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Your federal resume or application for senior executive positions in the government need to focus on accomplishments and results. You must prove to hiring officials that you don't just get things planned; you get things done.

Continuing my special series on Leaders in Government this week, I interview an accomplished former military leader and civilian executive.

Mike Snell has held executive management positions in private industry, defense contracting and the military. In this interview, Mike focuses on his philosophy of executive leadership, developing key people, and what's important to him as an executive leader. Mike is proud of his accomplishments as a military leader. I think you'll agree with me: He should be.

Mike is now seeking a Senior Executive Service position in the government. In his resume and SES application, Mike focuses on his accomplishments. You should do the same!

Mike Snell

Mike Snell is the director of force structure development for MPRI, a defense contractor, in Sarajevo, Bosnia. After he retired from the U.S. Army as a colonel, he went into private industry as general manager for Wells Fargo Alarm Services, Inc. Mike's senior positions in the military include Executive Officer to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Southern Command and Brigade Commander in the U.S. military operation in Panama in 1989.

Q: Where was your first job?

A: I entered the United States Army upon graduation from college.

Q: When did you decide that you were going to keep your career moving toward the highest possible level in government?

A: This is a decision I have made twice in my lifetime. At the age of 27, after five years in the Army, I had the opportunity to leave and pursue a civilian occupation. After much soul-searching and at the 11th hour, I decided the Army was to be my career. I have never doubted that decision. Now at the age of 51, after six years in the private sector, I am attempting to return to government service in some capacity. The reason in both cases is the same: I want to be part of doing something important. I often reflect on the famous line from the movie Patton: "What did you do in the war, Daddy?" When I am remembered, I do not want the response to be, "He raked money in . . ." As a former soldier once told me, mission is more important than money. It was such a revelation, so simply stated, I married her.

Q: What was the most challenging action you ever took in government?

A: Soldiers are trained to fight and win the nation's wars. There is nothing more challenging than combat for the men and women of the armed forces. Innovation, creativity, and daring speak to how this mission is accomplished. For me, it was Panama in December 1989. The challenge was to find a way to neutralize the Panamanian Defense Force and police in the middle of a major metropolitan area with U.S. citizens residing in the midst of the combat zone, and to do it in a manner that minimized collateral damage and protected the populace. The innovation and creativity was to surround each enemy unit and provide increasing levels of violence in the form of firepower demonstrations in the certain expectation that many, perhaps all, would rather surrender than face annihilation. The 3,200 men and women of Task Force Bayonet provided the daring.

(Here is how Mike describes this experience in his resume:
"Coordinated multi-agency response to threats to U.S. personnel in Panama and the Canal Zone. Successfully asserted treaty-guaranteed access and movement rights, and developed effective real-time response to intimidation from Panamanian military and police. Led swift and effective invasion of Panamanian Self-Defense Force activities, supervising 3,000-member force with loss of only three lives. Earned citation from Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.")

Q: Who was your most challenging customer? Why?

A: The U.S. Army's only customer is the American public. Perhaps the biggest challenge in serving that customer in my career was in the mid and late 1970's. The country had just emerged from an unpopular war, the Army underwent a huge downsizing with all the problems associated with that exercise, large numbers of draftees did not want to be where they were, drugs were prevalent in many units, and resources needed to train and maintain were scarce. Try as we might to produce a trained and ready Army, all we accomplished was survival. It was not until the arrival of the volunteer force and the budget increases of President Reagan that the Army once again obtained its place as a highly competent force ready to do the nation's business.

Q: What do you look forward to every day?

A: I believe all too often we are tempted to focus on long- and mid-term goals, the big things in life. This has the effect of "wishing our lives away." It is the day-to-day humdrum where we should find satisfaction. After years of separation, I look forward to seeing my wife do her hair in the morning as she gets ready to go to work. I look forward to walking and playing with the dog, to harassing the cats. I look forward to solving the little problems of the day, whether at work or home. I look forward to helping and teaching subordinates. Finally, I look forward to just seeing another day.

Q: How do you get your employees to buy in to all of your projects?

A: This question really addresses managerial style, about which volumes have been written. I try and live by a few simple rules:

• If it ain't broke, don't fix it
• Listen to your subordinates
• Delegate, delegate, delegate ... and give the authority necessary to get the job done
• Retain responsibility
• Promote and reward initiative
• Demand professionalism

Q: In your opinion, what are your most important personal qualities that make you a good leader and decision-maker?

A: While a student at the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks in 1987, I was given the Briggs-Meyer Personality Profile. I was labeled an "ESTJ." If memory serves me right, that stands for extrovert, sensing, thinking, and judgmental. I believe these four adjectives accurately define who I am. Making good decisions comes from a disciplined process: analyze the problem or task, gather the pertinent facts, develop courses of action which will solve the problem or accomplish the task, test each course of action against a set of criteria, compare the courses of action against each other, and then select the course of action with the greatest probability of success.

Q: Did you have a supervisor who inspired you?

A: I have been fortunate to have worked directly for some living legends in their own time - also for some living legends in their own mind, but that is for another interview. Dick Meadows, H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Carl Stiner, Bill Hartzog, and Tom Griffin all come to mind. These men were great leaders, managers and teachers. They shared, in my opinion, a fierce determination to accomplish the mission with an equally fierce dedication to care for their soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines. One additional item which set them apart to me was the personal time and effort they spent mentoring subordinates. While their leadership styles differed, they could all lift one to achieve things which one deemed unobtainable and make one feel about three feet tall when the situation warranted.

Q: What career advice do you have for someone who would like to be a government leader?

A: Learn the nuts and bolts of your profession, listen to what the boss tells you to do, and take care of your subordinates.

Q: What's your favorite leadership book?

A: I do not have a favorite book on leadership, rather a favorite lecture presented by H. Norman Schwarzkopf to the First Class at the United States Military Academy in 1977. He postulated leadership in three tenets:

• Leaders live in glass houses
• Leading by example is the most misunderstood concept about leadership
• Leaders are competent

To briefly explain (and with considerably less eloquence than the original, I might add): Assume your every action and deed will become known by your subordinates and conduct yourself accordingly. Leading by example is a moral concept, not a physical one. Competency sets leaders apart. My apologies to the general if my memory failed me or I misrepresented his remarks.

Q: What is your definition of a successful government executive?

A: Contributing to finding solutions, dedication to excellence, caring enough to be a professional, improving the situation you find and selfless service are all phrases I attribute to a successful government executive. Stated as simply as possible, a successful government executive makes the United States a better place.

Next week, I'm going to continue the resume writing series for four weeks. I'll write about various sections of the new federal resume and cover the pros and cons of the new Resumix resume. After that I'll look at the interview process for senior management positions in government. I'll talk to some applicants who were hired, and some who were not.

Keep reading and telling your co-workers about this column. It's written to inspire and help you as you seek to advance your career. Write and let me know what you think of the column. I'm at resume@ari.net.

Kathryn Kraemer Troutman has been the president of The Resume Place, Inc. for 27 years. Kathryn helps people get promoted and change jobs. She is the pioneer designer of the new "federal resume." She wrote and published the first book on federal resume writing and is a popular resume writing workshop leader in government.

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