As a Senior Enlisted officer, I was part of a leadership team responsible for selecting and maintaining the best possible team in leadership positions for the Service. In that role, I served on many promotion boards with seven other peer Officers, our objective to select Sailors Navy-wide to promote to a Senior Enlisted Rank. We were often tasked with selecting only one or two Sailors for Promotion, out of several hundred Sailors, many of whom could have qualified for promotion. Teamwork, and a focus on the objective of the process was critical. Each Board member screened the records of hundreds of Sailors, and would advocate for the Sailors we thought were best qualified for promotion. 

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​As a Board member, what I found was that sometimes the Sailor I had selected and advocated for was not always the best of the best when compared with other panel members’ selection. I recognized that the most important outcome was to choose the best for the Navy, which might not necessarily be the one any individual Board member, myself included, had selected in the initial screening process. Teamwork and collaboration, and a focus on the objectives, were essential to drive the desired outcome – the best possible team in the Service.