189. The Rise of Emotional Intelligence in Competitive Environments: How NFL Teams (and Corporate Leaders) Are Rewriting the Leadership Playbook

What does it take to create a winning environment...on the field and in the workplace?

In this episode of Enneagram at Work, former Philadelphia Eagles Player, PhD, and leadership consultant Dr. Dereck Faulkner joins us for a deep dive into the evolution of leadership inside the NFL, and the powerful lessons it holds for business leaders today.

From building trust and mentoring under pressure to using emotional intelligence in high-performance environments, Dr. Faulkner shares insights from his 170+ page dissertation, interviews with NFL executives, and firsthand experience as a wide receiver turned executive.

Whether you're leading a sales team, a corporate department, or a sports team, you'll walk away with a clearer picture of how great leaders lead, and how to shape a culture people want to be a part of.

In this episode:

• What the NFL can teach us about modern leadership
• The shift from command-and-control to servant leadership
• Why your leadership style should evolve over time
• Mentorship vs. advice (and why peer support matters)
• Building trust and harmony in diverse teams
• Why “everyone doing their 1/11th” is the secret to success
• Dr. Faulkner's take on being the CEO of yourself
• Using your "Swiss Army Knife of Leadership" 

>>> Connect with Dr. Faulkner at LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dereck-faulkner-ph-d-mba-0548b926/

>>> Learn more about giving to and getting involved with Athletes for Vets: https://www.athletesforvets.org/

Find your next suit: https://www.lewisdeanbespoke.com/

*********

Learn more about developing the team behind the team at your sports organization: https://www.enneagrammba.com/sports-organizations

🗓️ Book an Enneagram Workshop for your team retreat at work:
https://www.enneagrammba.com/enneagram-team-workshops

✏️ Get an overview of all nine types inside the Understanding People at Work Cheat Sheet
https://www.enneagrammba.com/cheatsheet

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

One thing that stood out more than anything, and you mentioned it a little earlier, within organizations and teams, the NFL has changed. Leadership has changed from 20 years ago, 30 years ago, where teams lacked, they didn't have the empathy. They didn't talk about empathy or mindfulness or emotional intelligence amongst their players, right? It was as raw and uncut as it could be. I think the one thing that was really positive and progressive that I liked when talking to a number of these executives. And the great ones and the ones that were successful, they are constantly evolving.

SPEAKER_01: 0:40

You're listening to the Enneagram at Work podcast, a show about understanding people at work, including yourself. I'm your host, Sarah Wallace, and I'm looking forward to diving into this week's episode with you. All right, welcome back to another episode here on the Enneagram at Work podcast. Today is a really fun episode because it's not just me today. We are joined by a very special guest who is going to talk about creating a winning environment. And we are always talking about the importance of emotional intelligence and empathy in the workplace. But our guest today has the data and has done the research, hours, days, years of research into this topic. And so we're going to get to look at that. I'd like to welcome Dr. Derek Faulkner to the show. And Derek, I'm going to let you say hi in just a second, but I want to share a who we're talking with today with our listeners. So Dr. Faulkner, he is the executive director for Athletes for Vets, and he can share more about that later. He is the founder of Management company called E8. He does consulting. He is the freshly former president of the New York, New Jersey former player chapter. He is a former advisor or former advisory board member for former players. And then he has a really fun suit tailoring company where he is now a preferred suit vendor for the NFL. So with that, welcome to the show, Derek.

SPEAKER_00: 2:23

I appreciate it, sir. I appreciate it. It's great to be here. I'm glad to have this conversation. It's good to reconnect with you.

SPEAKER_01: 2:31

It is. I was going to say, I just said Derek, and Derek and I have known each other for years, but I was trying to respect his new title as Dr. Derek Faulkner. So I'll do my best to remember that. But it is so good to see you again, to have you, and I'm excited to introduce you to our listeners. One of the other titles that you have that I think is so impressive that I completely left off was Former Players for the Eagles, which has set the foundation for a a lot of the things that you're currently doing. So that is an important piece of the story. So tell us a little bit about going from player, you have all these other organizations that you're supporting, advising, a part of. What led you to this PhD track and specifically the dissertation that you landed on?

SPEAKER_00: 3:25

Starting my career, my college career at Hampton University, as a business student there, playing four years on a highly credited championship team. Then going, playing in the NFL, starting with the Eagles and bouncing around the league, going to Canada and finishing in 2011 and trying to figure out what my next steps were going to be. And that's how I ended up at George Washington School of Business, getting my MBA back in 2011. And from 2011 to 2013, that was really like a time where I was really beginning the process of like recreating myself and really trying to reinvest in myself. So I finally found education as really a vehicle or leveraging tool to really create something for myself. So I started Athletes for Vets through my capstone project, through that program, right? They gave me, they, George Washington gave me a ton of support and gave me like the tools to really start that foundation. So that was the birth of Athletes for Vets and how I started. How Athletes for Vets started Being a military kid, you know, growing up in a military house, both parents served. Mother's a retired major, served 20 years. I grew up in South Jersey at Fort Dix, Fort Dix Military Base. Well, now a joint military base of McGuire, Fort Dix. So I grew up on that base as a kid, spent tons of time there. Felt like the military community was something that I wanted to connect with. And from there, kind of just catapulted a bunch of other things. Because when you see one thing grow, then it kind of inspires me to grow something else. So I think around the time that we met, I was working in corporate. I had just graduated from George Washington. I was working for a tech company, a sports tech company. And then from there, I kind of developed a consulting business where I was in marketing management with athletes, with EA, and grew that business. Started down, went into the music industry a little bit on the management side and marketing. And then around COVID, had the bright idea of jumping in and getting a PhD. I think it was more so, I kind of blame it on when we were in New Jersey. I don't know how things were in certain sectors of the country, but in New Jersey, we were on lockdown, lockdown. We weren't really leaving the house. Spent a lot of time in the house in that early 2020 fall or spring. winter and spring during lockdown. And I had a bright idea of saying, hey, I'm gonna go back

SPEAKER_01: 5:52

to school. And here we are. So earlier I had asked if you had taken, I gave Dr. Faulkner a short Enneagram quiz. So this is not his results that he's gonna get tattooed on his arm by any means, but just out of curiosity, and I haven't heard these either, where did you land with your top result?

SPEAKER_00: 6:16

I think I landed with, I think it was a type seven. I think it was the type. Okay,

SPEAKER_03: 6:22

okay.

SPEAKER_00: 6:24

It kind of gave, it did, I took it twice, but it met two different type outcomes. I think I looked at like being a very passionate leader, but then also very big on perfection and that sort of thing. So I think I landed in that space. It was pretty accurate. But my leadership style was very different. And this is something I learned even during my pursuits and my academic look and research. You know, when you come from a very competitive environment, your leadership skew of objective look on things are a lot different, right? Because everything is about winning and putting points on the board and quantifying. And I just approach things in a very like, almost similar to like in the military. in a sense, right? It's like either get it done, there's no real gray areas, either black or white. So I guess my leadership style, it falls into that realm personally, but then I've learned so many other different styles of leadership that I also incorporate, like team building and emotional intelligence and understanding and being able to read rooms and saw skills. Those things aren't really defined in the leadership style that I made overall kind of conceit. So I'm like kind of a chameleon of our leadership in a sense, right? Well,

SPEAKER_01: 7:46

one of the things that we talk about during our leadership trainings is around just because this is your style doesn't mean that you can't pivot or take on different qualities or characteristics depending on the situation or as you grow over time. I will say, and we're not going to dissect your personality today, but I can see the seven now that you say that because our type sevens are striving to feel excited. They're the enthusiasts. I see them the least four or five sevens in the workplace. And for the sevens, it's because a lot of them have that entrepreneurial spirit where they need something new and they're comfortable diving in without having everything figured out, which is based on your story that you were sharing in the beginning. A lot of that is like, whoop, check,

SPEAKER_00: 8:42

check, check. So- But a lot of athletes have that, right? Especially on the professional level. Once you get to the professional level, there isn't a coach or a trainer that's going to say, hey, Derek, get out there and train today. Or, hey, like, you know, like right now we're in the midst of training camp all throughout the country, right? 30 plus teams are in training camp and you got, you know, hundreds of guys that are fighting for their professional lives, right? So you have to be a self-starter. You have to go out there every day and learn to compete, learn to blend. There's, I mean, you're going out there and you're executing game plans and you're executing when your opportunity arises for you on your call, your numbers poll. But at the end of the day, you are the CEO of your business. of Derek Falkner Incorporated. I'm the CEO when I walked on that field and how I presented myself, how I conducted myself, how I led, how I led my own inner organization and all the other interview pieces that were around and then how I performed, right? So I look at it like from an athlete standpoint, we all have that kind of type that entrepreneurial space or entrepreneurial mentality. When you're out there, it's a team environment. You work for an organization, but at the same time, you have to perform for you. You have to perform for your organization, your leader. You have to go out there and get yourself up in the morning, go to extra training or whatever it is. Those are the things that you have to do. No coach or teammates going to say, hey, Derek, you had bad practice today, so you might stay and watch film a little bit longer. No, that's the CEO and you saying, Hey, I need to stay later and tighten some things up, or I need to stay in the training room and get some extra treatment. That is ultimately the CEO of your organization and make sure you do that. So I think that's really important.

SPEAKER_01: 10:36

Okay. You, I'm telling you, you have to follow Derek wherever you are on social media. We'll find it. We'll ask you at the end, but you're always so motivating. Yes. And you know, what you said is you, So true, because one of the things we'll also talk about during trainings and workshops is when we're talking about being the dream team, whether that's on a professional sports field or in a corporate environment. Yes. your team chemistry, working with one another is really important. But at the end of the day, the only person that you can control is yourself. So if you're having, if you're butting heads with your manager or a teammate or you're struggling in certain situations, the first place to look is what is mine to own in this? You may not own it all, but what is some of yours to own and what can you do? And so exactly what you're talking about, being the CEO of yourself. I I love that. Okay. I want to ask about your– I forget how many pages it was. Close to 200-page dissertation that you wrote on leadership?

SPEAKER_00: 11:47

Close to like 100 and– I should know this. Like 160, 170? Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 11:52

I was thinking like 170-something when I printed it out a couple weeks ago. And I don't know where it is right now. But, yeah, it was pretty lengthy. And I would love to hear– Just a little kind of an overview of your findings and what surprised you. And the reason why I reached out to Derek is because I was surprised when I started reading that it was talking about leadership being good leaders having empathy. and emotional intelligence. And I think sometimes, I think more and more now, we have a culture that is embracing that. But I think sometimes it's that typical commander, be decisive, speak strongly. And I think that there's a time and place for that. But I loved some of the findings that your paper had shared. Would you give us a quick kind of overview of the dissertation and your interesting findings?

SPEAKER_00: 12:51

Absolutely. So as As a former player, I had the luxury of trying to figure out, as a first year PhD, what I wanted to dial my research in. And I landed upon looking into quality leadership within the NFL from an executive level and how ultimately that quality and effective leadership impacts player engagement, player work-life balance, It also impacted how players perceive themselves and also how mentorship played a key role in the NFL. So it took, you know, two sides of the house of the NFL household organization and looked at from a qualitative side, executives and interviewed them on how quality leadership and competencies that they developed helped their organization be great and how they impacted their, their ultimately their people, or I would say their teams. And from leadership, I'm talking as high as like some team owners I was able to interview all the way through head coaches and then defensive coordinators and offensive coordinators, but everyone in between that, right? So if you had some type of formal leadership within the organization, I was able to connect with about 33 of those executives and head coaches. From there, they gave me a ton of insight on how quality leadership and how leadership You know, that ultimately made them successful in how they were able to kind of move the needle with their organization. What really, you know, depicts a quality effective leader from a non-effective leader ultimately is based heavily within results and winning results. and success and player transition and how players kind of, and how you're ultimately, your coaching tree or your leadership tree then funnels down into other leadership's roles throughout the league. From there, I surveyed over like 450 players on two quant studies and surveyed these players on different constructs, whether it was workplace engagement, did a ton of demographics where marital status, race, age, degrees, and then also looked at competencies from perceived value or how they perceive themselves. So looked at self-assessments and then how mentorship played a role within the league or within the league for informal players. And what we found, we found tons of players that came from high quality leadership ultimately had better transitions post-career. And I think that played a real big role. I think that once the league and other players can find and see that when you have a quality head coach or quality team owner or quality executives within the organization, and they do care about the people that come in and out of their building, the players are more enthused and more willing to work harder for the team. They're looking to go all out. They're looking to go the extra mile, be a great CEO for themselves. for the organization right um you see less off the field issues when you have quality leadership within organizations with teams um you see players be more more being more willing to go in and do their best um even if you come up short for the super bowl that year you still worked extremely hard you know to kind of put your best foot forward for the team and it becomes a team environment um So we're able to see those things and find that mentorship played a key role within the study. I think that, you know, one thing that stood out more than anything, and you mentioned it a little earlier, you know, within organizations and teams, the NFL has changed. Leadership has changed from 20 years ago, 30 years ago, where, you know, teams lacked, they didn't have the empathy. They didn't talk about empathy or mindfulness or emotional intelligence amongst their players, right? It was as raw and uncut as it could be. I think the one thing that was really positive and progressive that I liked when talking to a number of these executives and the great ones and the ones that were successful, they are constantly evolving. And I'm talking about ownership, I'm talking about executives, I'm talking about even coaches. They were consistently evolving and picking up new ways of being able to impact the people. impacted players. So if that means I can no longer be a commanding chief or I can no longer be the hard nose, I have to come in with a little bit of mindfulness when I come into work on Monday after a tough loss and be able to coach a guy a little bit different than the way I coached players back in 1999 or 2003, right? Those things have changed. I think the players have evolved. So I look at it like this. You have NFL players, kids now, 300 plus pounds, running four sixes and bench pressing everything in the world and running fast and you got guys doing amazing things. Well, that same player has changed. Your coaches now, they have changed. They needed to change as well, right? With social media and all of these outside influences, with NIL, kids having way more exposure, you know, players have changed and coaches now have to have have to change their game plans to be successful. You have a different athlete now, right? One coach that stood out, one interview that I had stood out to me more than anything in the study, a coach mentioned how social media plays a real big impact, right? You have a kid, you have a guy, he may have, you know, it may have been fourth down, last played a game. He may have whiffed on the tackle and the team scored on a winning touchdown, right? And they lost the game. This guy's getting killed on Twitter, right? They're saying any and everything about that guy. Now, if this is a young player, maybe a second-year player, maybe his first year starting, that could ultimately impact him throughout the entire season. Now, it whiffed, and that's unacceptable. And we all know that in the NFL, you have to produce, you have to perform under the lights. But as a coach, he mentioned that he has to be mindful of that. And to talk about that in the meeting and say, hey, put the phone down, close the Twitter, delete it, whatever it needs to be, because we need to make sure we keep this guy wrapped into the team concept, keep a hold on him during the season because we'll lose him. Because a guy will start reading tweets, he'll start reading Facebook or whatever may happen. And I think that that's where positive coaching takes place. So they didn't have to deal with that 20 years ago, right? You may get a news article, one beat writer writes bad about you, but you can kind of block that out. Now you have... you know, a guy misses a tackle, it gets retweeted 2 million times on Twitter. Like everywhere he goes, he's getting pointed at, hey, you lost my parlay or he lost this or whatever it may be. I think that that's where the game has slowly changed. So coaches are now changing. So I just see a lot of, I do see the game has changed for the good and some bad, but I definitely feel like the smart coaches and the smart organizations are willing to, you know, scan the landscape and make changes so that they can become better.

SPEAKER_01: 20:18

Okay, so many good things in there. One thing that I wanted to pick out was it sounds like, based on your findings, that your leader matters. Who you're being led by matters. You were talking about the two different types of coaches. And You had talked about being an effective coach, being a successful leader. One of the things that we will talk about in our leadership workshops is that it To be a great leader to your team, you first have to understand your strengths, potential blind spots, and to your point, evolve through those when needed. So is there anything that you would add to that around the importance of self-awareness for a leader, again, whether on the field or in a boardroom?

SPEAKER_00: 21:09

Absolutely. Self-awareness, I think, obviously having the awareness of understanding, being able to read the room. or having the soft skills. I think we don't talk about that enough amongst leadership, having the soft skills. We usually talk about soft skills for someone, a subordinate looking to work for someone. But as a leader, you need the soft skills to understand, like, how do I deal with this player in this particular area or this particular area? I mean, you have players in a room that are highly successful. Everyone was successful. you know, the king of their high school. They were the number one player. But these players are coming from all different areas, right? They listen to different music. They embrace different things. You have players that are from the South. You have players from the West Coast, East. Different types of life they live, right? And as a leader, you have to have the soft skills to understand how to work and deal with each different player from all different phases, right? Different creeds, different... different races, all those things. And now we're even seeing even different sexual orientations even in sports now, right? How do you work within all of those things? How do you galvanize a team in all of these different shapes and sizes? A true leader is someone that is almost like a Swiss Army knife, but their largest knife is the knife. And I represent that knife almost like that's the winning formula. That's the win, right? The big knife in that Swiss Army, that's the knife that gets everything done, right? That moves the needle, that gets to the end of the rainbow. But all the other tools are how you deal with this group, right? How do you get this guy How do you get this player to do certain things? How do I engage? How, as a leader or organization, how do I still make the person that cleans the locker room, the janitorial service, how do I make them feel like they're a part of the team? Because at the end of the day, look at it. If the janitorial service doesn't take If the guy that's head of maintenance doesn't take his job serious, now we have a staph infection inside the locker room. Now the entire team is sick. Now we have the issue within the locker room. And we've seen that in NFL organizations, right? So you have to make sure that everybody feels like they're a part of this win. I think that, you know, with organizations that do great things, that when you win a championship, everyone gets a win. down to the maintenance person, down to the secretary, down to the executive assistant, down to the team owner, to the starting quarterback. Everyone gets the ring because everyone's a part of it. There was not one man or one woman that did not do their quote-unquote, we call it in football, their 111th, right? Because there's 11 men on the field. It's always tasked upon to do your 111th. So I look at it like if you're able to motivate a group, right, You're going to be able to go into an organization, go into a boardroom, whether you guys are selling t-shirts or you're selling computer chips, and you can convince everyone to do their 111, success will be there, right? Because football is a is a representation of life, right? You have 11 people on the field trying to do, trying to complete one task and be on one accord, right? And everyone's dependent on each other, right? I played receiver, so it was probably the most dependent position on the field. So the leadership had to convince me to believe that they're gonna call the play, The quarterbacks can get the ball. They're going to block for him and that he's going to throw it. And then they're dependent on me to make sure I catch it. So there's a ton of different things that had to happen. So everyone needs to do their 111s. And I think that if organizations go into, you know, projects, you go into quarters, you go into whatever, you know, obstacle that you're trying to or feat that you're trying to complete, everyone just do their 111s. I think we'll be successful.

SPEAKER_01: 25:01

I love that analogy. I love the way that you put that. And the Swiss Army knife, that's such a good one. I think a common theme that most of us have heard growing up is to treat others like you want to be treated.

SPEAKER_02: 25:15

And

SPEAKER_01: 25:16

then we'll talk though about how in reality, it's actually treating people how they want to be treated. And that is really challenging sometimes because that involves taking the time to learn and See that person and understand their differences. You'll you might appreciate this. One of the clips that will that I'll share to hit this point home is actually Dion Sanders during a CU game. He's coaching a player and I forget who it is. And the person kind of talking about the dynamic is saying, see, he comes over here, tells this player what to do and the player hugs him. And that is how comfortable he is. And then the voiceover goes on to say like, this is great coaching because some people need to be yelled at and they need that like intensity and other people might need a hug or you just say it in a different way. And so to your point, exactly. And just, you know, having the real life stories and the data to back that up. Is there any other interesting, are there any other interesting examples that came up about leaders using these soft skills. Or I guess the follow-up question to that would be, was there anything that they were doing to evolve and to acquire and to kind of make that change?

SPEAKER_00: 26:47

Well, just to be clear, I think that the NFL, in regards to wins and losses and hard no's, it's still that, right?

SPEAKER_03: 26:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 26:55

It's still a game of get it done. We're in the heat. We're at war. bang, bang, bang, that is the NFL and that's always going to be the NFL. But I think one thing that stood out that a number of executives discussed were they talked about the idealism of servanthood leadership, the ideology of that, of servanthood leadership and what that really means and being a servant even as a leader, right? I think that the players... respond to that when they know that ultimately I played for this coach, but he still acts as a servant leader for me. He's there obviously for a hug. He's there to give me the push I need. He's there to correct me when I'm wrong. Because as a servant in servanthood, you're not only holding others accountable, but you're holding yourself accountable for what you do or don't do as well. And I think that that's where a number of coaches have found themselves in successful places is when they looked at it, leadership from a servant perspective. And we think about servant meaning like we're here in a soup kitchen or nonprofit, you think of servanthood or you think of like a pastor or, but no, even as a coach within the NFL, a lot of the coaches within my research talked about serving of leadership. They talked about, you know, making sure that no man is left behind. They talked about, you know, being mindful and caring about their other coaches. We're coming off a two-game losing streak. Coaches are where everyone's stressed. Things are happening. You know what? I'm going to tell the coaches on Wednesday night, everybody go home early tonight. Reset. That's a part of being mindful. That's a part of being a servant because you're looking at it and saying, hey, my team needs a reset. We need a reset. And I think that this is where ultimately, you know, I think that this is what could serve us, right? Because if you're not as a servanthood leader, you're just off for self, right? We're losing. I'm trying to keep my job. I need to make sure I don't get fired. So I'm going to put everything, I'm going, everything's coming downhill on everyone else. And that is true. That's just life. That's business. We have to perform. But in servanthood leadership, It's really more so about, you know, being able to read rooms, being able to serve others. I think another is just really having the mindfulness of understanding like, hey, you know, your players, invest in them. Hey, you know, congratulating a guy who just had a child, right? White just had a baby. Hey, congratulations on that. Giving them just a new father that's on your team, some advice about being a new dad, right? Those little things can kind of help a player feel more comfortable, feel more engaged and a part of the organization. But that's also showing that you're serving him as well because you're serving into, you know, more so his emotional space. I think many times, you know, in sports, it was just simply, I just work with the guy. You know, the practice, show up the games and we're out of here, right? But now, you know, if you look, if you look at how the media, you look at Hard Knocks, you look at some of these 24-7s, you look at all of these different documentaries or reality-type shows with sports, it's way more than that, right? It's a lot of, in Toronto, people are spending more time within that facility, within that building than they are even in their own homes. So there has to be a level of serving amongst our players, amongst your people. I think that's really important.

SPEAKER_01: 30:42

And I'm glad you, I'm glad you reiterated about, you know, at the end of the day, we got to perform, we got to get results because a lot of, a lot of the same thing with a lot of organization. I mean, every organization, we, the sales teams, we have quotas to hit, we have numbers to hit, we have.

SPEAKER_00: 30:59

It's not going to be rainbows and we're just out here and just make a wish type of, type of, you know, every day, no one will make money. And how, right. But you have to have a level of a balance between the two for sure.

SPEAKER_01: 31:16

Yeah. And I think, obviously, I'm biased and my lens is skewed because all I do is talk about the Enneagram. But it is that human experience, ultimately. And the Enneagram can give us some shortcuts. It can give us some insight questions to ask. But ultimately, it is just, to your point, did this person just have a baby? What might they be going through? How could I let them know that, hey, I see you going back to that servant leadership? So I love that. Before we start to wrap it up. One of the other things you had mentioned, and I know you mentioned quite a bit in your research was around mentorship, and how you shared what good mentorship looks like. And so I want to ask you what you found that good mentorship looks like, especially in high performance environments. And then how is that different than giving advice?

SPEAKER_00: 32:15

Wow. Okay. Yeah. So mentorship was a key finding and sector of my dissertation and my research. Mentorship plays a key role within the NFL because the NFL is built upon what we call coaching trees or in business, it would be network analysis or networks where as a head coach, you're ultimately mentoring a number of your players and your staff and you're mentoring them professionally. to where they may lead and become a head coach or a leader within the NFL as well. So I think the mentorship plays a key role because not only does mentorship give players and organization members an opportunity to learn quality leadership and see great examples, but then to take those same lessons and build upon. And when they take their careers to another level, whether they're coaching in college or coaching within the league, it all is built upon that mentorship. Now, everyone won't be a head coach coming out of the NFL. Everyone's not going to be a CEO of a company or a PhD, right? But If you have just mentorship to help guide you on saying, hey, these are the steps that I took to be successful in doing A, B, and C, that is great knowledge and institutional knowledge that is given to you from someone that's already done it. And it's coming from a peer. I think the mentorship is always key. And I think mentorship is even more potent and more sustainable when it's coming from peers, your peers within your industry. Now, I think that having a diversified group of mentors is also important as well, right? Because then you're getting different perspectives, right? You're not just getting the sports perspective. You're just not getting the rah-rah-rah speech mentorship. You're getting some, you know, soft leadership. You're getting some mentorship either from, it could be from, you know, a religious leader. It could be from another executive. It could be from, you know, a healthcare worker. You're getting mentorship from all different spaces. I think quality mentorship is important, but within this NFL, you know, that first one or two mentors of a head coach or an executive or even a peer, meaning like I'm a second year player and this guy's a 12 year vet, that mentorship is, you know, it's super important because that, that, that, 12-year vet has lived a lot of NFL life, right? And he's seen a lot of different things. And he can give that second-year player a ton of advice on just how to maneuver. Not even giving them advice of, hey, man, do this and do that, and you'll make it to 12 years. It's probably not going to happen anyway. But giving him the tools on how do you maneuver from your first contract to your second contract? What are some of the things that you did that you needed to save? I just look at it like mentorship is super important across the board in whatever role or profession we're in. The NFL just plays the key because you're in a short window of a career and you need as many tools put in your bag. You need as many people that are advocating for you that you can lean into because you're given so much.

SPEAKER_01: 35:34

Okay. You have said in a video, you are talking about, I mentioned this LinkedIn video that I saw, and you were just getting to talking about a winning environment or a winning formula. How would you describe a winning environment? What does that organization look like? What does the team dynamic look like? What does the leadership look like? What are people doing, saying? How are they acting in a winning environment?

SPEAKER_00: 36:03

what a winning environment looks like. I think one, first and foremost, I think diversity is key. So you have a diverse group of people. You don't have just one like-minded or one person or one group that is pushing the ball forward. It's a number of different voices, faces, ideas that are pushing the ball forward. I think that's really important. I think also having a key strategy Having a strategy that everyone believes in. So you have to have something. You have to believe in something. You have to believe in what you're doing. So put me on the field. with 10 other guys that believe what we're doing, right? Even if as a receiver, we're running the ball every single play and I'm like, well, are you going to throw it to me? I'm still believing in what we're doing, right? So that me believing what I'm doing, I'm still going out there and blocking the DB. I'm making sure that I'm sealing the edge so the running back can get around. I'm doing that. The next, I think is everything. I think also having harmony and having a harmonious environment where folks may not be besties, but everyone gets along and everyone's doing for the better good of the strategy or the goal or the win. I think that that is really important. And then lastly, man, everyone's got to be tenacious. We have that 11 tenacious people on the field that are willing to do whatever it takes to get the ball across the goal line. If there's any time that we have a group and as a leader and we have an organization and everyone's not in that tenacious mentality, right? You have five that are passive and then the other six are kind of like dancing or are tenacious. We're never going to be able to get harmony and get us to sync together to get the goal completed. So I look at it like we have to have our goals in order. We need to have you know, the same mentality. Well, that would be tenacious mentality going out there and going after it. And we have to have some harmony where, you know, folks may not like each other, but we respect each other enough to go out there and win it. So I think that's really important.

SPEAKER_01: 38:13

Yes. And you had said this earlier about players spending so much time practicing or training. And the same is true. We spend so much time in our lives at work or working in front of our computers. And so why not take the time to figure out, to your point, not necessarily be best friends with everybody, but get along better. What about me do I need to do, to own, to change? How can I... approach this person differently so that we have that harmony and I'm not in constant stress or having challenging situations where I spend so much of my life because that can be an incredibly stressful life on top of all the other stress. Now, at the very beginning, we had went through this long list of organizations, companies that you had founded, leading, advising. So I would say you have quite a bit of leadership experience. You yourself. What would you say is a change that you have seen in yourself with your leadership style or how have you grown over the years?

SPEAKER_00: 39:26

I definitely think my leadership has grown in trust. Trust has played a big role for me. And I've seen how trust plays, not only with my own research, but my other classmates did have different aspects of trust within their research. And trust is huge. Being able to trust other members of my team that they're going to get the job done, right? I think it may be a little bit of an insecurity, not only as a leader, but as even a player. I had a little bit of insecurity in the sense of like, when are you going to throw me the ball? I'm waiting for it. I'm in this two quarters and pass. I'm still waiting for you to throw it. I'm still waiting for the quarterback to look my way. So you have this insecurity of, when are you going to do it? And I'm now going to take it into my own hands. Like, if as a player, as a wide receiver, if I could have snapped the ball and threw it to myself, I'd do it because I know I'm going to get it, right? But I think trust is really important in regards to running and having a great organization and being a great leader. Trusting those that, hey, let's put forth the plan, the gifts there, her portion, her 111, and trusting that she's going to do it, right? And I know I trust enough that she's going to do it because she trusts me as a leader. And I think trust plays a really, really critical role in leadership. And I think that that's where I've grown enough to, you know, in my own individual, you know, projects and companies, you know, I was running the athletes for vets. I just want to do everything.

SPEAKER_03: 40:49

I

SPEAKER_00: 40:50

want to send the emails. I want to talk to the clients. I want to do it all. You can't do everything, right? You have to kind of pass off. All right, someone's got to go out there and help us with the event space or go talk to the event coordinators and put together some of our charitable events that we're doing. Just trust that, you know, one of the board members are going to do it. And I just have to make sure that, you know, that we're all doing our 111th.

SPEAKER_01: 41:15

That reminds me of a situation that just happened a couple of weeks ago. And the leader was talking the same thing that you are. And his realization was around trusting his people to do it. And all he needed to say was, this is the result I need versus trying to control everything. A, B, C, D to the result. And so it's kind of the same thing. I just have to trust that they're going to get there and let them get there in their own way. So that reminds me of that. You're not the only one that struggles with that. Okay. We've talked about what a winning environment kind of feels like, looks like. What would you say a great leader looks like? How do they make you feel? What are they doing in your opinion? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 42:04

No, I think a leader comes in different shapes and sizes. You know, I think it's not gender specific. It's not race specific. It's a leader is someone that could go into, walk into a room, command attention, but also, and commands respect, but then also, you know, exudes humble humility to all those that they're impacting, right? I think a humble, I think a humble leader makes a distinct impact on a room. When they can see the humility, but they also see that you're someone that, what the young kids say, stand on business. You're someone that stands on business, right? So I think that it's really important that you have a great balance. And being a Swiss Army knife, right? Where you're someone that is very humble, but super strong, but then super passionate. but they're super mindful. I think that's where you walk into a room and someone says, hey, I want to follow this guy. You know, I think for me, and when I'm looking at and thinking about a leader in a relationship, it's like, will I go down a dark alley with Sarah? She's leading us down a dark alley. Do I trust her? Do I believe in her? Will I go down this dark alley with her and know that we're going to be back to back? And whatever happens in this alley is going to happen and we're going to make it happen, right?

SPEAKER_03: 43:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 43:30

Like if I'm with the organization and that leader makes me feel like we're going to go on this dark alley and we're going to make it out, I'm following. Sign me up. We're going.

SPEAKER_01: 43:41

Okay, good. That's a good test. Yeah. Am I that leader that people want to follow down a dark alley?

SPEAKER_03: 43:50

Are

SPEAKER_01: 43:50

you that leader? Yeah. That's how you know. Yeah. Oh, such a good one. Okay. So for people who are wanting to get in touch with you, learn more, follow along, where's a good place for them to connect with you?

SPEAKER_00: 44:03

LinkedIn is always pretty simple. It's at Derek, D-E-R-E-C-K, Faulkner, F-A-U-L-K-N-E-R. And that's pretty much all of my social media handles. It's my full name. They can find me. Again, you know, DerekFaulkner.com, and then also, you know, Athletes for Vets. That's where my heart is, you know, in the charitable, philanthropic side. We do tons of work there. You know, we're actually doing a back-to-school drive now. We're giving away book bags and sneakers by way of eBay, which we partnered with out of New Jersey. So we're going to give the students of Newark... and families in Newark, some back-to-school gifts and donate some things there. And then we work with the Marine Toys for the last four years. We've given over 30,000 toys to students or to families throughout South Jersey, where I'm from, in Burlington and Camden County in New Jersey. So yeah, my heart is always with the athletes. It's always working with the military. It's working with our community. I feel like, you know, I'm a New Jersey guy. I feel like it's always important to go back and give back to where I'm from. So I think that's everywhere you can really find me in that space. And then, you know, I'm just working in player advocacy, you know, just working as a player advocate, you know, and working in different spaces, whether on the health side, performing players, transitioning, just working with players on helping them become, you know, their best self. And also using this research to help organizations become better. So you may find me working closely with the NFL team soon. Who knows?

SPEAKER_01: 45:41

Yeah. I love it. I love it. Okay, so we'll make sure that your LinkedIn profile is included and then Athletes for Vets. And I know people are always looking for ways to support organizations like yours and to have like a put a face with the name or a voice with an organization name makes it that much more meaningful sometimes. So thank you. Is there anything that I haven't asked you that you would like to say that would make you feel like this episode is complete?

SPEAKER_00: 46:11

I think I talked, I think I was talking too much. No, you were great. But no, I think lastly, I just want to just kind of give you your flowers. I've watched, you know, you grow throughout the years when we met. I was working for a record at the time and I forgot which company you were working for. We met at a conference. So just to watch you grow and watch the things that you built, I'm super impressed and super proud. So yeah, Kudos to you, you know, and I continue to just move the ball forward and be a shining light and an example for others. I think it's going to be, you got a lot of, you know, bigger and better things in front of you. So just kudos to you, Sarah. Great, great job.

SPEAKER_01: 46:50

Thank you. Yeah, I think we met at a trade show, I think, when I was walking around booths, people that didn't want to talk to me.

UNKNOWN: 46:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 47:00

Now, years later, it all connected and how, you know, our careers have gone in different directions, but it's still kind of a long way back, right? Even from there. So, yeah, definitely kudos to you for sure.

SPEAKER_01: 47:12

Well, thank you. Thank you. And back at you and Dr. Faulkner. And I appreciate you so much for being here. I know that you have a million things on your plate. So thank you. And listeners, please reach out. Let Derek know what stood out to you today. Please share your own leadership stories. I'm sure he would love to hear about those. And with that, thanks for being here. Listeners, thanks for joining us. And we'll see you in the next one.