The Learning To Lead Show with Mark J. Cundiff

#43 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Joey Cantrell

• Mark Cundiff

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Host Mark Cundiff welcomes listeners to Episode #43 of the Learning to Lead Show, and thanks the audience for helping the show reach 278 cities in 36 countries and 39 U.S. states. 

He shares key leadership insights from prior guest Joey Cantrell, an operations manager leading a large aluminum mill machine shop, who brings 40 years of maintenance and industrial leadership experience rooted in early mentorship. 

The central theme is that continuous learning fuels effective leadership and directly impacts team performance, culture, and long-term success. Topics include trust through consistency and honesty, spending time with people on the floor, safety and accountability, using data to drive alignment, developing future leaders with support, and shifting from directive leadership to a coaching mindset.

 Cundiff’s five takeaways stress leader growth as the team’s ceiling, leadership’s “double-edged sword,” and the responsibility to train and develop others.

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LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

welcome to the Learning to Lead Show. I'm your host, mark Cundiff, and I'm so glad that you have tuned in today to episode number 43. What we are doing today is providing some leadership insights from our previous guest, Joey Cantrell, and I'll get to that in just a moment. But I want to take a minute and thank you for helping us spread the word about the Learning to Lead show. We are now heard in 278 cities around the world. In 36 different countries and 39 states across the United States, thank each of you who are tuning in and listening to the content that we're providing here on the Learning to Lead Show from our great guests and the leadership insights that they are providing. It is truly amazing to me that we have been hurt around the world. I want to welcome all of you from different parts of the world that are tuning in and consuming this leadership content. Make sure to reach out and let me know where you're listening from. You can reach me at mark@markjcundiff.com or you can leave a review and comment on any of your favorite podcast apps to let us know where you're tuning in from. Let's dive in and consume a little bit of. The key insights that we got from our guest, Joey Cantrell, he joined our show to share some leadership lessons that he's gained during his 40 years on the front lines in maintenance and operations and industrial. Settings. He's currently working as the operations manager for the machine shop at a large aluminum mill where they have over a hundred acres under roof. It's a huge job, a huge undertaking to run that operation. This dates back to when he was 13 years old, working in a machine shop with his dad, then he worked. His way up to leading operations at this large aluminum mill, one of the largest in North America. He brings a practical, no-nonsense perspective on what it takes to lead people in high pressure environments. At the core of this conversation was a powerful truth. If you stop learning. You stop leading that is so in tune with the whole premise of the Learning to Lead show is that we're here to try to continue to have humility and curiosity and continue to learn and grow as leaders. Joey challenges leaders to recognize that their personal growth directly impacts their team's performance. Culture and long-term success. He emphasizes that leadership is not about having all the answers, but instead about continuously developing yourself so that you can help others develop. So many leaders are busy but not growing. They are experienced, but becoming comfortable. In other words, they don't still have a hunger, a thirst, a curiosity to grow, then also that leading teams. They are successful in that, but they are not intentionally developing themselves and developing others. He really stressed the importance of developing those around you. Here are some of the key topics that we discussed, and I would highly encourage you to go back and listen to our entire conversation. He talked about why continuous learning is essential for effective leadership. He talked about the double-edged sword of leadership and its impact on teams. He also mentioned about how early mentorship shapes leadership, mindset, and discipline. One of the key things he talked about next was building trust through consistency, honesty, and leading by example. Next, he talked about why leaders must spend time with their people, not just in the office. He really emphasized developing future leaders without setting them up for failure. He really has a passion for developing the next generation. He also talked about the importance of safety and accountability in high risk environments. He talked about the importance of using data to influence decisions and drive alignment. He also went on to talk about transitioning from directive leadership to a coaching mindset. How this was a transition, a growth period during his life and during his leadership journey. How he went from being more like the, you would find in the military environment or some of the old school environments that you see in industrial manufacturing are very directive to being more of a coaching leader, asking questions, being more collaborative and leading by example. Then he also talked about practical ways to build a culture of growth and development. Here are my five key takeaways for growth-minded leaders. Number one, your growth sets the ceiling for your team. Much the same as. John Maxwell talks about in the law of the lid that the organization is only going to rise to the level of the leader. Joey epitomizes this. He says, you cannot separate your development from your team's performance. Your team will never outgrow you. So the leadership lesson there is, if you want a better team, start by becoming a better leader. Number two, leadership is a double-edged sword. Leadership always cuts both ways. When you grow, your team grows. When you stall, your team fills it, and therefore they stop growing and they stop developing. There is no neutral. The key leadership insight for this is your habits, mindset, and discipline. Show up in the people you lead every day. Number three, you can't give what you don't have. Many leaders want to develop others, but neglect their own growth. If you're not sharpening yourself, you're limiting your team. Get that again, if you're not sharpening yourself, you're limiting your team. So the key leadership lesson there is you cannot develop others beyond your own level of development. Do you have a personal intentional growth plan? Number four, great leaders stay close to their people. Leadership doesn't happen behind a desk. Joey's principle that he practices is that he spends 80% of his time on the floor and 20% in the office doing administrative work. The key leadership insight from him on that is presence builds trust, awareness, and credibility. Number five is developing leaders is your responsibility. Throwing someone into leadership without support is not development. It's failures. So many times we see in organizations where someone is promoted to failure, where they're successful in one level. Of work. Maybe they've been a good salesman and you make 'em a sales manager with no training, with no coaching, with no development, and then they go on to fail and then we fire 'em. That happens in many organizations where we promote someone to failure 'cause we don't have a good environment of developing those leaders. Here's what great leaders do instead. They identify potential, they provide training and coaching. They give feedback and help with development. They stay engaged in the process. Leadership lesson. If your people are failing, look first at how you're developing them. So basically look in the mirror. One of the things that he shared during this episode was. He was dealing with a guy who was complaining about his team not performing, he says have you been training them? Have you been coaching them? Have you been developing him? He said, you might wanna look in the mirror first. Look at yourself first before you go blaming the team members. If you haven't trained them, if you haven't developed them, if you haven't coached them, then that's your responsibility. It's on you. Leadership is a stewardship as Andy Stanley says, and we will be held accountable. So how are you stewarding your leadership? That's it for today. Thank you for listening to the Learning to Lead Show. Make sure you go listen to episode 42 and listen to our entire conversation with Joey Cantrell. He gives us some great insights from the front lines. Make sure that you also go download the leader notes that will give you an outline of the topics discussed today. Some action items that you can take, the books that we discussed, that will give you an opportunity to develop yourself as a leader, to grow as a leader so that you can develop your team. If you got value out of today's episode, please share with a friend. Make sure that you go and leave a comment and give us a rating on your favorite podcast app. Those ratings of five really help us spread the word and let others know about what we're doing here on The Learning to Lead Show. Make sure you go out this week and learn, grow, and lead to take your organization to the next level.