Lieutenant Colonel retired C. Scott “Sonny” Duncan joins me for one of the more thought-provoking conversations I have hosted on Moments in Leadership. Sonny’s path is anything but typical. He enlisted in the Navy, earned an ROTC scholarship, commissioned as a Naval Officer, transitioned into the Marine Corps, became an F/A 18 pilot, graduated from Top Gun, instructed at NAWDC, and was slated to command an F35 squadron before the COVID mandate brought his career to a crossroads.

We cover how he learned to lead through fear, how aviation culture built his approach to performance and accountability, why he and his wife made a values based decision during the mandate, and how he now serves at the senior executive level inside the Department of the Navy. There are hard moments in this episode, and there are leadership lessons that apply across every community.

As always, thank you to the supporters on Supercast who help keep Moments in Leadership ad free and sustainable.

GUEST BIO LINKS
SES Bio, C. Scott “Sonny” Duncan
https://www.secnav.navy.mil/donhr/About/Senior-Executives/Biographies/Duncan,%20C.%20Scott.pdf

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Command Sergeant Major Joanne Naumann, Senior Enlisted Leader for U.S. Army Special Operations Command, shares hard-earned lessons on humility, trust, and leadership in high-pressure environments. She joins Moments in Leadership for a powerful conversation about what it means to lead when the stakes are highest.

Currently serving as the Senior Enlisted Leader for U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC), CSM Naumann has spent nearly three decades guiding and mentoring soldiers in the Army’s most elite formations. From her beginnings as a Voice Language Analyst and Arabic linguist to multiple assignments in Special Mission Units, she brings hard-won insight from fourteen deployments across CENTCOM and AFRICOM.

In this episode, she and host David B. Armstrong, retired Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel, explore the mindset that sustains great leaders through long careers of pressure, sacrifice, and accountability. Topics include:

• Building authentic trust within high-performing teams
• Balancing empathy with discipline
• The role of radical candor in developing future leaders
• How great mentors challenge and shape your growth
• Why humility remains the cornerstone of elite leadership

This conversation offers a rare look inside the human side of senior military leadership — one defined not by bravado, but by the quiet strength of service and self-awareness.

Whether you’re leading a small team or an entire organization, the lessons in this episode apply to anyone who believes that leadership is about people first.

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Retired Major General Matt Smith shares candid lessons on leading through combat, crisis response, civil unrest, and personal trials at the highest levels of Army command.

In this episode of Moments in Leadership, I sit down with retired Major General Matt Smith, US Army, to reflect on the leadership lessons earned over a three-decade career in uniform. From commanding troops in Afghanistan to steering large organizations through hurricanes, civil unrest, and the COVID-19 pandemic, General Smith’s story is one of resilience, adaptability, and character.

We discuss the weight of command at scale, the challenges of shifting from tactical to executive leadership, and the cultural differences between active duty and National Guard formations. General Smith also shares raw insights from the Pentagon during crises like Black Lives Matter protests, January 6th, and the early days of COVID, offering a rare look inside the Army’s decision-making under pressure.

Later in the conversation, he opens up about the personal strain of being under investigation while still in command — and the moral courage it took to stay focused on his people, his duty, and the institution. His advice on composure, trust, and standards will resonate with leaders across every profession.

Finally, we explore his new mission leading the Master in Business for Veterans program at Emory University, helping seasoned enlisted and officers translate their military leadership into business success.

Support the Show & Stay Connected:

• Support this project on Supercast: Moments In Leadership Supercast

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• Email: themiloffice@gmail.com