Movin’ On Up…

John Dionne
Operations Director, EPASS HB FOG and HBN

What made you decide that a leadership role at Odyssey was right for you?
I have been working with Odyssey leadership on and off throughout my 34-year professional career (have only ever been an A&AS contractor). And although professionally successful and satisfied with a multitude of direct roles, I have always been drawn towards corporate leadership and personnel / contract management. When the opportunity presented itself at the onset of the HB EPASS Transition, it seemed like a natural fit to transition into an Odyssey HB EPASS leadership role. At that point I reached out to several Odyssey leaders expressing interest in helping Odyssey achieve their corporate and contract success, and the rest is EPASS history.

What leadership roles did you have prior to joining Odyssey?
Much of my career was working within or managing Foreign Military Sales programs. I have carved out a niche knowledge base in this area and find this type of mission support extremely rewarding. This is my second assignment at Odyssey having been in a direct role in HBV under Erin Donlan on Qatar programs. Prior to that I was a Director for Oasis on the original HB EPASS contract (Managing HBN and HB FOG), and prior to that I was a Director of an Odyssey Subcontractor managing their EPASS portfolio. In that capacity I got to work with Odyssey leadership on the transition and execution of EPASS EB, F-15 and WIS/SOF. Before that I was a Director for Windmill International managing their A&AS portfolios (PASS and ITSP) in the former International Operations Office (FA). And prior to that I was a task lead for Abacus under TEMS-IV (United Kingdom, Saudi, Japan, and French AWACS).

Who was your most inspiring manager? What attributes did they display that made you want to be like them?
Within the early stages of my career, I had the privilege of learning under the leadership of several retired O6s from Hanscom AFB as I was their deputy—Col Jeffrey Katz, Col Carleton (Skip) Whittaker, and Col Howard “Buzz” Gillogly. Under their mentorship I learned the skills necessary to lead and manage personnel—integrity, listening, decision making, patience and humility. Each one of these individuals had a very different leadership style that I could watch in implementation. They ranged from highly collaborative and engaging, to strict authoritarian, to complete delegation. From these areas I was able to see that leadership is not just one thing, rather it is the ability to flex and adjust to the audience / team to get results and inspire action. I personally found this very inspiring because at that stage of my career I had only experienced authoritarian style ”direction to action”—and it was very empowering to see what I perceived as very good and accomplished leaders adjust on the fly to get the most out of their teams.

This is where I learned that good leaders are not one sided but rather leadership chameleons that need to LISTEN, WATCH, ADJUST and then LEAD.it is only through those leadership functions can persons truly inspire and it is how I try to implement my leadership style every day. Every team member can contribute something… its all in how to try to get that contribution that matters.

What is the most inspiring part of your job as a manager at Odyssey?
I love connecting good jobs to good people—this is most rewarding part if the work. Knowing that someone is happy and stable in their employment makes all the difference from a bad day to a good day.

What is your definition of an inspiring leader? 
I expect leaders to Lead—if you are in a leadership role there is a responsibility to help guide and grow your team through good and bad situations. Leaders make decisions. Sometimes they are bad decisions, and they need to be re-considered / re-made, but indecision is itself a decision, and indecision / wishy washy leadership is professionally frustrating for me.

What advice would you give an employee aspiring to be a manager?
Let your management team know you are interested in growing into personnel / contract management.

• As a manager: I mostly see persons that want to want to grow within their career functional specialty (e.g., Program Manager, Journeyman to Program Manager, Senior)… This is typically accomplished with more certifications, more experiences (tasks and years), and eventually meeting the criteria for a higher labor category / more responsibilities.
• For someone to grow in corporate management: this is a different path (and skills) than expanding their functional (direct) knowledge base mentioned above. Often if someone wants to get more involved in the business side of Odyssey, they need to speak up, as often leaders do not know their persons want to grow into that side of the business. Once we are aware of that differing goal—we can look to tailor training / experiences in the other skills necessary to cross into that side of the business these skills focus on—personnel management, supervision, (Task Leader/Area Lead), financial literacy, contract and performance execution, strategic thinking, relationship development.
• Don’t be afraid to go outside your comfort zone: continuing within the same career is rewarding—but time is your growth mechanism… x years becomes xx years, and you progress. Learning (and mastering) new skills is a much faster means of career growth than time, but it entails a degree of discomfort in new environments.