Hi everyone, my name is Jim Zalewski and I live in Lake Ridge, Virginia, which is approximately 25 miles south of Washington, D.C. I am originally from Philadelphia, PA and enlisted in the United States Air Force when I was 18. I retired, while stationed at the National Reconnaissance Office, after twenty years of active duty service. I am currently a manager/licensed funeral director/embalmer/cremationist in Alexandria, Virginia. My long term goals is to go back to work for the federal government in a managerial role and to maintain a more balanced work/life schedule.
I have held many supervisory/managerial positions both in the military and civilian life. As I learn what it takes to be a leader I understand it means lot more than just a title; titles don’t make leaders and leaders don’t need titles. Looking back, I believe I have learned something from each step in my career, whether it was personal experiences or observations of both good and bad leaders. I incorporated the good, discarded the bad and integrated my observations to continue to become closer to the best leader I can be.
My favorite leadership quote is from a speech Colin Powell gave at Colgate University. He was addressing the need for a leader to discipline their followers when he said: “the good followers know who the bad followers are, and they’re waiting for you to do something about it”. Too often I have seen leaders not wanting to address people who aren’t getting the work done and what usually happens is the diligent worker ends up covering for the neglectful ones.
I am married to my wonderful wife Karen who is a Budget Analyst for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and my daughter is a recent graduate of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. An interesting fact about me (besides having my hands inside of countless dead bodies) is that I lived on the recently relevant island of Guam for 2 years from 1990-1991.
I wish everyone the best of luck in this class and in all of their studies.
Jim
Hello,
I see you are a funeral director. My family has owned and operated a funeral home in PA since the 1850s. I even worked there myself for a few years after high school. I decided it wasn’t for me though and moved on, and now my cousins run the place. But I know a thing or two about the business. I just thought it was interesting since I don’t run into too many people that are in that line of work. Best of luck with your semester.
Regards,
Cody
It is great to meet you Jim. You have some truly unique and interesting experiences. Great idea from Colin Powell. He really was a great leader. I look forward to working with you.
—Brian