S2 E1 - The Hidden Foundation w/ Dr. Dewitt Smith

Season 2 of Leadership Unscripted begins with a powerful and timely conversation on the foundations of leadership and the future of our nation.

Dr. Dewitt Smith, Executive Director and CEO of Region 18 Education Service Center in Texas, joins Greg Steely for a thoughtful dialogue that bridges education, leadership, and civic responsibility. Drawing from his experience leading at scale, Dr. Smith shares why a strong understanding of the Constitution is not just academic, but essential to developing informed, responsible leaders.

Together, they explore what it takes to raise up the next generation with clarity, character, and conviction. From the role of educators in shaping student leadership to the importance of building a strong foundation early, this conversation challenges leaders to think beyond the present and invest intentionally in what comes next.

If leadership is stewardship, then the next generation is the measure. This episode sets the tone for a season focused on timeless principles and real-world impact.

Leadership Unscripted is brought to you by Growing Leaders a program of the Maxwell Leadership Foundation. Learn more about Growing Leaders at Growingleaders.com and Maxwell Leadership Foundation by Visiting Maxwellleadership.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is totally inadequate to the government of any other. We've got a mental health problem in America. And one of the things we say back home is if something's not right, like how's that working out for you?

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Yep.

unknown 0:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

And then we know leadership's about influence, Greg. It's not about command and control, right? Because that all leads to manipulation.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Your host, Greg Steele. You already did that. Welcome to Leadership Unscripted.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

That's one of the better ones I've heard. That's really good. Welcome to Leadership Unscripted, where real leaders have real conversations about what it takes to lead with integrity in today's world. I'm your host, Greg Steeley, Executive Vice President at Maxwell Leadership Foundation. And on this podcast, we sit down with influential leaders from education, government, and beyond to explore how values-driven leadership can transform classrooms, communities, and entire countries. And today, I have, who has become a very, very good friend over the last two years, one of my favorite people. We talk more about football than we probably talk about anything. We talk about our kids. Dr. DeWitt Smith is the executive director and CEO of Region 18 Service Center. And uh he's been a superintendent of schools. He's been a principal, an assistant principal, a teacher. I'm gonna look at my notes because I want you to get what this guy is put in charge of by the state of Texas. He is uh he helps to oversee a team of 32 school districts with over 90,000 students and 6,000 educators over 19 counties. Now, that's all big, but understand the square miles of what he oversees. 37,553 square miles. Welcome to Texas, everybody. Um, Dr. Smith also is an liaison between the Texas Education Agency and the local school districts, and he helps with disseminating information and trainings and just helps with understanding the federal guidelines and state programs. And he is an unbelievable partner with us with iLead. And please welcome my friend. And when I give you his full name, I'm gonna give you his middle initial, and you're gonna start hearing him talk. And he's a cowboy, you're gonna understand that it is Dr. Dwight T. Smith from Texas. Thank you, sir, for being here. How are you, buddy? Hey, Greg, man.

SPEAKER_02 2:48

Anytime it's great to be here. Thanks for having me on. And anytime me and you can sit down and visit about anything, it is uh it's an absolute pleasure, and uh I appreciate that introduction. But you know, um leadership's about relationships, man, and and just being able to connect with you and and John Maxwell and the team, it it's it makes life fun, right? And and that's what it's about. So thanks for having me today, and I'm I'm really looking forward to our conversation.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Me too, buddy. Hey, you know, we talked a little bit before we got started, and we want to talk about your leadership journey because it's been it's been pretty spectacular. Um, and and talking about how this, you know, from your childhood to kind of now and your your view on leadership, which is such alignment. It what's great about you and the commissioner is how aligned we are on thoughts of of where we need to be in education. So talk, talk, share a little bit to the audience about your your journey.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Yeah, sure. Uh, you know, Commissioner Mike Morath, uh, he's a good, good man. We're blessed in Texas to have him, uh, heart for educators. Um, he cares about 5.5 million souls, and he does uh he does what he believes is right for the future of our kids. And so being able, and you said alignment, you know, being able to work with someone uh that you're aligned with is a blessing. You know, as far as my leadership journey, you know, uh sometimes, you know, you get asked about a pathway, and I'm like, man, I I didn't have a pathway, right? I mean, I grew up on a small farm in in Oklahoma, and you know, my life was was a journey every day. You know, I mean, where it was a peanut farm, cow calf operation. My grandfather um was a big impact in me. He did an excavating service too. If you needed a pond or terrace or a dam built, he did it. You know, my gr my dad had a um small construction company. So I grew up, you know, driving equipment when I was 10 or 11, moving pipe, chopping peanuts, pouring concrete, and uh framing homes. And, you know, I had a mom and a dad. I had a grandmother and a grandfather very influential in my life, which is a blessing. And so I guess what I'm saying as far as my leadership journey, it started at a very young age. I had the opportunity. Every day we woke up before the sun came up and went home after it got dark. But every day, you know, I was being able to work, be out in God's creation. Um, and you learn a lot out there in the field. Um, and and you learn about, you know, we talk about I lead and the values and and what kind of what why I gravitated to it, because this is the stuff, right? That you learn uh if you're blessed, you you get an opportunity or maybe a head start growing up like I did on a farm, you know, where these things um you you you see them at a very early age and you get experience with them. And you also realize in leadership, maybe not everybody has that opportunity. And so what can we do as educators, right? To help future generations understand, you know, values and how they work and interchange with your um your knowledge, your intellect, your learning, uh, to couple that together to make you successful in life and give you every opportunity to be successful.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

That's great. Hey, talk a little bit about um, you know, we talked a little bit about the founding fathers and you know, briefly talk talk about that, man, how that that you have such a great perspective on that, the commissioner does too, and how you guys see that as a you know, we I love when you said they called a virtues, we call them values. Talk about that and why that's important in Texas.

SPEAKER_02 6:43

Well, you know, I think, you know, history's there for us to learn from, right? To replicate the good and learn from the bad so we don't repeat it. And, you know, so when when we look at society, especially when we look at school and education, as leaders, we have to say, hey, what are we doing well and where are we lacking, right? And so um, I I love reading history, um, especially ancient um history. And so, so let me give you just an example. Yeah, um, I know it's early in the morning. Uh let's just take uh any one of our founders, let's say we pick John Adams, right? Uh just a real quick um early morning reminder, refresher. Okay, so John Adams, Declaration of Independence Committee member, right? Author of the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780, first vice president under George Washington, second president of the United States. He's got a a track record um for having a good lens on leadership. I think most people uh would say, hey, we can agree on that. And so I like to go back and look at some of their writings and letters and that they wrote to each other, and and what you find are qualities of virtues like honesty, self-restraint, uh, responsibilities, they believe were the bedrock of the republic. And so I think, hey, let's look at that. Let's look at our time now, and what can we learn and what can we apply to improve our students' uh ability to be successful? Because that's our job. That's our job on all leadership fronts, from the home to the school to businesses. And so, John Adams, for example, he he wrote a letter to the officers of the first brigade of the third division of militia in Massachusetts on October 11th of 1798. Okay. And he says, our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly and inadequate to the government of any other. So he's saying, you know, morality or virtues and values, the republic and sustaining it is important. We have to be a value-driven or virtuous people. He also went on, he said in his works uh as a second president, and you can find this uh with the life of the author uh in volume nine. Actually, it's on page 229, right? He says, religion and virtue are the only foundations not only of republicanism, but of all free government. Right? Uh let's take Benjamin Franklin. You want to take Benjamin Franklin, Greg? Everybody knows who Benjamin Franklin is, right? Um, he he says, and this is attributed sometimes to poor Richards almanac, uh, or some of his later writings. He says, a Bible and a newspaper in every house, a good school in every district, and all students and appreciated as their merit are the principal support of virtue, morality, and civil liberty. And then I'll leave you with this one right here, but then we'll we'll talk about a Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Article three of the Northwest Ordinance of 1788 says religious morality and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. So, what does that tell us, Greg?

SPEAKER_01 10:21

School's important, man. Values matter. Yep, yep. Teaching values matter, right?

SPEAKER_02 10:28

So, you know, so you ask about the conversation, and so I think when I go to schools and I visit with educators and I visit with parents, or I'm if I'm back home and I'm at, you know, the coffee shop or the co-op, right? Or or if I'm down at the Capitol, it doesn't matter, right? Everybody's saying the same thing. Moms, dads, grandparents, parents, hey, we need to do something, right? We need to do something so our kids have a good base, right? Around values, uh, morality, virtues, principles, whatever we want to refer to them as, because people understand, just like John Adams and the founders did, and you can go back further than that, right, in history. And any anybody that has that we look to as knowledgeable and wise says we first have to train young people up in the right way, right? And so for me, um I believe in this, and I and I think that's where everything starts. Do you believe in it? And then if you do, your job as a leader is to do something about it. So I'm glad that to have met and encountered Maxwell and a whole lot of other people that all all see eye to eye like, hey, we have to teach right and wrong first, right? Then everything else will follow. We we talk about, hey, if we treat the root, we're gonna get the fruit that we want, whether that's outcomes academically or or virtues or success, and and and and it also defines, hey, what does success look like, right? So um if if it's a if success looks like, hey, be a good uh valued person that people can depend on, like your word is your bond, right? Like if you're that kind of if we say that is what success looks like, it's not money, right? It's not the car you drive. It's well also let's look at our mental health, right? We've seen statistics, Greg, all over it. Doesn't matter where you look. There's one thing that serves true. We've got a mental health problem in America, right? Right? And one of the things we say back home is if something's not right, like how's that working out for you? Right? How's that working out?

SPEAKER_01 13:00

Right.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Well, we've known for years and years and years, and so we haven't stopped and say, hey, maybe we need to stop and we need to go back to what we know are basic building blocks. Yes, right, for just being a good human and person and having a good mental state of mind and feeling um affirmed, feeling evaluated, feeling productive, and feeling like um what you're doing and who you're becoming gives you hope and optimism for the future.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

That's so good, man. So one of the things that you said I want us to touch on a little bit um and talk about this from a leadership perspective, from a Texas perspective, education perspective. What makes in in Texas and in your view and your leadership and your and your ESC and all your your your counties, what makes a successful student at the end of the day, you you guys are, you know, everybody's building profile of a student. For you guys, what does that look like?

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Okay, let's say say we look at uh the core values with Maxwell with Eileen. That's what it looks like. You know, a a person who can make good choices, who who's living their life for a lifelong, they understand that life is a developmental game. It's about growth. Can you be better today than you were tomorrow? Not for yourself, but for others, right? Servant leadership. Knowing that that leadership is about serving others for the betterment of society as a whole and serving others. That's if if everybody's there, what a great place this world would be, right? So are you are you met do you make good choices about other people? You know, are you growth driven? How's your attitude, right? Do you bring joy to people? Do you build them up? Or are you like, oh my gosh, nobody wants to interact with this particular leader or person? And then are you committed? Do you show up early? Is that on time, right? Early's on time. Do you stay late? Uh, are you willing to get things done? Do you self-govern, Greg? Right? And oil and gas industry out here drives the world, right? I mean, it's the hub. And when I talk to my friends and and community members who are business owners, that's what they want. It's what they're looking for. If you talk to a mom or dad who's new, young, hey, what's the vision look like? What's your there here path, let's say, for the outcome when this student leaves your house, your child leaves your house at 18. What do you want to look like? They all say the same thing. That.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

Right? They want to be able to maintain relationships, have character, be a forgiving person, right? Have some self-worth, right? That's unit two and I leave in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_00 15:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

Three is being responsible. Have some courage to do the right thing. Don't let the wind just blow you around. Meaning, you know your values. You have a value system that no matter what happens and leadership under fire, you're going to hold true. Because when you do that, you live in reality. And when you live in reality, you make good decisions, right? And uh, you know, do you take initiatives? Do you take priority? Do you own failure and give credit to others when you succeed, right? Are you coachable or teachable? Right. I mean, that's what I lead's about. Yep. Yeah. Are you resilient? And then we know leadership's about influence, Greg. Right? It's not about it's not about command and control, right? Because that all leads to manipulation. And that's kind of that's all about me. The I lead values are about we. Yeah. Right? As a leader. And imagine in a imagine a world where in Texas, 5.5 million students understand this from K to 12 and then they graduate. What's the workforce look like? What's it look like out on a rig? Yeah. Right? When someone takes the initiative and says, hey, we got a problem here, we're not scared to to report up. Because when you do that in the oil and gas industry, that saves lives, right? And you were right. And if you're worried about me, uh I don't wanna, I don't want, I don't want to do something that, you know, might um be controversial out there on the job, you know, with management or or with my teammates. You know, if everybody's doing the right thing for the right reason, right, that's what I lead's about. In a nutshell. If I say, what's eyelid about? It's about doing the right thing for the right reason, being about the right stuff, growing the roots so we'll get the fruit uh that we all want.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Um so man, you're so right. I was I was with um Governor uh Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas and had we had her on the podcast, which is I mean, she's no, yes, she's no DeWitt Smith, but you know, she was great. And come on now. And she talked about the same thing, you know, help helping kids make the right decisions, right? That's kind of part of the educational process. And and I know Texas, I know Commissioner Marath and you very well. You know, let let's not let's not uh think that you guys are don't think arithmetic and reading and history are not important, right? But you know none of that actually pays off and bears the fruit if, as you say, you don't get to the root of it, which is what is the baseline of values that are helping you get there. And and you guys have, you know, you found I lead. I mean, you're the one that found it. You found it and just said, man, this is the answer to help us get there, and and uh, and you're seeing the results.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Well, you know, it's about an education in and of itself in isolation. Right. It's not complete. The base of this, what we've just talked about as far as values, virtues, um doing these things that we know work, that like it that really allows you to take a good education, right? Because we're I mean, we're our standards in in our state for, like you said, reading, writing and arithmetic, they're high. When you couple these together, that's that allows and it and it sets our students up to have a successful and fulfilled life, right? Yep. Not not just success from a worldly or monetary, but a fulfilled life, right? And so you talk about midlife crisis, right? We've heard that stuff for years. Well, if you have a a view of a a transcendent, there let's call it, right? Um, that's beyond yourself, right? The reason that's driving you to do something is beyond yourself. We all know those are the leaders we want to work for, right? And and and couple that with these educ with an education, you know, you we see it all the time on TV. Uh uh really, really smart, successful people, if they don't do things that are right, think about Enron, right? That's a big deal. That's right. You know, I mean that that's a case study for you you got smart people with good educations, but when this is lacking, look what happens.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

You know? Well, I you know, I like to paint this picture. You've said it a couple of times, coupling. I've I believe that values are are a locomotive. Think of a train, values are a locomotive, right? All your knowledge and your skill is it gets attached to that locomotive, and the locomotive pulls those things to a destination, right? It gets them to where they need to go. A locomotive without that, so if you if you have values without knowledge or skill, it's just you're a good person, you you do some good things, but you don't you don't ultimately get to make a big change in the world. It's when you couple the two, and you can't move your skills and you can't move your knowledge if you don't have a baseline of why they're important to begin with. And so I love how you guys couple that kind of stuff together, and you really are thinking innovative in that way. Um, and uh, you know, we had the commissioner on here, he talked a little bit about blue bonnet and some of the things you guys are doing, and and uh it's just been magnificent. All right, we got a cup, we got one more question, then we're gonna do some rapid fire, okay? So okay. So here's our audience. We've got a lot of emerging leaders in education, a lot of young, uh young teachers, some young principals, even young superintendents. What's one piece of advice you would give to to that person? Like go back to go back to DeWitt. He's he's moving up, you know, God's opening up these doors for you to do some things. What's a piece of advice either somebody gave you or you wish somebody would have given you that you want to share?

SPEAKER_02 21:58

Enjoy the the daily nuances. Some people say just the day-to-day grind of your work. Right. As a y as a young person, right, you you typically you you're looking beyond where you want to be, which is good, right? That that that drives us to get to there where we want to be, but like embrace your everyday, right? Because that's really about self-governance. Like enjoy the satisfaction of the work. And also to be the person that leadership can come to and count on. Hey, can you we can't get anybody to do this? Would you be willing to do this? One of the things I tell people, I just said yes. Okay, I'll do it. Oh you need a summer school principal? Sure. You need someone to be the you know gang information liaison and do the um mail detector. Sure. I'll do the mail detectors. You need someone to you know whatever that is, right? Whether you're in whether you're in education or you're in private sector, right, be that person. Right? Because trust and relationships are deposits every day. Every day every day. And you know leadership they're needing someone they can count on. And when you say yes and you do a good job and you're you're someone that can be trusted with the task and um you know it's a two-way street. You'll get more back right but your motives got to be about hey I just want to do a good job and I'm thankful. Like the last thing I would say on this question Greg is like, have an attitude of gratitude. Because the minute we lose gratitude, right, our attitude goes down here. Our motive switches to me instead of we, the unit, the team and you know we're in social media and the world we live in, right, everything's telling us to do the opposite of that. It's all about me. No it's not right right be a great team teammate because when you're in a leadership role that's what you want under you know working with you people who are good teammates who want to support you. So do that.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

Support leadership make their job a joy not a burden that's so good. And I'm going to give everybody a real life example of something you did that was very selfless. DeWitt he he runs a tight ship over there guys. I mean he he they get stuff done it's a big it's a big area and uh he's a great leader and he had he had a a fantastic leader working for him Christine who we met through the i lead process and we were looking for someone to kind of be our I lead or you know our our student director for all of Texas and and DeWitt recommended Christine. I mean his own his own person his right hand person because he saw in Christine probably what Christine had not even seen in herself and he saw an open door for her that was outside of the the door she had been walking through. So that's when he talks about gratitude selfless that's selfless leadership that's a leader who sees more before and sees more in people than other people see and I dude you're you're the best at that and I I tell that story to everybody every educator I talk to I tell that story. They're not yours to hold right they're yours to hold but not hold. So that's right. All right couple rapid fire one so the first question we would ask him and he doesn't have to answer this is you live in Texas and you're a boomer sooner. How's that working out for you? That's one and two um what does what has to happen for Oklahoma to win the national championship game? What has to happen?

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Well first I I I tell everybody, you know I I was blessed to come down play baseball at UT Arlington so I have two degrees from the UT system but you know growing up in Oklahoma you know I always tell people I still have you know red dirt on the bottom of my feet you know you grow up with your dad watching football and it's just part of who you are so what what needs to happen we have to put four quarters of offense together right and the other thing is we have to go probably three out of three the next three games and which not easy game not easy game. Oh it's not you know and you know but but being in the hunt right that's what matters that's the thing with iLead right you know every every generation we're responsible for our leadership and and being in the hunt means hey let's do what we know to be right even though it may be difficult and hard and and and everybody wants to say oh you know we're losing generations well no what what can we do you know to stay in the hunt right so I love that all right last question you love your girls right girl dad loves his girls what what is it that you would hope your girl your girls have have children one day what would you hope they would tell their kids about what they learned from their dad well I I think um what's the definition of success right um my hope would be that somehow you know along the way I leave a legacy of I I'll reference King Solomon you know Beatles wrote a song about it you know about life and King Solomon's noted for saying at the end of his writing what's the purpose of life right it's very clear serve God keep all his commands for this is the purpose of life right so I mean obviously that's my personal belief uh in faith um in Christ and and salvation that that gives us purpose that gives us meaning uh that gives us an a lens on the world that it's not about you right what are you going to do with the gifts the talents and the opportunities you have to serve other people to lift them up to encourage them to make their life better um to reach down and help because I've had plenty of people reach out to me you're one of them John's one of them uh Linda Jolly Commissioner Marath I mean I can I can go on and on and on with so many people that are influential on my life that help me because a kid that grew up on a farm and graduated with 32 kids you're kidding yourself if you think you got you you you're blessed to be where you are yeah by yourself. That's right it doesn't happen that way right and that's humility and leadership and and gratitude with everything you have whether you have whether you want or or you have plenty Greg. And so I think that's what I would hope um and and it's dependent on us because that chain will break that chain in our family or that chain in life in our country right and the republic is dependent upon each generation to say hey this is how we honor it right because the minute we take what we have for granted we won't have it anymore. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

That's a mic drop so that's a mic drop moment right there man that's a good place to stop and and man I just you know how much I I love you I appreciate you your friendship and uh us uh we don't get to see each other as much but we get to talk and text and um I just appreciate you greatly I appreciate you being on the podcast. I know the audience is going to be just blessed by by this time and just hearing the authenticity of you you're always very authentic right we know where you stand we know who you are we know the type of leader you are you're a great partner with us but I mean you would be in our world regardless if you're using iLead or not because you're you're a level five leader. So I thank you for that buddy thank you for being with us thank you for the time man and to our audience we appreciate you tuning in and we'll see you on the next podcast.

SPEAKER_02 30:20

Thanks Greg y'all have a great one keep up the good work. Thanks buddy