Retired rear admiral Danelle Barrett was in the Navy for 30 years. She says it was the greatest job and says she didn’t consider it a job, she considered it service. Danelle tells Mel she didn’t consider herself a female officer, just an officer and she was so honored and privileged to serve.
Rear admiral Barrett says a lot has changed. When she first came in women weren’t allowed on combat vessels, like a destroyer or aircraft carrier. She says you could go on those ships that would resupply those ships, in an ancillary or supply role so there weren’t a lot of opportunities for everything to be open in the Navy to women but now you can do anything. She says she would be perfectly happy with her daughter if she wanted to go into the military, in the Navy. Danelle says it’s a great opportunity; you come in at 22 years old and somebody puts you in charge of 100 people and a million dollars-worth of equipment, so even at a young age you are given a lot of responsibility and accountability for things and they teach you how to take care of people and how to do a mission where the mission is the focus and the focus is not on yourself. She says it’s not like you getting promoted and you moving up, it is about what is the team doing, what is the mission doing, what is the Navy doing?
Danelle’s career put her in a great position to be able to write her book which is about leadership. Danelle says when you are an officer in the military you do a lot of counselling and mentoring to others which is something you love about the job. You love to be able to help other people be more successful than you and that’s the ultimate goal of a leader, to help somebody be more successful than you ever were.
She says she likes to tell her leadership lessons through stories so she will pick the most cringe-worthy stories, the things she screwed up the worst, but, people will remember the story long after they remember some leadership theory lesson.
Her book is available where all good books are sold.
For more information visit danellebarrett.com
