Leading with Heart Series: Providing profound insights and practical application to enhance your leadership impact with Guest Randall Doizaki

David Utts: 0:13

Welcome to Unfazed Under Fire, the podcast that aims to support executives in deepening their impact and resiliency on the path to growing their enlightened leadership Tuning into your needs. Here's your host and moderator, seasoned executive coach and self-proclaimed end-of-the-road seeker, david Craig Utz.

David Utts: 0:40

So welcome back to Unfazed Under Fire. I'm David Craig Utz, the resilient leadership guy. I'm your host and moderator for the show, and this show aims to support executive leaders to improve their leadership impact and to gain insights into how to be more resilient and these crazy, uncertain, disruptive times. And today I'm very excited to be joined by Randall Doisaki, who is a colleague in the leadership development industry, and Randall is currently a law enforcement coach and is also setting up his own company to provide leadership coaching and training programs as well as he's getting more involved in speaking on the topics of leadership and employee development and in a few minutes you're going to understand why he could provide such a rich background in that and really help people with that.

David Utts: 1:25

Now we connected a few weeks ago and I know knew right away that I wanted to have him on the show because of this rich background and how he orients to leadership is very aligned with my orientation and I know you're going to gain a lot from hearing from him today.

David Utts: 1:39

Now he has a 30-year background in valuable leadership experience in the US Marines and from law enforcement, and in his work as a law enforcement coach he aims to foster effective recruitment, retention and development of officers to ensure police departments keep good officers engaged for longer, and he's also a retired sheriff's lieutenant himself. Now Randall has also an adjunct professor teaching American government and constitutional law. He is passionate about leadership and transformation and what leadership can bring to an organization, and he's also currently working on a book around his leadership lessons and teaches leadership principles, and in the short time I've known him, I can tell you he just has this unbridled energy around helping others. So he lives in the state, you live in the state of Colorado, and I want to welcome you on the show today, randall. Thanks for being here.

Randall Doizaki: 2:32

Well, thank you sir and I hope the weather is good where you're at also. Yeah, well it is.

David Utts: 2:39

it's starting to get chilly, but we just deal with that, right? So I think, oh, the way I like to start off these conversations with Randall is just to have you set the stage by sharing just a little bit about your background and your journey into leadership and how that's set the stage for your current position to want to help organizations develop leaders and improve employee retention and development. So if you could just share a little bit about however you want to share, your journey and the highlights from your journey, just go ahead and go for it To make it simple.

Randall Doizaki: 3:20

I'm a lifelong learner and as leaders, learning we've got to continue and grow. I look back to one of my mentors growing up Dennis Sato family-owned business here in Denver and Dennis was a phenomenal informal mentor of mine. That was in structure, but I learned a lot from him on how he does business, how the family is a family-owned business and the Sato family and the Doisaki family had done business together for a couple of generations first and second generation Japanese here in Colorado and I learned at an early age it's about the camaraderie. It's about taking care of your team. We would go out on the weekends and do volleyball. You take the employees, the families who go and do volleyball. We get together. There's a lot of support and encouragement about the business side and Dennis told me one day he's Randy. The reason we are a small retail garden center, are still in business and others are not is we've adapted and we modify our business model on the market. I wonder customers want it. I looked at the work that you're doing, david, and you're reaching out. You're providing support for others. It's about encouraging that.

Randall Doizaki: 4:47

When I was a senior in high school I knew I wanted to do something else. I was a bit of a troublemaker growing up. I was always in fights, a little hothead, and I knew I wanted to do something. I signed up for the Marine Corps three days after I turned 18 in January, and I didn't even talk to my parents about it. My dad was livid. My dad was army my little brother's army so dad was a little upset that I went to Marine Corps. But I knew I wanted to do something and I wanted to challenge myself and become a Marine. There's that lifelong history that Marine Corps embodies and they incorporate leadership as soon as you start recruiting, you sign up and you enlist and the only difference I see between the Marine Corps and the other branches other than we're a little bit known to be a little challenging sometimes is that history that they ingrain. Once a Marine, always a Marine. It gets in the blood, it becomes part of us. I know a buddy of mine, joel Brunk. He's an auto guy, he's an auto body. He's been doing for his whole life and in his blood. But the leadership the Marine Corps brings, I ran with it, I loved it.

Randall Doizaki: 6:07

So I got out of the Marine Corps, came back to Denver, did a number of other things construction, firewater, restoration. I've had a number of different management leadership positions but I wasn't happy and it wasn't the service that I wanted. So I went into the law enforcement academy out here in Colorado, put myself through the academy, eventually got hired with the sheriff's office and I enjoyed it, did a full career with the sheriff's office. But one of the things that I see we're not doing enough and that's kind of set me apart with some of my peers I identified where I wanted to end up, where I wanted to be in retirement. So many people and I've seen it in any profession they get the job and they're thrilled. Well, what are you going to do next and what's next? They're waiting for opportunity. They're waiting for someone to present and I tell people when they would serve the sheriff's office. I'd say you want to be sheriff? Why would I want to be sheriff? That's a headache. I said you start back, you identify and I ran for county sheriff so I know some of the challenges there. But you work backwards from where you want to end up and you've built on that.

Randall Doizaki: 7:20

To be a lieutenant I had to have a bachelor's degree. To be a well-rounded lieutenant I had to work all the different areas patrol, investigations, detentions, and to do that I had to do it before I became a sergeant, so I kind of worked backwards, so I really enjoyed that. In 2017 I was eligible to retire 2018, well, I'm going to limit the employer out of that. My current employer contacted me through LinkedIn and asked me if I was interested in their lieutenant position with Department of Safety. I went over, I applied, so I've been doing that since I retired on Friday from the sheriff's office, started a new position on a Monday. I had two days of retirement. Couldn't stand it, had to go back to work.

Randall Doizaki: 8:11

I've been doing that since 2018, but physically anymore I'm at that point my body says you're too many miles but, the question was when I left the sheriff's office, I identified three sergeants and I mentored and worked with them to take over my position.

Randall Doizaki: 8:33

And that's the thing I picked up from the Marine Corps is the military you prepare and you guide somebody for that next rank, because if you drop, somebody's going to take over. So in the private sector, what happens if the CEO wins the lot on doesn't come in tomorrow, you know, or something happens and family dynamics or something change and somebody in a position, a decision making position, within any organization church could be a religious, could be a fraternal organization could be a structured project, community events, stuff like that. If those key individuals are unable to fulfill those, well, who's going to step in? And I'm not seeing a lot of that, and that's where the challenge came from me is getting people to think that way, and that's my passion. I like to see the aha moment go off in people's eyes. They sit there and, like you know, I never thought about that, but that's what I'm thinking.

David Utts: 9:36

Yeah, I mean, I hear a lot of there. I mean what the Marine Corps I extrapolated here and crap me if I'm wrong drilled into you is what's the mission right? What's the focus? Where are we going with these actions? What are these actions adding up to and why are we doing what we're doing?

David Utts: 9:56

And you know, as I tell my clients, even if you ultimately don't reach your goal but you have a goal it's going to take you down a pathway that will open you up to other possibilities, that you then reset your goal. I didn't realize that was possible, but I would not have realized that was possible since I had set this goal. I now can change my goal because I see something else that I desire. But now I have a new mission and that's a trajectory of our life. We always have these new missions that show up right, and we have to. But it's something about claiming it and clearly seeing it so you can focus your efforts. And I also love what you said about like the idea of you know the people that are reporting to you, who are the ones you think could take over for you, that you're preparing the organization that's beyond yourself, that's that's serving. That's actually an active service, to humble yourself and prepare somebody else to fill your shoes right.

Randall Doizaki: 10:50

Yes. Well, a simple example for me is miners. That may seem where my current office is located. We've got a couple of different satellite offices but my premier office. You walk down the hall and there are three offices. Before you get to my mind at the end of the hall, everybody's got their name on the door of a mine. I said if you need my name on the door to know where my office is, that ain't right.

Randall Doizaki: 11:14

I'm not doing it to have my name on the door. I'm there to support If we have to promote ourselves. I go into OSES and I talk with different leaders and I'm not trying to be. I have a graduate degree in leadership, in HR, and I understand the significance of continued education and the benefits of that. But when I walk in office and everything on the wall is about their degrees, about awards they've received and the recognition they've received versus somebody else who has things about the department, things about the organization in their office, I've got sitting on my desk here, I've got comments and regalia that officers and team members have got a coffee cup that the team of officers made and they put their picture on it and refer to themselves the four of them and that means more than my diploma sits in a founder and I think we've got a lot of work to do.

David Utts: 12:14

Well, yeah, I mean, I think what you're speaking to is really the highest form of leadership right and leadership and whatever. It's light and leadership or whatever you call it. But there is a higher order of expression of it and it's beyond the role of being a leader. And true leaders is about we, not me, right, it's about us, it's about the collective and most of the leaders that I know their greatest passion is developing others. When somebody says to me one of my greatest passions is developing others, I know I'm in the presence of a true leader or somebody aspiring to grow and develop that leadership role. So it's very well said. Now you have a very you know. There's a number of ways in which you've been brought up through different experiences that I think would be really enriching for our audience to hear about, and one of them was your Irish, german heritage, but you were brought up in a Japanese Buddhist household. Now I'm curious if that, how that upbringing, influenced how you now look at leadership and espouse leadership. Well, how did that influence you?

Randall Doizaki: 13:25

So one of the things I've done in the college classroom as an adjunct faculty for years I've done it with a sheriff's office when I taught a career development class in our Sergeant Academy I've done it with a current officer says I will put my last name on the board, doi Zaki. And I was doing this long before any of the bias training and all this stuff became what it is today. And I guess I've been working on that for years, for decades, and I would put my name up and I would ask individuals what is my family heritage? And they would look at me and they'd say German, they'd say Irish, they'd say Czech, they'd say something else. And I come back and said you, bias, you looked at me and you tried to get my features to fit. Try to get the name to fit my features.

Randall Doizaki: 14:13

So my mother remarried when I was young. My father, the man who raised me, the man who made me who I am today, tommy Doi Zaki. His parents, so my grandparents, the grandparents I grew up with, were from Japan. They came to the United States in the late 1800s. Our family tree goes back to the 1600s. So my mother remarried. But when Tommy adopted us, his name is on my birth certificate, my biological father, gary, gary Wick, all my parents on both biological, one on my father's side, all the seeds aren't many of our family left, except we're thinning out.

Randall Doizaki: 14:58

So I was raised in a Japanese Buddhist home, growing up, and I've always looked at the Buddhist religion as a philosophy of its way of life, about balancing and doing good with others, say the path and so on. But then the twist is that my lovely wife of 36 years and I met in high school. Her parents are from Naples, italy. She's raised, she's an Italian Catholic, absolutely. So you've got me raising a Japanese Buddhist home, my wife Italian Catholic, and we even had some great conversations. I think her daughter, or adult daughter, is still trying to figure out which way things go. But you look at some of that and that philosophy of doing right thought, right action, right deed, and I'm also associated with a fraternal organization as a Mason, and we look at the characteristics and what it brings into life. So I had a very unique growing up but because of that I've looked into other religions, I've read about different things, I try to expand and get to understand different.

Randall Doizaki: 16:09

But again that goes back to, like I said, david, about being an authentic leader and a servant, and I don't see myself just as a true leader. I'm an expert leader because I build teams. I've had teams that are phenomenal, work and they step up together and that's what it's about. But I look at the balance that we have in bringing those different entities together.

Randall Doizaki: 16:36

In those conversations, when we laugh and joke in the military, the camaraderie, the Marines against the army and against the Navy and the Air Force, and the phrase that comes to mind is they say what's the difference between the Air Force, navy, army and a Marine Corps? So well, the first three all have a football team. They're busy protecting a quarterback. The Marine Corps is busy protecting the country. So we don't do the same job. We are here to protect the country and uphold our democratic government and what it stands for.

Randall Doizaki: 17:19

But one of the things and I don't go into it a lot, I know I'll tell you this is not in my book. I put on the badge when I came to realization, one of my issues that I've dealt with growing up my family. I was 11 years old and my family was held hostage here in September and they took my mother to the door with a gun on their ribs and my dad sitting behind the dining room table, between the table and the wall, with my two-year-old sister on his lap, and he couldn't do anything to protect his family. So tough, so tough.

Randall Doizaki: 17:53

The guy he gave up but the impact it had on the family. And then I'm going to jump ahead a few years after and I got on Marine Corps in 1986, got married in 1987. And a gentleman bandit came out. A guy arrived to the local bank here. He was shot and killed by a plainclothes off duty officer working the bank because, listen, had he come in five minutes later and our lovely wife would have been gone. She was a bank teller at that time.

Randall Doizaki: 18:22

So there was two incidents in my own life and I said you know what, protecting and being that sheepdog watching that I'm the consequence for their action, and I encourage and I try to develop others in that same mindset that it's not about you or me, it's about us. Yes, if you or I or anybody in society and we're standing there and somebody else is in there, somebody else is in danger and we don't take action, I don't care if it's pulling somebody back from the sidewalk, from walking into traffic and trying to guide somebody hey, don't go in there, there's, you know, the danger, watch those stairs or whatever it is then we're part of the problem. We're the ones that are contributing but getting people to think that way. And especially in my profession when I talk to individuals and I tell law enforcement officers and a number of people in the community may come out and say you're right, we got to do something about it and we are trying. When a law enforcement officer goes into your home and they're in uniform, they got a badge on, they got a gun on and there's a discernment, they're going to tell you to sit down, shut up in your house.

Randall Doizaki: 19:34

And I train officers and I do the same thing in the business sector, in the private sector. When you're a supervisor, a leader, a manager and you have control and influence over others, you impact their vacation, you impact raises, potential promotion opportunities, potential phenomenal projects, crap projects. So as a law enforcement officer, you're being a bully in somebody's house. As a leader or manager or supervisor, you're in position of control and intimidation over somebody. That's basically a bully. I know it's not the same mindset we generally look at, but that person approaching you as a manager or supervisor, they're already in an adversarial position because you have control and influence over their position. Right? So I bring that in and I go back to being held hostage to my wife working in the bank. I look at the impact we were victims of a crime and the impact. We had no say what those individuals are going to do and, as leaders, we've got to be thinking the same about trying to help our employees and in the future of the organizations.

David Utts: 20:49

So are you saying in that and it makes me get this right that because you're somebody's boss, there's already an implication of authority there? It's unconscious and conscious and how we're conditioned around authority and one of your jobs as a leader is to be aware and sensitive to that and understand. Going back to your comments about outcome, focus that what is the?

David Utts: 21:16

outcome you want from that interaction with that individual and how do you in many cases soften as you need it, depending on the situation, the bully side of that, the confrontative side of that, so that you are in a different relationship with them in support. Is that fair to say? Yes, that is correct.

Randall Doizaki: 21:40

And one of the things I look at and it's a simple gesture as a boss, as a supervisor is having somebody come to your office. So my office, one of the insurance office I always had a pot of coffee on. Now I'm the kind of guy that drinks coffee that will melt the plastic spoon. I'm having my second cup of coffee here this morning already and come in and have a cup of coffee. And people came in and they talked. I had individuals talking to me as the coordinator for the peer support program as well, and people would come in. I had people talking to me about fertility issues. I had people discussing other personal matters, but they were comfortable because the door was open.

Randall Doizaki: 22:20

And that goes back to being the coach is asking open-ended questions, letting them fill in the blanks, letting them come to those decisions and asking somebody where do you want to end up with this? What is the end goal on this? How do we get there with these limited issues? But also getting your butt out of your chair and saying, hey, david, why don't you come over and sit in my chair? I'm going to sit on that side of the desk and let's have this conversation if you were sitting here. And what's the thought process? How do we get to that?

Randall Doizaki: 22:51

Me as a supervisor of positions and I do this on the board as well, and I've been doing this again for a couple of decades and I've seen others doing it now. So I'll put math, like four math problems, on the board, nine times one, nine times two, nine times three, and I'll just put nine times one as ten, and then I turn around. So what's the first thing you notice, all these four math problems, they say, well, the first one's wrong. You said it's either that or I'm an idiot and can't do math. But I say we only spoke us on the one that was wrong. We don't do anything about the other three. Why are we jumping at that? And I talked.

Randall Doizaki: 23:26

Now the point in my current position I might like to rise, or I was laughing about so if it's not burning down in my profession, I look at it from a Military and law enforcement background. If it's not burning down and nobody's dying, nobody's life is in danger. We got some time to step back and breathe. People talk about mistakes. They oh, you can't make to me. A mistake is if you do it twice. The first time is learning opportunity. But if you put somebody into your chair, you sit on the other side of the desk and walk through that and make them think about what is an outcome. How should we resolve this? What was a thought process? That's well said.

Randall Doizaki: 24:05

Right we're too quick to judge.

David Utts: 24:07

That's a good. That's a good exercise for all my executive class to do is have your direct reports Switch up the cheating at a meeting and see what happens. That would be very oh yeah.

David Utts: 24:16

Oh yeah, everybody's got their seat, and why? Right, and there's a perspective from that seat right, or there's a or there's a skewed Perception of what it is to be in that seat, right? Yes, either way. Well, you know, it is something. Something else you know. You mentioned, you know, being a sheriff and Are the share, a lieutenant in the Sheriff's Department and running for sheriff, right, and I understand that. You know that's the one, that's the one law enforcement Agent in the United States. It actually is elected by the people, not assigned to the job, right?

David Utts: 24:55

And so the and that you're a professor and you're caught. You're passionate about constitutional law. Yes, I know that may have been something that was reinforced or empowered by you being in that, in that department. Right, because the department has to understand that it is serving Well, every, every officer should be serving the Constitution. Right, but more, it's more prepped, more obvious in that, in that role, and and you also teach Each constitutional law as an adjunct professor, and I remember in our first, our first Conversation, you brought up your book that you carry with you, which is the Constitution carry with you.

David Utts: 25:34

So when you, when you look at that amazing document, how does that inform? You know Leadership, and we live in a constitutional Republic, right, we, you know, and and so how can you know? And I think sometimes you in the corporate world, we lose touch with that, not because we don't think it's important, but because we're so focused on our role, in our job. But what is that Document? How does that inform being a leader? And it's a big question, but I know I, yeah, it's a perfect question because, unfortunately, we we generally have gotten away from some of that what I found in a particularly my position.

Randall Doizaki: 26:22

Now we have a number of individuals that are applying for positions and I'm interacting with a lot of individuals that are immigrants and a lot of individuals that are coming in and they're learning our Constitution and they're learning our form of government and unfortunately, david, they know more about our structure or a constitutional structure than we do. They have to pass the test. We don't, and when I've gone and teaching the constitutional on American government and I'll go in there and I take the Constitution out, I don't remember data, I don't remember numbers. My mind is picture, I can describe crime scenes and events to you, but I can't quote it. So I carry a copy to Constitution with me and I would read it verbatim.

Randall Doizaki: 27:08

And one of the things that I think we got away from, and if you look at all the statutes and everything has been written based on the Constitution, that's where gate everything all makes up. You got so many words in there and so many different amendments and addendums and everything else, but as an organization, as a leader, we've got to go back and look at the basis of Any organization. If you look at I don't care if you're making widgets what is the end goal of making a widgets. It's for a customer. What is the interest of the customer?

Randall Doizaki: 27:38

And if we start putting all these different layers and while you can only lift it with your left hand and Then you got to turn around and put in your right hand and put it on something else, we get too many layers in there, we get too Convoluted, too many hands in the in the pot. We're mixing things up. But in the Constitution and I've had this conversation my adult daughter when she's nice going, some of her friends, and To this day it's still a debate and people challenge and I said well, what is the basis of the Constitution Was to keep government out of our business. It was to freedom.

David Utts: 28:11

Right, the freedom is the basis of our country being gotta be free to be who you are, correct and and to express yourself within a certain you know, as long as you don't get violent or harm other people. Right, that's the bottom line, right.

Randall Doizaki: 28:24

And that's where I talk about like freedom of religion.

Randall Doizaki: 28:26

There are people that have an issue that my lovely wife phenomenal, a very patient woman, she puts up with all my issues raised Catholic and I was raised Buddhist and her father, when I was in high school, big Italian guy, tells me on a Saturday, says, or anyone to talk to you, ingrid, raising a good Catholic home. I'm thinking, oh crap, he's gonna tell me, touch my daughter and you're gonna get hurt. But he's his comment was I don't want you discussing religion. He was more concerned about me discussing Buddhism with his Catholic daughter. But then, after I got a Marine Corps and we went to a presentation, an event here in Denver at the Tricycle's Church, and he sat in and he listened to a lecture on Buddhism.

Randall Doizaki: 29:12

This man was raised Catholic, he was solid Catholic and put his kids through Catholic school and so on. But he listened to it and he came back and he said you know what, randy, what is? Him and Catholic were on the same street, going the same way. We're just on different sidewalks. And and that brings that back so the, the freedom of religion and that discussion, well, everybody comes in and they're challenging this and that, but the Constitution being a basis, being a foundation of our government and our how are structural, kind of got away from that. And I think that's what I'm seeing and I'll say that is what I'm seeing in both in law enforcement profession and in the private sector. People are getting away from the basis of the Organization, organization and the people. I think it was a Liya Coco was a quote.

Randall Doizaki: 29:59

You've got three things in business product or, yeah, product, no, people. Product profit, and you can't have product rather for profit without the first two and you can't have a product Rather people. People should always be your first, and a lot of companies talk about in, be it a service industry or manufacturing or however, they always talk about the customer's right. And Well, how is the customer right? And you get to appease the customer by asking questions. I've seen too many people get into debate in an argument with customers or stakeholders. Not necessarily doesn't have to be an end-user, could be some of you're doing business with and it's about who's in charge, who's going to get the better end. Well, a lot of times all that means is stop and listen to their side here, what they have to say, and we're not doing that. And that goes back to the Constitution. You got away from it.

David Utts: 30:55

Well, you know, and you know every you know the with most executives at organization and decision-making, the buck stops. There is a decision-making tree, right, and there was in the military as well so there there's some degree of Freedom of speech and then some degree of it's time for that to be done over, because we're taking the hill and I'm in charge, right. So so how do you?

David Utts: 31:16

how do you, how do you square without like there? They're there, because I believe that you know what you just said. It's not necessarily Taking the concern somebody's bringing with you and changing the way you might do things, but it's also not about completely shutting that other person down and not listening to their concern, because within a Conspressed concern can be a nugget of gold that can serve both of you and serving the ultimate decision, right? Yeah, so what would you say about that? That you know that we have, let's say, talk about that First Amendment right that we have as citizens, thank God, in this country, and how does that apply when you're leading in an organization? And? And? And how does that serve you To honor that as a leader?

Randall Doizaki: 32:05

Well, to me part of the goes back to what I said about the, the comment about if they ain't burning down or nobody's in danger. We got time. But in law enforcement I've been out on a number of crime scenes and I've been out some very horrendous crime scenes and as a supervisor we have to come in and say we line it out and there's specific facts and there's expectations on what's to be done. But if we're building strong teams and we're building that partnership, in that collaboration and they know that, okay, everybody's got their part and that's one of the things to look. In the military and Marine Corps you have your fire team. Everybody's got a specific task and a duty. In the military, the special forces units maybe seal force, recon To me Green Beret and the Rangers and so on every team 18 member has a specific task and they all come together and we train that way. So when it comes to critical action, we're prepared for in the, in leadership.

Randall Doizaki: 33:00

In the private sector you may not have a life-threatening situation, but if something happens, hypothetically an organization that's a manufacturing company and something breaks down, what do you do? So I worked that was a sanitation supervisor for a company, don Fuss, and they sent me to Manhattan, kansas American Institute of Baking. So I'm. They sent a marine to baking place with a lot of food that I don't know how that works. But you come in and you've got to go through and you've got a sanitize, you've got to clean. Well, something breaks down. What's critical, what's a how do you transition if this isn't working, over to here to continue your productivity? How do you continue?

Randall Doizaki: 33:38

But I think by working on some of those bases. When it comes down to it, if the team has faith In their leadership and if there's that structure and that true cohesive, like in Marine Corps, the camaraderie, the, the Semper fi, they always faithful. And if the team understands and if they have Leaders they have faith in, they're going to go with it. If they don't, they're going to sit back on their hands and wonder well, okay, boss, you don't want us to do this, you tell us what you want to do. Okay, you want to do that. So there's a time and place to come in and dictate in any industry, even in A religious organization, if you're coming in and something's happening.

Randall Doizaki: 34:19

You may have a religious, a bishop or a pastor or somebody who's running the service, who is the bigger head, but when something comes to it, sometimes they're going to have to step back Because somebody else needs to step in and deal with something or you know. However it is, you got somebody who's more empathetic and has that relationship with somebody who needs more support. We have one of the things look at with our officers is and I learned this a long time ago as a patrol deputy and I learned it from the veteran officer I had a list, a little recipe card box I know it was a paper card file on Kids in the neighborhood that I'd run across and I would stop in and I would check with them. Why should we be caught off guard? And I would stop in and I would check with them. Why should we be contacting them when it's always negative? Right to go in and build that. And I had kids and their parents invite me to their graduation parties, community Neighborhood block parties and events, and it's because that relationship with the community knew they could reach out to me.

Randall Doizaki: 35:21

The teams I work with call me, say hey, oh, t. I still got people today that are no longer working in my chain of command that call me and said, hey, the balance idea is off, because that cohesiveness is a team. And the joke was Usually, if there's a fighter or something, say one is a sergeant, lieutenant, where's the sergeant, where's the ulti? He's usually on the bottom of the pile with somebody with the fight. Because I don't, I'm not willing to step back, and just they gotta be willing to get my hands dirty. But when it came, push came to shove, I said I need this, this, no problem. And they go and they take care of it. They come back, we report, we do an assessment, do a review and and critique and come back to and I don't think we're seeing a lot of everybody's got. We're just trying to push things out and they're barking orders and it doesn't always well.

David Utts: 36:08

Yeah, and what I, what I hear you say is like, at a crisis point, the chain of command comes into play, but when you're, when you're building your team, when you're exploring, how do we Handle that challenge or or that in that project or that mission, or how do we going to approach this? That's a time when you want people to speak up and to share their mind and the thoughtfulness and to have honor, the wisdom that's coming from every, potentially coming from everybody, and I like that because you know and one of the things I Didn't think I was gonna ask has been how this pops into my mind is a more of a Global issue we're dealing with. I'm not trying to get into politics here.

David Utts: 36:50

No, no, I'm getting and I but I am getting into a phrase that you hear some people saying is Well, the Constitution was created over 200 years ago. They didn't expect the modern times that we're in to be what they are. We need to revisit the whole thing. When you hear that, what do you say? What would you say to that? That that, and I have an answer for that, but I'm curious what a expert in constitutional law would say to that as far as, are they misunderstanding something, or or what? What do you think? Well, how will you respond to that?

Randall Doizaki: 37:27

I've actually had that conversation and some people and some of it came from Camp fitting as a sheriff running months running for sheriff political office and a lot of those discussions the basis in any organization if you do away with the foundation, what have you got? What are you based it on? If you, if you scrap it all, what do you start with? I don't think it's the original document. That's been the issue I'm seeing. It's the interpretation and the application in different, different areas. We've gotten away from the focus and that's what I said, going back to, like leadership itself. I don't think throwing it out, because then what got us here is a move point and where do we?

Randall Doizaki: 38:09

start and I'm not saying that that it would be totally anarchy or anything, but if you don't have the basis, you know, if you go back to laws and all the history is coming about about searching and it when we contact people, we have to have reasonable suspicion, probably cause, to make those contacts. And people talk and they come in and they want to rewrite State statute on contacting. And one of the lessons I use when I was teaching my young, my adult daughter how to drive, I Would tell her when she's in the driver's seat it said who's in the car in front of you? I Don't know. Can you tell male, female, young old what their race is?

David Utts: 38:54

no.

Randall Doizaki: 38:54

I said, okay, then at night the car is going the other direction, You're doing 35, they're doing 35 and you pass each other. Can you, if you're driving, see who's in that car? And I said it's the same thing for law enforcement. They do not. We do not necessarily focus on the Physical characteristics. We're looking at what they're doing when they're driving. We're looking at where they're, at what they're doing. And I think when we look at the Constitution, we kind of got away from something and what you talked about. When they say scrap, and I said, well, what are you gonna put into place? You want to throw it out? Would you? If you're gonna make an example of something, give us an example of something better. Don't just say it's not working Right, don't think it's a there also.

David Utts: 39:35

Is that there also a mechanism of the Constitution that say, if this has to be adjusted right, you could have a constitutional convention with so many states yeah, agreeing to that, and you can revisit it that way, that that that's a way of doing it, but I still think it holds, and holds water pretty well.

Randall Doizaki: 39:51

It's very basic, very simple, and you've gotten too many opinions and reviews of it. If we sat down and looked at it's like Policy in a law enforcement agency. We make it so convoluted. Something as simple, those cheese uniforms. We want everything in a specific manner one or marine in the military, not just marine corps in the military. We do in this action. The book it's about a junk in the bunk inspection when you lay everything out and you have a six inch ruler and you measure and it's got to be very specific and there's some some uniformity and some structure to that. Doesn't matter when you're at, but the idea is that there's some structure and everybody knows what to operate under. Yeah, the same guiding principles that everybody is held to.

Randall Doizaki: 40:37

And that's one of the challenges in a see with it, with the Constitution here, correct. We've gone back and added amendments, you know, giving women the right to vote, which, again, if you think historically, you know I've been married 36 years, wonderful woman, very patient, and I'll say that Toshi. But you look at at some of what comes into that the women had influence. So women Influenced the man at the. You know how many of us sit there and listen to her better house and we get guidance and we bounce things off them the work is not doing more of in the private sector. I talked to my lovely wife and get her feedback. They're directly involved. But why weren't they included and given that opportunity originally? Why wasn't that in there? And you know, even looking at the differences in race and the actions we've had to take over the years to make up for Challenges that weren't addressed in, because nobody wanted to face the challenges, nobody wanted to know.

David Utts: 41:39

There's only so much that that group could do, and they did a pretty good job for getting it started. You know, we're the things that could have done differently and more broadly. We could complain about that or we could just revisit what we have to do today to improve it and make it better, but without changing the structure. Great, I appreciate that. Now there's something else, that's that's coming up for you. You're in the process of writing a book, correct, on leadership, and I wanted to give you some time to talk about what are you trying to. Can you know I don't know if you have a title yet or an orientation what, what, what is, what is the orientation of that book and what are you trying to Fundamentally communicate to that book, to others that would help them be better leaders?

Randall Doizaki: 42:27

so in my Time is an adjunct faculty, have also taught a graduate level Management class and the basis of management is planning, organizing, leading, control, polc, and that's a principle for operations and what I'm seeing we're lacking. There's a lot of people out there and you've seen the books and I'm listening to the different speeches and presentations by others that have promoted themselves as expert leaders or leadership experts and they're talking things, but they don't have a lot of the background. What is going into this book and the titles be where? It's about leadership management.

Randall Doizaki: 43:03

And they're very basic, fundamental principles. They're not a lot of data. They're not. I haven't gone out. I've read the books that do that. The data analysis on companies that succeed in over a period of time the companies are doing. Great Decades later those companies are gone. The data in them itself, that's true. For me it's not providing the value and the benefits. So what this book is? It's taking a lot of axioms and different things from the military primarily military and some of the things to bring in and it talks, like I just said, about junk on the bunk. It talks about crack, having a cup of coffee or cracking a cold one with the troops and going out and sitting down.

Randall Doizaki: 43:40

An example on that specifically when I was a sergeant with the sheriff's office and even as lieutenant, we would invite our entire team. My lovely wife and we'd bring the entire team to our house on a weekend during the summer. We would have a potluck, we'd sit down, let her hair down and it wasn't a real big singling out. Everybody was invited. And the one year I got some trouble with my lovely wife and this is about team building when I invited the team to the house you said, well, how many people? I said, well, I have 60 people assigned to me and she goes 60 people, so you're talking their spouses and their kids. To this day, david, I don't know how many people came through our house. I don't know who came, who went. I turn around. Somebody's there. There's more food in the house than I knew what to do, but that's one of the things I put in the book is about doing that I put in the book about helping somebody else with a uniform in a military.

Randall Doizaki: 44:31

When you're getting ready for inspection, you have somebody else helping you pull your pants up. Well, you're holding your shirt to tuck it in and everything's lined up. It talks about the gig line, from the shirt seeing down to the zipper seam and how everything's nicely aligned, and the idea is to trigger thought, to get people to think about this stuff, and there are different sections in there. I've put some things in there articles that have published on LinkedIn, and it's intended to get you thinking about how your relationship is with the team.

Randall Doizaki: 45:01

Now my lovely wife and my adult daughter and our friends will tell you I'm not a very touchy-feely guy. I'm not a very emotional guy. A lady walked up to us says we're like I'm now my Marine Corps t-shirts. Everybody buys me a Marine Corps stuff, you know, buy whatever I want, but they give me gifts like this. So a woman walks up in the store and she says my father was a Marine and I was always raised to a short appreciation. Can I give your husband a hug? And my wife looked at her and says well, you're taking your life in your own hands because he doesn't hug, don't touch him. He goes like this, he goes like this, he makes a date. But we talk about some of that with a reference emotional IQ. You know the emotional intelligence and how you interact.

Randall Doizaki: 45:43

But that's what's in the book. It's practical, simple steps. It's not a lot of data and there's. I even put sections in there because, if you're like me, I read something and I want to make notes. I'm always commenting, I'm reading different things, but it brings in.

Randall Doizaki: 45:58

I've got a number of little, just two sense ideas to stop and think about. And then I'm already working on a second book about stop and think, about meditative thought. I'm creating a workbook. The name of my company is Doi Zake leadership, who I am and what I do. But the workbook is to tie into the first book and it gives you steps and it ties into I'm incorporating in it a 360 evaluation. Or what one of my former lieutenants, lori, initiated was an upstream evaluation, incorporating that in with a self doing the SWAT analysis that we do in business about strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats, and getting me to do a lot of self reflection. I've done the disc analysis, I've done the Myers-Briggs, have done insight and a number of other personality profiles and it's great to have somebody else come and bring that data and do these analysis. And I'm not saying that they don't have a valid point. I'm actually looking at the Myers-Briggs and the NLP certification law itself myself, just because it's a tool.

Randall Doizaki: 46:56

But to me the leadership and that's what the book is about is getting people to do a lot of self reflection and stop and think about where they're at. We can give somebody lots of plans and all that. It's just not I'm not saying where it's a lot of effective. And an example is we just had in service training for our officer yesterday and we teach report right now. We gave him some presentation of de-escalation skills. They had to do scenarios and they had to write a narrative. We are now changing that adult learning model for our officers to help them grow and develop. You cannot make a shift to that paradigm shift and that thinking for somebody unless you trigger that within them and you've got to give them something.

Randall Doizaki: 47:42

I've got five books sitting on my desk right now. I'm usually reading three at a time and I read different topics One's like on philosophy, one's on martial arts, one's on leadership and the other one's about publishing. To go with the books, I'm reading three different books but that learning you get that trigger. So that's what the book's about, that's what the company's about, that's what my presentations and any speeches I give I've gone out and done and I haven't recorded any of them because I didn't do it for profit, I didn't do it as a business. I would go out and talk to individuals in the community and businesses about their growth and one of the things they use is like WD-40. I ask people you know where WD-40 came from? I said what's the history on it? They have no idea. Water displacement 40. So 40th formula they found that works as a lubricant, primarily for aeronautics and so on. And you start looking and then you go okay, and then we talk about the different things. So I'll ask you what is an octothorpe, david, you know what an octothorpe is?

Randall Doizaki: 48:43

I have to say I do not know an octothorpe and usually I will draw an octothorpe on the board in the classroom, and I even do this today, and I challenge you, oscers, if you look up octothorpe, it's what we know as a pound sign or a hashtag. The original name is octothorpe. I didn't know that. It was just one of those little trivia things I learned something today.

David Utts: 49:06

Hope everybody else did. You paying attention out there, ha ha ha.

Randall Doizaki: 49:10

Those are the things and that's what the book's about and that's the passion for me is getting people out of their comfort zone, because it's like brushing your teeth with your left hand. I'm recovering from shoulder surgery my third one. I'm gonna beat up too many miles on my body, but I had to brush my teeth and eat with my left hand. I'm right hand dominant, so you think about that. So, even like you, are you right or left handed, david?

David Utts: 49:35

I'm left handed for writing and eating and right handed on sports, so I'm kind of at do both.

Randall Doizaki: 49:40

Try eating with your other hand. Try swinging it.

David Utts: 49:43

But eating with my right hand would be a little challenging.

Randall Doizaki: 49:45

And that's what I and simple things. But that then also triggers the brain. It starts working. There's a gentleman out there I can't remember his name. He does the broken brain or something I'm drawn up like. I'll send you his name. I can't remember his name, but he does, he talks about things like that, and that's what we've got to do. So that's what the book and my focus is on.

David Utts: 50:12

Hopefully I can figure it out. I really love what you said in a couple of ways I like. Let's see if I summarize that right. I mean to me.

David Utts: 50:20

First of all, you can't lead others unless you understand who you are Right. You can't there's so many for years, and I think this is even more challenging today if we continue to go that route. We're trying to read leadership books to figure out how to lead others, and you can't get that in a book. You have to go through the process of getting to know yourself and reflecting on yourself and learning about yourself so you can understand how this mechanism called human being operates, because you got a front row seat for it and here you're expecting to lead other human beings, but you haven't understood even how the mechanism works for you.

David Utts: 51:01

And reflection is one of the primary ways. And it's not, it's not. It's. You know we try to look in a book and get information out of it to somehow it's gonna have an answer, and that's not how you get the most from a book. You also point into this. You get the most from the book by taking, even if you take, one paragraph out of the book and decide to reflect on it for a week, you will get more from the book than if you read the whole book.

Randall Doizaki: 51:25

Yes, right. How does this?

David Utts: 51:27

apply to my job and to me, and you take that one paragraph, that's all you not that you shouldn't do the whole book, but that's where you're gonna get more value and really it's so. Really it's about self leadership first. Before you can lead others right you have to learn how to lead yourself, and I'm very passionate about this. You can tell too, because this is what I teach. I guarantee if somebody's in a classroom with you or me or somebody out there teaching them frameworks, then go out and apply the framework versus reflect, get to know yourself. We're gonna get leadership ramped up much faster, right, because that's where it comes from. It's an inside out game, and so I appreciate that.

David Utts: 52:10

And, as I say, you know, when I look at organizations today and leaders tend to bulk at reflection, yeah, now, they don't do it because they don't want to. They even see the value in it. But we're always our attention keeps on getting drawn out at what's happening, what I have to do, everything in my calendar, my meetings I'm backed up on, and we do ourselves a disservice when we don't make our own time sacred for that reflection, because that, you know, it's like the old lawyer phrase pay me now or pay me later. I mean, if you don't do that, eventually it's going to cost you. So I really like the idea that you're giving principles to spark reflection, because that to me, is a book worth reading.

Randall Doizaki: 52:55

So Well, one of the things that I talk about, david, I brought this up at other times and it just kind of baffles me when you see people, stop and think about it. The question is and I'll do this in the classroom and I'll ask how many of you were in sales? And you got one or two people. Well, I've done a little over here. I said, no, how many do sales on a regular basis? And they stopped. Well, we're this and we're that.

Randall Doizaki: 53:21

I said when you get up in the morning and you decide what you're going to wear, when you go and you buy a car, you are making the decision. It doesn't matter what the sales rep tells you, it doesn't matter what you see on a rack, when you go in, by the clothes you are selling yourself, on the value of that shirt, on the value of that vehicle. You go to a restaurant and try this sometime. And I've done this and it really messes with people when I tell them what I did to them. And I asked them. I said you know what, man? I've got to just give it to the hunger a nice big burrito with some green chili on it. Now I'm getting hungry and it is almost lunchtime and you know all the toppings and all the fixing. And then I got a little crispy chili ranch I like spicy food and chili reino on the side and I'm ready to go.

Randall Doizaki: 54:12

I said, who's ready for Mexican food for lunch? Everybody's like, yeah, I just sold them on what they want to do for lunch. Right, we all get to go. Well, what do you want to do for lunch? You got five or six people and everybody's got something different. But if you go in there and you really want to sell it and you start talking about, they said El Tida, that ain't right, that's not right. You just you're messing with it. But you got to think about you're selling yourself every day and that's where it comes back to yourself. That's true, look at it.

David Utts: 54:41

Right right.

Randall Doizaki: 54:42

There's a lot of it in there and, as you can tell, I really enjoyed poking and encouraging like you said about you move the seats around. It's great when you go into college classroom and you've got rows and the next time you come in you put it in a square or you take the tables and you put it in a circle and you challenge us and you make people, they come in and they're like oh Well, we have.

David Utts: 55:06

I was talking about this all the time we have. We grow up in the land of giants, right as kids, and we are spoon fed everything. And there's a bit of a rolling of the dice of what you're spoon fed based on your parents, your upbringing or community orientation of your parents, the orientation of the community, and this is where community is so important and we've lost contact with it. But that's another story.

David Utts: 55:33

But basically another old podcast on that one. But you're injected in a sense with what you should think, believe, do act. But we live in a country going back to your constitution or that's free where you get to learn who you are, what you're about, and in many ways when you're doing things like that, you are consciously challenging that conditioning, which is only made up, it's only, it's not real. Now, I'm not saying it's not valuable, I'm not putting it down, but it's true that it is a way that your community created, a way for you to operate that would make everybody feel safe and connected or whatever. But if you buy that hook line in Synchron, you never challenge that, you never really get to find out what your unique self is about.

David Utts: 56:23

And part of leadership is coming to understand what your brand is in life, if you will, and what you want to contribute. And I find it very interesting that many times I ask clients, executives in the C-suite or VP level why do you show up at work every day? And it's always a lot of times about the job and what I'm expecting and what I'm here to do. I'm a finance person, I'm a C-suite, whatever, but why do you show up to work every day and the idea of having a personal sense of connection to purpose. It may be developing others, it may be creating an environment where people thrive, it may be whatever it is, but when you have that, it creates a more robust experience where you can bring your unique gifts into the workplace, to contribute them, to make that workplace a better experience for everybody, and that every human being.

David Utts: 57:19

It goes back to the founding of our country. Every human being the founder saw it every human being has a gift to give and that if we oppress those people, what happens is the state of government gets that gift in a way that they decide to orchestrate that and you miss out on having your own gift expressed, which makes the country weaker or the community weaker or the company weaker, by us impinging our ideas on what you should be doing. Now, of course, we go back to structure and decision-making and there's mission and all that. That's how you keep a framework of people moving in one direction, but there's a lot of room for creativity within that right, correct?

Randall Doizaki: 58:00

and that's what we've got to be open to. We've got to be open to people making recommendations as leaders and you and I have probably both seen it and I've butted heads with it. I'm not the favored individual in some circles because I question things and I question the why and what and we look at how we bring that into play and, like you said, within our own society and I'll be honest with you, because of my background in law enforcement, I'm very careful and selective on how I brought certain subjects in the community because I wanna be able to judge how that's gonna be received. For years, as a Sergeant with a Sheriff's Office, I run the hostage negotiation team at Fierce Port, the critical response team and so on. One of my primary duties was I was the evidence Sergeant. I oversaw the evidence warehouse and people would ask what I would do. I said I run a warehouse for a county and that's it.

Randall Doizaki: 58:59

I didn't tell them because they started asking questions oh, what do you know about this? Because I had all the goodies.

Randall Doizaki: 59:05

So yeah, I had a lot of equipment, property and everything and I didn't wanna get into those discussions. That wasn't something. I dealt with some very bad people. I dealt with the Aurora Theater Shooter. I dealt with some of the other individuals here in Rapo County when I was with the Sheriff's Office and I'm not getting into those conversations. And then people would well, what about this? And I'd say, no, those are not conversations I'm gonna have, and but we do the same thing in other topics. Now you and I talked a little bit about religion here. We talked about my buddy's, a Ford guy. I'm a GMC.

Randall Doizaki: 59:38

I've got a big GMC I'm putting on it and I tell him don't park that Ford in front of my house. It brings down the property value you know, but yeah, but my employer gives me a Ford to drive. The Ford's parked in the driveway of my truck and my wife's SUV in the garage, but you look at that. So, yeah, there's a lot that could be done, but we've gotta be open to it. We've gotta be willing to hear the other person's feedback on the side.

David Utts: 1:00:04

Well, that's what we have to learn. Again, there's no. You know, everybody has a right to share what's on their mind and we have to learn how to listen better. And that doesn't mean we're taking that on, we're just honoring and respecting others. Well, we've gone a lot of places today and there's a lot more. When your book comes out, we'll have to come and have you back on again and we'll talk more. But is there anything you wanna say as we close out today that would make you feel complete, that you wanted to share, that you thought you wanted to share coming on?

Randall Doizaki: 1:00:35

I always tell people leaders are learners. If you're not learning, you're not gonna lead. So I appreciate your time, sir, I commend you for your work. I think you're doing so well. I enjoy listening to your podcast. The people you get on there and the conversations are always yeah, we started work and it's great we start.

David Utts: 1:00:55

I love a full serve. We started where we start. You talked about being a learner at the beginning and that was the last word, so that is so true. So we'll have to stay in touch. I wanna see that book when it comes out, and then maybe we'll talk about having you on again and I wanna thank everybody for joining us to hear this conversation today.

David Utts: 1:01:13

I hope that you found it valuable. I'm sure you did. It was a very rich conversation and please stay tuned for our next Unphased Under Fire, which will be out in about two weeks. I'm David Kregas. I wanna thank you again for joining the show. Have a great rest of your day. Thank you, randall, take care. Take care, sir. Flow away as silkunder slightlypeoplecom.