Retired U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Sandra L. Stosz has launched a new blog to discuss the nurturing of leadership skills in all professional walks of life.
Stosz, a Homeland Security Today editorial board member, wrote in the first post of her Leading with Character blog that leaders should “embrace those opportunities to do something hard” and be open to being “challenged beyond what you thought was possible.”
“Leadership and character development happen best when you’re out of your comfort zone, facing difficulty or even danger,” she wrote.
Stosz started out in the U.S. Coast Guard as an ensign serving on polar icebreakers, conducting national security missions from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Her 40-year career is filled with leadership lessons gleaned while breaking ice and breaking glass as the first woman to command an icebreaker on the Great Lakes and to lead a U.S. armed forces service academy.
Stosz stressed that she learned about leadership and character development “first-hand through experiences that tested and tried me at every level.”
“Looking back to when I first started my career as a cadet, or student, at the Coast Guard Academy, I grew the most when I committed to doing something HARD,” she wrote.
Stosz is author of the forthcoming book Breaking Ice and Breaking Glass: Leading in Uncharted Waters.