At 24 years old, I became the executive officer of a company of 300 people who were conducting maintenance operations in Iraq. My job was complex and full of unknowns, but I knew if I didn’t figure it out, we were going to fail.

I encountered numerous challenging situations where I wasn’t fully prepared for what happened, nor was I expected to be. But what drove me growing up, what drove me to enlist, what drove me to lead at all, still burned in me: the intrinsic motivation, the leadership, the desire to bring people together. I knew if I could do nothing else, I could be an example for others to follow.

So, I stepped up.

I taught my team critical thinking. I showed them they were just as capable of making decisions as I was. I gave them the freedom to do what they had to do to protect the team. If someone made a mistake, I told them I would own it as their leader. I knew we were trained, we were equipped, and we would carry through.

I saw the change in my team from these conversations. Their embrace of empowerment kept us successful throughout many missions, including in combat. It was because they always came back to intent: as long as my team knew their objective, they figured out how to accomplish it.

We weren’t successful because everyone just took orders from me. We were there to work together to get a job done. We were successful because we had collective purpose, we collaborated, and we worked together and led each other.

A series of professional developments ultimately led me to base myself here in Northeastern Pennsylvania, where I am fortunate to bring Shared Leadership, LLC to organizations across the country and the world.

My time in the Army taught me hard lessons I knew I could apply in the world of business.

I saw how much better my team performed when they were empowered to make their own decisions within our organizational framework.

I learned how to hone fear into solutions instead of letting it paralyze me.

I mastered adapting to situations that don’t go as planned.

I learned that if you can maintain your rational mindset and positivity, you can overcome anything.

I knew in the Army, and I know now, that you don’t need a title to lead. It’s what I tell employees in my team-development workshops. Managers and supervisors aren’t the only ones who can make decisions. Everyone can contribute, everyone can influence, and everyone can share ownership of the outcomes.

My doctorate in business administration has allowed me to translate those military lessons into concepts for the corporate world. In the playful competitive games I use in my workshops, my clients discover that the teams that empower one another often win, while those that want to dominate don’t perform as well.

My work also produces a synergistic effect within businesses. If I enlighten one leader about the benefits of group leadership, that effect spreads to the 10 employees they lead, and the professional improvement keeps growing from there.

I’m optimistic that my experiences leading my own team in some of the harshest environments on Earth can help business leaders realize the valuable assets they have in their employees. When everyone contributes, everyone is a leader. That betters people’s lives all the way around.

If my services positively impact how even one person leads, connects to, and interacts with others, I have been fulfilled.

Bringing together the early lessons of my parents, my trials in the Army, and my commitment to empowering corporate teams – that’s what Shared Leadership, LLC is all about.