14137 Jill Nicolini Interviews Randy Swaim Marshall Goldsmith Certified Executive Coach & Founder of Coaching for Relevance, LLC

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Always a good time with my friend, Ryan DeSwam. Yeah, he has so many titles, so many awesome, but he's my friend and that's how I'm going to introduce him today. He could tell you more about himself. Always a pleasure to have you, darling. What's happening?

Well, I'll tell you what, it's, it's good to be with you. You're one of my favorite friends and I'm just honored to be here when we can. So yeah, that's cool.

Well, for today, I mean, we got to tell everyone, let's see, he's an author, he's a coach, he's just so modest, pilot, veteran.

Yeah.

What is, movie star, what is, what is on the horizon for you? What's new?

Well, what I'm looking for, you know, right now is just continuing to, to move forward and making a difference for other people and everything. And, and, and also, as you know, my, you know, my autobiography is out there and Hollywood movie documentary is out there. I know they're, the marketing group is working on that now, publishing it and everything. And so just getting the word out and making a difference in folks. And that's, not that they call attention to me, but that they get a certain insight. And in fact, I will tell you, interestingly enough, in one aspect, I'll be bringing the,

the central aspect of that value and that aspect to our, to our session today. And, but yeah, just, I've, I think you've heard me say this before, but I've had, I've heard a lot of people ask when I was going to retire and I say, when I take my last breath. And I, and they look at me and I go, you got to realize I'm going to run through the tape because up until I take my last breath, I'm going to do everything I can to, to get some word out, to get some value out to people that can make a difference in what they're doing and where they're going.

Beautiful. Thank you so much. And how are you going to surprise us today? What do we have in mind? What are you going to share with us?

Well, what I'm going to share, and really, it's sort of an interesting aspect, but it's going to be bringing some fundamental organizational maneuverability aspects to it, not just in academic, but aligned with that. But also, I'm going to be bringing an aspect of the neuroscience for being a master neuroplastician that I am and all. And what I'm going to do is kind of bring an aspect that a lot of people miss when they're teaching others. And I'm going to give one example of it. But then also mention an aspect that people have to be thinking about when you're really

training and developing people that you're working with, or who knows, it may be family members, or whatever. You know, they may be, it may be one of your bosses, one of your leaders that asked you a question. And sometimes, if you bring the right emphasis out, if your only emphasis is trying to call attention to yourself, to say, "Yeah, I gave the right answer," and everybody will leave you alone on that, you're really not getting the job done. And this will bring a little bit of, sort of, a variable picture of all of that into what I'm going to bring today as we talk.

All right. Thank you so much. Randy, let's get started. Where do we begin?

Sounds good. Well, what I'm going to do is I'm going to give an insight, and I'm going to start with a little insight and a concept that is related to pilots, and particularly in flying jet airplanes and things like that and everything. But I'm going to just kind of highlight one aspect of it that shows a little bit of the, you know, the unsuccessful attempt. Now, let's face it, when somebody is starting to try to learn an airplane and to be Become efficient in an airplane. They need to know all of this, the, the aspects of it and everything. No two ways about that.

But I will just share this with you. And again, not going to be going, not going to be trying to bad mouth the instructor or whatever that was, I was doing it. But um, just bring out this one aspect of it and uh, get this aspect that is not just about memorizing road academic situations, road, road academic. You know, superficial thoughts, but it's knowing how you can apply them. And uh, what I would do, I heard this one uh, examiner who was giving a check ride one time and in the, the oral part of it. This uh, examiner asked this question. Now, on the surface, sounds okay, but

there's an aspect that you gotta be aware of. It's not, it's not a dysfunctional question, but it's you got, it, I'm gonna bring, bring in an aspect that people have to think about. And one of the questions that they asked, they, they were talking about one aspect of, of, of a part that was on the airplane. And their simple question was, they looked at the, the client who was going through their check ride to be qualified for the airplane for the first time. And they looked at the uh, the uh, um, a student there or the person that's being checked and everything. And they said,

well, when, what are the four things on the airplane that this connects to? Now, that's not a dysfunctional question.

Okay.

But if that is your only, if, if that level is your only question at, applied to people that you're training and that you're certifying and everything. If that is the only question and the only way you're gonna ask questions, and if your mindset is only, do they have some knowledge about the superficial systems in the airplane? You know, that, that can be there and that can often be the case. But what you have to understand is that when they go out and start flying that airplane or whatever, they have to understand a lot more than just the superficial road

academic simplistic, you know, points. You know, those are, they gotta know, but.

They have to know and be able to apply deeper than that. And what that means is when you get out there, and a lot of people have this mindset that if if I know that this is connected to these things, okay, I just turn the switch on or whatever, you know, kind of thing. But the bottom line is you have to realize that when you get out there and you get into real situations, and this is a part where the organizational maneuverability and the neuroscience processing has to come into play. Because you know what? All of the answers and all of the challenges that are going to face this pilot or this person are not going to be rote superficial academic.

Now, one or two of them might be, but you know what? Some of the factors that can come on the scene are not. And you got to realize that sometimes when a factor comes on the scene like that, there's there's kind of a whole bandwidth, if you will, of options on it. You got one bandwidth right here, which says, I can go over here and do this. Or there's one bandwidth way over here on the other side says, oh, I can go over and do here. Well, guess what? There's a whole window of variable aspects within that. And part of it, and you've heard me say this before in talking organizational maneuverability, that that there are factors that can come on scene that are not what you expected. And here's the thing, understanding from the concept of neuroscience and the ability

to truly process, you know, the thing is, if all you're doing is going to your rote academic superficial things, guess what? Probably eight or nine times out of 10, you're not getting the job done.

True.

And you've got to be able to understand the true situations and not just this aspect about this one system or this one part of the airplane or whatever, but to be able to truly mentally process the understanding of the situation and understand how this needs to be applied in a specific way that minimizes and reduces risk and achieves satisfactory and success. And that's the thing that a lot of people sort of in societies don't fully understand.

If you, if, if all you're doing is just connecting with road academic superficial surface, you know, factoids in, excuse me, in most cases, you're truly not getting the job done. Because what you have to do is when you're talking about developing these people and a lot of the people out there, when they're going through training, guess what? Pilots? Yeah. Guess what? Military leaders? Yep. Guess what? A lot of, a lot of other, a lot of people in business, guess what? You have to not just understand the road academic superficial things. That's good to know as a basis.

But what you have to do is you have to truly, truly be able to process the actual situational awareness of the situation. And also clearly understand and have clarity on how the situation and your knowledge of the airplane has to be applied to that in a way to minimize the risk and truly, you know, achieve success in it. And, um, and, and that's just something that a lot of people, you know, don't understand. If all you're doing, you know, whether you're talking about the fact that you're teaching

certain people or you're evaluating certain people or whatever, I mean, it's good to know that they have a mental understanding of the, the system or whatever, you know, kind of thing. But what's also very key is to understand their application of it, their operational application of it and understand what, you know, sometimes is the real solution needed for that and what it brings you and, and is it going to really achieve it? Because here's the thing, if, if all you do is say, well, this, this happens and you'd be surprised at how many times I have heard somebody say something like this.

They said, uh, well, doggone it. Well, turn that on, but you know what? That didn't do anything and the doggone it. That just, that just didn't do it. It ain't, you know, you know what? Guess what? Depending on the factors that have come on scene that are on this situation. Guess what? Your rote academic understanding of it does not always really bring solution to it. And, um, and so you really, there, there's other factors involved in this. The knowledge that you have is, is important in terms of the, the systems or your, the, uh, the team or the, you know, organization that you're working with or whatever. All of that is very key. Yes.

As far as basic understanding and basic knowledge. However, what you have to be able to do is when a certain challenge comes on scene that perhaps you didn't expect and perhaps nobody in your team expected. If all they're doing is going to rote academic things, they're nine times out of 10, they're not getting the job done.

True.

And so you have to know, uh, a lot of people don't realize, but it brings this organizational maneuverability concept, but also the neuroscience awareness in your processing and your ability to truly, you know, uh, uncover the radical, you know, uh, realism of the situation you're dealing with. You know, kind of thing. And it's not just rote academic, and that's what a lot of people don't, uh, don't understand. But, but bringing those two, the knowledge is one thing, but how you're going to apply it. And you know what? Some of the thoughts can be done where, and I, I commend people for doing this.

What are the most unexpected factors that might come on the scene sometime in the future that you're not expecting? And what might that be?

Floods in the house. I'm sorry, car accidents. I don't know. No, health issues, yeah, a lot.

And, and, and you know what? All of that can be a factor, you know what? And then once you do that, you can get them thinking and processing, okay, well, if that comes on, how are you really going to reach success in that with what you've got? With what you're, um, with your situation, with your team, with the knowledge, like with an airplane, with the knowledge of the systems in your airplane?

Yeah.

You know, what's, what's the risk going to apply, apply to your airplane? And how are you going to minimize the dysfunction and the, the negative part of it? But really achieve success? And, and so it's just something to think about when you're talking about it. But it does, as I mentioned, it does bring this aspect of, um, of the organizational maneuverability and, and all of that. But also the neuroscience processing ability and how that's important.

Yeah.

And, and how that needs to be bringing the knowledge that you have. And that's why I will tell you this, that when I, when I, uh, you know, uh, do, uh, when I, uh, do check rides and, and, and all that with people and stuff, a lot of the oral questions that I ask, they're not really crazy. They're not goofy. They're not stupid. Or, but, but what they are is they take their basic knowledge and applies them in certain ways. Uh, like I might ask, you know, how would you do that in this situation or whatever? You know, kind of thing. And, and they have to apply the knowledge that they have to answer the question, but it's not just road academic.

And, and I will tell you this, that most of the people, in fact, it's kind of wild. I gave a, a check ride to two of the, uh, 135, uh, uh, operators that I'm a check airmen for their company. And, um, and one of the guys mentioned, he said, I'll tell you what, everybody in our company likes you, Randy. Because of the way that I do it, because what I do is I don't just go with rote, superficial understanding, but I go with ways where they take the knowledge that they have, but they also share how they would apply it maybe in a given situation or whatever, and it helps them develop that part of it.

And, but that's very different in a lot of areas of our environment today. And when I mean environment, I don't mean just flying, I mean society, you know, kind of thing. It's a way that a lot of people don't think about it. But I'll tell you what, if you're trying to truly get your people growing, and your people really, really be enabled to take on challenging situations and reach radical success in the midst of it. That's an aspect that leaders need to be understanding. And a lot of it isn't just telling them rote academic answers

and then patting yourself on the back for knowing it, which is what a lot of people do. But a lot of it is asking them the questions that get them thinking and pursuing and kind of focusing through a given situation and everything, and coming out to a really radical and satisfactory answer. And they're very happy when you look at them and you go, you know what? Good answer.

Yeah.

I think you're dead right. Good, my compliments to you, you know, kind of thing. And so it's not just something where it's just that superficial rote stuff, but to have a sense where you can bring, you can have them sort of bring out their mental processing of it and their thinking about it. But not only that, not just the rote academic answer. And if they can't come out with an answer, then they don't have the knowledge, kind of thing. But if they have the knowledge and can bring it out in a way, which helps them get a sense of how they would make their decisions and things. Things like that, uh, you know, what, what you're having a good sense on is that they have the knowledge,

but they also uh have some real clarity on bringing it out to be effective and stuff. And so those are the aspects that a lot of times people uh don't think about. If all you're thinking about is just rote superficial, surface academic things, you know, in reality, you're not really making it a successful for the organization and for uh what kind of factors can come on scene. And so I just throw that out just with the aspect, like I said, it brings a little bit of the organizational maneuverability aspect of it, but it also brings some of the neuroscience aspects of it and um and how you've got to,

you know, bring the, the brain together and not just remembering a rote academic factoid and saying it, but having a little bit of a clarity on when that should be applied and maybe when it shouldn't be, you know, kind of thing and all of that, because guess what? When you're talking about it out there, um, those are some factors that can lead you to true success. That sometimes people don't think about. And so I just throw it out there just as a uh, uh, a concept of sort of what we were uh, expanding a little bit on just kind of a area where we've been talking for a while and uh,

but it's um, but again, it's just a, an aspect that if all you're doing is uh, you know, making sure you're asking them questions that just have rote superficial, academic little superficial things, you know, you're probably not getting the job done. Now, if you're dealing with things that are limitations that they have to know without reference to anything, yeah. Okay, yeah. And I do, and I do the same thing with that. When I ask them limitation questions. I ask them a limitation question and I shut my mouth and you know, kind of thing and wait for them to give the right number, you know, kind of thing. Now, so those, those are important, but as far as that, one of the things that I look for when I'm evaluating

somebody is to truly get a sense of whether they can apply the knowledge that they have rather than just rote academic of the knowledge. So, so it's just a key point on that when you're looking at going forward and even at, at the end of training, when you're looking to step forward and stuff, you know, having some aspects on what are the factors that, where you need to apply it and in what ways and things of that nature. So I just, I just throw that out. That's what I'd throw, throw out today. It's just something that a lot of people don't understand. They just think it's, you know, come up with these answers, but you know what? How can they apply them in a correct and a, and a satisfactory way

that brings success to our team, to our company, to people that are around us, maybe, maybe saves the life of somebody who knows, kind of thing and, and all of that. But it's just something that a lot of people don't really think about so much today, but it is very important.

Sure is. Well, you know, Randy, anything new personally for you? You've done a lot. You continue to do so much. Is there anything on the bucket list that you are looking to do? Or have you done it all?

Well, I'll tell you, I've done a lot of it. It just suffice it to say, but, but as you know, that the, the Hollywood movie documentary, My Life Journey is out there and it's, the marketing group is working on getting it out there and, and marketing it and everything. And, and probably

The autobiography is on Amazon and it's available and probably gonna be finding somebody that can market it well and stuff like that, but really with what I'm doing now and with what I'm doing in working with jet pilots over at DFW Airport. Cause that area over there is a key aspect where I bring

Yep.

This whole mindset, this whole neuroscience, the coaching, the SEC, you know, Mark Fogle Smith Certified Executive Coaching

Skills and all that. I bring all of that to the training that I do over there so that it truly develops their understanding and their real experience and things of that nature and all that. And so I'm gonna plan to do that and um, and like I say, I've, they like me over there and um, and I've, I've seen a number of the leaders that have really expressed liking me and all that kind of stuff over there. But I, but, but I will say this and like you, like you, I think I mentioned you before that, you know, a long time ago, I had somebody ask me when I was gonna retire and I said, when I take my last breath.

And they looked at me with this real questioning look on their eye and I said, because I'm gonna run through the tape, you know, kind of thing. And for, for the benefit for others, not just for myself, but for the benefit of others.

You know, I want to keep making the difference and keep bringing awareness and keep bringing insights up for other people that, you know, even after I take my last breath, people may not remember my name and that's okay with me, you know, kind of thing. But thank you, my friend, because I, because I won't forget you up until the, the last breath, but I appreciate it.

So we need again, because we will, but yes.

Yes, yes, we will. Yes, we will. And um, but I'll, but I'll tell you, uh, like, like you said, yeah, that's um, you know, my whole concept on that is that um, that people have a difference and, and there'll be some people out there perhaps that don't remember my name and they go, boy, I don't remember who this was. But boy, you know what? They came out with this insight. And boy, it made a difference in my life. And you know what? If there's some of those people out there, I'm gonna be so grateful. And so I just, I'm gonna run through the tape and I'm just very honored. Like I said,

as you know, I so totally value you as a friend and so valued that we're on these shows together. So I just, I appreciate it, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep trying to make a difference and just trying to do stuff that's worthy and just making a difference right up until I'm no longer here.

Oh, beautiful. Thank you so much, Brandy. For those people out there that want to reach out to chat, to pick your brain, to find out more about the book, the movie, all the above, how do we reach you?

Yeah, good point. What you can do is you can go to my website of coachingforrelevance.com, coachingforrelevance.com. And when you go to that website, at the very bottom of the homepage, there's a cell, there's my cellphone and an email for me. But when you scroll down the page, you get to two big squares there. And one of them talks about the movie documentary. And if you click on the movie documentary, it'll bring the one and a half minute little edit, you know, picture up and everything. But over on the side, it'll

say purchase or rent. So you can use that to go purchase that. But right below that, there's a square that talks about the autobiography and you can go there and purchases. So there's a couple of real quick ways, easy ways that people could do that if they wanted to.

Perfect. Thank you so much, my friend. Enjoy the rest of your day and see you next time, right here, same time, same spot, right? As usual.

I'll tell you what, you betcha, my friend. And I'll tell you what, I hope you have a great rest of the week and a great weekend. And I look forward to seeing you next weekend, or next week.

Same here, sweetheart. Thank you so much.

I totally value you, my friend.

Ditto.

Hello, I'm Randy Swaim. I'm a Marshall Goldsmith Certified Executive Coach and the founder for Coaching for Relevance. Our vision is to bring freedom to potential in all that is across our path. And one of the things we really want to do, which is aligned with our aviation background, is to help teams and leaders break free of the gravitational forces that are holding them back and their success back, and help them soar to their altitudes. So that's our passion, and that's what we're all about.

Broadcasting from the business capital of the world, this is the Podcast Business News Network.

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