CSM Joanne Naumann, U.S. Army - Leading at the Edge of Trust and Accountability
Command Sergeant Major Joanne Naumann, Senior Enlisted Leader for U.S. Army Special Operations Command, shares hard-earned lessons on humility, trust, and leadership in high-pressure environments. She joins Moments in Leadership for a powerful conversation about what it means to lead when the stakes are highest.
Currently serving as the Senior Enlisted Leader for U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC), CSM Naumann has spent nearly three decades guiding and mentoring soldiers in the Army’s most elite formations. From her beginnings as a Voice Language Analyst and Arabic linguist to multiple assignments in Special Mission Units, she brings hard-won insight from fourteen deployments across CENTCOM and AFRICOM.
In this episode, she and host David B. Armstrong, retired Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel, explore the mindset that sustains great leaders through long careers of pressure, sacrifice, and accountability. Topics include:
- Building authentic trust within high-performing teams
- Balancing empathy with discipline
- The role of radical candor in developing future leaders
- How great mentors challenge and shape your growth
- Why humility remains the cornerstone of elite leadership
This conversation offers a rare look inside the human side of senior military leadership — one defined not by bravado, but by the quiet strength of service and self-awareness.
Whether you’re leading a small team or an entire organization, the lessons in this episode apply to anyone who believes that leadership is about people first.
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