When Jay Johnson was in his 40’s he was “woefully unhappy with his job” – a situation that spilled over into his personal relationships and other aspects of his life. His passion was helping others. He decided to use his skills and talents to follow his passion. He would help companies and groups transform its “unhappy situation” to an organization where employees and customers were happy to come to.
Today, Jay is the owner and President of J2 Servant Leadership, LLC, and a proud member of the John Maxwell Team – he is also a personal Mentor of mine.
1) Jay, you decided to change careers while in your 40’s. What advice do you have for others looking to start a second career?
Well, let me first state the obvious…career transition can be a little frightening – all the more so in your 40’s. Despite this, I want you to know that just on the other side of your fears is often happiness and fulfillment. I don’t view the previous statement as corny or unrealistic. I’ve lived it and know it’s absolutely true.
If you are laboring in a job you despise – one that drains your energy and suppresses joy – why continue to do it? Life is not meant to be lived that way. Let go of the lie(s) your Gremlin is saying. Life beyond your school years until your golden years is not meant to be drudgery. So, Ed, to answer your question, my advise is to think. Set aside 15 – 20 minutes over the next several days to reflect and think about these questions.
A. What types of activities do you enjoy? Do these activities involve working with other people or do you prefer working alone? Do you like repetitive tasks or do you like problem solving? Do you like predictability, or a rapidly changing environment?
B. What comes naturally to you or requires little effort? This a great way to hone in on your unique gifts.
C. When in your past have you felt most alive? What energizes you?
The time reflecting and thinking can help you uncover clues and glimpses of what we we’re created to do. Our “Why?”
I’ll close this question with these thoughts:
None of us are today where we are by accident. The decisions and choices we’ve made up until now led to where we are today. We didn’t get where we are overnight, so we must recognize it will take time to become who we desire to be. However, this must not be used as an excuse to procrastinate. Time marches on. The time to begin creating what you want more of in life is right now!
2) How do you use the experience you had before founding J2 Servant Leadership to develop leaders today?
This is such a great question Ed. Everything I’ve done up to this point is unlike the path of anyone else. None of us have travelled the exact same interstate system to our present place in life. All the wins and challenges, successes and failures provide us with experience and insights that can serve us, and others, now and in the future.
Ed, you and I share a common mentor – Dr. John C. Maxwell. John reminds us often that experience is great, but evaluated experience is invaluable. It’s the reflection and processing on the back end of our actions that provides the greatest opportunity for learning and growth.
My time delivering papers as a young boy taught me responsibility and laid the foundation for work ethic. When I delivered a paper on the door step, I got a bigger tip at the end of the month than when I placed it on the drive closest to the street or in a bush.
My time in the grocery business taught me how to work as a team and taught me to value the contributions of others.
My time as an enlisted man in the Air Force taught me the importance of discipline and being a good follower. This time also taught me to lead right from where I was and to be a problem solver for my boss(es).
My time as a commissioned officer taught me respect is earned not given. It taught me to trust and rely on the highly trained professionals who really drive the mission everyday – the enlisted men and women. It also taught me that doing what’s right is far more important than being right.
Obviously I could bring examples in from school sports or time spent volunteering in my communities, and on and on.
The bottom line is everything up until now has been an opportunity to learn. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from all of my experience is to not make what is true in my life someone else’s truth. I value everyone and remind myself everyday not to judge others. I ask questions to help others think into their own life and then help them develop a plan of action that will serve them and move them closer to their dreams, goals and aspirations.
3) As a person who has built leaders in his community and in several companies, you have a lot of success stories, what is one you are most proud of?
Another great question, Ed.
Around 2005, as an officer on active duty, I was honored to have been assigned as the Commandant of Cadets for a senior ROTC program at Auburn University, Alabama, for three years.
One summer, I was sent – temporary duty – to an Air Force base to be a Field Training Officer. Think of it as basic training for prospective future commissioned officers. The days were long and the environment was meant to stress and challenge the cadets mentally and physically. Like me, other active duty officers were sent in from universities across the country to help evaluate the cadets who were there.
When you get in that kind of environment it’s taxing…for everyone, and some people tend to behave in ways they otherwise wouldn’t. Some of my peers helping to run the camp took on personas very different from their normal, authentic selves.
Now, I’m very comfortable with who I am and my leadership style. I made a vow to myself as I left to go perform this duty that I would have high expectations, be firm, hold cadets accountable for what they were expected to do, and model what it means to be an officer in the Air Force. While some of my peers and colleagues at times used colorful language, yelled and berated at times, I stayed in control and held true to who I was as a leader. While some of my peers passed on doing extra physical training with the cadets, I took my flight and several others on long distance formation runs.
Its been more than a decade since that experience and I’ve had several of then young cadets reach out to me and share how much they appreciated what I modeled. They are now mid-tier officers leading others on active duty. They seek to lead everyday the same way they were led as cadets.
Leadership isn’t easy. There are a great many who hold a position, a title, or supervise others, who falsely believe that this automatically makes them a leader.
It’s easy to follow the masses and conform to our environment and what society as a whole professes as right. It’s far more challenging to stay true to you and be willing to stand on the side of right even if you are standing alone.
4) What is more important to you when you develop a leader, teaching them skills you have acquired or helping them recognize the the skills they already have?
Ed, I believe it’s more complex really.
It’s not this or that; it’s yes, and…!
We all have gifts, talents and strengths. We all have learning models of success and failure – known as experience. I’ve been asked literally hundreds of times if leadership is an art or a science. My answer is it’s both.
Leadership is an art because it’s fluid and each practitioner has their own style. It’s a science because it can be studied, learned and applied. In order to become and remain a great leader we must be willing to stay in the process. To remember the that leadership comes with great responsibility and that true leadership is about service, not being served.
Anytime I have the privilege to interact with others on the subject of leadership, whether it’s a class or seminar that I’m facilitating, or a conversation in an elevator, I remind myself to listen more than I talk. We can all learn from the experience of others. So I hope when I’m sharing my experience I am helping others consider another perspective, as well as helping them embrace they gifts they’ve been given, as well as to recognize and utilize the skills they’ve acquired.
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5) I saw you speak at a conference in front of a couple thousand people. Have you always been comfortable public speaking or is that something you had to learn?
To be completely transparent the answer is no, I haven’t always been comfortable with public speaking.
I believe a lot of people when they meet me or see me speaking at an event perceive me to be a social butterfly. In truth, I’m a very private person.
As a sophomore in high school, I remember one of my favorite teachers trying to persuade me to try out for a play. I steadfastly rejected her request. Why? Because I was terrified by the notion of standing in front of a crowd and speaking. I also remember her saying that she thought I had a perfect radio voice (I still have people tell me this).
I jokingly refer to this story form time-to-time as a polite way of saying that I may lack the looks to be in front of a camera.
Listen, we all have gifts that have been endowed to us by our creator. If we are paying attention and listening, other people will point these things out to us. You see, we all have blind spots…things we aren’t aware of. However, other people recognize them and notice them even when we don’t. For this reason, I like to remind people it’s important to sit still and quiet from time-to-time, so that we may take stock of these things.
This is slightly off topic, however, we often are so quick to focus on our flaws and imperfections, to focus on what’s not right in our lives instead of what is right. It’s always worth reminding ourselves to count our blessings, rather than our problems.
When I joined the Air Force, I entered without a guaranteed job – meaning, I didn’t know what I would be doing after I graduated basic training. I ended up in a career field that was specialized – only about 700 worldwide – and in this specialty, I was an instructor. I was trained how to develop lesson plans, how to teach, how to present, how to be an effective communicator.
Now there were others who went through the same training as I did who maybe didn’t fully apply themselves or seek to improve each time out. Not me, I always wanted to perform at a high level and do my best. It took a lot of work on my part to push through the terror of standing in front of a room speaking. I had butterflies then, and to be honest, I still get butterflies today when I speak. What I’ve learned to do is channel that nervous, anxious energy into energy that I pass onto those I’m speaking to in order to make it memorable.
The event you refer to where you saw me speak in front of approximately 2,100 people, I worked hard to get to that point. It was a goal that I had been working towards for quite some time. In fact, the first time I threw my name into the hat to be considered to speak at an equal size event six months earlier, I didn’t make the cut. Instead of throwing my hands in the air and giving up, I continued to work at my craft. I continued to work on my messaging, my energy, and then I spoke in front of groups as often as I could.
As much as I love training and working with businesses and companies to develop highly effective teams, I equally love speaking from the stage.
I want all of you reading this to know that if I can do it (learn to speak in public to large crowds), so can you. You must be willing to work at it though. You must be willing to continue to push through the terror barrier and to hush your inner gremlin. Seek opportunities to speak often, even if it’s a 5, 10, 15 minute affair.
Think into your life and identify two to three things you speak about often (e.g. character, bullying, integrity, trust, responsibility, courage, service, etc.) and spend a few minutes daily crafting the main and sub points of what you want an audience to takeaway from your message. Then, go out and deliver it to a group – even if it’s not a paid speaking event.
When you finish, think back over it, evaluate how it went. What went right? What could you do differently next time? Better yet, audio or video record your speech. I do this at almost every one of my speeches. I’m constantly seeking to improve.
As my coach often reminds me, listen to your energy. In the words of one of the most highly sought after and gifted speakers in America, Les Brown, speakers speak, so find opportunities to speak often.
6) You have started working with your daughter to teach an anti-bully program and build leaders in your local schools. What made you decide to work with youth?
Yes, we’re excited about this and it’s a great deal of fun for me to serve next to my daughter in this way.
In regards to the decision, there are a number of factors that led me (us) to want to do this. First, I was a very small statured, shy kid. I don’t know if I would call what I experienced bullying when I was a kid, but I was picked on a bit and most certainly lacked confidence and rarely ever stuck up for myself.
I’m getting ready to turn 50 this summer and I have a daughter who is just graduating 5th grade. There are things she shares with me that other kids are saying and doing to her or others and it bothers me.
Listen, I know kids will be kids. I know they are at an age where they are trying to figure life out and develop their identity. I listen and talk with my daughter about all of it. I’m careful because I don’t want her to develop a belief or attitude that every time someone says something unkind or does something that it is bullying. However, I do want to instill in her a sense of right and wrong, and to be confident and stand up for herself.
I tell her two things routinely.
First, if she takes nothing else from me in life, I want her to know that the only one responsible for her happiness is her. Being happy is a choice. I remind her she doesn’t have to add fuel to a bad situation. If there is drama, bad conduct, or others making poor choices, she can decide to walk away and remove herself from the situation.
The second thing I tell her often is that she doesn’t have to own everything someone else says or does. Just because someone says or does something doesn’t make it true or right.
Again, life is all about choices. I’m trying to instill in her a sense of responsibility more than anything.
My daughter is 11 years old and in two weeks she will be testing for her black belt in Korean martial arts. She made the decision to pursue and participate in martial arts and I’m really proud of her for sticking with it. She’s worked hard over the last 3.5 years to get to this point. Martial Arts has given her confidence, instilled discipline and respect, and as a father, a skill that may one day save her life.
So, a long answer, but the real reason for wanting to include my daughter in speaking on this topic and providing training around this is I believe kids relate to other kids better than they will a 50-year-old. I’m able to be by her side and provide support, help facilitate the discussion, and be a safety net if you will, for her while she finds her inner voice of truth and shares it with others.
7) Any other new programs or projects we can look forward to?
Thanks for asking Ed, yes.
I’m working on my first book and I’m getting real close to publication. It’s a personal growth book that I hope will encourage others to dream more and to relentlessly chase their dreams. I’m also working on an audio CD series with topics and messages that are important to me – things I speak about often when I’m training with companies and speaking from the stage.
At the end of the day, more than anything, I want to bring light and positivity into a world that is otherwise pretty dark and filled with far more focus on the bad than the good.
Ed, thank you for the opportunity to share these thoughts with your readers. You are an amazing leader in your own right and someone I feel blessed to know. Thanks for bringing your own light forth to add value to others.
Thank you Jay, I have benefited from your teaching and mentorship, I look forward to my readers doing the same!