013 - Lieutenant General (Ret) Ken Tovo, Former Commanding General USASOC

05/10/20 • 96 min

On Episode Lucky Number 13 is Lieutenant General (Ret) Kenneth Tovo, a Green Beret who most recently served as Commanding General of the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) before retirement in 2018 after 35 years of military service. General Tovo joins Jason and Rich to dive deep on his hard-won lessons of leadership, particularly through a gripping oral history of a quintessential Green Beret mission: Operation Viking Hammer at the outset of the Iraq war in 2003. In his detailed account, learn why it is also called Operation “Ugly Baby,” how the links only tell a tiny slice of the story, and how the General really came to understand that plans are meaningless but planning is priceless.

General Tovo’s operational assignments include the First Gulf War, Refugee relief in Northern Iraq, Noncombatant evacuation in Sierra Leone, Peacekeeping in Bosnia (twice), 5 tours in Iraq, and 1 tour in Afghanistan. He was Jason’s Group Commander at 10th Special Forces Group in 2007 and they are both now on the board of the Green Beret Foundation.

General Tovo has cultivated a deep self awareness which he uses to carefully choose his team, effectively lead, and at least try to pass his lessons borne of experience to others. This episode is rife with his leadership lessons, especially through transitions and unexpected environments, which are as applicable in business as they are on the battlefield.

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012 - Ambassador Elisabeth Millard, Former US Ambassador to Tajikistan

For Episode 012, Jason and Emily are joined by Ambassador Elisabeth Millard, a career diplomat in the Foreign Service who most recently served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. The mission of a U.S. diplomat in the Foreign Service is to promote peace, support prosperity, and protect American citizens while advancing the interests of the U.S. abroad. Ambassador Millard led a full life of travel before and during her storied career and she talks about the role of foreign service officers; starting a career “later” while finding family and job balance; her priorities as Ambassador to Tajikistan; her approaches to leadership; and the “secret” of the Foreign Service Exam.

Ambassador Millard is a naturalized US citizen who served State Department roles in Prague, Copenhagen, India, Nepal, Morocco and Kazakhstan as well as two stints at the White House. From 2016-17 she served as the US Ambassador to Tajikistan, in Central Asia bordering both Afghanistan and China. Her parents were both medical doctors, her late husband Captain Millard was a Naval Intelligence Officer with 30 years of service. She is a mother and grandmother who continues to serve her adopted country with distinction. Her life and family exemplifies servant leadership that is at the core of what this podcast is all about, and it’s an honor to have her on the show.

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014 - Ryan Manion, President of Travis Manion Foundation

“If not me, then who?” - 1stLt Travis Manion, USMC

The mission of the Travis Manion Foundation (TMF) is to unite and strengthen communities by training, developing, and highlighting the role models that lead them. Ryan Manion, TMF’s President, joins Emily and Jason on Episode 014 to tell the story of TMF - a non-profit her mother started after the passing of her brother Travis in Iraq on April 29, 2007.

Ryan co-wrote “The Knock at the Door” as a personal history as well as a roadmap for “those with the courage to love others” to navigate the loss of a loved someone too soon through any type of tragedy. In this episode she shares the impact of her parents and upbringing in a military family; her 9/11 story and how it altered the course of her life; her own “knock at the door” and her family’s response; what “character isn’t cancelled” means; how TMF as a grassroots, bottom-up organization empowers veterans to continue to serve especially now during a pandemic; and overall what it means to be vulnerable through tragedy and “struggle well.”

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