What does it really take to build great leaders? In this episode of the Inspire Podcast, Bart Egnal sits down with Rob Buckingham, Executive VP at Quest Window Systems Inc and retired Canadian Forces Captain, to unpack how leadership is intentionally developed in both the military and business.
Rob shares powerful lessons from his time in uniform when he was first exposed to foundational leadership and how the Canadian Forces empowers junior leaders to step up from day one. He explains how that experience taught him the value of feedback, the importance of resilience under pressure, and why empowering people early creates lasting strength in any organization.
He then reveals how those same principles shaped his corporate career and what he learned as a management consultant and, more recently, in his current role as Executive VP of a global manufacturing company. He closes by sharing perspectives from his work with Treble Victor, an organization that matches veterans with civilian organizations, and shows why companies that tap into military leadership talent gain a powerful edge.
If you’ve ever wondered what foundational leadership looks like in practice and how you can cultivate it in your own organization, this conversation is for you.
Show Notes
00:15 Show intro
00:52 Introducing Robert Buckingham
03:12 What is foundational leadership and why is it important?
03:18 Fostering a leadership culture
03:42 Empower junior leaders
04:07 What orgs get right and wrong about leadership development
04:53 Military officers have responsibility right away
06:12 Give junior leaders tools to lead early on
07:00 Why did you enlist in the army
09:42 What is Mission-command
10:28 Military gets planning and execution of tasks
12:57 Forecast Plan Control Review
13:29 Resilience
13:33 Key values: loyalty, integrity, mission first
13:49 Can you teach these leadership traits or are they innate?
15:09 High fallout rate in the military
18:35 Continuous training
19:41 Instantaneous coaching feedback
20:06 Growing a culture of feedback
20:18 What's the toughest feedback you got in your career?
21:19 Like sports team culture
21:35 The worst thing is complacency
24:04 One of my proudest achievements in the military
24:43 Transitioning from military to the corporate world, was it a shock?
25:59 Translating to civilian speak
28:01 What maps and what doesn't?
29:11 Put things in place, succeeded!
30:47 Span of control
32:35 Corporate environment never plan
33:29 50 50 leadership vs tasks
34:00 Joined Quest
35:01 Set your team up with a structure where information flows up and down
36:15 How to know how an org is doing with leadership?
36:49 Does the front line mission line up with the org's mission?
38:18 The Back Brief
39:55 Treble Victor
45:38 Thank yous
46:00 Outro
