053 Scott Gration - Son of Africa to Warrior Diplomat!

It's always an honor to welcome our military leaders to Walking the Walk. Today's guest retired as a Major General from the U.S. Air Force and then went on to serve in the Diplomatic Corps as a Special Envoy, Ambassador, and a Special Assistant to the White House. Our guest today is Scott Gration.

People who inspire, empower, and guide us to our very best.

Leaders who are walking the walk. Your host, leadership activist, author, and founder of the Sensei Leader Movement, Jim Bouchard. Scott Gration's diplomatic assignments have included included serving as ambassador to Kenya, special envoy to Sudan, and special assistant to the president in the White House. And as I said, he retired with the rank of major general from the United States Air Force, and this after serving for 32 years as a fighter pilot and senior military leader. He now serves as a business consultant and a speaker, and he's recently published his unique and interesting experiences in this inspirational memoir, Flight Path: Son of Africa to Warrior Diplomat. Scott, it's an honor to have you on Walking the Walk.

Well, it's a pleasure to be here, Jim.

We won't tell people about how difficult it was to get you here.

It was tough, I'll admit that.

We're gonna gloss over that, but I'd like to start with that. Let's talk about, you know, I think that's an interesting story, from the son of Africa to warrior diplomat.

Well, back in, when I was very young, 18 months old, my parents took me to Africa. They were missionary teachers in Congo. And so I grew up speaking Swahili before English. I grew up in obviously a third culture. My parents had one, I was in Africa, and then the blended culture, which is a third culture, which makes it pretty unique, but it gives me a unique and interesting outlook on the world.

I should have said Jumbo when we started.

You should have. Jumbo would work. Although, you know, now with people going into Shang, you probably should say mumbo.

Mumbo. I'll remember that.

That's what the young people say. And if you're really with it, you will say mumbo. It's sort of like hi or what's happening.

More casual, huh? More casual.

Yeah, sure.

Well, keep going with that story.

So you ended up as a child in Africa and We were in Congo until I was 13, and then we evacuated. Things got tough, army mutiny, there was rebel soldiers coming our way, and so we left. During that experience, we lost everything we owned. We ended up leaving Congo with just our car and the clothes on our back, went to Kenya eventually by stopping in Uganda, and my parents were teaching in a place just outside of Nairobi. And that's where I spent the next part of my youth, my teen years. And then I came back to the States and went to college and the rest is history because I got drafted, a low draft number, and joined the military and had a great time flying aircraft, fighters, F-5, F-16, F-15s, and a bunch of other airplanes. And don't regret a day I had on active duty. It was a wonderful experience, mainly because of the people. I enjoyed flying, of course, but But the people I met, the people I worked with, other fighter pilots, senior officers, were just awesome. And I tell you, we got a great country, a great military, people that have great values and are willing to sacrifice for our country and the people they work with.

You know, there's a couple of things that you kind of inspired when you're just sharing that. One of them is, one of the core values we have at Sensei Leader Movement is this idea of compassionate leadership. Some people are surprised by this. I never am anymore that when I meet someone who's had a military leadership position and especially high-ranking positions, I've never found more compassionate leaders than the military leaders. And it's interesting 'cause I think too many people still confuse that with command and control type of leadership. But also that idea that you did something that's very rare these days. You said you were drafted, so you must have moved through the ranks.— you know, to get to the generalship?

Well, I sort of cheated a little bit. When I said I was drafted, I went down to Fort Dix to take a physical to go to Vietnam with a whole bunch of other people that were waiting in line. And I went over to McGuire and I said, listen, I really want to fly jets. And so I was able to go in and join an ROTC program and finish an ROTC program that allowed me to enter the Air Force as an officer and then go into pilot training. So I did miss the earlier ones, but it was this, you know, it sort of was a wake-up call when I realized that I would have to make a decision to either join the military, the Air Force as an officer, or else go in for a shorter period of time and then go into Vietnam as an enlisted person.

Yeah, but that's still a long way to go from the first level of officer training all the way to general. That's amazing.

Yeah, I would like to go back and pick up one point you said about—

No, please do, please do, yes.

Yeah, because it's so important. In the military, we're sort of trained and bred that you don't sleep until everybody that works for you has a place to sleep. And it's really a servant leadership and it's putting others first. In fact, that's a core value of the Air Force. We have integrity first, excellence in all we do, but we also have service before self. And that really is a value that I think is so critical to leadership. I saw this when I went back to Uganda under Idi Amin. I was one of 13 white folks in the Kampala area. And I was working in a hospital called Mengo Hospital. And the doctor there, was a Ugandan doctor that had a very successful practice in Germany, and he came back to Uganda when there was shooting, there were people getting killed, there was no water, no electricity. It was just terribly tough situations. And I said, Dr. Masaba, why did you come back? This is when we were hiding in a cornfield as, as the soldiers were ripping through the hospital looking for medicines and food. And he said, if I didn't come back, who would take care of my people. And at that point, I really understood what the essence of servant leadership is. That's when you put yourself behind your pain, behind your financial loss, behind anything else to take care of your people. And, and really, when you come right down to it, that's the ultimate in leadership— when you can sacrifice for the people that you're working for, and that's the people that you're over.

No, absolutely. I wish I could remember who said this. I heard this recently. It was another person who works in the leadership space like we do, and they were asked the question about servant leadership, and the gentleman responded, he said, "Well, what other kind is there?" You know, I thought—

That's exactly right.

But the idea that command and control is interesting because I often, I purposely do this to instigate trouble, but you know, I say the age of command and control is over. I'd argue that it never really existed, yet leaders must operate in that mode sometimes, but you're never gonna be, none of your orders are gonna be followed if you haven't built up the trust and the respect of the people you serve, right?

Let me just tell you a quick story. I was the wing commander at Elmendorf Air Force Base and we had an inspection coming up. And so I saw my job as really laying out the vision and making sure that people were resourced and trained and empowered. Their jobs, and I would just sit back and be a cheerleader for these folks. One night, I was actually taken out of the exercise just so that the evaluators could see how the wing would operate without their top guy, and a young airman needed a heads-up display to make the last airplane, airplane 72, so that we could deploy out. He went to the trainer, got permission for a one-time-only flight, took the heads-up display out of the trainer, which is the same part number, put it in the airplane, and we flew the next morning. Well, my job was easy. I just congratulated him and gave him an award, a medal, for using his initiative because he had been empowered. He knew the mission, he knew our objective, and he took the initiative to do the right thing when I was sleeping. I was so happy that leadership finally worked. It wasn't just me, but his bosses and his bosses' bosses had empowered him and trained him and resourced him and given him the latitude to make the right decision. And we got an outstanding. It was the first outstanding that a wing had gotten since the Air Force was founded in 1948.— and nobody has made it since. And a lot of it was people like that airman taking the initiative, doing their jobs within the bounds that we had laid for them, but giving them the freedom to make the right decisions, to do what it took to make our team successful. And to me, that's a story about what leadership is. It's not forcing people and telling them what to do and commanding them. It's giving them the latitude, the training, the resources and allowing them to be empowered to do the right thing for the team. And that was so beautiful for me, and it really reinforced what my leadership was all about. Serving these folks and making them successful.

We are so singing in harmony. I know you learned it through your military career, and I learned it in my life as a sensei, that you were hitting all the same words, to inspire, to empower, to guide people. And it's fascinating that you mentioned the recognition component because we do a survey, we ask, you know, leaders, how often you recognize people for a job well done. And what you said there, I mean, it's so important. The smallest gestures sometimes are the most important, right? You don't wait around for the medal. You pat somebody on the back and really, you know, give them focused praise for a job well done and how people respond to it. You also touched really on something that's really dear to our hearts here. True leadership has nothing to do with rank or position of authority. I mean, that guy who took that initiative, he showed leadership right there on the front lines.

You're exactly right. Everybody has their part to play and you've got to, as a leader, make sure everybody is part of the team and everybody is valued and everybody has worth. You know, but it goes back to being thankful again. I'll tell you, when I was a captain, I started just writing a thank you letter a week, just, out of discipline, but I had people coming back driving 60 miles to say thank you for the letter. I had one person come back and say, you know, I'm not very handsome, I'm not good looking, and the good looking people seem to get all the praise and the thanks and that kind of thing. He said, but I come here every day and this is the first time somebody has recognized me for me doing my job. And I really took that in, and as a commander I started writing personalized birthday cards to everybody. And, and I ended up having to preprint them because I had 25,000 supporters for me at one point. But I would sign their name and my name, and if I could, I would try to remember catching them doing something good that I could recognize them for. And, you know, even when I was in a combat zone, I spent a lot of my time writing letters back to spouses and to parents And I've heard stories about those letters are still on the refrigerator because the impact was so great by thanking the parents for the work that their kids were doing. You know, it doesn't take much. It's just time and a piece of paper and some ink. But it means so very much to motivate a team. And you're not doing it to motivate the team. You're really expressing gratitude for their contributions to your organization, to your country, whoever you're working for, whatever part of leadership team you're a part of. You can't do it by yourself. And for people that think that they can drive the train by themselves, it's crazy. Everybody has to be there. When I went out to fly, my F-15 probably hadn't been looked at by another officer. It was enlisted people that fixed the radar, loaded the munitions, and made that airplane work.

Yeah.

And, and the control tower, it's everybody working together regardless of rank. It's everybody working as a team. To get the final product out the door, to get the capacity and the capability that you're looking for.

No, you hit it right on the head. I mean, obviously that very definition of leadership means that you're not alone, even though I understand it does feel that way sometimes. You know, it's our job, our number one job maybe is to transform me into we, but you also hit, you hit on something really important, I think. We make a strong distinction between motivation and inspiration. Now motivation to me is something that's very, very simple. You can motivate somebody very simply and it's more of a technical process. I mean, you can bribe them, you can offer them more money, you could give them a bonus or you can scare them, you can threaten them and that'll motivate people and they'll meet certain expectations most of the time or a lot of the time anyway. But what you're talking about, that simple gesture is so powerful. That's inspiration. That transcends any sort of expectations. You know, like you said, that meaning, someone has that on that refrigerator for years afterwards and how much did that have an impact on their lives once they left the military and went on into other avenues.

Yeah, I think you just reminded me of something that I think is so important. And every time I took over a leadership position, I would sit there and spend a lot of time figuring out exactly what that little phrase is that would be our vision. And the Third Wing, it was to make the Third Wing into America's premier air power wing. And just so that people would have something that every day they're getting up and thinking, what am I doing to make the Third Wing America's premier airpower wing? And then out of that flows the mission. And it's one of those things that we need to do now to get to where we want to be in the future. And then those strategic tasks, it doesn't have to be that many, but the mission essential strategic task. There's a building block that maybe everybody doesn't have to understand as long as they understand the vision and the mission. And then the leaders have to think through and plan and figure out what needs to be done and, and how do we organize, how do we train, how we equip.

Yeah.

So there's a method to all this stuff to make it happen. But when you get people that are inspired, people that are doing not things that just are pet rocks and whatever, but they add significantly to the mission essential task. That have to be accomplished. When you get everybody moving the same direction and accomplishing these things, man, there's nothing that can stand in the way of success. It is a beautiful thing to see a well-oiled machine of inspired people working together to achieve the mission, to accomplish the vision.

You hit it exactly. And you know, what does Admiral Grace Hopper— I always quote her, I thought it was so beautiful— she said, "You manage things, you lead people." Exactly right. They're two different jobs.

They're both important.

Like you said, the technical things, those are important. We've gotta cross the T's and dot the I's, but we gotta take care of our people. Listen, we're gonna take a short break, and when we come back, I wanna pick that up. And you mentioned, you know, your adventures, we could talk to you for 20 episodes, and maybe we'll recruit you to do that. But I wanna get to the idea of dictatorship and your experience with Idi Amin. So we're gonna take a quick break, and then we're gonna be back with with General Scott Gration, and we've also got to talk about your diplomatic service too. So we'll be back in just a couple minutes. The research is bombproof. People perform at their best when and only when they know their leaders care, when they know their work has meaning, and when they have the chance to learn, grow, and develop. To accomplish this, we need to connect with the people we serve, the people who trust in our leadership. Leaders today need emotional intelligence, strong interpersonal skills, and an accurate sense of self-awareness. I'm Jim Bouchard, leadership activist and founder of the Sensei Leader Movement. The sensei enjoys a very special relationship with students. It's one built on respect, trust, and loyalty, and these are also a leader's most valuable assets. I help you build these relationships. I work with you to help you inspire, empower, and guide your people to their very best. That's what the best leaders do, and that's what the sensei does. My job is to help you be the sensei so you can lead your people to their very best and yours. Executive coaching, workshops, corporate training. Visit thesenseileader.com or call 207-751-4317 today to learn more. You know, when a president writes the introduction to your book, you're probably somebody worth listening to. And President Carter is the one who introduces us to Scott Gration in his incredible memoir, Flight Path: Son of Africa to Warrior Diplomat. Flight Path includes captivating experiences from Scott's unique childhood, attending boarding school at the age of 7, escaping the 1964 Congo rebellion as a refugee, and being inducted into the Maasai tribe in Kenya. And that's just how the book starts. Human interest vignettes punctuate fascinating accounts of developing the Predator drone, conducting the 2003 Scud hunt in Iraq, and accompanying Senator Obama to Africa in 2006. He painfully described surviving the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia and the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon. Then he recalled speaking at the 2008 National Democratic Convention and helping to birth South Sudan in 2011. Today, Scott is a business consultant and speaker focusing on leadership on a deeply human level. Learn about Scott and his amazing book Flight Path at ScottGratian.com. Scott, before the break, you know, I mentioned I wanted to circle back to someone you had mentioned, Idi Amin. You know, and as much as I study leaders, I also study dictators because there's a huge distinction in my mind between leadership. You know, leadership is— a leader is somebody who has the ability to attract willing followers and the will to serve them. And to me, a dictator is someone who gets the job done through fear or force or coercion. We had the honor to work in Cuba a little more than a year ago and to see and to study more about the world that they live in and what happens under a dictatorship. And Idi Amin, of course, he's the icon, one of the icons of what an evil dictator is. And you had some experience with him?

Yeah, I did. You know, I mentioned earlier that we evacuated from Congo and went to Kampala for a while and lived there, and people shared their food with us, they shared their houses with us, and they shared their clothes with us. And when I heard about Idi Amin and the terrible things that were happening in Uganda, uh, 600,000 people killed, churches being burned down with the Christians inside, people being tortured in the state Shapiro. In fact, as I heard a story of one man say that you could have thrown rice into this room and it was so hot and sweaty that the rice would have cooked. When I heard those kind of stories and the lack of water, lack of electricity, I knew I had to do something. I had to go back and help these people that had helped us out. And so I bought a ticket and took off for Kampala and of course landed at Entebbe Airport, and there was a 707 on the ramp with the engine shot off and shrapnel throughout. My tools had been confiscated and The whole terminal was just in tatters as bombs and shooting had taken its toll. Went through 18 roadblocks, got to my room next to the tuberculosis ward in Mango Hospital, and I could just hear the shooting and the screaming and the dogs barking, and I couldn't believe that I was there. I couldn't believe that I was experiencing what the Ugandans experienced every day. The next morning I, I walked up to check in with the doctor and I passed two children, probably 7 or 8, and realized that they had never tasted salt, sugar, and flour. The things that, that my kids would take for granted, even sweets. And, and when I looked at what these people are enduring, I saw them working hard to make the best of their situation without complaining. And it taught me a heck of a lot. That how the Ugandan people were so resilient. We ate matoke bananas for 3 meals a day, but every meal that they served me came with a little penicillin vial that had a flower or a leaf in it. I tell you, I learned so much from the Ugandan people about how— what's important. You know, life itself was all they had, and families. I learned this a little bit when we evacuated. I said we lost everything but the clothes on our backs. And I realized at a young age that nobody can take what's in your brain. There's stuff you can put in your mind. Nobody can take your relationships with family and friends and your God. Nobody can take that. And when you come right down to it, it's not facilities and houses and wealth that's important. It's what you can communicate. It's relationships that you can build. It's people you can inspire. It's leadership. And building capacities and capabilities, that's really what endures. That's what is important. And this whole experience with Idi Amin and Uganda and evacuating and living in poverty, it really told me what's important. And so often, and it's insidious, not only do we have to do the right things, but we have to do things right. And a lot of times it's clouded as we start trying to make bigger things and accumulate more. When what we need is those relationships and what's in the mind and what's in the heart. That's really, and if you can build that into your team, goodness, that's the bottom line for me.

Right, and of course, really, ultimately, the way to do that is to lead, you know, provide the example, lead by example. But you hit on something so important too. And I don't want to go too far off on a tangent. I want to hear some more of your stories. But this idea, when people press me to summarize leadership in one idea, I always rely on this one. Leadership is sharing. A leader shares, right? People, leaders are people who see what needs doing and they do it. And it's sad sometimes, I agree, we're addicted to complexity and the simplicity. And it's sad that we sometimes have to be reduced to poverty. Now, I've experienced true poverty myself. It was self-imposed. Okay, so I have nobody to blame but myself. It was part of it. I was a drug addict when I was younger and that's the situation I was in. But anyway, but having that experience in hindsight can be a blessing now. But isn't it sad that we have to sometimes go to those extremes or like the scenario you just described where these people, what more beautiful, what more powerful demonstration of genuine leadership than to share what little food you have with somebody else who needs it. I mean, that to me, that's—

you hit on it, because that means that you don't have to be the top guy, the CEO or the CFO or the CEO, or you have initials behind your name. Everybody has the capacity to share. Everybody has the capacity to make a difference. And whether you're just doing it to people around you, or whether you're You're doing it to your community or your world. We all have different roles, but it all comes down to what you're saying.

But that means so much more, right? It means so much more coming from you because you have had those titles, you've held those positions of authorities, and I do wanna touch on at least one more of them before we wrap up today. But having said that, you know, I think that's, wow, that's a huge takeaway. I mean, if you're listening to this program and you don't hear anything else, Scott, you had all those titles and yet you recognize the power in the simple things.

Yep. Making a difference doesn't come from having titles. Making a difference has to come from doing, and the doing has to come from your heart. And when that happens and you can share and inspire and make a difference, that's what's satisfying. And to me, whether I have a house or a nice car, that kind of stuff, That's not what's satisfying, but seeing other people become successful, seeing teams be built, and seeing them accomplish something that otherwise was going to be difficult to do, and to see people rally and come around and do that, that to me is what I remember. And really, when you come right down to it, at the end of your life, it's not those things that you've accumulated, right?

Right.

It's relationships. Well, you can't tell how much you've been able to make a difference, inspire, and share. That's what it's all about. And I'm hoping that I've started early enough and I don't have to give a lot of stuff away, but I can leave a legacy in my children and my friends and my community of things where I've made a difference.

Well, I'm going to roll some dice here because I really have no idea how you're going to respond to this, but how much of a role do you think that mindset and that philosophy played in your movement up the ladder, in your ability to attain these positions? And again, you know, to be the ambassador to Kenya, I mean, what a remarkable thing. And not that being a general in the Air Force is anything to sneeze at, but to hold all these stations, to be a trusted advisor to a president, how much did your— I'm going to say, look, be a little more technical— the human side, the human-centric side of your leadership play in that in the, in, how would we say it? Is that what people noticed when they offered you these positions more so? Was it bigger or smaller than the technical skills that you had? I guess that's the simplest way to put it.

Yeah, it's a tough, tough thing to answer because it's probably everything that makes a person. I had a situation that happened early in my flying career where I was flying at night in the clouds and, and I ended up— the, the guys I was flying with became spatially disoriented and I broke out of formation and found myself plummeting toward the ground. And I pulled out between a farmhouse and a row of trees going 500 miles an hour, about 200 feet above the ground. I should have been a fireball that night, and I recognized it. And every time that I would close my eyes that night after I was able to land I could see the ground rushing up, the lights rushing up, the altimeter unwinding, the airspeed increasing, and I knew that I should have been dead, but I was saved. And I also knew that if I had died, I would have left a room full of trophies and a room full of stuff, and it really didn't matter. And I changed my attitude back then, and I think that really helped me to do the right things. Because as a, as a young professional, I learned to evaluate what was right in my life and what should I be doing and where should I be spending my time. And then also you have to learn to do things right. And, and in here comes the simple thing called integrity. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters. But if you do have integrity Nothing else matters. And so I was able to put things behind me and do what was right and not be swung and influenced by things that were probably a little bit shady. And so I've always tried hard to keep my integrity because if you have— nobody can give you integrity, you have to live it, and nobody can take it from you, you have to give it. So it's part of doing the right thing if you're going to really be a senior leader that people can look up to. I also found that balancing family was a tough thing for me. And fortunately, I had a great wife, but at some point you have to figure out as you climb the leadership ladder, how are you going to balance your family and how are you going to balance priorities? And I always made my family a priority. Another thing is health. A lot of people don't think about this, but a leader, if he's not healthy or she's not healthy, You're no good to the organization. So you got to take time to do what's right and get that exercise in and be healthy. And so all these things as you climb, but as I did this, you got to keep that dose of humility. I realized as a young captain, I was selected to be a White House Fellow. You know, there'd been 60,000 applications my year and there were 13 of us that were selected. And I'm sitting there with President Reagan in the Rose Garden and I'm having opportunities that a young guy of 29 shouldn't have. And I realized that little image of a turtle on top of a fence post. Nobody— turtles don't climb fence posts. Somebody had to put them up there. And I realized that even though the view was marvelous, And even though everything was wonderful on top of that fence post, I didn't get there by myself. That people had helped me get on top there and it put me on top and I took advantage of it. I took advantage of the view and, and I liked it, but I realized all the time that there were a lot of people that made it all possible for me and that I had to give back. I had to share with them. The blessings that I had. So, I helped other people climb. I helped other people get on top of fence posts. And in helping them, because I had been blessed, I was able to bless others.

There it is.

And if you can do it with integrity, if you can live out those core values that we learned in the Air Force of service before self, and that thing about excellence. You know, my father told me when I was young that there's only a little bit of difference between good and excellence. But it's that little bit of difference that makes all the difference. You have to study about the same amount to get a B+ or an A, but that little bit of extra gives you that A. Yeah, you have to do a lot of times the same amount of work and the same amount of effort, but it's that going back and making sure you spelled everything right and making sure that it's aligned properly and, and making sure that everything is good. That little bit of difference is the difference between good and excellent. And I challenge people to do that. Take the pride, make a difference, do that little bit of extra.

Scott, I could listen to you all day. We try to keep this lunch-friendly, so we're gonna have to wrap it up. So I was gonna dive into another area, but I'm gonna kind of force you to acquiesce to this. I want you back as soon as possible because I wanna talk. We have a lot of people joining Sensei Leader Movement in Kenya and eastern parts of Africa. And I wanna hear more about your adventures there as ambassador. And I wanna talk about, you know, the differences and the similarities in the culture and the mindset of people all over the world. So can we have you back again for another episode?

You sure can, because you hit on something that's near and dear to me. There's 1.2 billion people in Africa, half of them under 18. We've got to give them opportunities. We've got to cultivate the leadership and entrepreneurship that they can be.

Oh yeah, I'm so impressed with everybody that I meet Particularly, I don't wanna say particularly anyway, all over Africa, I've seen so much incredible leadership and yeah, we just gotta work together to bring that all to the front, right? Scott, thank you so much. Let's talk about, really quickly, let's talk about how to get in touch with you and what services you're offering. I know you're speaking, you're consulting, and how would you like people get in touch with you?

Well, contacting me, I have a website called www.scottjones.com. Scottgration.com, and that's primarily for my book. I'll be expanding that shortly, so there'll be more information there for you in terms of the speaking. But I also can be contacted at scottgration@gmail.com— I'm sorry, at grationbook@gmail.com. That's grationbook, all one word, at gmail.com.

Excellent, Scott. Thank you so much. It's an honor to have you on the show today.

It's been my pleasure. Thanks, Jim. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Walking the Walk. Please like and share. Our mission at the Sensei Leader Movement is to support and develop human-centric leaders.

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