Leadership and Legacy: A Conversation with Col. Fred Reynolds (Part 2)
What does it look like when a lifetime of unlikely adventures—escorting the Secretary of Defense on a Turkish ferry, commanding a geotechnical lab full of PhDs, playing cello to reset your soul—actually teaches you how to lead? Colonel Fred Reynolds is back for Part 2, and this time we get to the heart of it: the leadership maxims he's earned the hard way.
Highlights
- Col. Reynolds escorted a sitting U.S. Secretary of Defense through Turkey for four days—as a lieutenant colonel assigned essentially by accident
- When the Secretary wanted to cruise the harbor, Reynolds negotiated use of a docked passenger ferry—there was nothing else available
- His post-military career at Black and Veatch took him back to Turkey to manage a massive hydropower program on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers—until the Turkish Lira collapsed and the deal fell apart
- A Muslim Turkish engineer, a Catholic priest, and a Protestant American Army colonel all crawled under a church together to fix its floor—and the engineer refused to charge because "it's all for the same God, isn't it?"
- Reynolds earned his PhD in earthquake engineering while working at Black and Veatch—and used it to design earthquake-resistant water caissons at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers
- He plays cello under the instruction of a cellist from the Kansas City Symphony and calls it his best therapy
- He has published a 17-page scholarly article on German World War I Zeppelin aviation—through the lens of philately
- Ten leadership maxims drawn from 29 years of military service, Black and Veatch, and a life well-examined
Chapters
0:00 – Back for Part Two
0:31 – Secretary of Defense Visit
2:41 – Hiring a Harbor Ferry
4:28 – Powerful People Are Human
4:49 – Rapid-Fire Army Career
7:30 – Retirement and the ACEC Link
8:02 – Black and Veatch Turkey Pitch
12:46 – Hydropower Deal Falls Apart
13:35 – Church Floor and Shared Faith
17:16 – PhD and Earthquake Design
19:03 – Cello as Therapy
20:56 – German WWI Aviation Research
22:35 – Publishing Through Philately
23:21 – Leadership Maxims Setup
24:26 – Leaders Can Be Made
26:10 – The Skillset of Leaders Can Be Taught
29:13 – Walk the Talk
31:10 – Appreciate Differences
33:22 – Choose People Carefully
36:13 – Give People the Resources to Succeed
37:29 – Cohesive Teams Win
38:17 – Cover Weaknesses, Not Cheerleading
42:06 – You're in the Seat for a Reason
43:28 – Promotion Is Capability, Not Reward
45:16 – The Curse of the Possible
47:55 – Closing Thanks and Farewell
Resources Mentioned
- West Point (United States Military Academy) – Where Col. Reynolds learned the foundational leadership principles of Duty, Honor, Country
- Please Understand Me – The book on personality types and leadership that Reynolds credits as an epiphany; rooted in the four ancient Greek temperaments
- Black and Veatch – The engineering firm where Reynolds worked for nearly 20 years post-retirement, including international hydropower projects in Turkey
