Meikles & Dimes

151: Sundays with Tozer Episode 14 | Tozer's Impact on Ryan Meikle

In this episode, Tozer and I talk with Ryan Meikle, who is general counsel for Brad Hall Associates, one of the nation's largest fuel brokers. Ryan is also my brother, and one of the greatest role models a younger brother could hope for. We discuss how Tozer impacted Ryan in scouting, school, and church, in ways that Ryan will never forget.

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150: Pulitzer Prize Winner Charles Duhigg | How To Be a Supercommunicator

Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter and the author of The Power of Habit, which spent over three years on New York Times bestseller lists. His second book, Smarter Faster Better, was a bestseller, as is his most recent book Supercommunicators.

A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Business School, Charles has been a frequent contributor to This American Life, NPR, The Colbert Report, PBS’s NewsHour, and Frontline.

Charles currently writes for The New Yorker magazine.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• One of the skills that Charles most wants to teach his kids is how to ask questions, and specifically deep questions that get at peoples’ values, beliefs, or experiences.
• Rather than ask someone, “Where do you practice law?” we can ask, “Did you always want to be an attorney?”
• Nick Epley plays a game with strangers of trying to get people to talk about their hopes and dreams within three questions. He usually gets there in two questions (What do you do? Did you always want to do that?).
• We often hesitate to ask deep questions, when in reality people love to answer deep questions.
• When Charles speaks to large groups, he has people share with their neighbor the last time they cried in front of someone. People predict they’ll hate the activity, but then they do the activity and love it.
• Supercommunicators don’t have superpowers. They’re just a little more thoughtful about communication.
• Supercommunicators ask deep questions, they show people that they want to connect, and they’re aware of the different types of conversations such as practical, emotional or social conversations.

Follow Charles:

Twitter: https://x.com/cduhigg

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesduhigg/

Website: https://www.charlesduhigg.com/

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149: SEAL Team Six Navy SEAL Karl “Gus” Gustavson | Leadership, Decision-Making, Communication, & Mental Toughness

Karl “Gus” Gustavson served in the US military as a Navy SEAL and as a member of the elite SEAL Team Six. Back in 2001, Gus was attending college when planes crashed into the World Trade Center. Gus dropped out of college, joined the military, and then served our country for 22 years, completing multiple tours of duty in the Middle East.

And now a quick word about SEAL Team Six. Most information concerning SEAL Team Six is classified. Their activities generally aren’t commented on by the Department of Defense or the White House. But they are the U.S. Military’s primary Tier 1 special mission unit, and are responsible for carrying out the most complex, classified, and dangerous missions, as directed by the President of the United States or the Secretary of Defense.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• Over and over again, Gus saw that his leaders were willing to do everything that they asked their men to do.
• Secretary Mattis taught the SEALs to ask three questions when making a decision: Does this decision make us more efficient? Does it make us more effective? And does it make us a more lethal fighting machine?
• Gus noticed that the best leaders delivered information clearly, concisely, and in a timely manner. “Here’s the info you need to know. Here’s what you’re going to do with it. Now go execute.”
• I was impressed by how Gus controlled his thoughts, whether in combat, on a dive, or even during BUDs. He focused only on the things he could control, in manageable chunks. Sometimes that meant that all he was thinking about was how he could make it through the next hour, or just make it to chow.
• As a member of SEAL Team Six, Gus is the most elite of the elite. And yet the lessons he shared are lessons that we can all apply. Lessons on leadership, decision making, communication, and mental toughness. All simple, yet profound, practical ideas. 

 

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148: Four-Star General of the U.S. Army George W. Casey Jr. | You’re No Better Than Anyone and No One’s Better Than You

General George W. Casey Jr. is a four-star general who served as the 36^th Chief of Staff of the United States Army. Nominated by President George W. Bush, General Casey led what is possibly the world’s largest, and most complex organization--more than one million service members with a $200 billion annual budget. As Chief Executive Officer of the Army, General Casey was a strong advocate for military families, wounded soldiers, and survivors of the fallen, and he also took on the tough issues of suicide and the stigma attached to combat stress.

General Casey served 41-years as an American soldier, following graduation from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• General Casey’s grandpa taught him: You’re no better than anyone. And no one’s better than you. So, treat everyone with respect. But don’t take any guff from anybody.
• General Casey’s father taught him: Never be afraid to try to be the very best.
• Vince Lombardi taught General Casey: Insist on disciplined execution of the highest standards.
• The higher General Casey rose in the hierarchy, the more he realized he needed to influence the people outside his organization rather than just look down inside his own organization.
• The more experienced General Casey got, the more comfortable he got saying, “I don’t know.”
• “Be a man or woman of your word. If you tell someone you're going to do something, you either do it or you tell them why you're not going to do it.”
• There are only two kinds of plans: those that might work and those that won’t work.
• Family is everything.

 

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147: Former BYU President Kevin Worthen | Say “Yes” as Often as Possible

Kevin Worthen was the 13th president of Brigham Young University and is a “BYU guy through and through” as he says. Kevin earned both his bachelor’s and law degree from BYU, graduating summa cum laude. After graduating from law school, Kevin clerked for the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron White, and later spent a year at the University of Chile as a Fullbright Scholar. Kevin also served as Dean of the BYU Law school and as Advancement Vice President of BYU before serving as President. Most recently, Kevin spent a year at Yale Law School as a distinguished visiting professor.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• As Ken Burns said, “Leadership is humility and generosity squared.”
• Leadership is admitting we don’t know everything and then giving credit to others for their success.
• When Kevin played basketball in college, his coaches would use every second of the timeouts to coach the players. But as the years passed, he noticed that coaches started using the timeouts to counsel with the other coaches. There’s power in admitting you don’t see everything and in getting advice from others.
• As the President of BYU, Kevin learned to say “yes” as often as he could, because there are so many times as a leader that you have to say “no.”
• It’s important to be generous and kind when saying “no,” especially because saying “no” typically doesn’t persuade anyone.
• I love two of the quotes Kevin shared: “Anger never persuaded anyone” and “The law of love is undefeated.”

 

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146: IRS Special Agent Richard Littrell | Watch Out For Yourselves & Others

Richard Littrell is a special agent for the IRS. His primary duty is to conduct criminal investigations of individuals who have violated the federal tax code as well as related financial crimes such as fraud, money laundering, elderly financial abuse, illegal drug trafficking, and identity theft.

Shortly after joining the IRS, Richard was a lead investigator on the University of Kansas ticket scandal, in which several KU employees stole an estimated $2-3 million from the athletic department.

Prior to joining the IRS, Richard worked as an auditor at Deloitte. He earned his accounting, business administration and Masters of Accounting degrees all from the University of Kansas.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• As a special agent, Richard has dedicated himself to continuous learning. Criminals launder money through the Internet in countless ways, whether through cryptocurrency or the banking system, and Richard has to stay on top of all of it.
• As an IRS special agent, Richard helps keep the playing field level for all of us by holding criminals accountable for not paying their taxes.
• Richard's advice: "Look out for yourselves. Fraud is rampant. And look out for your friends, neighbors and family as well, to make sure they’re not being victimized."

 

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145: UNC Professor Alison Fragale | Helping Women Navigate Power & Status Dynamics

Alison Fragale is an award-winning professor at the University of North Carolina, where she teaches courses on leadership and negotiation.

Alison has consulted with numerous organizations, including ExxonMobil, Bayer CropScience, and the U.S. Air Force and Navy among others. And her research has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, and The Financial Times. Before entering academia, Alison worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company.

Alison earned her PhD in organizational behavior from Stanford and her BA in mathematics and economics from Dartmouth, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• Though Alison didn’t explicitly set out to conduct research to help women, she realized that it was often the women who were sticking around after class asking for help from someone who looked like them.
• Status and power are often used interchangeably, but they are distinct. Status is respect. Power is resource control. So, it's possible to have one and not have the other.
• Women, more so than men, end up in positions of power without the commensurate status. The alternative, status without power, is much easier to navigate. People think of you as warm, giving, and capable. But people who have power without status are often treated poorly, which can lead to instability and exit.
• Alison’s most common recommendation for women who ask for help navigating power and status dynamics is to start sooner advocating for themselves. Otherwise, they may find themselves in situations where people have already concluded that they’re not the valuable person in the room.

 

Follow Alison:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonfragale/

Website: https://alisonfragale.com/about/

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144: Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson on Psychological Safety | Noticing When the Dog Doesn’t Bark but Should Have

Amy Edmondson is a Leadership and Management professor at Harvard Business School and is world-renowned for her pioneering work on psychological safety.

Amy has been recognized by the Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, and in 2021 and 2023 Amy was ranked #1 in the world.

Amy is also the author of several books which have been translated into more than two dozen languages. Her most recent book, The right kind of Wrong was named the business book of the year by the Financial Times and Schroders.

Amy earned a BA in engineering and design, an MA in psychology, and a PhD in organizational behavior, all from Harvard University.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• When Amy studied hospital teams, she found, to her dismay, that better teamwork was correlated with higher error rates. But then she had a key insight: better teams were more willing to report errors than worse teams.
• Most people, most of the time, hold back dissenting views. And because we don’t know what we don’t hear, we have to go on a treasure hunt for people’s dissenting views if we want to hear them.
• Psychological safety doesn’t mean being comfortable. Rather, it’s about a willingness to endure discomfort, giving people permission for candor, when we go on treasure hunts for dissenting views.
• We believe we see reality, but we rarely stop to think whether what we think we see is actually true. 

 

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143: Chicago Professor Ayelet Fishbach | Four Science-Backed Ways to Increase Motivation

Ayelet Fishbach is a Professor of Behavioral Science and Marketing at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, and the author of GET IT DONE: Surprising Lessons from the Science of Motivation. She is the past president of the Society for the Science of Motivation and the International Social Cognition Network. Her groundbreaking research on human motivation has won numerous awards and is regularly featured in the media, including the New York Times, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, and NPR.

Ayelet earned a bachelor's degree with distinction in psychology, a master's degree summa cum laude in psychology, and a PhD magna cum laude in psychology, all from Tel Aviv University.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• To increase motivation, find pleasure along the way. And setting a goal to do something is generally more motivating than setting a goal to stop doing something.
• To increase motivation, we can monitor progress by looking back and looking ahead. When we start out, we can look back and take encouragement from the small progress we’ve made. When we’ve almost completed our goal, we can look forward, and take encouragement from how little we have left.
• When our goals are in harmony with each other we’re more motivated than when we have conflicting goals. For example, rather than thinking about work-life goals as conflicting, we can think more abstractly about how the goals complement each other.
• Including other people in our goals can be more motivating, whether that’s explicitly involving them in our goals, or just acknowledging that others have an interest in us achieving our goals whether they realize it or not. 

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142: White Shoe Firm Corporate Attorney Todd Mortensen | Advising CEOs and Boards of Directors

Todd Mortensen is a corporate attorney in New York City who advises boards of directors, investment banks, and special committees on sell-side, buy-side, public, and private transactions in a wide range of industries. Todd has represented Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Barclays Capital, Wells Fargo Securities, UBS, and Rothschild & Co. among others.

Todd has also worked in a number of investment management roles at Blackstone, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and Wells Fargo. He’s a former professional athlete and speaks fluent Spanish  and earned a JD/MBA from Penn Law School and Wharton.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• As a corporate attorney Todd helps CEOs and Boards of Directors 1) act in good faith and 2) be fully informed when buying and selling billion-dollar businesses. If the execs fulfill those two requirements, the court will defer to the “business judgement rule.” Otherwise, the courts will use the more stringent “entire fairness” standard.
• If you want to be successful at anything, you typically have to work really, really hard at it. This includes embracing the process of improving a little bit each day, week, and year. And if you’re consistent and diligent with your work ethic, overtime you’ll rise to the top.
• If you’re good to people, doors will open for you. Todd’s managing director at Morgan Stanley taught him that the decisions that would most affect Todd’s career would likely be made when Todd wasn’t in the room. So, Todd needed to make sure that his reputation helped rather than hurt him during those meetings.
• As Todd learned in Venezuela, “Create fama y echete a la came.” Create fame for yourself, and then go lie down. Our reputation is either helping or hurting us.

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddmortensen/

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