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.HighlightsCol. Reynolds escorted a sitting U.S. Secretary of Defense through Turkey for four days—as a lieutenant colonel assigned essentially by accidentWhen the Secretary wanted to cruise the harbor, Reynolds negotiated use of a docked passenger ferry—there was nothing else availableHis 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 apartA 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 RiversHe plays cello under the instruction of a cellist from the Kansas City Symphony and calls it his best therapyHe has published a 17-page scholarly article on German World War I Zeppelin aviation—through the lens of philatelyTen leadership maxims drawn from 29 years of military service, Black and Veatch, and a life well-examinedChapters0:00 – Back for Part Two0:31 – Secretary of Defense Visit2:41 – Hiring a Harbor Ferry4:28 – Powerful People Are Human4:49 – Rapid-Fire Army Career7:30 – Retirement and the ACEC Link8:02 – Black and Veatch Turkey Pitch12:46 – Hydropower Deal Falls Apart13:35 – Church Floor and Shared Faith17:16 – PhD and Earthquake Design19:03 – Cello as Therapy20:56 – German WWI Aviation Research22:35 – Publishing Through Philately23:21 – Leadership Maxims Setup24:26 – Leaders Can Be Made26:10 – The Skillset of Leaders Can Be Taught29:13 – Walk the Talk31:10 – Appreciate Differences33:22 – Choose People Carefully36:13 – Give People the Resources to Succeed37:29 – Cohesive Teams Win38:17 – Cover Weaknesses, Not Cheerleading42:06 – You're in the Seat for a Reason43:28 – Promotion Is Capability, Not Reward45:16 – The Curse of the Possible47:55 – Closing Thanks and FarewellResources MentionedWest Point (United States Military Academy) – Where Col. Reynolds learned the foundational leadership principles of Duty, Honor, CountryPlease Understand Me – The book on personality types and leadership that Reynolds credits as an epiphany; rooted in the four ancient Greek temperamentsBlack and Veatch – The engineering firm where Reynolds worked for nearly 20 years post-retirement, including international hydropower projects in TurkeyOther Resources:Learn more about ACEC Kansas
