Yesterday, Michelle Howard made history becoming the Navy’s first female four-star admiral. She will also serve as the vice chief of naval operations making Howard the No. 2 admiral in the service and the highest-ranking woman in the Navy’s 239-year history.
Howard’s career is marked by many such accomplishments, becoming the first African-American woman to command a naval ship and the first to be promoted to a 3-star officer in the U.S. Military. She also gained public recognition after successfully leading the 2009 mission to save Captain Richard Phillips after his kidnapping by Somali pirates.
Howard’s many “firsts” though meant that she encountered countless barriers as she ascended the naval ranks, beginning with her training at United States Naval Academy. “For those of us [women] who started in the service academies in those years, there were people who did not want us there. The men did not want us there,” recalls Howard. “So there were physical challenges as well as mental challenges.” Often the only woman on board a ship, Howard found this type of isolation to be one of her greatest challenges. “There is not someone else there who has a shared experience set, or even a common way of communication…there is an additional set of pressures and stressors that come with that, that you have to figure out how to work your way through.”
So how has the 54-year-old admiral managed to navigate these intense challenges? “Maintain your sense of humor,” she advises.
I recently sat down with Admiral Howard at the Forbes Women's Summit to discuss her extraordinary leadership journey, including her defining mission to save Captain Phillips, the isolation that comes with being in charge, and the responsibility she feels now as a role model for other women.
