Welcome to The Engineer Whisperer Podcast on Transition! A place where we change how we think about change, and we discover that we are more skilled, experienced, and capable of managing any change because we have lived through lots of transitions that got us where we are today. And through those transitions we learned about ourselves, our strengths, gained confidence, and grew resilient to whatever life threw at us.

As I am meeting interesting people, I have decided to sit down and invite them to share their stories on their transitions. My belief is unmanaged transitions make change unmanageable.

Every day we are going through some kind of a transition. If we believe that we can manage these transitions, we will become better at managing the changes in our lives, too.

Today my guest is David Matthews, former Royal Navy Officer who trained leaders in one of the most difficult environments in the world. Now he is taking young adults in UK from all backgrounds with all skillsets on outdoor expeditions to become our future leaders.

“The most important thing I did as a leader was to have a smile on my face when I walked into my office.”

Just like climbing a mountain, there are many roads that one can take to reach the top. David is a master in letting others choose their path, take ownership over their leadership development and at the same time setting the conditions at the beginning to create autonomy and agency. He is a believer in “joining the dots” and collaborating with your fellow team members and leaders. And when plans need to change, he lets the leaders come up with a modified plan and is wise to know when and when not to intervene in that process. Mistakes will happen, but his mindset is around timing it so that it provides the most learning experience for a future leader.

“Every crisis is an opportunity.” An opportunity to discover what more you are capable of. David believes in creating a positive spiral, where one leader using positive and encouraging behavior can impact someone into a positive spiral in their own lives and careers.

This is a fascinating conversation with David where he shares more details about all the above and more. You don’t want to miss this one!

Find out how David adopted a different mindset that transitioned him into the career and successful life he has today.

Thanks for listening!

Connect with David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-matthews2020/

For more episodes visit: https://www.andreaclough.com/podcast

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