Building Coalitions

Early on in my career I recognized that building coalitions was a highly regarded quality within the federal government, and it became my goal to be respected by both civilian and military leaders. Throughout the course of my career, I have been able to build strong relationships with many outstanding colleagues and have been involved with successful actions at high levels of government which have allowed me ample opportunities to build strong networks and support systems. There are four important examples of coalition building that I would like to discuss here.

The first example was my colleague's recommendation that I be chosen to represent women in the military on a commemorative stamp issued for that purpose. I was surprised and delighted that I had built a strong enough relationship with this colleague to be recommended for this honor. Even though there were hundreds of applicants interviewed, I was...
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