government. Some formative EI experiences recalled his military service. He repeatedly
recognized the value of working with others, and valuing the diversity of thought and
perspective.
I started to learn that people other than people in the (things the right way, and that there were very smart people out there, and agency name) did
many different organizations that were just as good or better at certain
things, and that you could not make any type of determination on a person
or a process or an element or a team based on them being different than
you or not a member of your organization.^
A7 opined that leadership styles matter, but only if leadership is contextualized in
terms of how leaders are gauged as effective. He compared an arcane leadership style
with an effective mentor.
I remember the leadership classes that we had were basically historical
case studies of people ... There was a lot about what they did; there was very little about why they did it (slight chuckle) – there was really nothing
about how this was applicable to us.
But the second guy that I consider an enormous mentor, he was that and I
just learned ... that was an enormous force multiplier for thAnd it took our skill level to, you know, took us to a completely higher e organization.
level. And it paid off. Not only that, but it made everybody feel good and
everybody performs better when they feel good.
The military was meaningful for A7, who associated it in terms of developmental
experiences. The military provided broad and increasingly responsible assignments in
panoply settings, and complemented that with formal education. Those experiences
facilitated his EI orientation.
They wanted to make sure they had some people who understood what
was going on in those organizations. And at the same time, I think you wind up with a better person who learned about the world other than their
own organization.