Doug Crandall is a graduate of West Point and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Doug Crandall is a graduate of West Point and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He has led multiple units in the Army, and spent time in operations at Amazon. For five years, Doug taught leadership, advanced leadership, and leading organizations through change at West Point, where he won the Excellence in Teaching Award and exceeded the academy average in every area of teaching feedback during each semester that he taught. In this interview, you’ll see why Doug was such an effective teacher at West Point. He’s very approachable and an incredibly gifted story teller. His stories and personal examples have a way of sticking with you.

He’s the co-author of four books: Permission to Speak Freely, Say Anything, Leadership Lessons from West Point, and Hope Unseen, which is the inspiring story of Scotty Smiley, the US Army’s first blind active-duty officer. Three of Doug’s books were Amazon Top New Releases, and his books have sold more than 60,000 copies worldwide and continue to gain momentum in Europe and Asia. Doug has also published articles in the International Journal of Servant-Leadership and written case studies for both Stanford and Harvard business schools.

Hope Unseen: The Story of the U.S. Army's First Blind Active-Duty Officer

By Smiley, Cap. Scotty

He was a Founding Partner of the “Blue Rudder” Leadership Development Company, where he delivered high impact leadership development programs throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. He currently works at The Referent Group, a company in the healthcare leadership coaching industry, with another one of my good friends and mentors, Dr. Tom Hustead. Doug lives in Washington State and is passionate about his family and his faith. You’ll hear him talk about many of the leadership and life lessons he pulls from everyday life like coaching girls basketball.

A special thank you to my friend Lance Dietz for helping me craft some questions for Doug.

I really think you’re going to enjoy learning from Doug. Despite all Doug has accomplished, I’m impressed by his humility and authenticity. He’s also an incredible story teller. We discuss integrity, the struggle between being competent as a leader and authentic, his biggest lessons after years of teaching and coaching leadership, how to create a culture where people can speak freely, and many other powerful topics.

Below are books we discuss during the interview (note: these are Amazon affiliate links so I receive a small percentage for each purchase made through these links):