Transcripts For CSPAN Women In The Military Discussion At Sea Service Leadership Association 20240714

To give them a round of applause. At this time im going to bring theomeone who has helped sea Service Association flourish. Shes always had our backs and puts in lots of time to make sure she is successful. Id like to introduce to you the chair of the Service Leadership association board. [cheering] [applause] last panel of the day. You know what they say, certainly not the least. This is always one of the more popular panels we have. I would say to you that when i was a young lieutenant captain major, i did not know about any think like jewels. Im in my 33rd gear, i didnt know until i was colonel and ive tried hard because it can be an incredibly powerful day. Somewhere out there, looking up and saying i didnt know that was possible for me, certainly when i was lieutenant, i did not know this was possible for me. Im still here because i didnt think i could do anything else. But this panel you will have available to you, i counted it up, its probably 170, 180 years of experience. Do the math, think about all of the individuals these women have impacted in their careers, the people they have mentored. Think about the impact this experienced panel has had in their careers. Take advantage of this. Leading the panel is someone who has been my battle buddy multiple times, we have deployed deployed, one of the finest marines. She does a ton more than most of you marines know. Bring the panel up, enjoy this last panel. [cheering] how we doing . [cheering] let me start off by saying hi. We save the best for last. Have a seat. She is right, we save the best for last. Let me hear you get energized. A whole lot more than that, weve got nacho tacos after this. [laughter] we will back that up a little more. I dont have a whole lot of time. Im going to need you all to , a lot of good information. When i say get louder, we are going to get a bit louder. This is the last day for our joint service date until we break up tomorrow. At the end, we will learn a whole lot. Hopefully today has already been energized. We are here to bring that home. I heard somebody say earlier be bold or go home. We not home yet, so we going to be bold. So ladies, how we doing . [cheering] i can see people sitting a lot sitting up tight, everyone always asks questions. So i wont ask a whole lot of questions. If you dont ask questions, ive got plenty for you. Wherever you are in your career right now, these ladies appear, powerful dynamic leaders. They will tell you to take this to the next level. Take advantage of off the experience. Lets get some information out. Lets know who the panel is. Give the ladies a little time. Youve got to know who is appear and what they bring to the table. Introduce yourself. I feel like i am on a dating show or something. My name is joe, i have been in the army 37 and a half years. I use a lot of oil. [laughter] i was a private, 17 years old in the Army National guard. I was one of two women passed to a selfpropelled hollister unit. I was a personal record specialist. I got my Commission Six years later. I was originally an adt officer. I was an agent officer because i was a personal record specialist specialist. I did not want to be that officer, im sorry. I transferred to medical service service. Spent the remainder of my career, i am a career Army National guard officer. Ive been traditional base shoulder where ive had other locations and did this one weekend a month, 15 days in the summer and a whole bunch of other days. My dual status technician, agr, currently im sorry the Army National Deputy Surgeon but for the past year, ive been detailed and the privilege to work for army g3, leads to operational planning team. The army pled medical form. When i walked into the room, people have two reactions. Paid its medical freeform and its hard. Never in my wildest dreams i got in, did i think i would be leading the army medical reform. Im a firm believer, every day trying to move forward everything. [applause] let me say thank you for allowing me to share this with you. Being in this room is very powerful because you women are fierce and fearless. A bit about me, i joined the marine corps at 17. Why did i doing . My mom told my brothers to sign me up and he said it was too hard. So i signed up. Right now i have the privilege of working for general in her shop as the director of c4, we are all about getting after the marine corps and information environment. Started out as listed, went to operator school, almost three months after coming to the u. S. , while i was at school, they realized i wasnt a citizen. So they had to find something for me to do. They asked me to go to north carolina, i went to Ford Food Service score. So its a story about opportunities. Leaving north carolina, going to my first duty station where i met an incredible dude, a love story id be happy to tell you but again, great leadership. Opportunities there. I went to college in the midwest and my husband said if i go to college in wisconsin, i would love it. I was convinced of this, im from jamaica, remember. [laughter] i got a degree in broadcast journalism. I got there and im like, air Traffic Control is probably the way to go. Again being an officer in the marine corps during aviation command and control, deploying to iraq several times as a commander and then having the opportunity to work with the affairs, theres a broad portfolio. Commanded overseas in okinawa so overly great experience. Im here because ive met some awesome men and women out there. It is a great opportunity to spend this time with you. If theres anything i can offer, i think i will get a lot more than you will. Thank you. [applause] good afternoon, everybody. Thank you all for your service. I joined the navy from puerto rico. [cheering] twenty years ago, i joined because i was looking for more opportunity, my parents and grandparents did not have this. They didnt finish school, my parents did not finish high school. They first think they wanted me to do was finish high school, which i did. They didnt want me to go to the navy. They cried and begged me not to drink. Being in puerto rico, i didnt have opportunities that i wanted and i felt i needed to leave so i could make my parents proud. What they didnt get to accomplish and what i didnt have available to them. I joined and i dont regret it. I love the navy. I want to do however long they will keep me in the navy. I appreciate everything and my parents are proud. Im the only one in my family and im talking about decades that have joined the military. They dont understand what is being in the military. They appreciate me but they dont understand. Im married to my loving husband, weve been married 16 years. Hes also active duty in the navy. He was enlisted and weve been happily married, we have two kids. An 11yearold and a 9yearold. They are the reason i keep going. We did a deployment, south america and i learned a lot about that culture. I really appreciate that. I went through different seek commands throughout the navy and then i joined orf was selected for the Program Three years ago. It has been one of the highlights of my career. I love it. I will do it again, i would do anything. One thing i will always take back my two brothers who joined the navy after i did, i was the first one, my brothers enlisted after. Im proud of them if they are proud of me. Im just happy to be here. [applause] she has a cute story. She has not stopped smiling since you came. She needs a geography lesson. [laughter] we are on tv now, right . [laughter] forever captured. [laughter] i grew up in florida, there was a high school program, go work with explosives and im like im in. That started my career. I went to new orleans, you can imagine the education i got. [laughter] then they sent me to the east coast. Then npc and i had an Additional Reading of the white house, if any of you were single, its a great additional duty. I met my husband there. At that time, i became a reservist. Theres not a lot of places we can be together. I followed and i work on the deputy chief of staff for isr. Cyber effect is a new addition. If youre here tomorrow, you can see this. I do the money for them and work with people who are wealthy in their knowledge base. I think that is pretty much it. [laughter] good afternoon, thank you for having me. Straight out of high school, i decided college was probably the best route for me so i went to college and 9 11 happened my sophomore year of college. I thought it was time to probably give a Little Something back to my country and i found the best way was to join the coast guard reserves. I took a semester off college and went to boot camp. As soon as i graduated, i joined the unit 309 in ohio. As soon as i got there, i was placed on active duty orders and got sent to kuwait for our gear. I served your overseas where i met my husband was also active duty in the coast guard. Hes still active duty today. Once we came back, he got orders to san diego, we were not married at the time. I followed him to san diego and as soon as i walked into my new station, i was immediately put on active duty again. Walked into the door and she said hey, welcome aboard, congrats, here are your active duty orders. I was shocked. I just got off active and i want to go back to college. So another year in active duty and after two years, i decided probably the plan would be to stay on active duty. I endued what i was doing. From there i transferred to a couple of other units as active duty, i had my daughter. Shes 12 now and i took advantage of a new program back then, newborn Separation Program program, i did a twoyear temporary separation and went back to the reserves. I spent some time at home with my daughter while she was in her first two years growing up. Then i came back to active duty and continued my career. From there, as xt o in michigan. Down in Virginia Beach and fan became a warrant officer, made it and currently on the Commanding Officer of marblehead, ohio which is my dream job. Very happy to be here. Thanks for having me. [applause] i work in the navys office, id be happy to answer questions afterward. Ill be here all day tomorrow as well. On that note. Im going to ask a more broad question. Hopefully it will incite some thought. I want to give you all the time to ask your questions. I would like to be an audience based questionnaire versus my prepared questions. Ive covered a lot of different areas so we had a lot of topics covered. Be frank, open and real with the audience. They really want to know true answers. We talked about culture and every different service. Hence why we are here today. One of my things is building stock bridges and changing the culture. I want you to go back a bit in your own experience, a lot of times women face different challenges. Time management and where you are placed in your most prepared and what you are most deserving of. Talk about the challenges you faced throughout your career and in your careers, think about how the institution changed in those challenges. Long time ago when i was lieutenant, i was assigned to division. An institute. The position came open as commander and i said i want to do that. What a great way to understand the division. Move around, figure out what i want to do next. Where the organization could use me. So i applied. The interview process went through the chief of staff and i believe i was the only one who interviewed for that job. After i got it, lieutenant, im dominating you to be the next. I said great. I said well when will i find out . And they said a week. I was doing my masters degree and i got a phone call so im getting myself ready and what did he say . Lieutenant, we are sorry but you were not selected for the position. So i swallowed a big swallow and what is a good lieutenant do . You get out a pen and paper insects are, what do i need to do to work on for next time i put myself out there like that . He paused and he had some choices. He decided to be truthful with me. He said, theres nothing you could have done. Im like why . He said no, you were not selected because you are a woman. He couldnt get over the fact of having a woman speak with him. He was older, from a different generation of our service. So i was really hurt. I said his loss is somebody elses gain. A year went by. , i was an ambulance platoon leader and we were doing some really high training. We work getting used to this great training will be filled raft and we went across waters from everyone was in. They heard, i want to come out and visit. He didnt know who i was. So he came and hes looking at this, the aide was with him and if you seek the handcuff like this, that means a coin is going in. I watched the transaction happen and he checked my hand and gave me a coin. I had him twice. I said thank you. I could have said something, so i said something. [laughter] you have to be genuine. You are who you are and i have always been genuine. I said sir, i will accept this. On behalf of my soldiers and figure out a way we can all share in this. I appreciate you taking the time to visit us. I certainly hope i could have been on the other side of that coin. I saluted and moved out slightly and my First Sergeant was still better because i went to be with my soldiers. And its like, when you figure something out in a light bulb goes off, he realized i was the person who applied to be his aide. He realized from that moment that he made a mistake. He judged the cover of a book and thats what was in the book. I think you can learn from that. Have we changed . Absolutely. I see men and women working together all the time. That would have been about 1989. It just wasnt going to happen. [applause] from my perspective, session. That a compliment . [laughter] thirtyfour years, we are going to be best friends. [laughter] i was talking to my boss the other day, we have to find a good and celebrate, over the last 34 years, i think we can find the good and celebrating. The challenge was talent and diversity and raising the rich, brilliant young people, men, women, wherever you come from. It continues to be a challenge for the organization because i think, in society, we value these architects for a lawyer to be lethal, so we finally have that. The culture and artifacts of the organization, the things we do, value the folks. What are services are challenged to do, think about it in a different way. How do you think about delivering lethality in a positive way . In a logical way. So how do you begin to value that . Sometimes the guy or gal is more lethal than, he doesnt look or act like that type. I would offer for our service, we are coming to that realization, for the marines in the room, youve got one foreman was at the seat of the table, fear, fierce and trying to drive our organization. Also, there are a lot of Senior Leaders in our organization who have what many black. We are seeing them with Emotional Intelligence echo okay, i just want to live. Its all about living. How do i put in the right pool, we have things we are doing in the marine corps. From the bottom up, i see a lot of young women, these blogs you will have the articles you are writing, the article about uniform change, its making folks think. We are also doing things the organization like Talent Management executive council. We are forcing the issues at a high level of discussion. Discussions about what is it we need to change about the organization . Is it pregnancy order . Uniforms . How we retain young women men and women . There really smart young men and women out there and cant get better without bringing them but we also thing about the idea that the more senior, youve got more wisdom. We need that intellect. Im just saying, im not that smart. Im bringing them as part of the team. Thats what we are doing. They say look, we will poke them up work from the bottom and if youre talented, we will put you at the head of the line for promotion. We are doing a lot of things for the enterprise that we probably its never done. The work is never done. We are not there at all. Theres so much work to be done. The guys and gals at the bottom, they are excellent and not waiting for us to come up with a solution. You are uniquely empowered to make the change when we came up, realized okay, that happened. Say something. How do we stand out . But you are bold. Keep doing that, how do we do it positively . Force positive change. Im so proud to see you all helping us. Also, some of the things i will tell this pregnancy story. I really am. Ive got a 24yearold 21yearold and a 5yearold. You all heard that, right . Heres the story though about Talent Management and retaining people. It is by the story is, i got elected for colonel and i was sitting, i was like, what happens now . Just put my head down, somebody has to ask you to go somewhere. I dont know anybody. So i sent an email and i said, right need to know somebody . I dont know what happened after that but i was in the pentagon and doing work and they showed up when i was pregnant. Im not doing it, im pregnant. Im getting out, i dont want anybody to know im pregnant. She was like, okay. Can we talk . [laughter] was like, she goes okay, you need to tell your boss. Give the institution chance. So i went into top my boss was an infantry officer who had a huge level information. You couldnt tell. I went in, here it is. Hes like oh my gosh, this is awesome. [laughter] mike sir, i dont want to tell anybody. Three people knew for like seven and a half months. So my boss and the other general who knew, they were like, when are you going to come out of the closet . Its how we go about our career. So here you are a colonel in the pentagon and like okay, i have to put that lives on and i finally came out. There are people who would look at me like i lost my brain but i see young women look around now, this was five years ago. They are like senior women and pregnant and im like i own this. Its change happens. It takes a ripple of people. Men in the organization, largely as a man fled organization. Theres a lot of good men in the organization. Another question, the question is, its been tough for me finding a woman mentor. You have to find men in the organization. There are a lot of good ones out there and you see that one foreman, you have to be that one foreman for everybody. Thank you. [applause] i want to say the challenge, it doesnt matter what your q joint but the challenges were always there. Challenges will continue to be fair. I think we made big progress, what women in the military worth doing. Cooks, nurses, look what we are doing now. Im honored to be a woman in the military because of the things you are doing in the military. Im so honored. I look back in just like there was a male mentorship when i first joined, i didnt have any female leaders so my mentors were males. I look back and appreciate that mentorship they gave me. Its because of the mentorship i continued and went to another ship and stayed in the navy. I really appreciate that. We have to remember we all bring something to the table. We still have challenges but i feel as an active duty dual military couple that when i first joined and had my daughter, i didnt have a lot of opportunities that we have now. Thats because voices have been heard and Senior Leadership is doing something about it. Do we have things to work on . Yes. We have challenges we need to work on and it will continue to work and advocate for everybody but i feel the changes there and has been happening. I always appreciate leadership. One example, i work in the office, we get input from sailors, its not just sailors, it is service members. Just their feedback and we take their feedback seriously can we push it up and we are your advocates. Thats not just maybe, thats a lot of branches. Continue to give us that feedback we will work and speak for you. [applause] was just telling my friend, our new development category. I think of all the services, the things they typically bring, we dont hold land, we dont have iron to the fight, the air force has always been this technological forward leaning services. We also have the most women. 20 [laughter] i think we have some skills that are maybe different. We solve problems a little better and we communicate better. If you see anything going on, those are the tools that will enable your success in the world. The air force has just gone to Development Categories similar to the navy. I feel like i have a few challenges, i have the drop, i saw amazon out there so we have troubles keeping people and keeping women. The air force has just done studies find ways to keep women and professionals in the service. Are you getting out something . [laughter] [laughter] [applause] the coast guard recently did a study on womens retention and whats affecting retention with women. I think that the Great Program we did and i think we found a lot of issues that are affecting women. With that program, anybody who maybe was a part of the week had a couple of failures with that program. That reach wasnt big enough. We had a lot of women who are currently in the coast guard reserves for prior active duty. A lot of the issues that affected those women and why they got out of the coast guard were not hurt. We didnt go to the reserves and say, why did you get out of the coast guard . What kept you from staying in the coast guard . We need to go back to another organization and ask those questions, if we really want to see. We ask all these women, why are women not in the coast guard . This is a hypothetical. Were not really asking the people who got out. Why did you get out . Its a Great Program, we got a new, on the coast guard and hes in a lot of what he calls early action items. He took the results of that study and made a lot of great changes. Not just women in the coast guard but everybody across the board. Its a lot of positive change for everybody in the coast guard. Back to the mentorship thing, mentoring people is very important. For me, as a female, very early in the coast guard, i was an e6 before i ever saw in ee six or higher in the coast guard. That is my rating, same thing as an mos. I never saw somebody doing my job as a female. That was very hard for me to say this is possible but i take that now to find those juniors and say, you can do this. I was personally trying to mentor them, especially females and say, this is how you do this. These are the steps you need to take early. [applause] i want to get to some of your questions. You are the first one to the mic. Thank you. Im in the United States navy. My question is, the retention side, its not necessarily a question or opinion, but what are the chances of getting Something Like this on a Facebook Live event with those who are doing the job that everybody keep saying, i wish i could have seen somebody doing this. I think i would be a phenomenal event, i think we have big forum here to get started. Your thoughts on getting that started. Should we do something for Army Surgeons . And we do a flag panel. That one thing resonates, theres something profound that so many in the audience were able to retain. That person talks to another person in fact how you get that going. Im altman, ill sign up. Im happy to do so. I dont relate to everybody. Somebody will relate to those expenses ive had. I had my children at 39 and 41 and i was like what are they doing . So i did it. We do have a lot of things. We were all in your shoes at your time, we just were ugly close because it was the 80sand 90s. [laughter]within the coast guard, facebook realm, theres a lot of facebook pages out there that we utilize. A great resource, people go on there and pose questions like, i have a question about this maternity policy and anyone who has access to the page can answer those questions. It doesnt even have to be maternity question but usually its very oriented toward women issues are things related to that. Theres also once more like other study groups in the coast guard for people going to the review board and things like that. Facebook is a 12. You can start any group you want and have your own mentorship page. We have something similar, we have twitter and youtube. You have the avenue you can ask those questions. You are talking more about the joint . What im saying is, this is phenomenal. Seeing you complete this up here, its inspiring to say the least. It will benefit every woman and man to do this together, more often than once a year maybe. I know we do it other times but i think it would be a phenomenal thing to do when we have forms such as Facebook Live and stuff like that. Im sure we could easily find women to be up there. I think what youre saying is like talk exactly. To see the interaction, it is removing some of that. Without this and whatever else, its about what it is we want to get off our trust. We need to take realism about what it is you have a good point. Come see me after this. Lets move on. I will go to you. Along the same lines, its such a focus especially within the navy and marine corps, careers i worked with most, what recommendations do you have for us as leaders to help combat some of the toxic culture issues among the services . For generals, what would your recommendation for i speak as leaders to help the retention effort and fix some of these toxic issues we have . , the,m my perspective dont guidance came out, and he said we are going to value women. And thats broadly aviation in terms of the workforce. Is whether what we do as individuals to battle those things in the environment. You dont allow folks to rent space in your head. At the end of the day, you dont give up your power. To change theower organization. So if i have an interaction, that person is a jerk. Couple of things, that guy or gal is a jerk and im not going to be able to change him or her. Im not going to have that guy or gal in my head. What we have to do is recognize there are bad actors out there. Youre just giving it to me now. About im pretty simple, im from jamaica. Everything you do is an opportunity, its what you do with it. ,f a guy is in an environment then you stand up and you speak your piece and create the environment that you want, you cant give up your power. Thank you for that question. Did i answer your question . Yes, maam. There are a lot of leaders doing great things and we are trying to influence those. The task is made that much harder by things that come out that work in direct opposition of all the good we are trying to do. Just kind of be like water. What i was going to suggest is if you are not inspiring those people, you need to shame them. Inspire or shame. Let me just add this. Theres probably a lot of different answers to that question. One thing that strikes me is we have 20 plus years on this state. Maybe it is easier said than done. I cant do none of that right now. Keep that question. I think that is 101 sometimes. Everybody is also different. She found her voice and became a general. Shes not the one who said it. Thats a common theme. Thats not uncommon to have that feeling. Here we are asking those questions because we know it works. So we recognize its not easy to do. We dont have a lot of time to stay on that question. , donto into tomorrow let the conversation stop. Good afternoon everyone. I had a question for each of you as seasoned leaders in your organization. Youve obviously gained a lot since you have been in this organization. If there is anything you can tell new people or a new person coming in that you wish you had known prior to coming in, what might that be . Was my closing question. Can we hold your question for just a second . That may take a little bit of time. To ask you to step up. We will come back to that. I am a big advocate. I would ask you to speak on that. About asuestion is women, in your experience, have you ever failed like you set Unrealistic Expectations . Whether you have taken a new position or anything . I would challenge myself all the time whenever anyone would tell me i couldnt do it. That made me work harder and harder to the point where i wanted to do everything. Just like could prove i could do it. That actually was a little im spending more time at work. Because i wanted to prove that i could do anything they said i couldnt do. Continue to do it but i did for such a long time i ended up injuring my worklife balance and saying i know i could do it. I have to prove every single time that i could do it . That was definitely one thing i learned. You have to know yourself. I didnt know if thats a diagnostic. There is a fallacy imbalance. I have two beautiful children, my 15yearold son, my 13yearold daughter, they are very active. Cant be there all the time my husband is about to retire after 28 years in the air force. Choices. Make to be duel military operation symbols 101. The main effort and if youve ever looked in any kind of Successful Operation if youve ever had two main efforts, no. My husband and i had to sit down together and we had a if you are the main effort youre a double arrow. If you have ever looked any Successful Operation, do you have two main efforts . No, right. My husband and i had to sit down together and have a conversation. And we said someone has to be the main effort because we both cannot bp we have to both be able to support the other person. You are thend said, main effort. That was very selfless of him. And so we go. It is the same thing with my family and my kids. No matter what i doing the military, it pales in comparison to being a mother. And being alive. And being a daughter and a sister, and all those things. It is choices per you have to learn how to make those choices. That all share with you. If my daughter has a game and i have a meeting and they want me to brief and she wants me to be there. It is a playoff . No, i am not coming. Can your dad be there, he yes. Military, sometimes that is the military, my xo is going to brief you today because he needs an opportunity to be all he is going to be [laughter] and i need an opportunity to go support my son. [applause] you just have to be willing to be genuine. To be yourself. Sometimes taking risk is, you know, waiting until youre 39 to have a kid for the first time. My god, right . Youve got to do it, to take a step per what is the worst that is going to happen . Youre going to fall down and somebody, your newfound friend is going to pick you up. We are all here to each other up. [applause] good answer. I can you top that, right . Major, that was going to be my close out. I dont know if you want to close yet. But at the end of the day of a we all struggle with it. You cannot have it all. It is a fallacy. But what you can have, is a really solid support team. For me, it is a dude, his name is mike. He reminds me every day, this means god like you. Yes, your god. Because i tell you, i was night, kelly, last running out of the gun, before the door closes, catches the last bus running out of the pentagon, before the door closes, catches the last bus. Theres the guy, the dog, the fiveyearold, waiting for me when i get off the bus. You have got to have a support system. To lead. Because some of us are bent wrong. The people that arewe are bent in a different way. We are like, we have to be able to be perfect all the time. And you go home and say why was this not cooked perfectly. So it is, ok. [laughter] because you did not cook it. [laughter] thats right. Did you put conditioner in his hair, because it is not flowing right. So how you do it, though, is for me, it has been a whole career know, god, it is so, im not getting a right. I just had a conversation with, again, i dont know how much, she knows how much i appreciate this. But im like, ok, man, it is his first day of school and his five. Why are you asking me . She told everybody on the staff. His school time, just go. You just go take care of your kids. Systeme tothe support is not just at home. It is also what worked or you have to have that staff. And that is, we do. That is how we made it. Having your teammates go, i got your back nobody is going to know youre gone. Just go, breastfeed at launch. It takes a team. That is how you get it done. You have to have support systems, whether your boss knows or not. If youve got it supportive boss than over a career, and over career i tell you, ive had a sport of bosses. Not just generals, but men across the organization, which is the marine corps. That enable you. So i would just off of that. You cant do it all. But with a team, you can certainly move forward, and still feel good about yourself. [applause] thank you, anyone want to add. Isthat support network, it all parts, whether is your family or your supervisor up the chain of command of a making sure they know what your needs are and what your family situation is. The first two years of the current situation, the current job im in, my husband was not colocated with me. I made sure of my supervisor was well aware of that. I knew when i chose to accept making warrant officer that there was no way were going to be colocated. So i chose to let, knowing that i had a Family Networks there, where i was going to be stationed. I think that is a big part of it. , we have too add pay it forward, right . As women, when you are not pregnant or youre not, you dont have an aging parents or whatever, you have to have empathy. Because you are go, go, going. [applause] right . You really have to have a lot of empathy for the people around you. You gotta look around and go, ok, who needs help . Know, as you, you try to move up the organization, youre like, dont look at me, im not like her. Della care, look over there. We have got to help dont look here, look over there. We have to help each other out. Thank you, ladies. Thats off some. Awesome. Next question . Im going to ask you to to to your own horns a little bit, which is not always easy to do. What characteristics and or skills do you all believe you possess that make you good leaders . Lets see if we can do this like one words. Just short words. You are this, this, this. Lets try that. [laughter] i am this bold, fearless this. I am audacious. [applause] toss the ball. I am who i am. Im pretty driven. I am very caring. That is two words. Very caring. I am an enthusiastic communicator. [laughter] i am determined. [applause] and there were going to come back to you with the closeout. , chiefs chief warrant officer williams. My question is more for the master chief. Because these Facebook Groups we have asked me to ask in my female boatswainbased group. Not a Boatswain Mate is new thing in the navy. Still in fleet concentrated areas or special order our uniforms. We want to know is anything being done, because if we are required to make the changes and keep up with constant uniform changes in the navy, why isnt the next or the service keeping up with the requirements that we have to have for myself, me being promoted, i had to convince the lady at the next on the phone that i was a female deck warrant officer. And that there are female deck warrant officers. There may be only five of us. [laughter] but we are here. And we are not going anywhere. We are grown. I felt it was kind of ridiculous for me to wait two months for a show of the boards. [applause] for shoulder boards. Did you say fleet concentration area . Or areas not in a fleet concentration area . The question for my Facebook Group was from norfolk, virginia. I had my issue in norfolk. I also ran into an issue when i was stationed in san diego, when i got commissions. Ok. So that is good. Thats great feedback. That is the kind of feedback rear really want to get in our we really want to get in our office. When we can get that we are quick to notify who we need to notified to make sure that gets corrected. So now that i know that, im definitely going to get with you so we can continue to work with that. Once we get that feedback, we warrant issues with the paygrade, when it comes to females. So we have corrected that when it comes to certain designators. So we are all on it. So i will make sure to reach back with you so we can continue to correct that. Thank you. What is that, maternity . Ill be happy to stay after, again im here tomorrow. Bring all those. Give me that feedback place. I think maternity is acrosstheboard. I want to know what yall are doing could we had a change are maternity in the marine corps. [applause] not that im going to use that, but still. [laughter] all right, please repeat your question. Again, this is our closeout. We want to give them some tools to take back with them. Seasoned Senior Leaders in your organization, in your service, if you could give advice to a new incoming female into your branch of service, what something what is something you would like for them to know that you wish you had known coming in . We all want to answer this one. Lets start with you. I would start by saying the coast guard is a wonderful organization. The coast guard gives you every opportunity that you want to take. They give you every tool to succeed. And it is up to you to take those opportunities. Does not put any barriers on anybody. , your, whatat your diversity you bring to the table, there are no barriers for your growth. You can become a fourstar, you can become the comet on. E1 and thee in as an commandant when you lay. When you leave. Theres nothing that is going to stop you. You have to decide what it is you want to do. And find a mentor. Yoursk them very early in career, how do i get there . What do i need to do to get there . And then, as you grow a little bit, you need to find another mentor. And you need to sake ok, im here appeared my next step is to get here. What do i need to get here . And you need to continue to do that throughout your career. If you find the right people willing to invest in you, and if youre not finding those people, you continue to look elsewhere, you will get there. That would be my advice. I feel the military we have orders. G called but there is more flexible he today than they used to be. I would advise that you do not do something youre not interested in. You have changed rates, right . Have changed mlss. If youre in a job and you do not like that work and the environment, find another one. Find a mentor that will help you get another one. Find a policy waiver. Read and find a way into something that you do love to do. And when you find that thing, dont get caught up in the fear of missing out. [laughter] yes. So my advice would be to make sure you ask for help. Sometimes we get set in our ways, we think we know everything. Ask for help. That is a personal thing, that i know i have an able to be successful because i ask for help. And to this day i will ask them a jr. Servicemember if i do not know something and they know it. So be humble enough to ask for help. The other thing i know that i have done, that has helped me with building relationships or building healthy relationships, is finding the good and the positive in every person that i interact with. Ok . If you find that, youre going to have a Good Relationship with that person. And so is a command master chief, i learned how to do that. I think it is gone a long way. I have learned a lot from doing that with whoever i came in contact with. Find the positive, or that something good about each person you interact with. Ok. So over 34 years, one of the thing that i keep trying to do, is get out of my own head, right . So the matter what happens you go toespecially if youre a woman in the military, you got to that place in your head, and then you start questioning who you are, and your value, and your selfworth, and then you take yourself down that spiral and you show up the next day and it was, others no problem, it was just me. [laughter] so, really, im making light of it. But, know your job. Nobody can take that away from know what youthat is all you have to be to the table. Once you bring that and you bring it every day, people are going to see value in that. Know yourself. Right . Power, you can own your if youre really intimately familiar with your strengths and your weaknesses. And you find others whoand you know you have to work as a teamand you find others around you out and make you better. I think that is again, some of my lessons. Im a high functioning introvert. I am not want to put myself out there. I do not likeyou know. But when youre leading, and stuff. You have got to get out there and you got to lead. You have got to get out of your own head and yourself out there. And you also, you have to be vulnerable, with your people, when youre in with the team. They got a note thatyou gotta be real. You gotta tell them upfront, dude, im bad at this. No matter what rank you are. That is part of know yourself. And to your point, you have got to build a network. That is something that i keep hugeg to, if youre not a outgoing person, you know, and a large organization, but in organizations as you with forward, you have to build a lateral network. One of the things you will find, it all goes back to knowing your job and knowing who you are. There is a network behind you that you had that you did not know. Theres an invisible hand that people to smoothie along because you know your job. It all comes back to knowing your job. That people move you along because you know your job. It all comes back to knowing your job. And then do not limit yourself. There are some women here who are maleficent magnificence, these women are beasts. You can come off the banana boat. You can come from thailand. You can be on the east coast. You can come from anywhere and you can do anything. You have heard stories about people that did not have a high school diploma, but still, their high flyers. It is, dont give up your power. Well said. Bring us some, maam. Ok weed, i want you to close your eyes for a minute. Imagine a peach. S, noiciest, rich , the kind you cut into and it is so sweet. About a no sugar. Nature has created this masterful thing. Matter how juicy and wretched as, their people in the world that i, do not like pete no matter how juicy and rich it is, their people in the world who do not like peaches. So no matter what you do it, you can put sugar on it or put it in a pie, they dont like peaches. The reason i tell you that is you have to be genuine to yourself. You are who you are. Own it. Your unique and special. The skills you bring to this organization we call the department of defense, is paramount. You need to find a champion. That is probably the thing i learned. I appear to be an extrovert, but im actually mr. Burke. And introvert. Im actually and introvert. To get to the next, somebody needs to know that you are the girl that needs to be in the next job. So you have an advocate. You got to reach out. I mentor people who are nowhere affiliated with the medical community. They just want to tap into me to say how do i get to the, and then we go, lets figure it out. Lets figure out who you need to talk to, right . Worst thing that can happen is someone can say no. And you can fall down and then your new best friend will pick you up. And everything will be ok. But i dont like peaches. You dont like peaches . We may have a problem about that. Thing, theres very little we control in our lives. It is taking me a very long time to get to this point. But i am, so. This sly, dont touch the stove, is hot you touch it, you burn your finger. Let me get you through, some of you who not quite as seasoned as i am. The only thing you control in life is how you respond to what life gives you. Right . Very true. How you respond to it. We have a question about a toxic environment. It is how you are stanched to it. Itponse to that is i is how you respond to it. My responses i create my community. I own my community. Im the queen of my community. And im vicious to anyone who tries to knock into my community and do anything that is detrimental to it. And if we will do enough communities, right, we take over the enterprise. And those people who are negative or cancerous to an organization, we do the one thing my grandmother told me to do, which is kill your energy me your energies your enemy with kindness. Your enemy with kindness. Universal signhe that time is up. Please join me in one more round of applause for this dynamic, powerful group. [applause] thank you so much. [laughter] must do cell fate. Selfie. Do thats even better. Turn the lights up. Harry go. Here we go. Ladies. You got it. Their ego. There we go. Ready . Excellence. [applause] thank you. Q a,ncer sunday night on theoretical physicist michio cockapoo, author of the future talks about digital immortality. Digital a mentality digital immortality takes everything about you on the internet, your credit card records, the winds you like, your videos coming up church audiotapes, your credit card records, and crates a profile which will last forever. So when you go to the library of the future, you will not take out a book about churchill, you will talk to winston churchill. Announcer sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan q a. Announcer watch book tv for live coverage of the National Book festival. Saturday, starting at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. Our coverage includes authored interviews with Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg on her book, my own words. David troyer, his book is the heartbeat of wounded knee. Sharon robinson talks about her book, child of the dream. Rick atkinson, author of the british are coming, and thomas malone, founding director of the m. I. T. Center for collective intelligence, discusses his book of a super minds. The National Book festival, live on saturday, at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on book tv on cspan2. State attorneys general announced agreement with 12 of the nations largest Telephone Companies designed to combat illegal robo calls. It includes inputting Call Blocking technology, offering free antirobo call tools to consumers and deploying technology that authenticates phone numbers. This is one halfhour