Dale Young: From Tech Executive to Purpose-Driven Leadership Coach

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It is my pleasure to introduce you to my guest today, Dale Young, also known as Coach Dale, a business coach, author, and founder of The Alignment Way. With more than five decades of business experience, Dale’s journey spans from technology executive to entrepreneur and now to helping other leaders find deeper meaning and alignment in both their business and their lives. He served as a vice president of a fast growing tech startup, recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine, and has built long term, high performing teams throughout his career. What makes Dale’s work unique is his focus on helping entrepreneurs move beyond success. That looks good on paper to what he calls complete and aligned success. Bringing together identity, community, and calling. He is also a six time number one best selling author and the creator of the Triad of Significant Impact, guiding leaders to build businesses that reflect who they truly are. Dale, welcome to the show.

Dale Young: Well, thank you, Trisha. It’s an honor to be here.

Trisha Stetzel: I’m so excited to have you on today. So, Dale, can you tell us just a little bit more about you?

Dale Young: Oh, gosh. Let’s see. Uh, I went to school at UT Austin for a computer science degree, uh, worked in it for 48 years and, uh, also got into leadership and did a lot of business stuff through it. I was one of those strange IT professionals that always liked to talk to the end user, you know, and really understand what I was trying to build. And so, uh, so through all that, I think everybody was trying to figure me out. Uh, I took a bunch of assessments through my IT career. Uh, and I started getting to where I really liked them and really understood them. Uh, and that led to getting certified in an assessment called the core map, which was kind of a blend between the disc and the Myers-Briggs. So I had to learn both of those to be able to do the core map. Yeah. Uh, that led me into some coaching, uh, eventually, um, and getting certified as a professional coach through the professional, uh, uh, pcci professional coaching, um, professional Christian coaching Institute PCI. Uh, and then I got my CF a little bit later after that with the International Coach Federation. Um, and so the last ten years or so of my business being paid as an IT professional, I was doing more coaching and leadership stuff and, uh, did some try to build some groups and things like that. Still have a mastermind group that is going really well now. And, uh, so, but really in, uh, 20, you know, really the, the journey, what I think of as my journey started in 1992 and I was in Australia working for a defense contractor making crazy money, uh, stupid money, as they say a little bit.

Dale Young: And they were taxing a benefit or something. And it was like, this is minor compared to the amount of bonus that they’re giving us. But we were all sitting around the lunch table and we were all griping And out of my mouth came these words. This is just a job. It’s not a career. And it was one of those coaching moments where you hear yourself say something. And as a coach, I’ve tried to catch those moments when other people say something and they don’t realize it and echo those words back to them. Mhm. Okay. And it’s like, oh, I needed to hear myself say that type of thing. And that shifted my trajectory. So after that was in 1992. Six years later, I finally accept Christ and start following him. Uh, a couple of years after that, I’m part of that tech startup that went bananas for three years and then shut down in the fourth one. Uh, then I went to another tech place and we built a team that lasted, a managed services team that lasted 15 years. Um, and it was still going when I left that company. Finally, uh, and, you know, through that last ten years, I was also building the coaching side of things. And it was really in 22, 2022 that I realized what I had said I wanted back in 1992 was a career. And it hadn’t been that. It had been something else. It kept growing. And in 2022, what I realized what I wanted was a calling. And not only did I realize I wanted a calling, but he realized God had given me a calling during that time. And my calling is to inspire calling. Oh.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. I got goosebumps daily. That’s fantastic. And it’s it’s fun to meet other IT people with IT backgrounds, IT professionals, executives who are also people, people. Because most of us know an IT guy or gal who is definitely not a people person.

Dale Young: Absolutely.

Trisha Stetzel: Yes, I love that. Um, it sounds like you live by something that you say or I’ve heard you say quite often about being built for more. So you talk about entrepreneurs feeling like they’re built for more. What is that feeling really mean and why does so many people experience it?

Dale Young: Well, I believe that God created each one of us uniquely. Okay. And we’re, we’re all we’re all given gifts and talents. Okay. Um, and Romans 1129 actually says, for the gifts and talents of the Lord are irrevocable. What that means is he’s not going to take them away. He’s giving them to you. He’s not going to take them away. But it doesn’t mean that they’re just going to automatically show up in your life. Okay. Sometimes you have to dig for them. Sometimes you have to dig a lot for them. Sometimes some people are Really, you know, some people I guess are blessed or something and that they just know right off the bat. Uh, I did not have that kind of connection. And so I had to dig through it for myself. And I had to really understand how God had created me. Uh, Psalm 13913. God knit you together in your mother’s womb. I think he knits each one of us together with unique gifts and talents, dreams, desires, all those he puts those seeds in you. And then as we grow, we get away from paying attention to those seeds, and we go off on our own way.

Dale Young: And we want the control and we do all these things for ourselves, right? And maybe he’s given us gifts when we become a Christian and we use those gifts selfishly. You know, the gifts are not meant to be used selfishly. The gifts are meant to be used to build up the body. Okay. And so when I say that built for more, I’m getting back to the concept that we all have that feeling. We all want to be significant. We want all. You know, in the words of Steve Jobs, we all want to make a dent in the universe, right? So we all have that feeling. And I believe that feeling is God given. I believe it’s mandated that we’re supposed to be doing that and we get away from it because we’re human and we live in the real world and all this sort of stuff, right? And so I believe that built for more for me anyway, it was really getting down to understanding, I am called and what is my calling? But to get to that calling piece, I believe most people have to first go through the who are you and whose are you?

Trisha Stetzel: Nice.

Dale Young: Okay.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah.

Dale Young: And so that’s really what the triad of significant impact is. It’s really your identity, your identity in two pieces, your identity of who you are individually, but also your identity of who are you in community? Who are you from? Your family of origin? Who are you from your existing family now? Who are you from your church family? Who are you from your golf buddies or your racquetball buddies or your pets? Okay, I’m going to pause. I had just a little brief glitch there. Are we okay still?

Trisha Stetzel: You are good. Yeah. Keep on going.

Dale Young: Uh. All right. So, um, you know, so identity always comes in two pieces. And brain science has been carrying this out. I’ve been studying a lot about brain science in the last five years and such like that. So, um, the book that I would really recommend for almost anybody is rare Leadership. Uh, there’s actually two versions. Rare leadership is the white book. It’s thicker and it’s more church centered, but there’s a smaller green book called Rare Leadership in the workplace, and it’s by Jim Wilder and Marcus Warner. Um, and those are both of those are great books. The one in the workplace, I keep copies around to give out to people, uh, because it’s so good. Um, but it really does talk about your identity comes in two pieces individually and collectively.

Dale Young: You know, you always have this tug about where you are in a group. And I believe that’s biblical because we’re designed to be built in community, in the church community. That’s what the church is all about, is to give us that community that helps support us and uphold us, as opposed to maybe a fractured family that really pushed you down or something like that. Uh, so yeah, so understanding that then gives you really the who and the where, who am I? Where do I belong?

Dale Young: And then you can really go to the why, which is what I call the calling. You know, a lot of people will say purpose. You know, I think purpose can be a purpose is a good tool to get there. But purpose is only a piece of it. And it’s when you get to that divine purpose that you can really get to your calling and you’re really understanding of why did God create you on this planet at this time in history with the parents that he gave you to, in the location where you were born, wherever you’ve traveled around all the things that has happened to you in your life. And you know, being 72, I can say a lot of things have happened to me in my life. Uh, you know, but they all are useful because, you know, God uses it all.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. Your calling is to help others find their calling. I love that you said that earlier. It’s really sticking with me. So in all of that, I heard you talk about the triad of significant impact. And I’d like to revisit it because I think it’s a really big part of what I wanted to talk about today with you. So can we revisit the triad of significant impact? So tell us the parts and then take us a little bit deeper.

Dale Young: So actually, I probably already have the triad starts with identity. That’s kind of my first circle. I think of kind of like a Venn diagram. And my logo actually has a point on the top of it. So pointing upwards. So the first circle is identity. That’s the who, the who are you? Who’s are you really understanding at a very core deep level how God created you uniquely as an individual and then bringing in the community piece as the next piece. That’s the next circle. Two circles on the same level, the community being the where do you belong? All the group and all that. And then the top circle in that Venn diagram would be the calling or the why.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Yeah, I like that.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you. I’m a very visual person, so I appreciate you walking us through that. And, um, how do those three I like to talk about leadership. So how do those three elements work together for a leader? And let’s talk specifically to the folks who are listening, our business, business leaders and entrepreneurs. How do those three things work together for them?

Dale Young: Well, I’m sure most people have heard Simon Sinek with his start with why talk? Right? And, you know, his point is you don’t talk about, you know, for, for example, with Apple Computer, you don’t talk about the speeds and feeds. You talk about why you’re doing it. You’re doing it to uplift the the person that doesn’t have a lot of computer stuff, but still wants to be able to use it. Right. That’s the why. But I don’t believe you can get to the why without going through the who first. Okay. So I really think you have to start with who before you can even get to the why. Okay. And so for a business person, if you’re struggling with that, why, if you’re struggling with how to get to that, why, back off and look at the who first.

Dale Young: Okay. And that’s where, that’s where I go, you know, and you know, this, this applies to organizations and companies as well as it applies to individuals. Okay. If you’ve already, if you’re coming into a company and you understand the company’s why, that gives you a real good, solid foundation of, of how you plug in. Okay. But then the companies who the core values of the company, the the non-negotiables of the company. Are you in agreement with those. You might like the why, but if you’re not in agreement with those core values of the company, you’re not going to be a good fit.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. All right. Uh, I’ll bet you there are some folks who are already interested in reaching out to you, Dale, because you’re in this very, um, wonderful space of faith based coaching. And I love all of the things that you’ve already brought forward. So for those who are interested in having a conversation with you or connecting with you, where’s the best place to find you?

Dale Young: The best way to contact me is just my email, dale at coach dale.com. I keep it very simple. I got that domain back in 2009 and I’m going to be keeping it.

Trisha Stetzel: So that’s the IT guy.

Dale Young: Dale at coach dale.com. Uh, also you can look at coach dale.com, the website, uh, there, it’s, uh, it’s out there. I will tell you, it’s a little bit out of date, just like every single website in the world is, uh, and then, uh, LinkedIn, uh, coach Dale, uh, LinkedIn as well. Just go to LinkedIn and at coach Dale and you’ll get to me.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Fantastic. Thank you for sharing that. Okay. Um, so the next space that I want to go to is this idea of separate worlds. Uh, you talk about it, what, what is it? And how does it show up for us as business owners?

Dale Young: Well, I think every business owner that is a Christian struggles with how much do I bring God into my business? Okay. That’s just that’s just normal. Okay. Um, as I said, I got I really started following Christ in 1998. Uh, I was already well established in business. I didn’t really have that struggle. I already knew that I needed to be who I was. And so when I went into business, fortunately, I was working for smaller companies at that time. And so I had a lot more freedom than maybe a cog in a big employee, you know, government contractor in Australia probably would have had a little bit more trouble being myself at that point. Uh, but I was telling everybody, hey, I got baptized. Hey, you know, I’m really excited about where I’m going. I’m really excited about all this stuff, you know, and I got some pushback, but it wasn’t big, you know? And so I just kept going. And really the, the tech startup really solidified it with me because the people that were kind of pushing in one direction were all faith based and all believers and the people that were pushing the other direction were not, uh, you know, they didn’t seem to have any kind of firm spiritual beliefs at all.

Dale Young: And they were just following the money which the money we could see quickly the money was going to run out, so which it eventually did. So, um, so when I went to the other company, um, I knew the CEO was a Christian. I knew the CFO was a Christian. I was just very blatant about this is the way I’m going to build the team. And they gave me the freedom to do it because I brought a, you know, it was about a $12 million annual company, uh, when I brought this contract to them and it was $1 million a year contract. So it really got some attention. And they gave me some leeway to set it up the way I wanted to do it. And I used every leadership lesson I had throughout all that. I’d been really into John Maxwell through that and all that. Um, and I brought my faith into it because I said, we’re going to build this, right? We’re going to build it on solid foundation. It’s going to be biblically based. I’m not going to quote the Bible, but I’m going to ask the Bible. And that’s what happened. And I think that’s why that actually lasted 15 years.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. That’s amazing. And I, I love that you’re bringing this maybe for some uncomfortable conversation forward because we do need to talk about it. And I think there are a lot of people out there who don’t feel like they can talk about it. And so today we’re giving them permission. Absolutely. All right. You mentioned I mentioned it in your bio, and then you mentioned it again a little bit earlier when we first started our conversation. Complete and aligned success. So how is that different from what most people traditionally define as success?

Dale Young: Success is all over the place, right? Goals are set all the time, you know, is it success if you go to the gym for one month of the year and then you stop, you know, that’s not really a success long term, right? So I think that success, the way I’m defining it, has to be a long term type of goal. Okay. It’s not just a short term. Um, and then aligned is really bringing the faith and the business together. Uh, you know, we talked about the separate worlds. You know, there’s separate worlds on both sides of the equation. There’s the separate worlds of the Christian business owner that goes to church on Sunday and doesn’t think about God all the way through the week. Okay. That’s one end of the spectrum. The other end of the spectrum is the Christian business owner that’s so into the Christian side that they’re not going to actually actively build up a business to make a profit so that they can continue on so that they can bless others. Okay. Those are the people that, you know, okay, I’m, I know other people are charging $2,000 for this, but I’m only I’m going to charge 500 or whatever. Okay. That’s not doing anybody any good, right? Long term. Okay. So you got to bring it into the middle. That’s why I talk about on the align part.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay.

Dale Young: Okay. And then the complete I’ve had to throw that in because it aligned success. Just it’s not complete enough, I guess. But the complete comes from a Greek word teleios. And in Matthew, I think it’s 548, uh, it says be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Something like that. I may not be quite, quite on the spot on, on the language, but perfect is really it’s the English translation translation that gets us into trouble there, because that perfect word is Helios. And Helios in Greek really means something more like complete, whole, mature. Okay. It doesn’t mean perfect. The way we think about perfect in English being sinless perfection and, you know, never making a mistake and never sinning, all that sort of stuff. It’s not that. It’s really the completeness, the wholeness of you’ve got all the tools you need. You know who you are. You know what God has given to you. You know the gifts and talents that he’s brought to you. You’re using them appropriately. Yeah. You’re going to mess up. You’re going to make mistakes. But mistakes are part of learning, okay? I always say that there’s no such thing as failure. Fail. Fail is just an acronym for first attempt in learning. Okay? You’ve got to make small mistakes so that you can get to the real significant piece. And so that’s where I get the complete and aligned success.

Trisha Stetzel: I want to talk about you being a six time number one best selling author first. Well, maybe after you have to tell us where to go find your books. But I know that you have something new coming out. Would you mind talking a little bit about it?

Dale Young: Yes, I have the book The Power of Aligning Your Faith in Business subtitle The Proven Way to Clear Direction, Fulfilling Results and Joyful Peace. Okay. And I believe that these are three destinations that every business owner wants to get to. They don’t maybe don’t realize it at the surface level. They may want to say, I need to get to $1 million in my business revenue. Okay, but at what cost is that million dollars? That’s where the alignment comes in. If you get to that million dollars, but you destroy your marriage and you fracture your family, is it worth it? Okay. Is it worthwhile to maybe shoot for 250,000, but have a good marriage and and have a family that loves you and, you know, supports you. You know, I don’t know what that trade off is for everybody, but I know that that destination of completing a line success is the way. And if you get to that complete and aligned success, what you’re going to get to then is those three things. You have clear direction. You’re going to know which way to go because you have that sense that God is giving you, that God is leading you. Okay? And it’s a direction for the long term. You may be taking short term hits, but you’re going to get there in the long term, uh, fulfilling results. You want a result that is good long term. You want a complete and whole marriage and family and financial success. Okay, so that’s the fulfilling results. And then once you get those two, that joyful piece that just shows up, uh, you know, it’s the peace that Jesus said he was going to leave with us.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. I we could talk all day long. Dale, I want you to tell folks where and depending on when they’re listening, that seventh book might be available, but I know the other six already are. Where is the best place for them to find those books?

Dale Young: All of those books are on Amazon. Uh, they’re not all under my name. Uh, so actually the best place to find them is at coach dale.com/books. Okay. And it actually lists out all six of them. Uh, six of them are, they were all collaboration books. Uh, three of them with were with Kyle Wilson and two were, you know, the other ones were with different other people. Uh, but I have permission from the, from the whole book publishing side of things that you can go download my chapter in five of those six books. So you can actually go read about me. Uh, but I would encourage you to actually check out the books on Amazon as well, because, uh, each one has 40 or 50 or 60 authors in there and they’ve all got great stories. And, uh, you’ll probably find something in there that really speaks to you.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my.

Trisha Stetzel: Gosh. Yes, absolutely. I’ve really enjoyed our conversation today and our time has gone by so fast. So have one more question for you before we wrap up. Wrap up. If someone who’s listening today really feels the tension of being successful yet not fulfilled, what’s one step they can take this week to start moving toward alignment?

Dale Young: Well, there’s always the first thing is, do you know your spiritual gifts? And I actually have a free download on that coach dale.com/firststep. Uh, will actually get them to a spiritual gifts assessment. And I will give them, uh, they’ll not only see the results, but I’ll look at the results and what they have out on the internet about them. You know, if, if I can find something and I’ll say, I think this is working good, maybe you need to tweak this. I’ll give them a video response on that and that’ll start a conversation. That’s a very easy, simple way to get started.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, Dale, you guys, he made it really easy. Dale at Dale young.com. Or you can just go to is it.

Trisha Stetzel: Coach dale.com. Sorry about that coach dale.com. And that is the URL for his website as well. I think. Dale, you and I found each other on LinkedIn, so that might be another way to fishtail out. Daleyoung. If you can’t find him, you can always reach out to me and I’ll make sure that you get connected. Dale, thank you so much for being with us today.

Dale Young: Well, you’re certainly welcome, Trisha. And my prayer is that this will help some people.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you. And I’m sure that it will. I can feel your energy. It’s wonderful. All right, you guys, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that Dale and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston leader ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business. Your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.