Entry 18: One More Month

Date: April 30th, 2021

What I did this week: Another wild week full of a ton of great conversations with some amazing people, and now I’m within a month from leaving West Point and starting terminal leave...

On Friday, I had the chance to talk with Doug, a USMA grad who is passionate about coaching. Learning about his background and experiences following leaving the Army was super fun and it was a blast to talk coaching with him. I also finished up the COMMIT Foundation’s Pursue Your Purpose after my fifth and final coaching session with Kyle. I cannot recommend COMMIT highly enough. If you’re trying to figure out who you are and what you want, it is a powerful tool if you’re willing to do the work. I also had an awesome conversation with Jacquie, who I met last week during a webinar. Her perspective as someone who comes from the same educational and professional background, coupled with leaving the Army at the same time, and even ending up in an industry I want to join soon was so amazing. I also had the chance to talk with Trish, who gave me so many amazing contacts and talked me through the work she does at Leadership Worth Following and the DRiV assessment. She’s been connecting me with great people and I’m so grateful to have met her! After talking with Trish, I was able to connect with Don, who recently joined Slalom and he explained to me what it’s like to onboard there. They sound like an incredibly veteran friendly organization that has a great culture, so be sure to check them out!

           Wow, that’s just through Monday…Tuesday I had the chance to talk branch mentorship with one of my students, reconnect with my classmate and buddy Charles who gave me some other amazing things to look into, talked with Danny about licensing the Catalyft Coaching Model, and I finished up the day talking with Mark McKearn. He is an executive coach and was my former Brigade Tactical Officer, and he’s an amazing person and was so kind to talk with me for over an hour about the industry. Wednesday was another fun day (after the COVID test, that is…), where I had Matt, Ken, and Ben join my classes as guest facilitators and speakers. In between teaching I also had the absolute pleasure to do a 20 Minute Networking Meeting with Nathan…who literally wrote the book on it (like…seriously…the author). Getting to learn more about his background, work, and passion for supporting the veteran community was so fun. My hope is that I passed what I can only describe as the final test for networking! I also had my final rater evaluation counseling with COL Woodruff, and he gave me a lot of other great things to think through with my transition.

           Thursday things finally calmed down a bit as I took care of some transition tasks such as cleaning the rest of my gear, but I met with Sheri and Jackie to talk through franchising opportunities for coaching firms. I also snuck in an evening call with Ellen to talk through Slalom some more. They are such an interesting company and I was super excited to learn more. I finished out the week with a nice check in with Pat. Disappointingly, I was slated to work the sideline tonight for the last rugby match this season, which was sadly canceled. I’ll be spending the afternoon with the team, and who knows what sorts of shenanigan’s we will get into…

Oh my little brother got promoted to Captain today as well! Here’s when he graduated Ranger school compared to today…

What I’m reading and learned: I spent a lot of time listening to others share their experiences leading and coaching from different contexts. I also read about the “The Search for Worthy Leadership,” which was a great article. I was on the move quite a bit today, so I spent a lot of time listening to podcasts, but nothing directly tied to the transition (which is perfectly fine by me!).

Self-reflection(s) of the week: Every conversation I’ve had, the things I’ve read, and the things I care about keep pushing me towards the importance of character. I want to be able to apply my desire to help people improve their character through leadership in the future. What that looks like is the great mystery…

Did I succeed in my previous goal(s)?: Yes! My wife took the kids shopping and let me grade early in the morning so I could free up some time to finish early in the week. This took so much stress off of me to focus on networking and preparing for later lessons.  

Goals for next week: Drew’s parents come in this weekend, so I really want to spend some quality time with them. I also have some other important goals: finish my last two lessons of teaching at West Point with energy to send off my students with some last good bits of knowledge. Help the rugby team with a staff org redesign. Provide my students with great feedback to improve their growth. Follow-on discussions about coaching licensing and franchising. Attend the SACC to continue to network.  

Inspiration, passion, or excitement of the week: I cannot name them all, because at the end of this week I will have had 15 different networking discussions, which left me so inspired for their willingness to help. But what I keep coming back to is the notes from my guest speakers in class, but in particular what CSM Killingsworth told my students: “Are you trying to be the best Platoon Leader, or lead the best Platoon?” This was such a powerful way to pull apart the individual from the team mindset and show my students how your focus should be on the organization and not yourself. That simplified term encapsulates what I’ve tried to teach over the last year, and it was so great of him to share.

Gratitude: This is a big one! Thanks to Doug for the amazing talk, I look forward to staying engaged with him in the future. Thanks to Jacquie, Trish, Don, Charles, Mark, Nathan, and Ellen for taking time to talk with me and sharing your network. Thanks to Danny, Sheri, and Jackie for talking to me about running my own coaching business. Thanks to Matt, Ken, and Ben for helping me in the classroom and sharing your wisdom with my students. Thanks to Natasha for keeping her eyes peeled out there for me. Last, huge thanks to Kyle for his coaching. Not only did he help me out so much, but he also shared with me some additional wisdom about serving as a coach in the future. Thanks everyone!

Zach