how you respond maybe in questions that may not necessarily be in your bailiwick, maybe you're not quite sure about what that response might be.
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My job is to build capacity, and you do that through modeling, relationships, and leadership.
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Excellent.
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Let's you mentioned in there, and many years ago when I first got outta college in the military, working with the headhunter to exit the military, go into the world of work, business that sort of thing.
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One author was real popular, and this is gonna date me how old I am Tom Peters and he wrote a book.
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It was called in Pursuit of Excellence.
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And the whole concept was that perfection is a fool's game because perfection does not exist.
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But the pursuit of excellence, that's where it's at.
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Share a little bit about that because everything you do, I can tell I see it.
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I see excellence does drive you.
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Tell us a little bit more about the role that excellence plays in your driving you to do what you're doing.
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I've often an answered this question about, what really drives me?
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And I guess I'm a lot like a greyhound that, that it's good for me to never catch the rabbit.
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And'cause once you catch a rabbit, you gotta put the dog down.
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And so I'm always in the pursuit of excellence and nothing really ever satisfies me.
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Let's just be honest.
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I'm happy and I celebrate successes but that success tend to lead me to want more success.
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And so it's not my success, it's our collective success that makes a difference.
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Because one of the greatest satisfactions I get is building the capacity of others to see them be more successful than they ever thought they could be.
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And oftentimes people don't understand what's inside of them until you find someone that can pull it out of'em.
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And so that pursuit of excellence, to me, second place has always been the first loser.
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And growing up, we didn't get ninth place ribbons.
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You worked hard for the success that you got, and you earned that success and you were either rewarded or not rewarded.
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The value of going through the process oftentimes is more valuable than the result that you get at the end.
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Sometimes what happened to you 10 or 15 years ago, you may not necessarily understand how difficult that was or what that really meant, but 10 or 15 years from then, all of a sudden you go through a situation and think.
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God, you know what?
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I'm glad I went through that.
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But the pursuit of excellence is repetitious.
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It's repetitions over and over.
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It's saying the same thing, the same mission, the same language.
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If you put that in front of people more often than what you want them to change, they'll actually begin to migrate towards what you want them to improve or change.
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So my pursuit is one of the fear, one of the two fears I have in life.
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Three of'em actually death heights and the fear of failure.
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I love that when you're talking about putting the vision out there enough and they're gonna catch it versus constantly dwelling on the deficit.
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A great example I'll use is we were working to improve reading performance and one of my previous districts, and one of my non-negotiables is no matter where the kids were when they left the classroom, every one of my students had to have a book in their hands.
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I had some teachers that would come up and say, Dr.
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S Corson, I don't know why we're doing this'cause the kids won't read the books.
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I said if they hold'em long enough, they'll get tired of holding'em.
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They'll open it up and start reading.
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Sure enough it happened and our reading results went skyrocketed because many of our kids wanted to read the nonfiction books, whereas they had difficulty reading some nonfiction.
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once they see the success builds confidence.
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Confidence builds success.
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Love it.
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How do you balance preparing students for so many of the emerging very high tech opportunities while still maintaining those programs for those traditional trades and industries?
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CTE is the, probably the most AI proof institution in this country.
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It's, it'll be a long time, probably some somewhat years down the road before you find AI technology that's gonna be able to come and fix your HVAC system that's out or wire a house and things like that.
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we can't be everything to everybody.
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We can be everything to somebody.
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And so we have to recognize where our strengths are.
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And you have to understand the capacity of your organization.
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if you don't understand the capacity of your organization, sometimes our expectations are so far outta whack that we set ourselves up for failure right from the very beginning.
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And so when you recognize the successful processes and systems that you have in place, and that's shown by data.
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Then you understand what systems or parts and pieces that you can improve.
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It allows you to recognize the value of the organization, each individual member, and the systems you have in place that produce the intended results that you get.
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you don't fix what's not broken, but you can improve what's already good
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You were talking previously about your three-tiered partnership model with business and industry.
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Take a moment or so just to describe what that is.
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I know you've put a lot of work into it, but I think there's a lot of people out there that might listen to this, that to some extent struggle with implementing something like that.
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Maybe not the concept so much, but it, so talk as much about the implementation.
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As the concept.
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I'll start off by saying that right now Westpac's about three fourths of the way done through producing business and industry playbook because oftentimes business industry and those folks that work to develop relationships and collaboration with westec have no idea where to start.
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And so we're developing that business initial playbook to show you step by step the things that are most important and how you actually establish those relationships.
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From that standpoint, we looked at our partnership model simply because we had business and industries that were coming in at the very end of the second semester.
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Participating in mock interviews and cherry picking our students off without actually producing or providing any assistance and giving our system any support to help produce those students till they were beginning the interview.
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So two years ago, we developed the leadership model concept, which was level one is about impressions.
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Every single person at every organization should have an elevator speech.
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When someone asks you, Hey, what is West Mac?
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Everybody should be able to tell you that the value westec bring, Westec brings the great things that are happening and really at a high level, what Westec does and how we produce the pipeline for students in specific industries.
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The second piece is about engagement.
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So what are the next steps to be able to get someone involved?
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Are they participating in career literacy?
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Are they bringing their concept of business industry to the classroom?
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Are they an HVAC technician coming in to teach an entire week on the wiring of the systems?
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So are you participating in mock interviews?
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Are you helping students prepare their resumes their conversations, those kinds of things.
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That's about engagement, but the true strategic leadership piece.
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Is we're gonna sit down in a room, two people that can just get together and say yes, and we're gonna work on ways in which you're gonna provide 50% of your support.
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We're gonna give you 50% of ours, and we're gonna develop a model of effectiveness.
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we're gonna show an ROI return on investment is the partnership that we're doing at the end of this year producing the intended results?
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If not, what needs to be modified change or do we walk away from the partnership because it's not a good match?
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And we've done both.
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We've walked away from partnerships because it just doesn't work.
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But we've also increased the partnership because it's gone so well.
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So it's about that two true strategic partnership in the fact that business and industry are coming to the table, education is coming to the table and we're saying what collectively and collaboratively can we do together to make this partnership work?
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In Times past, and Randall, this being an education for a number of years, 10 years ago we came to the table and business and industry and other educational partners were telling us what we were gonna do.
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Right now, as I call it, the perfect storm, we are in the greatest opportunity of our lifetime in career and technical education that if we don't make a difference and make some different decisions now and move CTE forward, we will have lost our opportunity, I think of a lifetime.
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I a hundred percent agree with you, and I've seen some progress in that, but it still troubles me we're still missing some of that opportunity.
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When it is ripe, it is truly ripe.
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Ripe.
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Very true.
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Love that you mentioned.
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When we talked earlier about a author by the name of Steve Barber, greater Than Yourself, And talk a little bit about his influence on your leadership and some of the principles that he talks about that have been meaningful for you.
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I, you've probably sat through many interviews and you'll have candidates that will tell you they're a servant leader.
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And again, I go back to my saying that I is older, I get the less, I pay attention to what people say and more attention to what they do.
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And so I try to model that in reality.
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And I really pick out a couple of folks on my leadership team and I try to spend as much time as I can taking them to, whether it's.
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Community events or conferences or whatever.
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And I try to give everything that I have of myself to that person in leadership, building their capacity so that one day when I walk away, they'll be greater than I ever probably could be, because they'll have the ability to have the information that I've been able to give them and what I've learned along my journeys and the educational piece to be able to take that to the next level.
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so I always try to keep someone, or two folks under my wing to be able to give them everything of myself and my leadership learnings along the way so that one day they'll be creative than me.
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Hey so how do you deal with hiring and bringing people into your team?
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Obviously positionally, they are below you.
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That might be extremely talented, extremely smart, actually maybe smarter than you.
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That happens to me quite a bit.
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I run into a lot of people smarter than me.
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Do you find that a threat as a leader, or how do you manage that?
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I've typically taken on the philosophy, a couple things.
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Number one is.
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Leaders really need to do the best job that they can at developing a succession plan to develop the leaders with inside the system.
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Because oftentimes, excellence can be replicated across new opportunities if you build the right system and have that in place.
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But secondarily, sometimes by only hiring those that look like the organization never gives you the opportunity to change what the organization looks like.
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So there are times in certain positions where I don't understand that we need some different thinking or different viewpoints is I tend to hire folks that we want our organization to look more like.
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And so the threat of someone being smarter or better prepared it doesn't bother me in any way whatsoever because I'm learning.
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So in baseball, there were a couple of areas of my hitting, and that was always my best aspect was my hitting.
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There were a couple areas that, that my stride was a little too long and I couldn't see the outside fastball in the outside corner.
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So I found the two best professional baseball players that I worked with when I was with the Astros.
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I videotaped them and I went home at night and for about two weeks I watched that videotape over and over again to learn to understand what are you doing differently than what I'm doing right now to see your success, that I can't see the success.
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And it completely changed my route with my front foot, and what I saw in the outside corner.
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So again, I'm looking for the great success stories.
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I'm looking to learn from those that can teach me.
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A new perspective or to take my thinking outside of where it currently is.
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They're building capacity of me.
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Am I scared of that?
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Hey, listen, when I walk away, you my job.
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Take it.
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Good luck.
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When you leave Westec, what do you hope that the lasting impact will be and where do you want to see it be after you leave?
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I've always prided myself and my wife as the same way as that.
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We've always gone into organizations and when we left them, they were always better than where we found them.
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And so one of my visions for Westec as I depart, is I really wanna double westec size, So I'd really like to see Westec double in size.
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When I took over, it was about 26 to 2,800 students.
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On our central campus, and again, we serve about 47,000 CTE students in 130 high schools here in the West Valley of Phoenix.
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But I'd like to see Westec double in size.
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I would also like to see us with multiple innovative programs in the areas of healthcare, transportation technology manufacturing.
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I would like to see westex stepping out on a limb to be the leader.
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In career in technical education, not only in the state of Arizona, but across this country and recognized internationally for the work that we do in career and technical education and producing high quality industry professionals coming out, doing great work for our business and industry.
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Where I would like to see it go after I lead is I'm hoping that the person that comes in after me several years from now can take the baton of the excellence and the greatness that we produced and begin looking at things differently because at that time, there's gonna be, different business in the industry.
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And the world will be a different place in five, six years, maybe.
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Maybe one year, maybe two years, and it could be quite different.
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And so I'm hoping that I'm able to build the capacity in the organization that could be nimble enough.
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Just like Westec, we're very nimble.
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That's what makes us so successful.
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We're so nimble.
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We could spin on a dime.
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K 12.
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Comprehensive systems have difficult time'cause there's so much red tape and bureaucracy they have to work through.
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But to give Westec the opportunity to continue to grow and expand and to be a value add to the communities that we serve.
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That's one legacy I wanna leave three legacies, double be more innovative and be a value add and seen by the community as a value valued community partner in producing great CTE professionals for the workforce.
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Does faith play a role in your leadership?
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Absolutely.
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God has blessed me in so many ways from birth until to where I sit today and going through the hills and valleys of life.
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The experience and the journey, as I said before, is oftentimes more beneficial than the result or the reward that you get at the end.
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And god has blessed me in many ways and being able to play professional baseball.
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He has blessed me in my jobs, my family, my colleagues that I work with, the situations that I'm in, the growth of that I've been able to accomplish throughout my career.
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And without him, I would be absolutely nothing.
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The blessings all come from him.
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And when I show up just for this meeting, I pray before this meeting that he gives me the words and the inclination and the remembrance of the things that I've gone through in the past to be able to say what needs to be said.
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I'm very committed to my God in heaven.
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And I believe he leads, guides, and directs every step of my path.
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I too am a person of faith and I don't find there any way to separate that and just that that attitude and that lifestyle of gratitude.
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So grateful for the opportunities that God has provided.
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And when I do have a person on the podcast that it's obvious that faith plays a part of their.
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Their leadership, their lifestyle.
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I like to talk about that as well.
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Without him I would be nothing, may not even be here.
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Understand and concur with that and have some similar experiences.
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When you first started at Westec.
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what would you tell yourself?
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Because I'm a visionary person, I would probably tell myself is don't allow turtle thinking to interrupt the flights of the Eagles as they soar.
00:15:07.678 --> 00:15:16.120
Because far too often, and I do this in my leadership talks is know as quickly as you can what's most important and do that thing because not everything is.
00:15:17.096 --> 00:15:20.046
And so turtle thinking is not a disrespectful term.
00:15:20.046 --> 00:15:24.770
It's just simply saying that some people have different capacities because what may be difficult for me may not be difficult for you.
00:15:24.770 --> 00:15:33.971
So you have to understand that when you have a vision, oftentimes those of lower capacity will throw obstacles and detours in your way, just simply because they have no other no, no other means to get your attention.
00:15:34.399 --> 00:15:46.582
And doesn't necessarily mean that's a negative thing, but oftentimes the low capacity thinking tends to get a lot of the attention and it can't get your attention when you're looking at producing a big vision and getting people to understand how to move and groove within, inside that vision, inside that system.
00:15:46.807 --> 00:15:55.658
And so you have to understand the turtle vision because there's a place for that, but you can't allow it to detour you or throw up obstacles in your way to be able to achieve the vision that you've set for you and or the organization.
00:15:57.265 --> 00:15:57.740
Excellent.
00:15:58.500 --> 00:16:00.450
I think God came through in your prayers.
00:16:00.515 --> 00:16:07.104
you've described, you've talked very coherently on so many ways and really I love that turtle, that eagle.
00:16:07.453 --> 00:16:08.321
Scott thank you.
00:16:08.321 --> 00:16:14.395
It's inspiring for me to sit here and listen to this because it's good to be in the presence of Eagles.
00:16:15.104 --> 00:16:15.178
Yes.
00:16:15.453 --> 00:16:17.553
And there, there's an energy that comes from that.
00:16:17.553 --> 00:16:18.653
So I appreciate that.
00:16:18.854 --> 00:16:20.903
I appreciate the work that you're doing there.
00:16:21.129 --> 00:16:27.011
I think, you have so much to say and there's so many people out there that can benefit from what you're saying.
00:16:27.011 --> 00:16:27.636
I was blessed.
00:16:27.636 --> 00:16:31.200
We had a group in not too long ago, and I'll just leave the groups nameless or whatever.
00:16:31.575 --> 00:16:35.100
the gentleman came up and he asked me, he said, just confidentially, he goes, what do you get out of this?
00:16:35.149 --> 00:16:36.399
He said, you didn't charge us anything.
00:16:36.649 --> 00:16:38.225
You've been with us all day for both days.
00:16:38.707 --> 00:16:49.066
My job is to take its CTE to the national narrative and the more folks I'm able to be, to bring into the great things that are happening here, the conversations you'll take back to your own organizations will continue to spread CTE and the importance of CTE.
00:16:49.500 --> 00:16:50.299
Across this nation.
00:16:50.299 --> 00:16:56.250
So if you ask me what I get out of it, it's more about what you get out of it and my ability to be able to take and replicate these, this great success and excellence across the country.
00:16:56.250 --> 00:17:07.200
And the second person in that group who was a former community college president after the, we were at the third school and he came up and he said, I just wanna tell you, I've really watched your mannerisms and how your faculty and staff and your organization approaches you and how you talk to'em.
00:17:07.340 --> 00:17:08.566
He goes, you are the real deal.
00:17:09.040 --> 00:17:09.915
He goes, I see you.
00:17:10.441 --> 00:17:11.165
And they see you.
00:17:11.365 --> 00:17:12.266
And I said, what is what you get.
00:17:12.391 --> 00:17:13.674
People ask me all the time, Scott, how are you?
00:17:13.674 --> 00:17:14.549
And I said, I'm the same all the time.
00:17:14.950 --> 00:17:17.174
'cause nobody has the ability to affect how my day goes.
00:17:17.307 --> 00:17:18.133
I appreciate your time.
00:17:18.133 --> 00:17:19.232
I know you're extremely busy.
00:17:19.458 --> 00:17:25.657
Just know that you're doing great things and everybody I talk to about CTEI, I point them to you.
00:17:25.915 --> 00:17:27.365
Thanks for joining us on Lead Learn, laugh Grow.
00:17:27.665 --> 00:17:33.090
If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to follow wherever you get your podcasts and share it with a friend who's passionate about growth.
00:17:33.415 --> 00:17:37.365
Connect with me on LinkedIn or visit RM leadership.com to continue your leadership journey.
00:17:37.641 --> 00:17:39.165
Until next time, keep growing.
00:00:00.033 --> 00:00:04.400
Welcome to Lead Learn Laugh Grow, the podcast where leadership insights meet practical wisdom.
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I'm Nancy, your Production Assistant, and today marks the second of an inspiring two-part series featuring Dr.
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Scott Spurgeon, Superintendent of West-MEC in Arizona.
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In this episode, the focus is on how to build capacity within an organization.
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Key methods discussed include modeling behavior, fostering relationships, and demonstrating effective leadership.
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how faith grounds his leadership journey.
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Most importantly, you'll hear his bold vision for West-MEC—doubling in size while becoming a national leader in career and technical education excellence.
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Whether you're an educator, business leader, or someone passionate about developing the next generation of talent, this conversation offers valuable lessons on leading with purpose, learning continuously, finding joy in the journey, and growing both personally and professionally.
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I also Have the absolute pleasure of introducing today's host, someone who has spent his career leading, inspiring, and developing others.
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He's a seasoned education leader, consultant, speaker, and executive coach with a background that spans education, business, and even the military.
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As a former chief operations officer of a major school district, a career and technical education innovator, and now the creator of Results Matter Leader Development, he's been at the forefront of leadership and influence for decades.
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But that's not all.
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He's also a John Maxwell certified Executive Director, a national keynote speaker, and the driving force behind this very podcast.
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His passion helping you lead boldly, learn continuously, laugh often, and grow relentlessly.
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So, without further ado, let's dive into today's episode with our host, Randy Gooch.
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Well, thanks Nancy, and I'm excited today to continue our conversation with Dr.
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Scott Spurgeon so we're gonna dive into it.
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I think back to our previous conversation when we were preparing for this, and you mentioned one I don't even want to call it technique tool, but one thing that you do when developing your team You put them in places and meetings, and then you go back and you start asking them about.
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What was important when you started and what's important today?
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Talk about that concept because I like that so much because it definitely shows growth and it shows with that growth, different levels of engagement and truly being able then to sort out what is that important thing.
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So if you'd share a little bit more with that, that I thought that was a great concept.
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So oftentimes in leadership we have certain groups and committees and.
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Folks that we're always surround ourselves with.
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But if you can ever get outside that group, you never grow any further than the capacity of the person who's leading that group.
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And so I often encourage my administrators to really think critically about when you start this position.
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And then somewhere between three and six months down the line, if I've done my job at building your capacity, you'll go back into those same systems, those same groups, and you'll be asking yourself these questions.
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Is this really what we're going to talk about today?
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Is this really something that you think is important?
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Because six months ago you thought it was the most critical thing that you're gonna have to solve, but now three to four months down the road you're thinking this is really turtle conversation.
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It's not eagle conversation.
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This is something that we could have solved, we could move past.
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So it's the ability to build capacity.
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I never, or I rarely ever go anywhere by myself.
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I'm always looking to build succession.
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I'm always looking to build.
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I want someone, if you're talking to someone that's on my leadership team, if you ask them this question, you ask me the question, you're gonna get the same answer.
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And that's all about repetition.
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Excellence is about repetition over time.
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And having someone with you to hear the conversation, to see your behaviors, to understand your mannerisms, to know the questions that you're asking, to be able to field those questions and see how you respond maybe in questions that may not necessarily be in your bailiwick, maybe you're not quite sure about what that response might be.
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My job is to build capacity, and you do that through modeling, relationships, and leadership.
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Excellent.
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Let's you mentioned in there, and many years ago when I first got outta college in the military, working with the headhunter to exit the military, go into the world of work, business that sort of thing.
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One author was real popular, and this is gonna date me how old I am Tom Peters and he wrote a book.
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It was called in Pursuit of Excellence.
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And the whole concept was that perfection is a fool's game because perfection does not exist.
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But the pursuit of excellence, that's where it's at.
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Share a little bit about that because everything you do, I can tell I see it.
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I see excellence does drive you.
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Tell us a little bit more about the role that excellence plays in your driving you to do what you're doing.
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I've often an answered this question about, what really drives me?
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And I guess I'm a lot like a greyhound that, that it's good for me to never catch the rabbit.
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And'cause once you catch a rabbit, you gotta put the dog down.
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And so I'm always in the pursuit of excellence and nothing really ever satisfies me.
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Let's just be honest.
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I'm happy and I celebrate successes but that success tend to lead me to want more success.
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And so it's not my success, it's our collective success that makes a difference.
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Because one of the greatest satisfactions I get is building the capacity of others to see them be more successful than they ever thought they could be.
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And oftentimes people don't understand what's inside of them until you find someone that can pull it out of'em.
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And so that pursuit of excellence, to me, second place has always been the first loser.
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And growing up, we didn't get ninth place ribbons.
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You worked hard for the success that you got, and you earned that success and you were either rewarded or not rewarded.
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The value of going through the process oftentimes is more valuable than the result that you get at the end.
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Sometimes what happened to you 10 or 15 years ago, you may not necessarily understand how difficult that was or what that really meant, but 10 or 15 years from then, all of a sudden you go through a situation and think.
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God, you know what?
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I'm glad I went through that.
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But the pursuit of excellence is repetitious.
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It's repetitions over and over.
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It's saying the same thing, the same mission, the same language.
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If you put that in front of people more often than what you want them to change, they'll actually begin to migrate towards what you want them to improve or change.
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So my pursuit is one of the fear, one of the two fears I have in life.
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Three of'em actually death heights and the fear of failure.
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I love that when you're talking about putting the vision out there enough and they're gonna catch it versus constantly dwelling on the deficit.
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A great example I'll use is we were working to improve reading performance and one of my previous districts, and one of my non-negotiables is no matter where the kids were when they left the classroom, every one of my students had to have a book in their hands.
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I had some teachers that would come up and say, Dr.
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S Corson, I don't know why we're doing this'cause the kids won't read the books.
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I said if they hold'em long enough, they'll get tired of holding'em.
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They'll open it up and start reading.
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Sure enough it happened and our reading results went skyrocketed because many of our kids wanted to read the nonfiction books, whereas they had difficulty reading some nonfiction.
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once they see the success builds confidence.
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Confidence builds success.
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Love it.
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How do you balance preparing students for so many of the emerging very high tech opportunities while still maintaining those programs for those traditional trades and industries?
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CTE is the, probably the most AI proof institution in this country.
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It's, it'll be a long time, probably some somewhat years down the road before you find AI technology that's gonna be able to come and fix your HVAC system that's out or wire a house and things like that.
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we can't be everything to everybody.
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We can be everything to somebody.
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And so we have to recognize where our strengths are.
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And you have to understand the capacity of your organization.
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if you don't understand the capacity of your organization, sometimes our expectations are so far outta whack that we set ourselves up for failure right from the very beginning.
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And so when you recognize the successful processes and systems that you have in place, and that's shown by data.
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Then you understand what systems or parts and pieces that you can improve.
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It allows you to recognize the value of the organization, each individual member, and the systems you have in place that produce the intended results that you get.
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you don't fix what's not broken, but you can improve what's already good
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You were talking previously about your three-tiered partnership model with business and industry.
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Take a moment or so just to describe what that is.
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I know you've put a lot of work into it, but I think there's a lot of people out there that might listen to this, that to some extent struggle with implementing something like that.
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Maybe not the concept so much, but it, so talk as much about the implementation.
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As the concept.
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I'll start off by saying that right now Westpac's about three fourths of the way done through producing business and industry playbook because oftentimes business industry and those folks that work to develop relationships and collaboration with westec have no idea where to start.
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And so we're developing that business initial playbook to show you step by step the things that are most important and how you actually establish those relationships.
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From that standpoint, we looked at our partnership model simply because we had business and industries that were coming in at the very end of the second semester.
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Participating in mock interviews and cherry picking our students off without actually producing or providing any assistance and giving our system any support to help produce those students till they were beginning the interview.
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So two years ago, we developed the leadership model concept, which was level one is about impressions.
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Every single person at every organization should have an elevator speech.
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When someone asks you, Hey, what is West Mac?
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Everybody should be able to tell you that the value westec bring, Westec brings the great things that are happening and really at a high level, what Westec does and how we produce the pipeline for students in specific industries.
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The second piece is about engagement.
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So what are the next steps to be able to get someone involved?
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Are they participating in career literacy?
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Are they bringing their concept of business industry to the classroom?
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Are they an HVAC technician coming in to teach an entire week on the wiring of the systems?
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So are you participating in mock interviews?
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Are you helping students prepare their resumes their conversations, those kinds of things.
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That's about engagement, but the true strategic leadership piece.
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Is we're gonna sit down in a room, two people that can just get together and say yes, and we're gonna work on ways in which you're gonna provide 50% of your support.
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We're gonna give you 50% of ours, and we're gonna develop a model of effectiveness.
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we're gonna show an ROI return on investment is the partnership that we're doing at the end of this year producing the intended results?
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If not, what needs to be modified change or do we walk away from the partnership because it's not a good match?
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And we've done both.
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We've walked away from partnerships because it just doesn't work.
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But we've also increased the partnership because it's gone so well.
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So it's about that two true strategic partnership in the fact that business and industry are coming to the table, education is coming to the table and we're saying what collectively and collaboratively can we do together to make this partnership work?
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In Times past, and Randall, this being an education for a number of years, 10 years ago we came to the table and business and industry and other educational partners were telling us what we were gonna do.
00:09:09.091 --> 00:09:20.767
Right now, as I call it, the perfect storm, we are in the greatest opportunity of our lifetime in career and technical education that if we don't make a difference and make some different decisions now and move CTE forward, we will have lost our opportunity, I think of a lifetime.
00:09:21.183 --> 00:09:29.129
I a hundred percent agree with you, and I've seen some progress in that, but it still troubles me we're still missing some of that opportunity.
00:09:29.187 --> 00:09:31.462
When it is ripe, it is truly ripe.
00:09:31.466 --> 00:09:31.484
Ripe.
00:09:31.946 --> 00:09:32.471
Very true.
00:09:32.870 --> 00:09:34.270
Love that you mentioned.
00:09:34.363 --> 00:09:45.846
When we talked earlier about a author by the name of Steve Barber, greater Than Yourself, And talk a little bit about his influence on your leadership and some of the principles that he talks about that have been meaningful for you.
00:09:47.067 --> 00:09:50.650
I, you've probably sat through many interviews and you'll have candidates that will tell you they're a servant leader.
00:09:50.650 --> 00:09:55.150
And again, I go back to my saying that I is older, I get the less, I pay attention to what people say and more attention to what they do.
00:09:55.150 --> 00:09:57.051
And so I try to model that in reality.
00:09:57.475 --> 00:10:02.296
And I really pick out a couple of folks on my leadership team and I try to spend as much time as I can taking them to, whether it's.
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Community events or conferences or whatever.
00:10:04.504 --> 00:10:18.395
And I try to give everything that I have of myself to that person in leadership, building their capacity so that one day when I walk away, they'll be greater than I ever probably could be, because they'll have the ability to have the information that I've been able to give them and what I've learned along my journeys and the educational piece to be able to take that to the next level.
00:10:18.395 --> 00:10:25.645
so I always try to keep someone, or two folks under my wing to be able to give them everything of myself and my leadership learnings along the way so that one day they'll be creative than me.
00:10:26.426 --> 00:10:32.466
Hey so how do you deal with hiring and bringing people into your team?
00:10:32.767 --> 00:10:35.116
Obviously positionally, they are below you.
00:10:35.341 --> 00:10:39.642
That might be extremely talented, extremely smart, actually maybe smarter than you.
00:10:39.642 --> 00:10:40.716
That happens to me quite a bit.
00:10:40.716 --> 00:10:42.091
I run into a lot of people smarter than me.
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Do you find that a threat as a leader, or how do you manage that?
00:10:47.384 --> 00:10:49.783
I've typically taken on the philosophy, a couple things.
00:10:49.783 --> 00:10:51.234
Number one is.
00:10:52.096 --> 00:10:56.770
Leaders really need to do the best job that they can at developing a succession plan to develop the leaders with inside the system.
00:10:56.770 --> 00:11:02.312
Because oftentimes, excellence can be replicated across new opportunities if you build the right system and have that in place.
00:11:02.513 --> 00:11:08.388
But secondarily, sometimes by only hiring those that look like the organization never gives you the opportunity to change what the organization looks like.
00:11:08.738 --> 00:11:15.363
So there are times in certain positions where I don't understand that we need some different thinking or different viewpoints is I tend to hire folks that we want our organization to look more like.
00:11:16.201 --> 00:11:20.951
And so the threat of someone being smarter or better prepared it doesn't bother me in any way whatsoever because I'm learning.
00:11:21.350 --> 00:11:26.167
So in baseball, there were a couple of areas of my hitting, and that was always my best aspect was my hitting.
00:11:26.392 --> 00:11:31.067
There were a couple areas that, that my stride was a little too long and I couldn't see the outside fastball in the outside corner.
00:11:31.366 --> 00:11:34.767
So I found the two best professional baseball players that I worked with when I was with the Astros.
00:11:34.946 --> 00:11:44.245
I videotaped them and I went home at night and for about two weeks I watched that videotape over and over again to learn to understand what are you doing differently than what I'm doing right now to see your success, that I can't see the success.
00:11:44.446 --> 00:11:48.071
And it completely changed my route with my front foot, and what I saw in the outside corner.
00:11:48.296 --> 00:11:50.221
So again, I'm looking for the great success stories.
00:11:50.346 --> 00:11:52.145
I'm looking to learn from those that can teach me.
00:11:52.437 --> 00:11:55.238
A new perspective or to take my thinking outside of where it currently is.
00:11:55.437 --> 00:11:56.437
They're building capacity of me.
00:11:56.587 --> 00:11:57.288
Am I scared of that?
00:11:57.296 --> 00:11:58.846
Hey, listen, when I walk away, you my job.
00:11:58.846 --> 00:11:59.096
Take it.
00:11:59.270 --> 00:11:59.645
Good luck.
00:12:00.520 --> 00:12:09.571
When you leave Westec, what do you hope that the lasting impact will be and where do you want to see it be after you leave?
00:12:11.609 --> 00:12:13.783
I've always prided myself and my wife as the same way as that.
00:12:13.783 --> 00:12:17.208
We've always gone into organizations and when we left them, they were always better than where we found them.
00:12:17.884 --> 00:12:24.509
And so one of my visions for Westec as I depart, is I really wanna double westec size, So I'd really like to see Westec double in size.
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When I took over, it was about 26 to 2,800 students.
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On our central campus, and again, we serve about 47,000 CTE students in 130 high schools here in the West Valley of Phoenix.
00:12:32.984 --> 00:12:34.754
But I'd like to see Westec double in size.
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I would also like to see us with multiple innovative programs in the areas of healthcare, transportation technology manufacturing.
00:12:43.803 --> 00:12:46.703
I would like to see westex stepping out on a limb to be the leader.
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In career in technical education, not only in the state of Arizona, but across this country and recognized internationally for the work that we do in career and technical education and producing high quality industry professionals coming out, doing great work for our business and industry.
00:12:57.908 --> 00:13:10.096
Where I would like to see it go after I lead is I'm hoping that the person that comes in after me several years from now can take the baton of the excellence and the greatness that we produced and begin looking at things differently because at that time, there's gonna be, different business in the industry.
00:13:10.274 --> 00:13:12.549
And the world will be a different place in five, six years, maybe.
00:13:12.549 --> 00:13:14.774
Maybe one year, maybe two years, and it could be quite different.
00:13:14.975 --> 00:13:18.625
And so I'm hoping that I'm able to build the capacity in the organization that could be nimble enough.
00:13:18.625 --> 00:13:19.899
Just like Westec, we're very nimble.
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That's what makes us so successful.
00:13:21.424 --> 00:13:22.024
We're so nimble.
00:13:22.024 --> 00:13:22.875
We could spin on a dime.
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K 12.
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Comprehensive systems have difficult time'cause there's so much red tape and bureaucracy they have to work through.
00:13:28.100 --> 00:13:33.000
But to give Westec the opportunity to continue to grow and expand and to be a value add to the communities that we serve.
00:13:33.557 --> 00:13:44.424
That's one legacy I wanna leave three legacies, double be more innovative and be a value add and seen by the community as a value valued community partner in producing great CTE professionals for the workforce.
00:13:45.649 --> 00:13:47.649
Does faith play a role in your leadership?
00:13:48.899 --> 00:13:49.399
Absolutely.
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God has blessed me in so many ways from birth until to where I sit today and going through the hills and valleys of life.
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The experience and the journey, as I said before, is oftentimes more beneficial than the result or the reward that you get at the end.
00:14:00.899 --> 00:14:03.566
And god has blessed me in many ways and being able to play professional baseball.
00:14:03.566 --> 00:14:10.765
He has blessed me in my jobs, my family, my colleagues that I work with, the situations that I'm in, the growth of that I've been able to accomplish throughout my career.
00:14:11.075 --> 00:14:12.475
And without him, I would be absolutely nothing.
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The blessings all come from him.
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And when I show up just for this meeting, I pray before this meeting that he gives me the words and the inclination and the remembrance of the things that I've gone through in the past to be able to say what needs to be said.
00:14:21.037 --> 00:14:22.971
I'm very committed to my God in heaven.
00:14:23.071 --> 00:14:25.721
And I believe he leads, guides, and directs every step of my path.
00:14:26.678 --> 00:14:35.178
I too am a person of faith and I don't find there any way to separate that and just that that attitude and that lifestyle of gratitude.
00:14:35.412 --> 00:14:37.886
So grateful for the opportunities that God has provided.
00:14:37.886 --> 00:14:42.365
And when I do have a person on the podcast that it's obvious that faith plays a part of their.
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Their leadership, their lifestyle.
00:14:45.053 --> 00:14:46.303
I like to talk about that as well.
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Without him I would be nothing, may not even be here.
00:14:49.028 --> 00:14:52.354
Understand and concur with that and have some similar experiences.
00:14:52.395 --> 00:14:53.950
When you first started at Westec.
00:14:56.432 --> 00:14:57.482
what would you tell yourself?
00:15:00.107 --> 00:15:06.283
Because I'm a visionary person, I would probably tell myself is don't allow turtle thinking to interrupt the flights of the Eagles as they soar.
00:15:07.678 --> 00:15:16.120
Because far too often, and I do this in my leadership talks is know as quickly as you can what's most important and do that thing because not everything is.
00:15:17.096 --> 00:15:20.046
And so turtle thinking is not a disrespectful term.
00:15:20.046 --> 00:15:24.770
It's just simply saying that some people have different capacities because what may be difficult for me may not be difficult for you.
00:15:24.770 --> 00:15:33.971
So you have to understand that when you have a vision, oftentimes those of lower capacity will throw obstacles and detours in your way, just simply because they have no other no, no other means to get your attention.
00:15:34.399 --> 00:15:46.582
And doesn't necessarily mean that's a negative thing, but oftentimes the low capacity thinking tends to get a lot of the attention and it can't get your attention when you're looking at producing a big vision and getting people to understand how to move and groove within, inside that vision, inside that system.
00:15:46.807 --> 00:15:55.658
And so you have to understand the turtle vision because there's a place for that, but you can't allow it to detour you or throw up obstacles in your way to be able to achieve the vision that you've set for you and or the organization.
00:15:57.265 --> 00:15:57.740
Excellent.
00:15:58.500 --> 00:16:00.450
I think God came through in your prayers.
00:16:00.515 --> 00:16:07.104
you've described, you've talked very coherently on so many ways and really I love that turtle, that eagle.
00:16:07.453 --> 00:16:08.321
Scott thank you.
00:16:08.321 --> 00:16:14.395
It's inspiring for me to sit here and listen to this because it's good to be in the presence of Eagles.
00:16:15.104 --> 00:16:15.178
Yes.
00:16:15.453 --> 00:16:17.553
And there, there's an energy that comes from that.
00:16:17.553 --> 00:16:18.653
So I appreciate that.
00:16:18.854 --> 00:16:20.903
I appreciate the work that you're doing there.
00:16:21.129 --> 00:16:27.011
I think, you have so much to say and there's so many people out there that can benefit from what you're saying.
00:16:27.011 --> 00:16:27.636
I was blessed.
00:16:27.636 --> 00:16:31.200
We had a group in not too long ago, and I'll just leave the groups nameless or whatever.
00:16:31.575 --> 00:16:35.100
the gentleman came up and he asked me, he said, just confidentially, he goes, what do you get out of this?
00:16:35.149 --> 00:16:36.399
He said, you didn't charge us anything.
00:16:36.649 --> 00:16:38.225
You've been with us all day for both days.
00:16:38.707 --> 00:16:49.066
My job is to take its CTE to the national narrative and the more folks I'm able to be, to bring into the great things that are happening here, the conversations you'll take back to your own organizations will continue to spread CTE and the importance of CTE.
00:16:49.500 --> 00:16:50.299
Across this nation.
00:16:50.299 --> 00:16:56.250
So if you ask me what I get out of it, it's more about what you get out of it and my ability to be able to take and replicate these, this great success and excellence across the country.
00:16:56.250 --> 00:17:07.200
And the second person in that group who was a former community college president after the, we were at the third school and he came up and he said, I just wanna tell you, I've really watched your mannerisms and how your faculty and staff and your organization approaches you and how you talk to'em.
00:17:07.340 --> 00:17:08.566
He goes, you are the real deal.
00:17:09.040 --> 00:17:09.915
He goes, I see you.
00:17:10.441 --> 00:17:11.165
And they see you.
00:17:11.365 --> 00:17:12.266
And I said, what is what you get.
00:17:12.391 --> 00:17:13.674
People ask me all the time, Scott, how are you?
00:17:13.674 --> 00:17:14.549
And I said, I'm the same all the time.
00:17:14.950 --> 00:17:17.174
'cause nobody has the ability to affect how my day goes.
00:17:17.307 --> 00:17:18.133
I appreciate your time.
00:17:18.133 --> 00:17:19.232
I know you're extremely busy.
00:17:19.458 --> 00:17:25.657
Just know that you're doing great things and everybody I talk to about CTEI, I point them to you.
00:17:25.915 --> 00:17:27.365
Thanks for joining us on Lead Learn, laugh Grow.
00:17:27.665 --> 00:17:33.090
If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to follow wherever you get your podcasts and share it with a friend who's passionate about growth.
00:17:33.415 --> 00:17:37.365
Connect with me on LinkedIn or visit RM leadership.com to continue your leadership journey.
00:17:37.641 --> 00:17:39.165
Until next time, keep growing.
