Leadership
Our team checks the alignment of an anemometer that we installed on an assault ship for air wake testing
I have led a multi-discipline team of government and contract engineers to plan, execute, and analyze flight test data to verify an aircraft can meet performance requirements outlined in its specification. I lobby annually to Navy program managers for funding to maintain the performance models of the F/A-18 family of aircraft in my branch. I have also helped train junior engineers in my branch on the technical and human-relations aspects of supporting aircraft programs. I continue to review any briefs and presentations they deliver to customers.
My intrinsic motivation for leading lies with the essence of who I am as a person, not an engineer. An engineer is just the outer shell that defines my “what”, meaning what I do for a living. But I have come to recognize that I’m far more content when I allow my “who” to come forth and lead the way over my “what”. So what is my “who”? Who I am is someone who shows others the way. And since it’s been a part of me my whole life, it comes naturally to me such that I’m qualified to do it with little effort required. During some past self-reflection, I jotted down the words that came to me and drew a large box around them. Here’s what I wrote about myself:
If you execute according to this plan or guidance I have given you, then you will arrive where you’re meant to, you will be fine, you will be safe, you will get what you need, what you want.
This is the essence of why I choose to lead others. Notice it sounds similar to the 2nd half of my life purpose (see text on home page), which is to help us experience a state of limitless possibility. I lead and guide not out of an obligation or requirement, but because I want to see others benefit from it. I feel this will lead them to reach their full potential and realize anything is possible. And it’s in that realization when contentment is felt.