Elizabeth McBee

I would say it's twofold. For me personally, the fact that I just don't settle. I'm always wanting to do the next thing, because I understand, I've seen other people in my life just settle, and then they are not as happy as they could be, or they are not striving to do something more. So within myself, it's just not settling. And then with other people, I have a really good support system, so that helps me, because you can't do these jobs, especially militarily, you can't do them without a support system. I have an amazing support system. Since day one, I've had an amazing support system. My mother, my husband, my friends, my sisters.

Representation matters. I am a Black female, and there aren't a lot of people around here that look like me. Being in this position, I've heard that from other female leaders. Whenever I first joined the military, all of my leadership, or most of my leadership, were females, which is extremely unheard of in a military aspect. So I got to see people who look like me, female-wise, leading. And so I was told at a very young age, representation matters. Having people that look like you, having people who have the same kind of experiences that you do, seeing them in leadership, seeing them grow and excel, that is something that can't be undone or overlooked. So that was the best advice that I've been given, is making sure that you understand that representation matters, and other people can see you striving to be excellent.

Be who you are. Don't let anybody try and fit you in a box of, you know, you as a female should act like this, you should be like this, you should do this. If you are strong enough in your convictions and your beliefs, and you have your own personal clock and your own personal compass, continue to be yourself. Don't let anybody tell you that you're less than, you're not enough.

On the military side, the biggest one is just being so junior in my career, even though I have some time in as a leader in a leadership role. It's still very hard to be heard in certain rooms, but that also comes with the territory of rank. I think that's one of the biggest things that I have some struggles with, is just being heard in some of these rooms. But I think that also, if there was more representation in those rooms, then I probably would be heard a little bit more. And then on the Honeywell side, I don't really have any challenges there. I think it's just the amount of stuff that we do as a whole in our career field over there on that side. So I would say militarily, it would be more of the struggle.

Honesty is the biggest one, I would say. Honesty, trustworthiness goes along with that, and determination. Things are hard, life is hard, and then it makes it harder when you lie, and it makes it hard when you don't try. I think that all across the board, those are 3 things that I just try to give to other people, and then I also expect that from other people. It's just to be honest and trustworthy and try. Try hard. And honestly, if you're doing those things, and you are struggling, it kind of gives you a compass north to figure out, okay, this is what I need to do to keep moving forward.