Why Humility - Not a Résumé - Wins in Corporate America

You're listening to Leadership Blueprints, the podcast where we explore the art and science of leading yourself, inspiring and empowering your team, and project leadership in the architectural, engineering, construction, and development industries and beyond. I'm your host, Kramer, president and CEO of MCFA. I hope you enjoy today's show. Welcome back to Leadership Blueprints, everybody. I'm your host, BJ Kramer, and we are wrapping up our November DOD to AEC series, where we are talking with folks that left active duty, figured out what they wanted to do, or are at least evolving themselves from leaders in the military to leaders outside the military.

And excited to have Joey Fay's buddy, Dan Bailey join us. Dan, welcome to the show.

Hey BJ, thank you for having me.

We were talking a little bit before we jumped on, but great to meet you, great to connect and excited to hear some of your lessons learned in the transition. So talk to us about when you transition and what you're doing today to just get us started and people to understand kind of the timeline of, I think you're two or three years off active duty at this point, if I'm right.

Yeah, that's right. I left in July '23, so a little bit past the two year mark, came really quick, left the Navy Special Operations Community, EOD, the explosive harness disposal community, and I really didn't have an idea what I wanted to do, but I knew it was time to move on. Circumstances were such that, you know, living away from my family or multiple tours away from my family was not in my plans. And, you know, coming from the academy, you know, with Joey, it's command service, you know, commitment, you know, career service and fulfilling that Naval Academy mission. You know, I was glad I had the opportunity to command having to leave the military.

You know, we made a decision that was just what was in the best interest of our family at that point and found an opportunity with Quanta Services, and now I'm operating as a client relationship manager. On Quanta's behalf, I rep the Dominion Energy account, and I have found a lot of interest in learning something entirely new, meeting new people, going to new places, and just understanding a new industry.

Yeah. Give us kind of the top line elevator pitch of who Quanta Services is.

Yeah. So Quanta Services is a industry leading infrastructure, you know, solutions provider. Do construction, they do, they have a largest labor force, craft labor force. So for Dominion, in this case, we would build transmission lines, power lines, distribution lines, anything underground, the variety of energy industry infrastructure that goes all the way to data centers that goes all the way to telecom, goes all the way to, you know, in some cases, connections for other entities like nuclear, but not nuclear, wind, you know, connections onshore. So, we're right there with the solution to any utilities or power company, municipalities, cooperatives.

We're right there with the solutions they need to connect to the grid and to provide power.

Awesome. Let's go back a little bit. We're focusing in on DoD to AEC. We'll get to kind of your mindset with the transition, but let's go back in your career. What drew you to the Naval Academy back in the late 90s, early 2000s?

Yeah, so it's always good to go that far back. I actually grew up off 95, just North of Quantico. So my dad was a Marine, you know, and he made the commitment, you know, I remember going through high school, he said, Hey, I'll do whatever you need to help you write these essays or to help you get yourself get yourself ready for the Naval Academy. And I remember going up to his office in Old Town and writing these essays and thinking I wasn't good enough, thinking like, look at this, they want something published ready. I submitted, I think I was a good candidate.

I ended up going to the prep school with Joey and took it. That was a route that was made available to me. I took it. I had a great time. Some of my best friends originated there in Newport and they carried through to Annapolis and to this day.

So I went to the Navy. I just didn't think the Marines were a right fit, but I found a community that I loved. I had a great career and still in touch with great people today.

The EOD guys were high value to me. I was doing route clearance in Iraq in 'four-'five, so we had a lot of Navy EOD attached to us at different periods. Not a mission for the faint of heart, that's for sure. I'm sure you got plenty of war stories.

Yeah, but I think the takeaway that I told people to this day is, you know, EOD was, in a combat sense, service support, you know, whether you're supporting Marines, whether you're supporting Navy SEALs, you're supporting, in my case, I had the International Security Assistance Forces in Afghanistan, and we didn't even speak the same language in any case. It's a support role. They needed to go somewhere. If there was an impediment, EOD up, EOD remove the impediment, continue the mission. So, I think that's one of my major takeaways from this community is that we are an enabler.

And certainly as a leader in any company, you have the opportunity to be an enabler and to the degree that you want to be, to enable those folks to be successful.

It's interesting, I haven't used the terminology enabler much. I mean, engineers were the same doing route clearance, either building stuff that missions can operate out of, or we're removing stuffs, obstacles on the battlefield, or we're implementing obstacles in the battlefield. But I think one of the themes that I've gotten a lot from military is as they transition off active duty into the private sector is leadership looks a little different because we don't have all these direct reports. We may not be in command of a huge unit, but we are getting to play a leadership role in enabling the business to happen. And you talk about a client service or a customer facing role where you're interacting on behalf of the organization, Maybe all the resources that are working for Dominion don't report directly to you, but you are there as the, I think, as the spokesperson and the figurehead and liaison between the resources that Quanta can provide them, and the problem sets that the client is having.

How did you look at the transition? Well first, am I getting that right? Like is that your role and how do you look at that role?

You're absolutely right. The relationships that I have with Dominion on behalf of Quantas Services are paramount to our success in business. They're paramount to our success when things don't go quite right. You know, how do we rebound and how do we continue on? But that is absolutely right.

I look at it almost like an accelerator. If I'm doing my job right, we're able to move faster, bring more value and help the customer succeed in their projects and their goals. If I'm not doing it right, it just isn't running at the right speed. I have to do it well, so that the men and women in the field, the various companies around the service territory for Dominion, have the opportunity and the chance to succeed.

Two to three years in, how long did it take you to realize like, alright, this is how I create value in this role, and to really start taking ownership of like, I see where my role fits in, and I see how to get very responsible, and feel mission oriented, in like, I think there's so many jobs out there where people wrestle with like, well, I'm just showing up to work. They're not thinking about where their leverage is in creating value out there as part of a bigger mission. How long did it take you to wrestle with that?

You know, Quanta is a fast moving organization. It's a big organization, and we're not talking small projects in many cases. I remember standing up at one of, you know, one of these regional meetings, maybe a year in, and you don't see everybody every time. So oftentimes you're still introducing yourself.

I said

something along the lines of, I realize the preciousness I have here of carrying your name and being your spokesperson to the company, speaking on your behalf, representing everything, not only you, Mr. Company President, but all your people are doing out here. And I think that kind of resonated with some folks, because it isn't just, Oh, we missed that bid or Hey, we missed that timeline. It's We can't miss that timeline. We can't provide a bad bid on bad intel.

Like, you know, I use my relationships to gain opportunities for these companies, and I want to give them the best information I can.

Extreme ownership, as Jocko would say.

A 100%, a 100%. And if,

and I kind of want

to put myself in their shoes, if some guy stands up and doesn't speak to that, like, you know, I think that's what they want out of their link to the company, right? And it has served me well when, you know, engaging with Dominion and I say, Hey, I I realized we didn't do well here. How about some feedback? Where could we do better? And the easier that feedback comes, the more I feel that that relationship is strengthened.

Yeah, that's And

then we're off to the next opportunity and, you know, reposition as needed.

All right, so we tapped a little bit into, you knew it was time to get off active duty, it was the best thing for your family. What were the personal conversations you were having with yourself? What are some lessons you learned in your transition that maybe might serve other people going through the same thought process?

Yeah, I think the, you know, one of the first ones that I had to realize was, where do I want to end up if I'm going to stay in the military? Do I see myself advancing? And to what point? What will it take to get there? And I honestly didn't see myself, you know, for a long time succeeding past command.

You know, maybe there'd be an opportunity for a major command or something, but I knew I was kind of wearing out the family a little bit. And it's not that it can't be done. It's just in my circumstance, with my girls in high school and my son coming through middle school, I felt like I just wasn't going to be around. So I was having conversations at home about how's this really going to work? Because you just can't continue to take your life at two year increments with a pay raise.

Like,

you just can't. And I felt fulfilled with command and how command went and the individuals I had the opportunity to work with, that I felt okay walking away. But that only happened because I really looked myself in the mirror and said, where do you think you're gonna go here? You know? Yeah.

And is that what you want? And I quite honestly decided I wanted to try something new.

And how did you approach the market to figure out what, I mean, I remember thinking through it and for the first time in my life, I have optionality in what I can do. In some ways it was daunting because I had no idea where to start. And in other ways it was like, the world is your oyster, you got to pick a path. How did you start narrowing down where to focus and really what you wanted out of the next career?

Yeah, I enrolled in the Honor Foundation. I was part of cohort 69 here at a local campus in Virginia Beach, and really found a great organization. Went through the whole process, you know, my wife was like, Well, they're just going to give you like resume tips. And I said, No, it's much more than that. It's huge.

It's connectivity. It's self assessment was what it is. And I had done some self assessment in the Navy as part of like command screening and all that. But quite honestly, I don't know that I took it as serious as I took it when I did it with the Honor Foundation, because the stakes were so much higher. No, no, no, really talk to yourself and understand what it is you think you're good at, you know, and what should you be doing?

And does that meet your goals? You know,

So, what do you want to

the Honor Foundation was very helpful for self reflection. I'm glad to always go back and support and talk to the folks that are going through. But I think, you know, their program, the way it's designed to kind of get at what you're good at, and, you know, mock interviews and all that kind of stuff, where you have to force yourself to talk about yourself, which is the hardest thing to do for a military person, let alone a special operations person, a, you know, silent professional is kind of like out the window. They're like, No, it's time to speak up. And I found when I was forced to do that, I really started to level with folks.

I was telling, a classmate in a mock interview, like who I was and what I was about, you know, something you would never do, right? And it was when that person, that stranger in that class said, Hey man, I think you really like to talk to people. You really like to see what they're about, and maybe where the path is to success here. I said, Okay, I'll take that. And then I started looking into that, and getting into the client relationship, client management area.

I was fortunate enough that the Honor Foundation had a local area trek in Virginia Beach. I missed that because I was somewhere else, but then I was able to go to the Attaveria trek, and that was in Houston, and Quanta was the last stop on that visit. So if you think about a bunch of special operators getting off a bus, like it's college game day and we roll into Quanta services. And, you know, I remember the CEO, the still CEO was like, Hey, I'm a $20,000,000,000 company. I want to go to 40.

Who's in? Automatically, Dan Bailey's hand shoots in the air. Like, I got to hear what this guy has to say, you know, so let's go. And I got to talking to folks and I was talking about my background and, you know, somebody kind of read, they might have a place for me and it worked out well that spring.

That's awesome. Yeah. Two plus years in, what leadership lessons did you take from the military that either apply and have served you well, or you had to adjust a little bit because different environment, different stakes?

Yeah, I think, you know, above the environments, it's, you know, for me, it was never a leader doesn't succeed by using force, they succeed by using example. And I felt the weight of my Navy affiliation on my back when I walked into Quantum Services. Very few veterans, maybe in the corporate ranks there, but a lot in the field. A lot of talented individuals operating in the field. And I enjoyed leveraging that, right?

I had a story to tell. And that's what the Honor Foundation also said, Hey, when you walk in, like, you're one of one, here's your story, special operations, whatever. And it was just enjoyable to kind of find other veterans there, right? In those ranks and leverage those stories.

Yeah. What are you hoping to accomplish in your second career now? What's the path forward, obviously being successful in the role that you're in, but do you have hopes of expanding that role? Where's your head right now?

Yeah, I think my head is, you know, honestly focused on my client dominion and the challenges, you know, that may be present right now. I think evolving leadership on the civilian side is something I'm definitely interested in, and Quanta's, again, a large company. There are opportunities there, but I am focused on Dominion at this point. I don't have that two year increment path anymore. Right now, is, Hey, do right by your client, support your company, and continue enjoying life.

It's quite honestly a wonderful setup here. My client is right there, nearby. I've great companies all around North Carolina, Kentucky, the Northeast, Kwan is all over. So I get to meet all kinds of new folks all the time. And the moment I find out they have a capability I could use, I kind of bring them in the loop and say, Hey, let's talk about this kind of solution.

And that to me, putting the deal together, has been what I enjoy the most.

Yeah, it's fun. Yeah. And you get to watch your family grow up and be stabilized geographically, kind of a Yeah, leverage when it gets

line of sight matters a lot, yeah.

Yeah. Switching gears a little bit to some rapid fire questions. Any favorite books in your library? Could have to do with Leadership, The Transition or just a favorite?

Yeah, one of my favorites is an easy read. It's called Robert E. Lee on Leadership And I love it. And it's about executive strategies, you know, for leadership and a little bit of a historian, not too deep, but I just love how you can take some of those ideas and really bring them forward. One of my favorites was like, you know, and it's Robert E.

Lee saying about, you know, I cannot consent to allow someone to control others if they can't control themselves. I use that all the time. All the time. You know, JOs, you know, when I was in command, all the time. I just said, Hey, that's the expectation.

Because if you can keep yourself under control and, you know, demonstrate some self discipline, your subordinates are going do the same thing, and we're going be better off. Now, I realize all the crazy stuff that happens all the time. Then, are you kidding me? And I don't believe it. But that's just the basis for, you know, hey, I've taken people out of positions of leadership.

And I put other junior folks in there because they haven't been able to demonstrate that self control. Now, granted his stakes were a little bit higher, but still it matters, you know, and so I think about that, you know, and I reflect sometimes I'm like, am I in control of what I'm doing? Am I providing the right example? And though I don't have any direct reports anymore, you're right, I engage with companies, I represent a large company, and the impression I leave really matters.

Yeah, and I love what you said that you know you're representing all those Navy folks that are in the field that are veterans, and you might be the corporate representation of that capability and of that culture. How much did the Quanta culture matter to you in the transition?

It mattered a ton, and I'll tell you, was, for me, was a bit of a correlation between having EOD technicians that are out there on the edge, hey, getting it done, whatever it takes, know, within reason, whatever it takes. Now I go over here and we have, we don't have platoons anymore. We have crews of line workers, you know, technicians, we got guys flying helicopters hanging linemen out the bottom out there on the edge, go get it done within reason.

Yeah.

And, you know, it can't be full speed all the time. There has to be some safety built in and all that. But nonetheless, you have folks that are out there trying to do their best to be successful, and putting themselves in harm's way. So there's a direct correlation there. I actually discussed that with my hiring official, and I said, Look, I'm comfortable with this risk.

I understand what it means to tell some guys to go diving or jumping or go play off the side of the building and they're doing some rappelling. Like, I sit comfortably in my office while they're doing that, knowing that they're trained, knowing that they respect the safety involved. And I've got to imagine that's kind of the same thing for the folks out on the field that, you know, 40 feet in the air on a tower or something.

Yeah. If you could have dinner with three people dead or alive, who would they be?

Oh, geez. Let's see. I'd probably say the president would be one. I think the man moves at an incredible pace. And that is not partisan.

Is just every day I wake up, he's in another country doing something.

He's got an engine.

An engine, exactly. And so anybody that has an engine like that, I want to associate with. I want to find out how you can do it. I mean, the amount of prep work required astounds me.

Yeah.

So, would say from that perspective, probably the president. I'd love to hear how he does it. When he rests, I don't know, you know? Three other people. I always enjoy sitting with my parents at dinner and finding out what it took to get here, right?

Nothing for granted, what did it take? Likewise, the same for my father-in-law, who's a very successful businessman. I've often asked him about finances and kind of overextending yourself for risk and risk and reward, and it just blows me away because, you know, we're always in that position where you can take a big step if you want to just be ready for the outcome or And, fall you know, some of the things that he's done in the business world really make me think like, how do you get to that point where you can do that? You got a family and all this. And so I'll tell you those three.

I know there are plenty of others out there, you know, that could definitely lend me a lot more, you know, plenty of intelligence, but those come to mind right now.

I like it. You said your dad was in the marines. Did he also go to naval academy?

He didn't. He went here to ODU. Okay.

Any other favorite quotes? I actually never heard of that Robert E Lee quote, surprisingly, but might have brought a new one into my top favorites.

And now there are plenty, I don't have them at the ready. There are some other things that I've kind of kept with me out of some books. One of them had to do with, hey, here are the behaviors that you need to have to be financially successful, right? To build wealth, right? To move along in the system.

And it was very simple. It had something to do with exude kindness, don't be a jerk, and abandon rudeness, like across the board. And, you know, I'm thinking like, how does this apply? Like, this isn't just a corporate thing. This is a walking down the street thing.

This is a parking, you know, close next to somebody at the parking lot thing. I think I've kind of self discovered that I do believe in karma. I mean, it comes back to you a hundredfold.

Yeah.

And I'm not saying you have to give everything you have away. But, you know, when you can support somebody, when you can sling a compliment somebody's way, you know, their day is going to advance and just improve, you know, a thank you note, you know, it's those things, you know, some leaders write these. I have one right behind me, an admiral wrote it to my wife before I finally came back from Bahrain after my fifth deployment. And, you know, so touching. I was just writing some this week, And it just I felt good about, hey, I'd love that they're going to get this in a non traditional way, you know, it's not going to be a text, not going be an email, this is among others, but it's coming with a stamp.

And you're going to understand that I appreciate what you're doing. I'm thankful for our engagement. So, those are some of the things that I always keep in mind. I kind of even get I pass them on to my kids, I'm like, Hey, you don't have to be rude in this to get your point across, you know, or Hey, how about a little more kindness towards one another? And it might sound a little soft, but those are some guardrails.

They really are as you go through your day.

I couldn't agree more. The lost art of snail mail is one of my favorite but I do need to know how is it working with your kids?

Yeah. It's like, kind of like breakfast, lunch and dinner, you know, it's like, you know, at the Naval Academy and, you know, it's like, well, how'd the AM shift go, you know, and then we'll talk about it at lunch, have the PM shift go. Well, dinner should be a good wrap up and then, you know, yeah, it's daily. I think they get it. I think it's seeping in, but you know.

I agree. Steady messaging and compounding hopefully over time. Anything that you want to share with the transitioning vet that might be listening to this as they're contemplating the next act or trying to self discover, wrap us up with just what worked with you or anything you wanna share.

Well, certainly I would advise getting into a program designed to focus on transition.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the Honor Foundation actually? I did wanna, like how does somebody apply to that? We'll put a link in the show notes.

Yeah, perfect. So the Honor Foundation is a nationwide organization, they have a local campus here in Virginia Beach. It's for special operations only, and I know there's some other ones for different communities, but this is Navy SEAL, Navy EOD, Marine Raiders were in there, there's Green Berets, there's even personnel stationed at Special Operations Command in some regards. Have a lot of that down here on the beach. There's an online application, you need to get some recommendations, and then they review, and you can join.

There are virtual options and there are in person options as well.

Awesome.

And as part of that program, you're going to get some self assessment, you're going to find out what your strongest traits are and how to leverage those, and then you're going to get exposure to different communities. And it's not just the cohort that matters. I mean, I still participate in their webcast where they say, Hey, any alumni want to come in and learn about real estate finance or sports management or something, you know, they have key individuals that come back and put on these fireside chat, so to speak. So I can just dial in from home and listen to what they're talking about.

It's awesome. A A

pretty strong network and they also, you know, there are leads on jobs based on opportunities in the area.

That's awesome. All right, anything else before we close out? Anything we didn't cover that you want to make sure we hit?

I would just admit that, you know, I was, as part of transition, it just forced me to become a bit more humble in what I was capable of doing, right? I'll tell you a quick story. Quanta said, Hey, you come from the military, you should be good with acquisitions. I said, I got to be honest, I got no acquisition experience at all. Not that I couldn't learn it, but I'm just not bringing it with me.

And they were like, I appreciate your honesty, moving on, you know? So, I mean, I was never really good at it, I didn't really understand it too well, but just wanted to make, know, I had to be very honest, like I didn't have that skill with me.

Yeah. And

that is something that you discover in this transition period. Like, you know, be humble, understand what you really bring to the table, not that you can do everything. I would hope you could learn everything over time, but you just don't bring it. You gotta focus in on your key traits.

Yeah. Awesome, Dan. Well, thanks so much for taking the time with us. Thanks for sharing your lessons learned and best of luck at Quanta.

I appreciate it. Thanks, BJ.

Hey everybody, if you're enjoying the show or know somebody transitioning off active duty, do us a favor, like subscribe, shoot this to them in a text. The more that we can spread the word, and folks like Dan and I are available on LinkedIn. We love paying it forward and helping people who are curious about what we're doing now, the companies that we're with, or just jobs in general in the built environment. Till next time, have a great week and a great weekend. Hey, everybody.

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