What if everything holding you back as a leader is actually preparing you to lead at a level you cannot yet imagine? This week, Jon Goehring and Coach Jim Johnson welcome Andre Thornton, CEO of Whitman Consulting, keynote speaker, former Lockheed Martin engineer who helped capture over a billion dollars in new business, Division One athlete at VMI in both football and track, and author of Disrupted, for one of the most thought provoking and counterintuitive leadership conversations the Lounge has ever had.
Andre opens with a disarming admission: everything he is about to share, he personally wished were not true. As an engineer, he wanted leadership to be logical, diagrams and processes and measurable outcomes. What the research kept telling him instead is that the most important leadership moves are almost always the ones that feel the most unnatural in the moment. That tension between what feels right and what the science says is right is the thread that runs through this entire conversation.
The conversation goes deep on vulnerability as a trust building tool, including a powerful contrast between a leader who opened up with something small and a pastor who shared something deeply personal, and what each moment did to the culture of the room. Andre explains the right kind of vulnerability, why it must come from the leader first, and why a Fortune 100 CEO who cried on company all-hands calls created more cultural cohesion than almost any initiative his company could have launched.
Andre also introduces the concept at the heart of his book: fall down, grow up. Not bounce back, not get back up, but actually grow from the fall in a way that makes you better than you were before. He shares the story of a $250 million contract negotiation that hit an impasse on day eight and the counterintuitive decision his team made that got it signed on day nine, and explains why loosening control at the hardest possible moment is what great leaders actually do.
Jon and Coach also draw out Andre's 1440 method, built on the reality that every person gets 1,440 minutes every day and how we spend our days is how we spend our lives, and his practical framework for moving from spending 20 percent of your time intentionally to 90 percent or more.
The episode closes with Andre sharing the personal faith story behind the most important decision of his professional life, leaving an 18 year career at Lockheed Martin on the same month his son was born, and the clarity that made it possible.
Whether you are navigating a fall down moment right now, trying to build more trust on your team, or simply looking for a framework to spend your 1,440 minutes with more intention, this episode will challenge you in the best possible way.
Connect with Andre: https://www.andrewhitmanthornton.com/
Find him on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook
Grab Disrupted wherever books are sold or here: a.co/d/0hKC2lvM
