Hi, I’m Paul Darley, and thanks for tuning in to our November issue of Inside Darley. We’re all learning differently these days rather than just reading books, and I think probably the most popular way that people are learning is through podcasts. And if you’re not currently doing that, I would encourage you to get out your smartphone and download an app like Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Audible. It doesn’t matter. There’s all sorts of apps available to for you to download. I’ll tell you what our favorite podcast is called, The Leadership Podcast. And in fact, Darley is the exclusive sponsor for this podcast, and it’s had a great following from our military customers and first responder customers. In fact, it’s had interviews with General Stanley McChrystal and Admiral Mike Mullen and all sorts of other other incredible leaders. It’s in the top two percent of all podcasts that are out there. In fact, episode 265 features one of my favorite people who I love to learn from, Ram Charan, and he talks about his new book, “Rethinking Your Competitive Advantage: New Rules for a Digital Age.” Episode 271 is a great one about the great resignation and what you can do about it. And in fact, if you go to their website, TheLeadershipPodcast.com, you’ll find all of these episodes, and you can download key takeaways as well as the entire transcripts. I encourage you to do that while you’re there. You might also want to check out Episode 237 where they did an interview with me about a year ago.
I would also encourage you to check out the Smart Firefighting Podcast. This is put on by Kevin Sofen, from our company. He’s had incredible interviews in the past, and this week he interviewed Ron Sarnicki from the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, so I’d encourage you to check that out. Harvard Business Review or HBR IdeaCast is another great one.
Our second article that we’ve attached for you here is an article that just came out by McKinsey. It’s 116 pages and it’s titled “What Matters Most: Five Priorities for CEOs in the Next Normal.” The five areas that they talk about are areas that we have earlier focused on. Number one is having a true strategy for sustainability. Number two is transformation into the cloud. Number three is making sure that you’re cultivating your talent of tomorrow. Number four is making sure that you’re using speed as a muscle or this concept of velocity that we’ve talked a lot about. And number five is making sure that you’re operating with purpose. And if you’re serving the war fighter or firefighter community, hopefully that comes very naturally to you.
This past week has been very busy. On October 25th, Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell was sworn in as the new U.S. Fire Administrator. So congratulations to her. We know she’ll do a great job. On October 26th, the Darley Family Foundation donated an entire truckload of our safe water boxes, about 5,000 gallons, to Dixmoor, Illinois, which is a community here in the southern part of Chicago that’s been without drinking water for 10 days. Leadership Legends is another podcast by Jill Belconis. She is a close friend of ours and we work very closely with her, and on October 28th, she conducted an eight minute interview with me relative to lessons from the pandemic. So if you stick around here at the end of this, you’ll be able to hear that interview. So thanks for tuning into this issue of Inside Darley. If there’s anything we can be doing to support you. We hope you’ll reach out to us.
