LEAVING A MARK
“When he says if you want some career advice come see him, not enough people do it,” said Scott Greene, chief of the Strategy and Communications Division at USAASC.
Greene took advantage of Spisak’s open door to review his career path with Spisak once a year or so. It was time well spent, he said. “Trusting in me, believing in me, developing me—really making that a point of, you know, supporting anything I wanted to do to build myself—really empowered me,” he said. “He would give you that honest feedback [on] strengths and areas to improve on, and I always found good value in that.”
TAKE NOTE
Spisak was focused at the 2017 Army Acquisition Workforce summit. (Photos by USAASC)
an opportunity. No matter what we asked him to do, whether it was in his lane or not, he offered solutions that got to yes.”
With mission in hand, Spisak delegated the execution to members of the staff, said Tom Evans, former Workforce Management Division chief, who first came to USAASC in 2000. “He’d give you a mission, and he normally would not go to any lengths to micromanage you, unless he thought you needed it. If I needed guidance, I could walk into his office and get it. Otherwise, he’d let me run my organization the way I wanted to and supported me when I needed it.
“You can’t be everyplace all the time. And if you're doing their jobs, it's impossible for you to do yours, and Craig understood that very early. A lot of people don't learn that skill.”
Spisak put himself in a position to absorb the turbulence of the Pentagon airspace in the course of providing support to nine ASA(ALT)s. “It is very difficult to go through the transitions of those commands and hierarchy, and he protected us,” Evans said. “Craig acted as a filter from what I call the ‘good idea fairies.’ He had the ability to limit, and understood how to deal with higher leadership to explain the possibilities of success and failure.”
BUILDING ACQUISITION PROFESSIONALS Spisak took pains to look after the personal and career goals, wants and needs of USAASC staff members—an aspect of lead- ership that was invaluable to those who benefitted from it.
112 Army AL&T Magazine Summer 2021
Over time, the relationship opened opportunities for Greene to be Spisak’s right-hand man on major initiatives such as the establishment of a new acquisition curriculum at the Naval Post- graduate School, which meant traveling to Monterey, California, with Spisak. “Tat was really great, you know, personally and professionally. Getting to engage with the students out there was very cool,” as was meeting a lot of military senior leaders there.
Te experience showed Greene a different side of Spisak than the leader USAASC was accustomed to seeing at all-hands meetings or giving a presentation. “He really is a genuinely fun, good, nice guy that really does care about his people,” Greene said. “He’s very in tune with his emotions. He’s actually a very sensitive guy, [and] he valued all of his employees.”
Spisak often said he made a practice of surrounding himself with people smarter than him. “I don't think that's the case, because he is very smart. But he does want to surround himself [with] people who are passionate and know what they're doing,” said Greene.
“He has to ensure that his staff is incredibly responsive. And I think we’ve done a great job in helping him with that. He allows us to bring him visions of, ‘Hey, here’s where we think we should go.’ And then he enhances them.”
TOTAL RECALL To brief an issue for Spisak was to step into a challenging world with a master of information and delivery.
“His recall capability was just off the charts,” said Evans, who cautioned his staff that what they briefed to Spisak “had better be right, because he’ll remember exactly what you said to him.”
Another gift Spisak brought to his briefings was that “he could talk to anyone, anytime,” said Joan Sable, former deputy direc- tor of acquisition career management.” He was so good on his
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