Wormuth: Army ‘Going in the Right Direction’

Wormuth: Army ‘Going in the Right Direction’

25th secretary of the Army, Christine Wormuth
Photo by: U.S. Army/Cpl. Joseph Spraktes

As she prepares to wrap up her tenure as the 25th secretary of the Army, Christine Wormuth offered leadership advice and reflected on her time on the job during a recent episode of the From the Green Notebook podcast.

“I think there's a reason that there's the expression, ‘It's lonely at the top.’ It is lonely sometimes to be a leader,” she said. “You have enormous responsibility. People have to have trust in you. They have to believe that [you]'re holding yourself accountable and not playing favorites, and that takes discipline to do that day in and day out.”

Nearly four years after she made history as the first woman to serve as secretary of the Army, Wormuth said that she is “planning to run through the tape” as she rounds out her term in the coming days.

Speaking to Army leaders, Wormuth urged them to master the skills they will need to operate at the “enterprise level.”

“I'm not sure we're always putting as much emphasis on the sets of skills that I think you need to be a leader in the Army at the more enterprise level,” she said. “Critical thinking, the ability to not just describe problems, but actually analyze problems and come up with recommendations for how to solve problems [are] critically important.”

The best leaders across the Army maintain a level of humility and recognize how essential their team is, Wormuth said. “One of the things I love the most about the Army is how it is so culturally oriented around the idea of team,” she said.

During any change-of-command ceremony, “it is extremely rare in my experience to have a leader who is changing command not talk about what the team did,” Wormuth said. “It's not about their individual accomplishments; it’s about the team that made it happen. … It’s really important to remember that.”

Looking forward, Wormuth expects the incoming administration will continue the efforts the Army has undertaken over the past four years. “I think the things that we have been pursuing as an Army for the last almost four years, whether it's in the force structure changes we've been making or the modernization priorities we've been pursuing, we're going in the right direction,” she said. “I think there’s going to be continuity in a lot of places.”

Despite the challenges that come with working in the national security space, the stakes of the work have kept Wormuth dedicated to her profession.

“I have been blessed to almost always feel like what I spend my professional time doing really matters,” she said. “Since walking through the doors of the Pentagon when I was 26, I've been blessed to have opportunities that allowed me to do that in some small ways and then over time in some bigger ways, and I wouldn't trade it for the world.”