This post has been a long time in coming…roughly a year and a half to be completely truthful. The reason it took so long is because I found myself better at leading others than leading myself. This inaugural post, designed to start the creative ball in motion, is as much of a confession as it is an introduction. This is a recount of my experience and does not necessarily reflect on the journey of my peers, although I suspect there are common threads.
My name is Kevin Green, I have worked in multiple careers over my lifetime, with the most prevalent being 20+ years in the US Air Force. The majority of my AF career was spent as an intelligence analyst working with multiple different aircraft and combat personnel spanning the globe. Upon retiring, I missed the clear purpose and direction the military provided. After evaluating the tenets of my career that brought me the most satisfaction, I decided I craved being in a leadership role. I will outline my definition of leadership and why it is so satisfying to me in part two.
Initially when I retired I went back to school because I didn’t know what else to do. I was unclear how to navigate the outside world and hoped a few extra letters after my name would help me land a job in my coveted profession. Within 2 years I had achieved a MS in Organizational Leadership and a Graduate Certificate in Project Management. Thinking I had achieved all the degrees I needed, I jumped back into the job market. I was thinking, “who wouldn’t want someone with all my experience and accolades?” Sadly, it turns out there were a lot of companies that felt that way or were unaware of what I brought to the table. Regrettably, I also had a hard time explaining it in a way that translated from a resume to a job interview.
After several years of bouncing around different jobs I ended up with a project management position. I thought I had made it back into leadership. This particular job was farther from the leadership than I could imagine. Stuck again I questioned if I would ever really feel the same satisfaction of giving my all in a role I was supremely suited for. In Ryan Holliday’s book, The Obstacle is the Way, he wrote, “Our capacity to try, try, try is inextricably linked with our ability to fail, fail, fail” Had I read that in 2012, when I retired, 2018 when I left a job of three years to pursue something bigger (even though I didn’t know what bigger looked like) or 2020 when I sheepishly started this endeavor; Green Door Consulting, then I would be further down this path. As leadership is truly a personal endeavor that involves others, my desire is to help others accelerate their growth to become the leaders they are capable of being.
Regrets don’t make sense to me because they keep us looking backwards while we attempt to move forward. It’s unsafe driving forward while looking in the rearview mirror. On the other side of the pendulum is not looking back at all to evaluate what went well, what went poorly, and how to make things better in the future. After all, as a career intel guy, what good would I be if I didn’t love a good after action report? With that said, what I would have done better, and earlier, would have been to focus on leading myself. I would have required a certain amount of professional development training, set goals and deadlines, and looked for more ways to share the experience and knowledge I had with others. This is my intention with this blog.
In the second part of this introduction, I will explain why I am slowly, but steadily pursuing this job and how I believe I have been gifted with the experience and knowledge to help others achieve their professional goals. This may sound boastful, but I have spent way too many hours in my life telling myself why I couldn’t add to the conversation, while at the same time energizing and encouraging others to share their voice.
