Rewarding Leadership

A civilian might think the Military has the best leaders and most service members would even agree. Having been in the Military for nearly 10 years, I’d concede it does and it doesn’t. I once thought that being strong equated to being autocratic and being aggressive was the key to get people to follow you. However, I learned that that was certainly not the case. It took someone who had no service experience to teach me more about leadership and troop welfare (taking care of your employees) than I learned from every leadership PME in the last 10 years. I wanted to find a way to reward all these lessons he taught me, so I could think of no better way than to nominate my boss Ryan Callahan for an ESGR Patriot Award.

If the last 10 years in the military have taught me anything, it’s that no one is perfect and you will never be perfect. In the Marines, we strive for perfection. As an Infantryman, we expect nothing less than perfection; especially in combat. Before my first combat deployment, my leaders would often tell me to “be strong, aggressive, forceful and to show little to no weakness to subordinates,” essentially telling me to be autocratic at all times. Right then and there I realized that was how I wanted to be because I respected the leaders above me who had this mentality. When I received my first group of junior Marines, I
maintained my past leaders “autocratic at all times” style of leadership. I shortly realized using fear as a tool to lead was consequently causing my subordinates moral/work ethic to drop. This was the first time I realized I needed to figure out another style of leadership.

After my EAS, I started working as an intern for RallyPoint. This was my first real civilian job. I didn’t know much about tech or social media and was not very good at writing emails. Let me put it this way, I was very fortunate to have people believe in me when I started working in the civilian world. One of the people who believed in me from the start was Ryan, who later became my supervisor. Ryan was patient with me and understood that I wasn’t very tech-savvy.

He taught me about tech systems, writing engaging topics/descriptions, emails, and the works. Ryan also demonstrated a democratic leadership style that allowed me to think through things and be creative. In all my years in the Military, a leader never said “good job” or “nice work.” But at RallyPoint, I would constantly receive recognition for my work. This wasn’t something I was used to. Why did this style of leadership work and make me want to work harder? I was completely taken back and it changed my perspective about Leadership. I later deployed again for 1 year and spent 8 months in the Pacific as a jungle warfare instructor. I had limited internet and phone access there, but when I did have communication capabilities, Ryan would reach out to check on me and see how I was doing. RallyPoint was also kind enough to send me a care package which, as most service members know, opening one takes you back to Christmas morning when you were a kid. I couldn’t thank him enough for all his hard work and dedication he’s put towards the company and as my supervisor.

As a way to give back to Ryan’s teachings and mentorship, I nominated him for an ESGR Patriot award: http://rly.pt/2O4tRdv. The award is for, as Quoted by ESGR “an employee serving in the National Guard or Reserve, or the spouse of a Guard or Reserve member, may nominate individual supervisors and bosses for support provided directly to the nominating Service member and his or her family. The Patriot Award reflects the efforts made to support citizen warriors through a wide-range of measures including flexible schedules, time off prior to and after deployment, caring for families, and granting leaves of absence if needed. Patriot Awards are awarded to individual supervisors, not to an entire staff or organization as a whole.” On February 26, 2021 Ryan Callahan received the award via a virtual conference call with the RallyPoint team. I continue to learn and prosper everyday in my career, both at RallyPoint and in the Military due to Ryan’s teachings. I appreciate everyone for helping me make this happen