Only Human – News, Analysis, and Insights from the World of Human Performance · Dr. Tony Kern

When Leaders Truly Leave a Mark

·32 min·2 clips

Carl Peters tells headquarters, “This was not a crew problem now. This was an airplane problem.”

1. Only Human episode 91 focuses on leadership through Tony Reed’s stories about three commanders who shaped his career. 2. Tony Reed is the host and a former Air Force officer, history professor, and federal aviation director who says these leaders left a lasting mark on him. 3. The episode asks what kind of leader leaves a real imprint on other people and what lessons survive across different jobs. 4. Reed starts with Brigadier General Carl Riddell, who interviewed him at the Kansas City airport while a college football game played on the bar’s TVs. 5. Riddell hired Reed for a history faculty job at the Air Force Academy after a 90-minute conversation and a follow-up phone call the same night. 6. After Reed submitted an end-of-week note, Riddell praised his penmanship instead of the memo’s content and then took him to coffee. 7. Riddell connected neat handwriting to the idea that someone who writes well may also learn and perform well in other areas. 8. Reed then describes Riddell’s own career, including Drake University, ROTC, Vietnam service, Moscow State University, and work on START treaty verification teams. 9. Reed says Riddell used small observations, like writing style and hobbies, to draw larger lessons about history, learning, and leadership. 10. Reed next turns to Jerry Williams at the U.S. Forest Service, where he moved from the Air Force into the largest non-military government aviation program in the world. 11. Williams told Reed he hired him because he was a strong writer and argued that writing skill usually means communication skill. 12. Williams also gave him three operating rules over coffee: avoid bad coffee, keep daily schedules less than half full, and leave room for the work that comes in during the day. 13. Reed says that advice changed how he planned work in Washington, D.C., because the job constantly generated new tasks. 14. Williams told him to choose one special project and keep working on it during downtime so four years would not pass without a meaningful result. 15. Reed says that idea helped him complete major work, including a strategic plan for replacing an aging aircraft fleet. 16. He also says Williams was a former wildland firefighter who rose by communicating well and shaping new leaders without micromanaging them. 17. The final leader is Colonel Carl Peters, Reed’s first B-1 squadron commander at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas. 18. Reed recounts a night landing in Liberal, Kansas after the B-1’s center of gravity kept shifting forward and the checklist reset did not fix it. 19. The episode’s tone is reflective and personal, with Reed moving between memory, practical leadership advice, and military aviation detail. 20. Listeners who like military leadership lessons and career reflection will get the most from it; listeners wanting fast-paced news will probably skip it.

As heard by us

A reflective leadership episode that turns personal stories into practical, memorable advice.

This episode makes a solid case for noticing the leaders who shape a career, especially the ones who do it in unexpected ways. The host looks back on three very different leaders and commanders, then turns those memories into plain guidance: write well, communicate clearly, and…

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Hear a leadership talk built from three bosses and the lessons they left behind.

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