Women's History Month Interview with the 23rd Secretary of the Air Force: Debbie Lee James

In honor of Women’s History Month, RallyPoint interviewed Former Secretary of the Air Force Deborah James. Debbie is testament that women belong in senior leadership positions and she talked us through her tumultuous journey of getting there.

You can read her full journey and have access to an immediate mentor in her book “Aim High” which you can find here: https://rly.pt/AimHigh

Q: Your book is called “Aim High” but talks a lot about struggles you have faced. Where did you get the inspiration for this title and how significant is aiming high even when you’re at rock bottom?

A: The inspiration came from two sources. First of all, it is part of the Air Force motto “Aim High, Fly-Fight-Win” and secondly, it encapsulates in two short words a good bit of what I believe in life. I believe that all of us need to have aspirations in life. No matter where you are in your life, everyone should have a plan A and have some idea of what they want to do and where they want to go in the next few years. At the same time, I am a big believer in being prepared to pivot and that kind of agility is terribly important nowadays through constant change and transformation.

Another key thing to remember when you hit rock bottom is that nobody ever needs to stay there forever, it’s not a permanent situation. I also think it is important, when you are able to get over the initial hump of the pain and suffering, start with intentionality to to look for some sort of positive lessons learned. What did you get out of the negative situation that you can learn from and help you bounce back. So, aiming high is important no matter where you are in life, at the peak or rock bottom.

Q: How has your five step approach to problem solving helped when you were ‘zigging’ instead of ‘zagging’?

A: The five step process is a great tool. The first step is investigate and know your facts. Understand the data set, understand what your people are thinking and feeling about the problem before taking any additional action. Secondly, is to communicate; now that you understand what the situation is, you have to build the business case for change, which is very important and takes a lot of time. Although I call it phase two, it really is a continual phase. The third step is to activate. We have to know exactly what we are going to do that is going to be different and ultimately make a change to overcome the challenge. The fourth step is to iterate. Nobody is right 100% of the time so this is where we need to step back and assess. Take the pulse of the people around you and talk with them to see how they are feeling. If something’s not working, don’t have pride in authorship; get rid of it and be willing to take on new ideas. Lastly, is follow up. There is no substitute for good old fashioned followup. Keep on scheduling those meetings, and making those calls and speaking with the stakeholders to understand their point of view. If you, as a leader, invest a lot of your personal time in the follow up phase, I guarantee the rest of the team around you are going to take notice and they’re going to be on it as well so follow up must be relentless.

Q: Can you talk me through how you applied the teachings in your book to life when COVID hit, especially in terms of the uncharted territory the world faced?

A: Certainly we all had some sort of a plan A this past year and suddenly had to pivot to our plan B. This whole point about resilience, if you feel like you’re at rock bottom, understanding that it’s not forever and when one door closes another one will open; you just have to figure out where that door is and take the risk of walking through. Hang in there with positivity, it is easy to say but hard to do. I come back to the basic point, if you have leadership capacity in any area of your life, look for positivity through the fog. If you become pessimistic and downtrodden I guarantee the people you lead will adopt the views you are projecting. I don’t ever advocate sugarcoating the situation, you have to explain the situation but also be able to say ‘when we come through the next few months the future is bright and here are the steps we need to take in order to get us there.’

This past year has been an important year to put people first. Organizations constantly focus on strategy and technology, but it’s people who make all of that work. This year where everyone had to suddenly pivot to the virtual world over night, there were all kinds of challenges. This has been a particularly hard year for women because women still shoulder most of the tasks associated with raising children and household responsibilities. Women are burning out left and right because they’re trying to keep up with everyone on the job while also maintaining home life. The whole concept of ‘work life balance’ has blurred. Taking care of people, understanding plus supporting the needs of people and putting them first is really important.

Q: You talk about the importance of the people in your life, both personal and professional. How did your mentors influence you; specifically when you became a leader?

A: I saw in them the type of leader I wanted to be. I saw people who took an interest in me and who devoted personal time to me. They gave me good, regular and valuable feedback. Sometimes that feedback is hard to hear but those are things we need to hear. They also went above and beyond to help me make connections I couldn’t have made myself, especially in my earlier career. By the way, when you run into leaders who are the opposite, they’re micromanagers or they treat people poorly, you also see the type of leader you don’t want to be. Once again, you can learn positive lessons from those negative experiences and see the examples you don’t want to repeat.

Q: What was the process of creating your formula to success while keeping ‘people issues’ in the center of it and applying BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front)?

A: The formula in the book, although appears to be neat and clean, was really a culmination of my life's work. So much of learning is trial and error. You make mistakes and you fall down but you get back up and learn something from it to avoid making the same mistakes. I can remember particularly in the beginning of my career, I was so focused on getting things done that I probably was not what you would call a real warm people leader. I literally catapulted over night from being a staff member, an individual contributor, to being an Assistant Secretary of Defense and I didn’t know the first thing about being a leader. Eventually I caught on through trial and error: You have to do more listening than talking, you need to have a plan A, some sort of vision of where you want to go. But on the same token, don’t micromanage people. That’s why you need to have a solid team of people around you. I came to understand the importance of knowing peoples’ people, not just as workers. Authenticity and caring really go a long way, provided that it’s real and you do care. These things you learn over the course of your life.

The BLUF is central to a communications strategy. People need to be communicated with a lot, people have questions and they want to be inspired by their leaders. Being an effective communicator is crucial when you are leading people. Remember you are not alone in this leadership position and you alone don’t have all the answers.

Q: When you began your career, did you ever imagine that you would become a prominent female leader in a male-dominated profession?

A: Absolutely not! When I began my career, I wanted to be in the State Department and I got rejected, so I had a hard knock early on. It was a test of resilience and it helps when you need money to eat and you have to find a job. I ended up getting one in the department of the Army which is what set me on this trajectory of focusing on the military. It became my entire career, it was all out of what felt like a failure in the early part of my life. There are plan A’s and plan B’s and sometimes plan B’s can be the best of all. I look back and I can't imagine that my life could have been more purposeful or more fulfilled or if i would have had as much fun if I had ended up in the state department.

Q: Future plans: What are they and how do you plan in a world of such uncertainty?

A: I do not plan on writing another book, it was a very hard project and I’m really glad I did this one but I don’t see myself as a follow on writer. This was my effort to put down my thoughts on paper with some stories that hopefully people could identify with. Speaking of mentorship, when people buy the book, I can mentor them in a way, through these lessons. I can reach many more people than I ever could individually.

As for how people should plan in a world of uncertainty, you do the best you can. Once again, I like to think you ought to have a plan of what you’d like to do in the next few years. There's always steps along the way and you should investigate those steps on how to get there. Most importantly of all, be agile. Those plan B’s can come at you fast and furious. They can come at you by necessity, like when I got rejected by the state department. They can come at you when you’re at a very comfortable time in your life. Weigh the pros and cons and give it good, thoughtful consideration. People who have the skill of agility do better in life because they’re able to bounce forward.

Q: How did you reach your level of success, given the Military’s gender gap, especially among leadership?

A: I think there is a combination of things. If you look at the people who rise to these leadership positions, I’ll bet nine out of ten have the basic combination. It’s having competence, you have to know your material and discipline. Hard work, most people who reach these positions are putting in extra time and effort. It’s also having the right mentors and sponsors who are willing to take a chance on you and who are willing to make those connections and referrals or give you that promotion. And then I think there’s also a certain thing to be said about timing and there’s where serendipity comes in. Do they happen to need more or less of your particular speciality? I think this is a good time for women because clearly everyone is focused on diversity and inclusion. But you do need to have those other parts of the combination as well.

Q: What advice would you give to transitioning female servicewomen?

A: Play to your strengths. That first requires you to understand what your strengths are, nobody is strong at everything, but you’re certainly strong at many things. Figure out what those are and play to them. That does not mean you should lie on your resume, but all too often women downplay themselves. We’ve grown up constantly thinking about other people and to be nurturing and humble. Don’t undersell yourself.

The second thing is to focus on relationships and expanding your network. If you’re a member of a community, like RallyPoint, it’s a great way to expand your network. So focus on the network you have and always look for ways to expand your network and relationships. So many times jobs come from referrals.

Have those aspirations. Everyone has those plan A’s, but be willing and open to plan B even if it’s not exactly what you had in mind. You don’t know what’s going to interest you until you try it.