Intentional Leader with Cal Walters - podcast cover

Intentional Leader with Cal Walters

Cal Walterswww.calwalters.me
Let's be honest. The hardest person you will ever have to lead is the person you look at in the mirror everyday. Self-leadership is the most important thing we do as leaders, but it's hard. And it hasn't gotten any easier in a world of smart phone addiction, social media comparison, global pandemics, and information overload (just to name a few obstacles). That's why Intentional Leader exists. We help leaders take the guesswork out of self-leadership, fight a reactionary lifestyle, accelerate their personal growth, and achieve their God-given potential at home, at work, and in their communities. This is why we get out of bed each morning. We love helping leaders on their personal growth journey! Because we know when the leader gets better everyone benefits. Organizations, communities, and families all thrive when the leader is thriving. We are a team of ordinary people with an extraordinary passion for personal growth and helping leaders thrive. Join this community to pursue personal growth and leadership excellence, to inspire others, and make a lasting impact on the world. Life is short, so let's make it count by living an intentional life. On this podcast, Cal Walters — a follower of Jesus, a husband, father, West Point graduate, former Infantry Officer, Army Ranger, combat veteran, lawyer, and Army JAG — passionately explores ways to live intentionally, make each day count, and lead with greater influence and impact. Cal firmly believes leadership matters, and this podcast will help you lead yourself and inspire others. Cal believes we each have a unique contribution to make to the world, and he wants to help you make yours! For show notes, visit https://www.calwalters.me/ Disclaimer: The views expressed on this podcast are those of the author and guests and do not reflect the official policy, position, or endorsement of the US Army JAG Corps, US Army, DoD, or the US Government.
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Episodes

125: Patrick Lencioni — The One Thing Every Leader Needs and His Top Advice to Leaders at All Stages

➡️ Get my free weekly newsletter (The Intentional Letter): https://courses.calwalters.me/signup In this episode of the Intentional Leader podcast, Cal and Patrick Lencioni delve into the core motivations behind leadership, emphasizing the importance of serving others over seeking personal gain. They discuss the impact of fear on leadership effectiveness, the necessity of daily self-reflection, and the significance of understanding one's wounds in shaping leadership styles. The conversation also ...

Jun 30, 202559 min

124: Geoff Woods — Leverage AI for Elite Thinking and Decision Making (The Ai-Driven Leader)

➡️ Get my Newsletter (Intentional Letter): https://courses.calwalters.me/signup Discover Your Core Values: https://calwalters.me/course Geoff Woods is the author of The AI-Driven Leader and the Founder of AI Leadership, where he empowers leaders to harness AI, escape operational overwhelm, and think strategically to accelerate growth. AI Leadership is spearheaded by Geoff Woods, a visionary leader with a proven track record helping companies grow through strategic thinking and AI-driven solution...

May 29, 202552 min

123: General Stan McChrystal — How to Face Fear, Pivot from Failure, and Live a Disciplined Life

➡️ Get my Newsletter (Intentional Letter): https://courses.calwalters.me/signup Discover Your Core Values: https://calwalters.me/course Get On Character by General McChrystal: https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/about/books/detail/2025/01/04/on-character--choices-that-define-a-life Follow Stan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanmcchrystal/ Learn about the McChrystal Group: https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/ In this conversation, General Stanley McChrystal discusses the profound impact of character on le...

May 15, 202558 min

122: Will Acuff — Find Joy in Life's Struggles

➡️ Get my Newsletter (Intentional Letter): https://courses.calwalters.me/signup Discover Your Core Values: https://calwalters.me/course Get Will's book: https://noelevatortoeverest.com/ Learn about Corner to Corner: https://cornertocorner.org/ In this conversation, Will Acuff shares his journey of finding joy amidst life's challenges, particularly through his experiences with his family and the transformative 'trauma camp' that helped him shift his perspective. He discusses the importance of sel...

Apr 02, 202545 min

121: Dr. Steve Graves — Work-Life Balance Tools to Win at Home and at Work

Sign up for The Intentional Letter: https://courses.calwalters.me/signup Discover Your Core Values Course: https://courses.calwalters.me/offers/DmXNju9f/checkout The Work-Life Balance Toolbox: https://www.stephenrgraves.com/balance Steve's book, Flourishing (for free!): https://www.stephenrgraves.com/flourish Cornerstone+ Membership: https://www.cornerstoneco.com/ In this episode of the Intentional Leader Podcast, Cal speaks with CEO coach Steve Graves about the intricacies of leadership, coachi...

Mar 28, 202547 min

120: Katie Quesada — Master Storytelling with Story Expert to Fortune 500 Companies

➡️ Sign up for my Intentional Letter: https://courses.calwalters.me/signup Follow Katie's work: https://katiequesada.com/ In this conversation, storytelling expert Katie Quesada discusses the profound impact of storytelling on personal and professional lives. She emphasizes the importance of storytelling in leadership, how it can create emotional connections, and the science behind why stories resonate with us. Katie shares her journey into storytelling consulting, practical frameworks for effec...

Mar 12, 202554 min

119: Rich Diviney — Navy SEAL Secrets to Master Stress with Retired Navy SEAL Commander

Get weekly insights from me: https://courses.calwalters.me/signup Take the Attributes Assessment (make sure you use coupon code INTENTIONALLEADER15 to get 15% off at check out): https://theattributes.com/assessment-tool Get Rich's new book, Masters of Uncertainty: https://www.amazon.com/Masters-Uncertainty-Navy-Stress-Success/dp/B0DMGYW5YH/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3E4HOYQ84M5H7&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ya84ZhsafB6rPwbEySGGDg.98hhrIiRMlraDT4SDOw9Dih-3Y1Z1b772CBQOmMDIBw&dib_tag=se&keywords=masters+of+u...

Feb 24, 20251 hr 1 min

118: Alison Wood Brooks — Make Great Conversations Easy with Proven Strategies from Harvard Expert

Subscribe to the Intentional Letter (my weekly newsletter): https://courses.calwalters.me/signup Watch this on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DHP2Eahxjm0 Alison Wood Brooks is the O’Brien Associate Professor of Business Administration and Hellman Faculty Fellow at the Harvard Business School. She teaches an award-winning course in the MBA curriculum called “ TALK. ” Recently named a Best 40-Under-40 Business School Professor by Poets & Quants, her book TALK: The Science of Conversation and the Ar...

Feb 17, 20251 hr 4 min

117: Charles Feltman — A Simple Framework for Building (and Rebuilding) Trust that Every Leader Needs

Subscribe to the Intentional Letter (my weekly newsletter): https://courses.calwalters.me/signup Get the The Thin Book of Trust . Cal and Charles Feltman delve into the intricate nature of trust, exploring its biological underpinnings and the personal experiences that shape our propensity to trust or distrust others. They discuss the importance of sincerity, reliability, competence, and care as key assessments of trustworthiness, and how leaders can foster a trusting environment by extending tru...

Jan 30, 202558 min

116: Mark Miller — Chick-fil-A's Secret Sauce for Building Leaders and Creating a Culture of High Performance

Sign up to receive The Intentional Letter: https://courses.calwalters.me/signup Follow Intentional Leader: https://calwalters.me Take Mark Miller's Quicksand Assessment by texting BeSmart (no spaces) to 66866 Get in touch with Mark Miller: 678-612-8441 [email protected] https://leadeveryday.com Mark Miller, former vice president of high performance leadership at Chick-fil-A, discusses the key factors that contribute to the company's exceptional customer experience. He emphasizes the importan...

Jan 16, 202552 min

115: Juliet Funt — Productivity Expert Tackles Task Saturation in the Military

Discover Your Unique Core Values: https://calwalters.me/course Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr_ZF6AG_9ZylHul1O5wHhg Connect with Juliet Funt: https://www.julietfunt.com/military/ Get Juliet's Book: https://www.amazon.com/Minute-Think-Reclaim-Creativity-Busyness/dp/0062970259 00:00 Introduction to Task Saturation and Overload 02:06 Juliette's Experience with the Military 07:01 Communication Challenges in the Military 20:15 Understanding Task Saturation vs. Overload 28:10 Lea...

Nov 08, 202458 min

114: Brigadier General Shane Reeves — How West Point is Preparing Leaders for Uncertainty and Ambiguity

Gain clarity with my Core Values course: https://calwalters.me/course Watch this interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Vn6ZwWWcFZw Learn more about West Point, the world's preeminent leader development institution: https://www.westpoint.edu/ In this episode of the Intentional Leader Podcast, Cal speaks with Brigadier General Shane Reeves, the Dean of West Point, about the challenges of preparing leaders for an uncertain future. They discuss the importance of innovation, character development, a...

Oct 10, 202459 min

113: Graham Cochrane — Be a Rebel, Learn to Dream Again, and Create a Clear Vision for Your Life and Leadership

Discover Your Unique Core Values: https://calwalters.me/course Graham Cochrane is a TEDx and keynote speaker, 7 figure entrepreneur, and bestselling author of How To Get Paid For What You Know and Rebel: Find Yourself by Not Following The Crowd (2024). Get a copy of Rebel: https://www.amazon.com/Rebel-Find-Yourself-Following-Crowd/dp/1637745656 He speaks to over 80,000 people each month on his top .5% globally ranked podcast The Graham Cochrane Show, where each week he helps people create more m...

Sep 03, 20241 hr 2 min

112: Dr. Steven Stein — How to Gain Emotional Intelligence and Build Hardiness as a Leader

Quick Gain Clarity with my Discover Your Core Values Mini Course: https://calwalters.me/course Watch this podcast on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@intentionalleader_calwalters Learn more about Dr. Stein's work: https://stevenstein.com/ Dr. Steven Stein is a world-renowned clinical psychologist, international best-selling author and sought-after speaker, and founder and Executive Chair of Multi-Health Systems (MHS), a publisher of scientifically validated assessments for over 40 years, which has ...

Jul 29, 202445 min

111: Charlie Watkins (Pt. 2) — Worth the Wait: Selling Business for 11X More | Throw No Rocks: A Man's Guide to Success through Partnership with God

Save Time and Avoid Regrets with my Discover Your Core Values Mini Course: https://calwalters.me/course Watch this conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1ki9gIkx54g Purchase Throw No Rocks: A Man's Guide to Success Through Partnership with God: https://thrownorocks.com Charlie Watkins is a Christian husband, father, grandfather and leader. He came to Jesus in 1980 while serving as a nuclear trained officer aboard a US Navy Cruiser, where he was led to the Lord by the ship's doctor. After lea...

Jul 11, 202454 min

110: Charlie Watkins (Pt. 1) — How Forgiveness Breeds Success | Throw No Rocks: A Man's Guide to Success through Partnership with God

Save Time and Avoid Regrets with my Discover Your Core Values Mini Course: https://calwalters.me/course Watch this conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/1ki9gIkx54g Purchase Throw No Rocks: A Man's Guide to Success Through Partnership with God: https://thrownorocks.com Charlie Watkins is a Christian husband, father, grandfather and leader. He came to Jesus in 1980 while serving as a nuclear trained officer aboard a US Navy Cruiser, where he was led to the Lord by the ship's doctor. After lea...

Jul 11, 202450 min

109: Julian Treasure — Top TED Speaker and Speaking Expert on How to Speak So People Want to Listen

Follow me at: https://calwalters.me/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@intentionalleader_calwalters Make Decision Making Easier with my Core Values Mini Course: https://courses.calwalters.me/offers/DmXNju9f/checkout Julian Treasure is a top-rated international speaker on sound and the critical communication skills of listening and speaking. Collectively, Julian’s five TED Talks have been viewed over 150 million times. How to speak so that people want to listen is the sixth most-viewed TED talk o...

Jun 27, 202450 min

108: Jamie Winship — How to Avoid an Identity Crisis and Discover Your True Calling

Follow Cal at https://calwalters.me/ Get back time and make decision making easier by discovering your core values: https://courses.calwalters.me/offers/DmXNju9f/checkout Jamie Winship has decades of experience bringing peaceful solutions to areas of the world that experience the highest levels of conflict. After a distinguished career in law enforcement in the metro Washington DC area, Jamie had a unique opportunity to bring his identity-centric approach of transformation to the field of educat...

Jun 14, 20241 hr 29 min

107: Dr. Anna Lembke — Find Joy and Focus in a Dopamine-Overloaded World

Discover Your Core Values with my Mini-Course: https://courses.calwalters.me/offers/DmXNju9f/ Checkout Get Dr. Lemke's great book, Dopamine Nation: https://www.amazon.com/Dopamine-Nation-Finding-Balance-Indulgence/dp/152474672X Preorder the Official Dopamine Nation Workbook: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0593476212?tag=randohouseinc7986-20 Dr. Anna Lembke is professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine and chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. A...

May 23, 20241 hr

106: Dr. Michael Norton — The Ritual Effect

Take Dr. Norton's Ritual Quiz Michael Norton is the Harold M. Brierley Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He has studied human behavior as it relates to love and inequality, time and money, and happiness and grief. He is the author of The Ritual Effect and the coauthor—with Elizabeth Dunn—of Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending . In 2012, he was selected by Wired magazine as one of “50 People Who Will Change the World.” His TEDx talk, How to Buy Happines...

Apr 16, 202442 min

105: Ryan Hawk and Brook Cupps — The Score That Matters

Get instant access to my new Discover Your Core Values Mini Course People love to keep score. Managers keep score of a range of business metrics: market share, revenue, profit margin, growth rate. In our personal lives, social media has us keeping score by likes and followers. These external scores are outcome-driven and serve as proof of our success—money, fame, material possessions, wins—but this constant chase for more validation often leaves us feeling exhausted and empty. In their new book,...

Mar 29, 20241 hr 1 min

104: Dr. Amy Edmondson — The Science of Failing Well

We used to think of failure as the opposite of success. Now, we’re often torn between two “failure cultures”: one that says to avoid failure at all costs, the other that says fail fast, fail often . The trouble is that both approaches lack the crucial distinctions to help us separate good failure from bad. As a result, we miss the opportunity to fail well. After decades of award-winning research, Amy Edmondson is here to upend our understanding of failure and make it work for us. In Right Kind o...

Feb 22, 202445 min

103: Clay Scroggins — How You Can Lead When You're Not in Charge

Subscribe to Intentional Leader on YouTube ! Link is here: https://youtube.com/@intentionalleader_calwalters?si=NgU1Ui98hTofWc2I On this episode of Intentional Leader, we learn from speaker, author, and pastor Clay Scroggins on how to lead when we're not in charge. The reality is that most of us have a boss or supervisor, so how do we lead through influence when we lack authority? Clay is the author of the best-selling books How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge , How to Lead in a World of Distr...

Jan 18, 202442 min

102: Brian Johnson — How to Activate Your Heroic Potential, Fight Negative Thinking, Create Better Habits, and Live with Areté

The views expressed on this podcast and page are those of the host and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy, position, or endorsement of the US Army, DoD, or the US Government. I'm so pumped to welcome Brian Johnson to the podcast! Check out Brian's brand new book: Areté: Activate Your Heroic Potential Download the Heroic app for free: https://www.heroic.us/join Brian Johnson is the Founder & CEO of Heroic Public Benefit Corporation and the author of Areté: Activate Your...

Nov 16, 20231 hr 21 min

101: Dr. Chevy Cook — On Leadership Lessons from the Secretary of the Army, Finishing a PhD in Character Development, and How to Manage Energy

It's great to welcome Dr. Chevy Cook back to the podast! Chevy was on the show for Episode 36 , but a lot has happened since that interview. We catch up on him finishing his PhD, serving as the speechwriter for the 25th Secretary of the Army, the Honorable Christine Wormuth, completing the Battalion Commander Assessment Program (BCAP), and taking command as the Battalion Commander of Headquarters Command Battalion at Fort Meade, MD. Chevy also serves as the Executive Director for Military Mentor...

Aug 16, 20231 hr 15 min

100: Juliet Funt — A Minute to Think: Reclaim Creativity, Conquer Busyness, and Do Your Best Work

Featured in top media outlets such as Forbes, CNBC, and Fast Company, Juliet Funt is a globally renowned keynote speaker, tough-love advisor to the Fortune 500, founder and CEO of the efficiency training firm, Juliet Funt Group . Juliet is the author of A Minute to Think , nominated for the Next Big Idea Club curated by Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Pink, Susan Cain and Adam Grant. She is an evangelist for freeing the potential of companies by unburdening their talent from busywork, and she has brought ...

Jun 07, 202347 min

99: Doug Jones — Lessons from Ranger School, Achieving Excellence in Physical Fitness, and How to Stay Sharp as a Leader

After graduating from West Point (where I’m pretty sure Doug was the #1 ranked cadet in our class in physical fitness, which is incredible, but I couldn’t get a straight answer from Doug on that fact), Doug commissioned as an infantry officer, graduated from Ranger School, and then went on to leave at several different levels at home and in combat. Doug was awarded multiple Bronze Star medals, including one for Valor that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld presented in 2011. In addition to bei...

Apr 24, 20231 hr 8 min

98: Simone Askew — On Being the First Black Female First Captain at West Point, Authentic Leadership, and Advice for Mentors

It's great to be back after taking a few months off! I'm really excited about all we can learn together in 2023! Today I have the privilege of sharing my interview with Simone Askew . In 2017, she became the first African American woman to earn the role of First Captain, the leader of the Corps of Cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point . This is regarded as a major step in racial and gender equality within the United States military. She was also named by Glamour magazine as ...

Jan 09, 202347 min

97: Cassie Holmes, Ph.D. — How to Live a Happier Life

Download this free 12-page PDF to get 12 key ideas to make you a better leader today. Cassie Mogilner Holmes is a Professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Cassie is an expert on time and happiness. Her research examines such questions as how focusing on time (rather than money) increases happiness, how the meaning of happiness changes over the course of one’s lifetime, and how much happiness people enjoy from extraordinary versus ordinary experiences. Across these inquiries, her findin...

Oct 07, 202258 min

96: General Alizai — Leadership Reflections from the Afghan Army's Last Commander

Commander of Special Operations Command of the Afghan National Army Haibatullah Alizai, took over as Afghanistan’s Chief of General Staff (the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs equivalent) just days before the Taliban made a push into Kabul, after General Wali Mohammad Ahmadzai was removed from the post. On this episode, he discusses his perspective on leading during the difficult moments in Afghanistan as the Taliban seized territory and the US troops withdrew from Afghanistan. He reflects on les...

Sep 23, 202251 min
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