Our managers need to have a strong integration of managerial skills and technical understanding. One cannot substitute for the other.

To have strongly integrated managers who have a deep understanding of technology is a rare and difficult combination to build. You have to invest a lot in selecting and training these people.

You have got the right strategy, the right geography; you have got the right customers. You need to prioritise them better; we need to grow them better, mind them better. We need to give more value to them, and we need to execute a lot of areas in the organisation where we are not executing.

You need a commitment which is long term and a commitment to leadership, because that's the only way you build excellence.

We cannot keep gapping units where we need a good strong NCO or staff NCO and he's not there. They've got to have the right technical, the right leadership qualifications for the billet.

If a culture doesn't allow you to laugh at the leaders or at things that your eyes and ears tell you are actually happening, that's not good.

I distinctly remember being very young, sixth grade maybe, and being at a party and hearing the mothers discuss the children. And the mothers said, 'Well, it's very clear who's the leader in the group.' And they were talking about me!

Veterans are especially appealing candidates in key swing districts. Veterans have credibility, not just with Democrats but with independents and Republicans as well. They're the kind of people respected for their leadership, not just their politics.