 As an Army leader trying to avoid projecting arrogance, how do you apply humility when balancing confidence and authority? I think humility helps to set the tone and I think it sets the conditions for both the leader and the subordinates. If you practice humility, then your subordinates and your peers will feel comfortable coming to you. And they will feel comfortable opening to you and having that open discussion and dialogue. And this allows your organization and your team to better able identify gaps and help to solve problems. Conversely, I think if a leader is arrogant, then people have a tendency to avoid that person. They may be fearful. Maybe they don't want to contradict that person. They may be afraid of reprisal. But in that in and of itself may create a situation where it lends itself almost to a travesty. Because if you're not able to identify problems early, those problems could potentially become systemic. And so I think humility allows you again to better able identify problems before they do become systemic in an organization. And a final point I'd like to make is I think humility just allows for deeper relationships both up and down the chain of command. What advice would you give a subordinate who is not practicing humility? You have to remember that the Army rolls on. If you're on leave, everything still has to go forward while you're gone. Or after you change out of the position, you're not going to be there forever. So I went from two years of command to being the lowest ranked person in my organization shoveling the snow on the sidewalk outside. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. But you can't let the temporary position that you're in go to your head and make you feel that you are above doing what you would ask the lowest ranking person in your organization to do. As a commander, I never had to shovel snow because it was taken care of. But I would shovel snow. And I think that's something that you can't lose sight of. You have to make sure that you'd be willing to do what you ask of those you lead. Describe a time when you observed skillful balance of humility and confidence. You know, I think I see it every day when I was asked the question, I work with both uniform and civilian folks. I'm an instructor. So we're interacting with students every day. The uniformed and civilian folks, when they make mistakes, they own those mistakes. Not just in private, but publicly they will say, you know what, I made a mistake. The one example that really stands out to me is Mr. Kim Summers. He's the former director of the Army Management Staff College. He's a former uniform member as well. He commanded a garrison before he retired. He was absolutely confident. He was erudite. And when he walked up and said hello to you, he shook your hand, it was a firm handshake. Very confident, very confident. But when he asked you a question, it was clear to me that he wanted to hear what I had to say. He was humble enough to hear what I had to say, to respond, to recognize the value of what I said. And because he did that, I felt like I was a more valuable piece of the organization as well. So that little bit of humility helped me to see him in a different light. But it helped me to see myself in a different light as well. And he had a great deal of influence on me as I transitioned from uniform to civilian service. What do you believe are characteristics of a humble leader? This is going to sound kind of cliche, but the Army values. If a leader follows the Army values and the Golden Rule, they will never fail. Not one Army leader will fail. If they live the Army values and actually follow them and treat others the way they want to be treated and they will be successful. As a prior service military officer, how do you balance humility when during your military career you have outranked your current supervisor? That's a very good one and a challenge in Army culture. As someone who served as a colonel on active duty, who currently as a civilian works for officers who retired as lieutenant colonels, it's very easy for me and it should be easy for others. Once you take the eagle off or you take the oak leaf off, the boss is the boss. So you do that by allowing him or her to be in charge and embracing what they want to do. There are some techniques that I personally use. I make sure my boss understands that he or she is in charge and I'm not. And over time we don't have a problem with the working relationship. If we can get people to step away from their active duty military rank, embrace their civilian position, and to allow the other person to lead and to treat them the way they would want to be treated if they were in charge, then it's not a problem. I have watched some officers struggle with that, especially colonels. And there are some colonels I've said to them, you've retired, you have to take the eagle off. You are now a GS-13 or a GS-14 and the GS-15 is in charge. If that GS-15 served as a lieutenant colonel or not, or if that GS-15 never served in the Army, he or she is still the boss and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.