What is your current title/position/organization? Please give a very brief overview of your responsibilities.
I am recently retired from the Navy (Feb 2013). I retired after 41 years of Service. I am currently working as a consultant for Applied Research Associates (ARA). ARA is an engineering firm that has multiple Department of Defense contracts. One of the contracts is responding to the Navy’s need to decrease the cost of manpower throughout the lifetime of its ships. Specifically, we are working to develop an electronic tool which the Navy can use to predict the total operating cost, to include the cost of manpower, of the new ships being added to the Fleet. This tool will be able to help the Navy in figuring out how to “optimize” the crews on existing ships thus reducing current and future operating costs. Throughout the course of my Navy career, I learned a few things about how Navy does manpower requirement determination and because of this I am a valued member of the ARA team working on this particular contract.
My last position with the Navy was with the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (Navy Medicine’s headquarters), where I was charged with manpower projects related to Navy Medicines 7,000+ medical Reservists. I worked a number of different projects aimed at reorganizing the Medical Department Reservists around the newest National Security Strategies as well as other operational plans from Combatant Commanders around the globe. My tasks were specifically related to getting the right type of Reservist into the right position so that when the President gives the order to call up the Reserves, the right people are there to respond.
Did you always assume you’d be the experienced healthcare leader you are today? Or was there a turning point in your career?
The turning point for my career came when I was a drilling Reservist in the Phoenix area (where I was an experienced Electroneurodiagnostic Technologist) and the United States launched the Persian Gulf War to return Kuwait to its natural borders following an invasion by Iraq. I was recalled to Active Duty for three years at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton, CA. During that three year period, military medicine did a complete transformation of its healthcare delivery plans and with my recent education in healthcare administration as well as my ongoing MBA training, I became an integral player in executing these changes in one of Navy Medicine’s healthcare delivery sites. From there, I went on to assist with the updating of the delivery plan to two other Navy Hospitals and one Foreign Service Health Clinic.
What is the best piece of career-related advice you ever received? The worst?
The best piece of career-related advice I ever received was to never say never, because as soon as you say something will never…………, it goes and does just that.
What is the hardest lesson you ever learned?
Many, many years ago I was rebuilding an automobile engine. I needed to replace the rod bearings on this particular engine and I bought a set of standard sized bearings. I put the bearings in, tried to start the engine and found that the bearings were not tight enough (they were undersized). I had never bothered to ask anyone if there were other than “standard” sized bearings. At that time that was a $240 lesson (this was probably in 1968) that set me back two weeks in rebuilding an engine that I needed to get to and from school. A very expensive lesson that I have never forgotten. I always ask questions when in doubt.
Who is the most important contact you ever made? Why?
There was a junior officer that I met during my time at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton. She actually inspired me to take a serious look at my life and my career and led me to understand that I had been holding myself back because I always “settled” for the less challenging. Once I understood and decided I needed to change the way I thought about myself and my career, my life and career changed and I started realizing my capabilities. This single contact also opened the doors to the many influential contacts that would later make my name known around Navy Medicine as a ‘get the job done’ kind of guy.
Was there a particular class you took in college that shot you on your way to senior management?
That would have to be a class that I took while completing my BSN in Health Care Administration. It was a class that was titled ‘The Basics of Management’. There was a particular three week session on: “How to successfully manage your boss”. It truly came in handy throughout my career, both civilian and military.
Is there a particular book you value for its help with your career?
“Thriving on Chaos”, by Tom Peters. Understanding the inevitability of change in organizations and how to adapt and capitalize on the unease most people feel when undergoing change in order to survive and thrive on that change.
Was there any one decision or action you took that helped you leap ahead in your journey?
Volunteering, both career and non-career related work. I found that in the Navy everyone was always told not to volunteer as that was a bad thing for you. I found that the exact opposite has been very good for me and my career and there were plenty of opportunities. And of course there is volunteering with AAMA. Not the same impact as within the job, but still people get to know you and your name gets around.
How are you preparing for the next steps in your career?
The next step for me will be the day I no longer wish to “go to work”. I’m not real sure when that will be. I’ve always enjoyed work, even when I did not enjoy the task.
And, of course, what value has AAMA had in your career development?
I think that the biggest value added to my life and career has been the reaffirmation of methods of people management that I had learned from various management classes or seminars. Sitting through lectures on similar topics at AAMAs annual meetings and being able to hear “experts” in management espouse exactly what I had taken away from another class reinforced in me the correctness or effectiveness of these management methods and helped me incorporate them into my own management techniques. Managing people from my perspective is always the most difficult task in any organization and I think that I learned to do a fairly decent job of it in my career.
You may contact Michael Holdridge, FAAMA, Diplomate, at [email protected].
Keywords: Leadership Lessons | Career Development | Leadership/Management