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Welcome to Milestone Moments, the show where we explore the journeys that lead to success.

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I'm Sheila Slick, your host and founder of Five Milestones. In every episode, we will bring you

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insights from the minds of entrepreneurs, leaders, and experts who will share not just their expertise

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but the milestone moments that have reshaped their journeys and led to significant achievements.

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So if you're looking for motivation, you're in the right place. Subscribe now and discover the

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milestones that mark the path to success.

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Welcome to another episode of Milestone Moments in Business and Leadership. I'm Sheila Slick,

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your host, and today my special guest is Dr. John Dentico. He's a groundbreaking leadership

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consultant and founder of Lead Slim LLC, where he challenges conventional leadership models

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by focusing on action-oriented practices rather than individual traits. His pioneering approach

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spans 30 years of research, training, and consulting, offering innovative solutions

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in an era demanding foresight and agility. He is also the author of the award-winning book,

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Throttle Up, How to Accelerate the Impact of 21st-Century Leadership. Welcome to the show, John.

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John Dentico Thank you. Nice to be here.

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Sheila Slick What are the most significant leadership challenges organizations face today?

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John Dentico Well, in my perspective, one of the biggest challenges is understanding that there are

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new models of leadership at work. A lot of my focus of my work right now centers on attracting,

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hiring, engaging, and retaining top talent. In a talent pool, in a skilled talent pool,

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it has three major demands. Number one is they want to have values alignment with the organization

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they're working with. They want to know the organization cares about the same things they care about.

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Number two, and this is incredibly big, they want to be involved in the decision-making

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processes of that organization. They want to matter and they want their work to matter.

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You know, everyone seeks a level of control and autonomy over their own destinies. I have a habit

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of saying people want to be masters of their own fate. And the third one is they want training and

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learning that develops them professionally and flows over to their personal lives as well.

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So unless you're looking at a leadership perspective, a leadership model, if you will,

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that engages them, creates an environment for them where these things can be achieved, then

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all you're doing is trying to stand down by the seashore with a shovel trying to turn back the

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tide because the tide's coming in. The tsunami has arrived. And in this world, the talent is now

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dictating the terms under which they will hire onto an organization and stay. So unless there's

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this realization and movement towards a different kind of collaborative leadership model, I think

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that's one of the biggest challenges organizations face.

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What is the LEAD-SIM leadership simulation method and how do you apply it to help these

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organizations and individuals to thrive in this world?

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Great. That's a great question. I developed LEAD-SIM. I started developing it 30 years ago, 1993

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is actually when I was working on my beginning, my doctorate in leadership studies at the University

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of San Diego. And I wanted to try to take all the theories, all the ideas of 21st century leadership

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and the new leadership ideas off the drawing board and create a way in which people,

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could actually experience leadership in a realistic environment. And it has proven itself

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to be very successful, albeit mostly in the world of first responders, law enforcement,

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because they really love things like simulations. They love to get their hands dirty, roll up their

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sleeves, and it gives them an opportunity to actually do something. And I think that's

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an opportunity to do. I believe we become what we do. Margaret Wheatley, who is a prolific

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writer, a leadership writer, wrote a book called Leadership and the New Science some years ago.

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And there was a great one line in that book where it says, we only know ourselves in relation to

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other people. So what I try to do in the simulation, and by the way, we're not talking

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an online simulation or computer driven simulation. We're talking about 40 people in a room

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playing at five to seven different tables, playing stakeholders around a specific kind of problem or

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issue. And by introducing several episodic events in a compounded manner, so something happens,

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and then a few minutes later, something else happens. And then a few minutes later, something

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else happens, and it continues to build, giving them an opportunity to actually practice leadership

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in a very realistic environment. One of the things that I try to do is write the simulation,

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the scenario, if you will, about the real issues and problems that they face. And it's amazing to

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watch them begin to understand why things like collaboration are so important,

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why working together in a mutual direction is so important. And again, I try to teach leadership

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by learn by doing methodology. And the original idea behind it was simple.

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Back 30 years ago, we were trying to figure out how to break down the silos in organizations,

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how to make an impact on people that collaboration was really important,

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and to tear those barriers down, if you will, to collaboration. And the simulation has been very,

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very successful in its ability to do that. I'll just add one other thing. The simulation runs on

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two fuels, in addition to the people in the room. One is ambiguity. I like things to be somewhat

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ambiguous because now people have to grapple with how they're going to get through it. And the other

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one is empathy. Once you play a role in a different stakeholder table, so for example, you may be in

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marketing and we'll put you at the table for where the CEOs are. We'll give you that perspective.

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We'll let you walk in the shoes of a different person. And that has been called the best empathy

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builder anyone's ever seen. So that's the simulation work.

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So I'd like to backtrack a little and learn a little bit more about how you got to where

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you are today. You have over 30 years of experience. You have a PhD.

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And you're an author. Can you tell me what that milestone moment, what that catalyst that led you

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to take this direction in life was? Wow. Well, 30 years ago, maybe a little over 30 years ago,

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I was working in an industry that I felt I could no longer stay. And that was in a professional

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and that was in professional services in government programs. I just felt like the odd person

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had. And I was looking for something else. I knew something else was coming. And I was torn

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between going to law school and a program and this leadership program at the University of San Diego.

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And I really, I know you talk about self-awareness. I really had one of those meetings with yourself

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where you try to say, well, what is it that I want to do? What is it that really puts fizz in my soda,

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as I like to say, or turns me on. And I look back over my career and every time I had the opportunity

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to teach or present, I felt like I was alive. And that was the initial impetus. And I just

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followed that path. And then I took a non-matriculated master's degree course at the

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University of San Diego with a brilliant guy named Joe Ross, who wrote leadership for the 21st century.

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And being part of that class, and it was non-matriculated, I wasn't in the doctoral

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program yet, just convinced me that I should continue on with that. And I did. And it was

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during that time that I started working on the simulation work because I looked, I was waiting,

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it's a funny story. I was waiting for a friend of mine, we're going to have lunch together.

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And while I was waiting, I had a yellow pad and I sat down and I was scribbling on the yellow pad,

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what do I know? What is it that I know? Well, I had a long background, I had a rather deep background

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in simulation work, having been a military gaming person. I did a lot of military gaming. I had a

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lot of those influences. And then on one side of the paper, I put down simulations and gaming,

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and on the other side of the paper, I put down leadership. I'm getting to know that stuff. Maybe

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I could put these two things together. And that's kind of how it happened. It's just one of those,

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this kind of leads me to this idea. And then the rest of it is just the school of hard knocks,

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taking one road, going here and there, being involved with family things.

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One of them very, very tragically, the loss of my brother, my younger brother,

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which forced me to take different directions, move from the West Coast to the East Coast to care for

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my mom and different things like that. And all those things led me to other things like being a

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special consultant for the division of public safety leadership at Johns Hopkins. I wound up

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on the East Coast and got introduced and I started doing some work for them. So sometimes it's not

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planned. I mean, a lot of it wasn't planned. It's just the school of hard knocks, opportunities

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coming my way and looking for other things. That's kind of how I got here.

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So what is your next milestone?

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So what is your next milestone? That is a really good question.

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I don't know. My goal is to do what's in front of me today and in so doing,

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to try to make a difference. And what kind of difference? I hope that my work in the end

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will be looked at as trying to help people live a more productive, prosperous, and meaningful life.

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That people can take what they've learned from me and say, wow, I'm able to do something today,

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I wasn't able to do tomorrow. Again, I'm very oriented on the practice side of the equation.

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Again, we become what we do. So I'm onto that side of the equation. Let me teach you how to do a

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couple of things and you go out and try it, see if it works for you. And I think that's kind of where

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I'm at. As you well know, I have my own podcast channel and I get people who want to be on the

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podcast. I'm just going along, doing podcasts, trying to make a difference. What's the name of

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the podcast so my listeners can tune into yours? It's called a Throttle Up Leadership Podcast.

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And I took the name from the book Throttle Up. And I was explaining to someone the other day,

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the idea of Throttle Up simply came from the idea that that's what a simulation does.

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It doesn't solve a problem, but it can accelerate your learning. It can accelerate your ability

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to deal with difficult ideas and difficult things. That's what I've tried to get people to learn is,

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look, we're in a simulated environment. We're going to deal with the difficult complex issue.

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But remember, it's a simulation. Nobody's getting hurt here. It's a learning experience

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so that eventually you can walk outside, you can go to work the next day and say,

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you know, learn something. I'm going to give it a try today. I'm going to try something different.

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And I've had many people tell me that's exactly what's happened for them is they've gone out now

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and they've learned something in the simulation. They got a chance to try it, see that it worked,

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or try something else that didn't work. And they go out and in fact, do something different.

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So Throttle Up has been called the most cerebral, thought provoking, and masterful exploration of

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leadership theory and practice offering a radically different leadership paradigm.

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What one piece of advice can you leave our listeners today to practice leadership?

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Well, the best piece of advice at this moment is leadership to me is a come as you are party.

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You don't have to reach some nirvanic level of understanding about the world or yourself

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in order to become involved in leadership. And that's what we're going to do today.

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In order to become involved in leadership. And oddly enough, I think that's what's happening with

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the generations today is that they want to be involved in the decision making processes.

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They want to be involved in what makes an organization go from the get go. So they're

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showing up. And the question is, can we create an environment where people come to do their best work

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and accept that even if they may be new, you never know where a good idea is going to come from.

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And if you can, in a sense, channel that energy and industry, you can do some amazing things

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in the future. So my advice is get involved. Do what you want. Do what you need to do. Learn.

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Learn from your mistakes. Chances are you're going to bend your pick as they say,

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as they say someplace. And that's okay. It's okay. Learn by doing. Get involved and

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do what you can, but learn. Understand that maybe something you did didn't work.

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Reflect on that. And then move out. Push it behind you and say, move on. And I think

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you'll be a better leader in the long run. Well, for those that want to learn more about you

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or acquire the book, where can they find you? Well, they can find me on my website at

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www.throttleupleadership.com. And also my book is on Amazon and other sites, other book sites as well.

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And I would highly recommend that they look there for it. It comes in three varieties, a hard copy,

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a soft copy, and a Kindle download. So yeah, thanks very much for mentioning that. I appreciate it.

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And thank you for joining me today. I really appreciate you taking the time.

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Thank you, Sheila. I appreciate being here. Thank you for having me.

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And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in to another episode of Milestone

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Moments in Business and Leadership.