Colonel Candid

As you grow you’ll have opportunities to seek out your next job or opportunity. This exciting new step comes with a potential growth in position, responsibility, and hopefully, more money. While your excitement may beam when you accept the next job offer, you may have questions about how to leave the current position you’re in right now. Colonel Candid suggests you solidly think about your next step before positing a “I QUIT” sign on your cube and just take off. Take time to think about who will replace you, your actions and the impact on your reputation, and contemplation on what to say during an exit interview. Replacement. Remind yourself as you walk into your next job that you once arrived with new eyes and had those moments where you didn’t know who to go to for toner cartridges, help with travel, or where accounting was in the building. Better yet, don’t you recall when you needed some antacids or even where the shortest line for the best coffee in the neighborhood? When ...

Trust is essential in many aspects of life. A century ago, a person’s trust relied on their handshake and their given work. Today more often, legal documents, sent via certified mail, ensure a written trail goes along with the establishment of an agreed upon action. For successful relationships and business interactions, trust remains one of the top requirements. Unfortunately, as you make your way through the ranks, you may experience a break in trust with your co-workers, leaders, and the organization. Let’s learn the importance of indicators of when you’re about to do a trust fall and no one is there to catch you. As an individual, you can recognize when you’re being ghosted, ignored, belittled or minimized. All these examples demonstrate a lack of trust with the person you’re dealing with. This happened to me in the past when I’d requested to meet with a supervisor to discuss my future employment opportunities. A gate keeper to the decision maker kept taking my call, even m...

There are some mentors who can convey knowledge and valuable lessons through both their words and actions. Examples of this are Nobel Prize winners mentored by previous Nobel laureates. In the military, aides to general officers are more likely to make general themselves because they fall under the umbrella of someone who can tell them about their profession. Similarly, a mentor can expand your vision. Serving as an example, guider, and demonstrator to how the keys to the castle work. The mentoring advice I’d give you is to immediately seek someone in your profession, in your workplace to start this process. Foster a work relationship and start to explore your role as a mentee through commonality, character, and influence. If you find someone with the skills in these three areas, you’ll be off to the races in no time at all. COMMONALITY. There are limits to finding someone to assist you and most of the time this fire needs a spark to create it. Most of us are somehow connected ...

Colonel Candid here starting this mentorship session with an adage my grandmother used to tell me. She served as a Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVE) in World War II, for the Navy. It was a part of her history that I didn’t really know much about until I’d started serving in the military myself. I’d hear people referencing one of Grandma Bunny’s (yes, a former WAVE went by Bunny – short for Bernita) quotable quotes, “The only thing constant in life is change.” There’s a lot to unpackage in that statement but it does ring true. Let’s focus on leading in a time of change. More than likely, that’s what you’ll be doing and it’s best to have a clear path forward rather than fumble along. The likelihood of success increases through preparing, fulfilling, and maintaining change by the following: 1.        Stickiness. Don’t just throw change spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. When you announce and change and expect people to ju...

In complete admiration for a person who in a decade and a half completely changed the world from a position of oppression, we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. As we look at different types of leadership we can use MLK as a phenomenal case study in understanding what transformational leadership. Colonel Candid here to profess my admiration of a person who was one of the world’s most impactful non-violent leader. I’d challenge you to try and immolate his leadership style. Application of this style begins with directly linking your ideas into action. This is extremely important when you don’t necessarily have the authority to tell people what to do but you can still achieve reform. MLK demonstrates that no problem is insurmountable by transformational leadership. Transformational leadership has the following characteristics: ·        Enthusiasm ·        Vision and Values ·        Lead by ...

A Letter to my Former Good Bosses, Recently, I ran into one of you and shared in some stories over drinks I expressed thanks but there’s never enough gratitude to express all that you’ve done for me in just a quick conversation. So for all of you out there who’ve helped me along with this journey please share in my gratefulness of support.  Thank you for providing me with just enough of a challenge to ensure that I learned from your pointed criticism on areas to improve in my written and briefing products. Thank you for accepting me back with grace and calmness when I failed Jumpmaster school and even still, pushing me to take that assignment as the only female in an infantry brigade. Thank you for having my back when I heard the slurs of cunt and bitch thrown around. I was there when you shut them up and I’ll never forget how great that felt to have your support. Thank you for expressing how I beat you in a 10 km race and the humility you took t...

If you’re a bit of a history nerd, like me, you appreciate a good museum. It’s encouraging that so many of you take time to appreciate and support efforts to preserve history. I come from a world steeped in history. Often this history is enlightening and inspiring. Join Colonel Candid and walk back in time to rejoice in where we’ve come from and to inspire you in the direction you are going. Ideally, you can complete these reflections during some of the federal holidays in the United States. To appreciate history look at the following three areas and tie them to our federal holidays. First, appreciating the men and women who’ve served, both past and present, in the Armed Forces and the sacrifices made by them and their families is captured all across America. Almost every military post, fort, camp, station or installation has a museum. Both Veteran’s Day, taken to appreciate those who’ve severed and Memorial Day, honored to remember those who’ve sacrificed the last full measur...