#137: Dr. Jerry Lynch — Author of “Lead With Love,” Founder and Director of Way of Champions, Former Naval Officer, Sports Psychologist, Philosopher

#137: Dr. Jerry Lynch — Author of “Lead With Love,” Founder and Director of Way of Champions, Former Naval Officer, Sports Psychologist, Philosopher

We’re back! And who better to join us for our return, than one of the biggest stars on Bring It In: Dr. Jerry Lynch! A former Officer in the U.S. Navy and Nike sponsored competitive runner, Dr. Jerry Lynch [https://www.wayofchampions.com/about/about-doc-j.html] is a Founder of Way of Champions [https://www.wayofchampions.com/], a performance consultancy that combines elite sports psychology, with international philosophy concepts, to generate peak performance. He’s written over a dozen books on his studies on excellence, from “The Competitive Buddha [https://www.amazon.com/Competitive-Buddha-Your-Sports-Leadership/dp/1642505897],” “Coaching with Heart [https://www.amazon.com/Coaching-Heart-Taoist-Inspire-Empower/dp/0804843481],” “Win the Day [https://coacheschoice.com/win-the-day-the-ultimate-coachs-guide-to-build-and-sustain-a-championship-culture/],” “Let them Play [https://www.amazon.com/Let-Them-Play-Mindful-Success/dp/1608684342],” “The Mindful Coach,” [https://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Coach-Jerry-Lynch/dp/1606795945], and more. Dr. Lynch has worked together with coaches and athletes like Steve Kerr [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Kerr], Nancy Stevens [https://uconnhuskies.com/sports/field-hockey/roster/coaches/nancy-stevens/943], Anson Dorrance [https://ansondorrancesoccer.com/], and Phil Jackson [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Jackson], and a slew of accolades. In total, Dr. Lynch has helped secure 73 Conference Championships, 54 Final Fours, and 39 National Championships so…it’s safe to say, he knows a thing or two about coaching. This time around Dr. J is sharing wisdom from his latest book, “Lead With Love” [https://www.wayofchampions.com/products]. In it Dr. J emphasizes the increasing importance of leading and coaching with love, especially in a world where the “human element” of everything from work, to education, art, healthcare, and more are facing massive challenges from AI and automation. This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!

#136: Dan Mantz — CEO and Chairman of the Board for the Robotics Education and Competition (REC) Foundation

It’s fair to say that the robots aren’t coming, they’re already here. Not a week goes by that we don’t see a brand new article about some new self-driving car [https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-self-driving-software-test-drivers-project-rodeo-experiences-2024-10], another A.I company bursting onto the scene, or full on i-Robot style machines marching down an aisle [https://www.axios.com/2024/10/30/teslas-robots-self-driving-cars-reality-check]. It’s hard not to be unnerved by the impact robotics and machine learning can have on the workforce, and there’s a lot of unknown factors we’re going to have to deal with in the not-too-far-off future. That’s where today’s guest Dan Mantz hopes to make things a little easier for us. He’s spent the last 30 years working in the field of robots; for private sector companies such as GM [https://www.gm.com/], FANUC America [https://www.fanucamerica.com/], or Electronic Data Systems [https://electricdatasystems.com/], and educational institutes like WPI [https://www.wpi.edu/], Kettering University [https://www.kettering.edu/], and the Forbes Nonprofit Council [https://councils.forbes.com/forbesnonprofitcouncil].  Dan now serves as the CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation [https://recf.org/], or the REC. The REC’s mission is to provide every educator with workforce readiness programs to increase student engagement in STEM programs. They hold hundreds of events every year that host over 1 Million students from over 70 countries, leveraging the power of competition and play to educate their students. We caught up with Dan to chat about how we can leverage our schools, private industries, and government to better educate people about robotics, and also how to build a more harmonious relationship between people and robots in the workplace. And finally, Dan shared with us how competition and play is one of the most effective ways to teach, even something as seemingly complicated as robotics. Whether you’re a middle manager or CEO, this is definitely an episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!

#135: Eric Kapitulik — Author of "The Program: Lessons from Elite Military Units" on Developing High Performance Teams

One major trait for many great leaders is the ability to not just persevere through hard times, but create an opportunity during challenging times. Eric Kapitulik [https://theprogram.org/our-team/] really, really knows something about that. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy [https://www.usna.edu/homepage.php], where he was a four year varsity player in D1 Lacrosse, he then went on to serve in the United States Marine Corps [https://www.marines.mil/], where he served as a Platoon Commander in the elite 1st Force Reconnaissance Division [https://www.1stmardiv.marines.mil/Units/1ST-RECON-BN/].  In 1999 he suffered a tremendous tragedy, when during a routine training exercise his squad’s helicopter crashed where six of his fellow Marines perished. After recovering both physically and emotionally from the crash, Eric focused solely on the well being of his fallen comrades families: In an effort to raise money for a college scholarship fund set up for the children of his deceased teammates, Eric completed eight Ironman Triathlons [https://www.ironman.com/], The Canadian Death Race Ultra Marathon, The Eco Challenge, and The American Birkebeiner Ski Marathon, and as a side quest, climbed five of the Seven Summits. On top of all this Eric enrolled in the University of Chicago [https://www.uchicago.edu/en] after he left the Marines, and graduated with his MBA in 2005. Shortly after that in 2008 he founded The Program [https://theprogram.org/]. The Program pulls from his experience in the Marines, and aims to provide organizations with the best personal, leadership, and culture development services worldwide.  We caught up with Eric to talk about his philosophy on developing a high performing team through grit, communication, and setting standards. We also chatted about his new book The Program: Lessons from Elite Military Units for Creating and Sustaining High Performance Leaders and Teams [https://theprogram.org/our-book/], which details the lessons learned from his time in the Marines and as an entrepreneur.  This is another episode you’re not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!

#134: Corey Mintz — Freelance Food Reporter for The New York Times, Eater and more, Hospitality Operations Advisor, author of ‘The Next Supper: The End of Dining as we Know It’

2024 is going to be remembered for a lot of things, one of them being that it was the year we finally moved past the COVID-19 Pandemic. Industries everywhere are claiming to ‘be back’ to pre-pandemic functions, with everything from return to office initiatives to the National Restaurant Association boasting that restaurants are back to 2019 rates of turnover [https://www.nrn.com/workforce/restaurant-turnover-rates-improve-pre-pandemic-levels]. The problem is, the 2019 turnover rate for restaurants was 73% [https://pos.toasttab.com/blog/on-the-line/restaurant-turnover-rate#:~:text=Using%20the%20most%20recent%20data,(from%202013%2D2019).], which is insane. So rather than referencing some not-so-great statistics from the past, today’s guest Corey Mintz [https://coreymintz.ca/] is looking forward to the future. Corey is a freelance food writer for everything from Eater [https://ny.eater.com/] to The New York Times [https://www.nytimes.com/], as well as an Operations Advisor for hundreds of restaurants across North America. He’s the author of two books, How to Host a Dinner Party [https://coreymintz.ca/new-page] and his most recent one, The Next Supper: The End of Dining as We Know It. [https://coreymintz.ca/the-next-supper] In today’s episode Corey shares his experiences embedding himself within various communities revolving around the restaurant industry, from farmers in Florida to the line in high-end LA restaurants. He got to experience first hand, not just how restaurants adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, but how they’ve integrated lessons learned from that time to make a more sustainable, and equitable restaurant industry for all. This is another episode you’re definitely not going to want to miss, so with that…let’s bring it in!

#133: Amy Edmondson — Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, author of “Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well”

For any long time listeners of the podcast, you know we are firm believers in failure being a positive thing. From D1 coaches to cutting edge researchers, great performers and leaders across the board understand the importance of allowing people to fail well. But, how exactly do you do that? Enter today’s guest Amy Edmondson [https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=6451], Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School [https://www.hbs.edu/] and author of the book Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well [https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=64186].  Before her appointment to Harvard [https://harvard.edu/], Amy served as Chief Engineer for the architecture and invention firm Buckminster Fuller Institute [https://www.bfi.org/], and Director of Research at the Pecos River Learning Centers. In both fields, her search for new and innovative techniques led her to a strong ‘trial and error’ approach where she discovered the ins and outs of “failing well”. In our conversation, Amy goes over the types of good failure and how they create better workers, teams, and environments where workers can feel “psychologically safe”, and what the consequences of fostering an environment that punishes failure can lead to. This is an essential listen for anyone looking to develop a welcoming, safe, and winning environment for their employees, so with that…let’s bring it in!