September 28 2026
A Note from Host Andrea Walton, September 28, 2026 —What happens when confidence becomes arrogance, and arrogance becomes culture?
Welcome to Season 4 of The Table I Built. This season, we’re exploring Overcoming: what it means to recognize what isn’t working, navigate change, rebuild, and move forward with purpose.
In our season premiere: Andrea sits down with Dr. Vic Herbin III, organizational leadership expert, executive coach, retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, and author of the newly released Organizational Arrogance.
Andrea Walton, host, The Table I Built
Together, they explore how arrogance moves beyond an individual leader’s behavior and becomes embedded in organizational culture; the often-thin line between executive confidence and arrogance; what happens when employees stop telling leaders the truth; and leaders’ responsibility for the cultures they create, reinforce, and tolerate.
And perhaps the most important question: Can an organization overcome arrogance once it has taken root?
Pull up a chair. Your seat at the table is waiting.
About the show: The Table I Built is a bite-sized podcast on real-life resilience, purpose, and leadership — with episodes under 10 minutes for builders who are short on time but big on vision. Hosted by Andrea C. Walton, MBA, each episode offers raw, reflective insight on grit, healing, and building something meaningful after life turns sideways. From teen mom to executive, Andrea shares hard-earned lessons, true stories, and bold encouragement for anyone who’s ever had to start again.
About Dr. Victor Herbin, III: Dr. Vic is a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, leadership advisor, and the founder of Organizational Arrogance™ — a leadership development brand built on more than two decades of service at the highest levels of government and the military. Through books, assessments, and keynote programs, Dr. Herbin helps leaders see how a sense of superiority within leadership shapes behavior, decision-making, and culture. His programs equip leaders to recognize, diagnose, and interrupt these patterns before they become systemic. Learn more: bookdrvic.com
About
A concern gets brushed aside. A dissenting view is labeled “resistance.” A mistake becomes a reason to discredit rather than develop. Over time, superiority quietly replaces curiosity, and the best ideas in the room never reach the table.
That culture has a name. Dr. C. Victor Herbin III gave it one.
Drawing on more than two decades of military leadership—including three combat deployments, Pentagon service, and battalion command—and years of rigorous doctoral research at Regent University, Dr. Herbin delivers the first empirically validated framework for identifying, measuring, and reversing the quiet cultural pattern dismantling promising organizations across government and industry: Organizational Arrogance.
- The ODD Framework — the three behavioral dimensions that define arrogant cultures: Overconfidence, Dismissiveness, and Disparagement
- The OA Cultural Escalation Model — a five-stage diagnostic revealing exactly how individual superiority hardens into cultural entrenchment
- The Organizational Arrogance Scale — the first validated instrument (Cronbach’s alpha .922) designed to measure the presence, frequency, and intensity of arrogant behaviors within organizational culture
- Practical interventions rooted in emotional intelligence, organizational humility, and behavioral discipline to interrupt arrogant patterns before they become irreversible
This book will not tell you what you want to hear. It will tell you what your team already knows—and has stopped saying out loud.
For the senior executive wondering whether the metrics are masking something deeper. For the middle manager who can feel the energy in the room has changed. For the HR leader, executive coach, board member, or organizational development consultant who has watched arrogant cultures dismantle great organizations from the inside out—Organizational Arrogance is the diagnosis, the framework, and the roadmap home.
The only question is whether the leader holding this book is ready to do the work.
Click here to buy .
About Host Andrea Walton, founder, The Concrete Rose Scholarship Foundation
Who she is: Andrea Walton is a seasoned HR executive, published author, and purpose-driven philanthropist committed to building pathways to education for Black and Brown girls around the world. As Founder and CEO of The Concrete Rose Scholarship Foundation, Andrea leads with a deeply personal mission-having once been a teen mom who earned her GED before climbing the ranks to become a Chief People Officer in the biotech and education sectors.
What she does: Since 2020, Andrea has awarded nearly a dozen scholarships under the banner “From GED to MBA,” and recently formalized the Foundation as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. With global partnerships spanning the University of Cape Town and Howard University, the foundation is scaling a bold vision: to eliminate systemic barriers to higher education-one student, one scholarship, and one opportunity at a time. Andrea also leads Concrete Strategies LLC, her HR consulting firm, and hosts the podcast The Table I Built, where she shares unfiltered conversations on leadership, resilience, and equity.
Why she does it: “My work is rooted in the belief that education saves lives. It is true for me, and it is my life’s mission to help others write their own stories. Where we came from creates a foundation. What we do next is up to us.”
Perhaps most powerful and personal of all: In 2020, Andrea created The Concrete Rose Scholarship Foundation. Born from lived experience and her unwavering belief that brilliance can bloom in even the harshest environments, Andrea’s foundation is rooted in resilience, equity, and global impact. We invest in underrepresented students—especially young women of color—by providing scholarships, mentorship, and access to education. What sets us apart is our personal connection to the journey. This isn’t charity—it’s solidarity. We exist to remove barriers, build bridges, and help the next generation rise, fully rooted and in full bloom. Click here to learn more about it: theconcreterosescholarship.com.
Contact this truly amazing woman: Email: Andrea.Walton@concrete-strategies.com • Cell: 626-233-1409
Why she does it: “My work is rooted in the belief that education saves lives. It is true for me, and it is my life’s mission to help others write their own stories. Where we came from creates a foundation. What we do next is up to us.”
All the Smoke: From Pain to Purpose
