What changes when you treat leadership as a privilege instead of a position?

Matt Doty has spent decades studying leadership in places where trust, accountability, and performance matter. After a 20-year career in the Iowa National Guard—including service as a first sergeant and command sergeant major—he carried those lessons into senior operational roles in the corporate world.

In this episode, Matt joins Chris and Teli to explore what values-driven leadership looks like in practice. They discuss why employees watch a leader’s actions more closely than their words, how senior leaders can stay connected to frontline work without becoming a distraction, and why earning a promotion is only the beginning of the work.

Matt also introduces two powerful ideas: the difference between an “I’ve arrived” leader and an “I’m still learning” leader, and the “time value of leadership”—the compounding impact of investing in your growth today.

Key takeaways

• Values give people a clear foundation for making decisions, developing skills, and understanding what success looks like.
• A leader’s behavior must match their words. Culture is shaped less by what leaders announce than by what they consistently model.
• Leaders do not need to perform every frontline task, but they should understand the work, spend time with the people doing it, and remain willing to help.
• Showing up on the front line should never be performative. The purpose is to listen, learn, remove barriers, and demonstrate that the work and the people doing it matter.
• Leadership development compounds over time. A small investment in becoming better today can influence teams and organizations for years.
• Developing young and emerging leaders is not separate from accomplishing the mission—it is part of sustaining the mission.
• Leadership is not something a person possesses because of rank or title. It is a privilege that must be earned every day through service to others.
• Leadership can feel lonely, but it does not have to be practiced alone. Mentors, peers, books, podcasts, and trusted colleagues can help leaders navigate difficult decisions.

Connect with Matt Doty

Email Matt at matt@privilegetolead.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Join the Next Level Leadership Community

Leadership is difficult work, but you do not have to figure it out alone. Join the Next Level Leadership Community to connect with other leaders in parks, conservation, and natural resources who are committed to learning, growing, and leading better.

Learn more at www.parksandrestoration.com.

About Parks & Restoration

Better leaders. Better parks.

Parks and Restoration is a podcast and leadership development platform exploring leadership through the lens of ecology — for the land, via the people who serve it. Each episode is built for current and aspiring leaders in parks, conservation, and natural resources who want practical lessons on culture, growth, impact, and what it really takes to lead well.

Find out more and join the movement at www.parksandrestoration.com

How do we protect the places we love without forgetting the people who make that protection possible?

Most people enter parks and conservation because they care deeply about the land. But as Rachel Franchina explains in this episode, the longer you stay in this profession, the more you realize that conservation is ultimately about people. Great leaders don't just manage resources—they build relationships, develop others, and create communities that care enough to protect those resources for generations to come.

Rachel spent more than 20 years with the U.S. Forest Service before becoming Executive Director of the Society of Outdoor Recreation Professionals (SORP). We discuss the importance of developing people alongside the places they steward, the future of outdoor recreation leadership, and how SORP is helping build a stronger profession through initiatives like its new Outdoor Recreation Professional Competency Framework.

Learn more about SORP at https://recpro.org.

Key Takeaways

• Conservation succeeds or fails because of people—not just science.
• Why building relationships is the most important leadership skill in parks and conservation.
• Finding the balance between protecting natural resources and providing meaningful visitor experiences.
• How SORP is creating a stronger community for outdoor recreation professionals across North America.
• The value of mentorship, professional networks, and investing in the next generation of leaders.
• How the new Outdoor Recreation Professional Competency Framework can guide career development and organizational growth.
• Why agencies need to intentionally recruit, develop, and retain future conservation leaders.
• Practical leadership lessons for anyone responsible for caring for both people and place.

Join the Next Level Leadership Community

If you're ready to grow as a leader while making a greater impact on your organization, your community, and the places you care about, we'd love to have you join the Next Level Leadership Community.

You’ll get practical leadership insights, invites to meaningful conversations, and a growing network of professionals committed to building stronger organizations through better leadership.

Learn more and join us at https://www.parksandrestoration.com.

About Parks & Restoration

Better leaders. Better parks.

Parks and Restoration is a podcast and leadership development platform exploring leadership through the lens of ecology — for the land, via the people who serve it. Each episode is built for current and aspiring leaders in parks, conservation, and natural resources who want practical lessons on culture, growth, impact, and what it really takes to lead well.

Find out more and join the movement at https://www.parksandrestoration.com

Why would an award-winning filmmaker move to Iowa planning to retire... only to end up making one of the state's most ambitious conservation documentaries?

That's exactly what happened to Charlie Morris.

After years producing conservation films around the world—from South Africa's disappearing great white sharks to threatened forests on the East Coast—Charlie arrived in Iowa intending to leave filmmaking behind. Then he started asking a simple question:

"Why is everyone telling me not to swim in the water?"

That question led him down a rabbit hole of water quality, prairie restoration, farming, cancer rates, and the remarkable people dedicating their lives to protecting Iowa's natural resources.

His new project, The Iowa Prairie Documentary Project, is more than just a film. It's a multimedia effort combining documentary filmmaking, podcasts, interviews, articles, and eventually a book—all designed to tell the deeper story of Iowa's landscapes and the people fighting to restore them. Find more about the project: Facebook, website, podcast, YouTube

In this episode, we explore storytelling as a tool for conservation, why asking good questions matters, and how an outsider's perspective can sometimes reveal what lifelong residents no longer notice.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why Charlie abandoned retirement to make a documentary about Iowa.
• How storytelling can change minds in ways facts alone often cannot.
• The surprising advantage of approaching conservation with a beginner's mindset.
• Why Charlie believes full interviews are just as important as the finished film.
• What he's learned after interviewing more than 100 Iowans.
• The challenges of producing a documentary on a politically charged topic.
• Why Iowa's landscapes may be one of America's best-kept secrets.
• What conservation professionals can learn about telling difficult stories with courage and authenticity.

Ready to take your leadership to the next level?
Join the Next Level Leadership Community at parksandrestoration.com for exclusive leadership discussions, live meetups, bonus resources, and a growing network of parks, conservation, and natural resource professionals committed to becoming better leaders.

About Parks & Restoration
Parks & Restoration is a podcast and leadership development platform exploring leadership through the lens of ecology — for the land, via the people who serve it. Each episode is designed for current and aspiring leaders in parks, conservation, and natural resources who want practical wisdom on leadership, culture, stewardship, and building organizations that thrive.